A US court ordered Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi, founder of NJ-based Tingo, to pay $250M+ in fines after SEC alleged he inflated Tingo's financial records — Decision against Dozy Mmobuosi by US court comes after civil complaint by SEC against his Nasdaq-listed companies
A look at NightCafe, a bootstrapped generative art marketplace with 25M users who created ~1B images; source: it has $4M annualized revenue with a ~50% margin — The OG of image generation is a success, minus some moderation challenges — Elle Russell, co-founder of Cairns …
A look at Apple's strategy to keep retiring execs involved in a reduced role; sources: M4 Mac mini will have 5 USB-C ports, internal power supply, and no USB-A — Apple's succession strategy has come into focus with the upcoming exit of its chief financial officer.
A look at the surge of interest-based sites as users grow weary of big platforms; MAUs for Letterboxd, Strava, and AllTrails grew 55%, 20%, and 10% YoY in H1 — - Biking, reading and dining apps draw users seeking connection — Niche apps take hold as alternative to larger online platforms
X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust “hostage laws,” but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands — In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazil, there are no heroes — only two sides engaged in an epic display of hypocrisy and overreach.
A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a “strategic text sequence” to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup — When I set out to improve my tainted reputation with chatbots, I discovered a new world of A.I. manipulation.
How the Israeli army's Unit 8200 became an incubator for cybersecurity startups, with its alumni starting Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, and other companies — Unit 8200 has become an incubator for cybersecurity startups defending the world's biggest companies against hackers
It's time for audio services like Spotify to deal with AI by using labels and banning or downweighting music made with AI tools that don't license training data — The following MBW Views op/ed comes from Ed Newton-Rex (pictured inset), CEO of the ethical generative AI non-profit, Fairly Trained.
A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk and Tesla pumped up Dogecoin into a “pyramid scheme”, finding that Musk's statements were “aspirational” — Investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in the cryptocurrency faulted Musk for promoting …
As Russia plans a trial of cross-border payments using crypto, some senior Russian leaders suggest it can help counter sanctions; experts doubt it will work — Experts doubt it will work, given the traceability of blockchains and the risk of even tougher sanctions for Russia.
China's top antitrust regulator says it has seen “effective results” that Alibaba has ceased the monopolistic practices that prompted an investigation in 2020 — - Antitrust watchdog says Alibaba has ceased monopolistic acts — Fallout from the crackdown years persists across the industry
Automattic plans to shift Tumblr's backend over to WordPress, in a bid to make sharing work across the platforms easier, after buying Tumblr for $3M in 2019 — Tumblr is making the move to WordPress. After its 2019 acquisition by WordPress.com parent company Automattic in a $3 million fire sale …
Huawei reports Q2 revenue up 33.7% YoY to ~$33.6B, rising for the sixth straight quarter, and net profit down 18.6% YoY to ~$5B, ahead of the Mate 70's launch — - IPhone has fallen from China's top five in smartphone ranking — Shenzhen-based company also chasing EV software demand
Web browser startup Brave lays off 27 employees, after cutting 9% of its workforce in October 2023; PitchBook estimates that Brave has ~191 employees — Web browser and search startup Brave has laid off 27 employees across the different departments, TechCrunch has learned.
X updates Grok to direct users to Vote.gov for election queries, after a letter from five US secretaries of state warned of spreading election misinformation — The social media platform X has made a change to its AI chatbot after five secretaries of state warned it was spreading election misinformation.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : London-based Tessl, which is building an AI to write and maintain code, raised $125M across seed and Series ...
