Author: Editor-in-Chief

On Friday, WordPress.com maker Automattic filed its counterclaims in the lawsuit initiated by hosting company WP Engine in October 2024. Which had accused Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, of defamation and abuse of power. Automattic believes that WP Engine has been abusing the WordPress trademark and has engaged in deceptive marketing practices, without properly giving back to the open source community. As a result, Automattic took action against WP Engine last year, which included calling the hosting provider a “cancer to WordPress” and sending it a cease-and-desist letter claiming WP Engine had breached its trademark usage rules. As the battle continued, Automattic banned WP Engine…

Rivian has agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class-action shareholder lawsuit filed after the company suddenly hiked prices on its R1 pickup truck and SUV in 2022. The lawsuit alleged Rivian had included misleading statements and figures in regulatory filings in the run-up to its 2021 IPO about the costs required to build the R1 EVs. Despite agreeing to the payment, Rivian said in a press release that it “denies the allegations in the suit and maintains that this agreement to settle is not an admission of fault or wrongdoing.” The payment still has to be approved…

Ford Motor has put its gas and hybrid F-150 and F-Series Super Duty trucks at the top of the production priority line as it attempts to recover from losses connected to a fire at a critical aluminum supplier’s factory. The automaker’s all-electric F-150 Lightning didn’t make the list. Ford said Thursday that assembly of the F-150 Lightning truck at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan will remain paused. The reason, according to Ford: the gas and hybrid F-Series trucks are more profitable for Ford and use less aluminum. While Ford has highlighted sales growth of its all-electric F-150…

Amazon Luna, which now includes new beginner-friendly multiplayer games that can be controlled with your phone. Amazon Luna is available at no extra cost for Prime members. The biggest change to the service is the addition of GameNight, a collection of more than 25 local multiplayer games that Amazon says are “designed to bring friends and family together in the living room.” GameNight will feature exclusive titles developed by Amazon Game Studios, starting with “Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg,” an AI voice-driven improv courtroom game where players invent absurd characters, spin wild stories, and try to defend their testimonies in front…

Justin Wenig remembers his days at Y Combinator in 2019. Back then, he was working with his first startup, Coursedog, which looked to provide more modern tools to higher-educational facilities, including those that work with state departments. He learned quickly that his peers didn’t like working with the public sector — too much bureaucracy. Even finding out basic information, like what a school district purchased in the past year, required a lot of paperwork. “Out of hundreds of startups, only a handful of us were trying to modernize how government and education worked,” Wenig told TechCrunch. “Investors thought it was…

As AI companies claim their tech will one day grow to become a fundamental human right, and those backing them say slowing down AI development is akin to murder, the people using the tech are alleging that tools like ChatGPT sometimes can cause serious psychological harm. At least seven people have complained to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that ChatGPT caused them to experience severe delusions, paranoia, and emotional crises, Wired reported, citing public records of complaints mentioning ChatGPT since November 2022. One of the complainants claimed that talking to ChatGPT for long periods had led to delusions and a…

General Motors said it plans to launch an automated driving system in 2028 that will allow drivers to keep their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel, starting with the Cadillac Escalade IQ. The announcement, made Wednesday at its GM Forward event in New York City, comes a year after TechCrunch first reported that the automaker was working on the system. GM said its hands-off advanced driver assistance system, known as Super Cruise, is the foundation of this future, more capable product. Super Cruise, which launched in 2017 and is now available in 23 vehicle models, can be…

Tesla’s record sales quarter has offered the company a reprieve after a terrible start to 2025. But CEO Elon Musk is focused on building a “robot army” and making good on his years-long, unfulfilled promise of self-driving cars — tasks he needs to accomplish if he is to unlock the full value of the $1 trillion compensation package that Tesla wants to award him. The tension between Tesla’s current automotive-driven business and the AI-centric one that Musk is aiming for has never been more clear. Tesla delivered a record number of vehicles in the third quarter of 2025, thanks…

OpenAI reportedly asked the Raine family — whose 16-year-old son Adam Raine died by suicide after prolonged conversations with ChatGPT — for a full list of attendees from the teenager’s memorial, signaling that the AI firm may try to subpoena friends and family. OpenAI also requested “all documents relating to memorial services or events in the honor of the decedent, including but not limited to any videos or photographs taken, or eulogies given,” per a document obtained by the Financial Times. Speaking to the FT, lawyers from the Raine family described the request as “intentional harassment.” The new information comes…

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s developing AI-powered smart glasses for its delivery drivers. The idea behind the glasses is to give delivery drivers a hands-free experience that reduces the need to keep looking between their phone, the package they’re delivering, and their surroundings. The e-commerce giant says the glasses will allow delivery drivers to scan packages, follow turn-by-turn walking directions, and capture proof of delivery, all without using their phones. The glasses use AI-powered sensing capabilities and computer vision alongside cameras to create a display that includes things like hazards and delivery tasks. Amazon likely hopes that the new…