Flex, a startup that offers personal finance software for business owners, has acquired Maza, a finance app aimed at Spanish speakers in the U.S., for $40 million, the companies told TechCrunch exclusively. At first glance, the pairing may seem a bit curious. Flex’s software and payments infrastructure is to help business owners have a single […]
Within six years, building the leading AI data center may cost $200B
Data centers to train and run AI may soon contain millions of chips, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and require power equivalent to a large city’s electricity grid, if the current trends hold. That’s according to a new study from researchers at Georgetown, Epoch AI, and Rand, which looked at the growth trajectory of […]
Mark Zuckerberg really wants to make Facebook cool again
In an ongoing antitrust case, the Federal Trade Commission says that Meta has a monopoly on “personal social networking services” and should have to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp. Throughout the proceedings, there have been several internal messages and plans that have come to light. In one, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered wiping all Facebook […]
Netflix now offers dialogue-only subtitles
Netflix just introduced a new way to experience subtitles that eliminates the need to read audio cues like “door slams” or “phone rings.” Announced on Thursday, Netflix’s new dialogue-only subtitles can be enabled by going to “Navigate to Audio” and then “Subtitles.” Users will see an option labeled “English” instead of “English (CC),” indicating that […]
Chess.com reaches 200 million members
Chess.com reaches a new membership milestone as it nears its 20th birthday. Chess.com, the online chess platform that was founded in 2005 and launched in 2007, has surpassed 200 million members. Of those 200 million members, 1.5 million are paying users. More than 6 million games of chess are played every day on the platform. […]
It takes time (part 1)
[[{“value”:” Phrase in Spanish I learned this week: ¡Ojala que la hubiera encontrado más temprano! (I wish I had found this community earlier!) I had to put the sentence into DeepL’s translator to make sure I got the past subjunctive tense right before I sent the message to my new friend, Ana.* We had exchanged WhatsApp contacts when we met…
Facebook cracks down on spammy content by cutting reach and monetization
Facebook will begin lowering the reach of accounts sharing spammy content and making them ineligible for monetization, Meta announced on Thursday. The company is also increasing efforts to remove Facebook accounts that coordinate fake engagement and impersonate others, it says. The move comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promised a return to “OG Facebook.” […]
TikTok adds support for ALT text for photos
TikTok is rolling out support for ALT text for photo posts to make content more accessible for users with visual and cognitive impairments. Creators can now provide descriptive text for photos to help users with screen readers understand the visual content through spoken descriptions. TikTok told TechCrunch in an email that creators can add ALT […]
Anthropic is launching a new program to study AI ‘model welfare’
Could future AIs be “conscious,” and experience the world similarly to the way humans do? There’s no strong evidence that they will, but Anthropic isn’t ruling out the possibility. On Thursday, the AI lab announced that it has started a research program to investigate — and prepare to navigate — what it’s calling “model welfare.” […]
Spotify’s AI playlist rolls out to Asia and more markets
Spotify announced on Thursday that it expanded the availability of its AI Playlist feature to over 40 additional markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The AI-powered tool, currently in beta on Android and iOS devices, lets listeners create personalized playlists based on written prompts, such as “workout music to make my […]