The world in a glance.

Electronic Frontier Foundation to swap leaders as AI, ICE fights escalate

Public interest in government tech abuses is peaking. EFF's new leader plans to build on that.

The man who coined Metaverse now says Meta’s glasses are creepy

Neal Stephenson didn't invent the virtual reality headset. But Meta certainly knows his name - in 1992, his seminal cyberpunk novel Snow Crash coined the phrase "Metaverse" to…

BKR Capital raises $14.5M (so far) to invest in Black founders

BKR Capital announced Monday that its Fund II closed $20 million Canadian toward its $50 million target.

Google’s Android Automotive is moving from the dashboard to the ‘brain’ of the car

Google announced a new version of its Android Automotive open-source operating system for software-defined vehicles. Whereas previously Android Automotive operated exclusively in…

Fortnite maker Epic is laying off over 1,000 workers

Layoffs have hit Fortnite developer Epic Games again. Today CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company is cutting more than 1,000 jobs, citing a downturn in engagement for…

Roku’s $3 Howdy subscription service launches on Prime Video

Launched in August 2025, Howdy features a library of nearly 10,000 hours of content from its partners, including Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Disney Entertainment, Warner Bros.…

John Deere, Garmin, and Philips may have undermined military right to repair

Last year, Congress dropped widely supported military right-to-repair provisions from the annual defense policy bill - and now we may know who was pushing them to do it. Recently…

Nintendo cuts Switch 2 production amid weakening console sales

Nintendo will produce fewer Switch 2 units than it previously projected in response to weakening demand for the console in the US, Bloomberg reports. Four million units of…

20% Off Brooks Promo Code & Deals for | March 2026

Enjoy 20% off your first order with a Brooks coupon code, plus top discounts and deals on our favorite Brooks running shoes.

Design Within Reach Promo Codes: 30% Off | March 2026

Get 30% off, 20% off, and free shipping with our Design Within Reach coupon codes, plus up to 50% off furniture with these special discounts.

Sony Promo Codes and Discounts: 45% Off

Upgrade your setup with Sony’s newest releases. Save on industry-leading noise-canceling audio, and pro-level Alpha cameras.

Emil Michael, now a senior Pentagon official, says he’ll never forgive Uber investors who ousted him and Kalanick

When asked whether he was still "salty" about about being shown the door at Uber, alongside co-founder Travis Kalanick, Michael didn't equivocate. "I'll never forget that, nor…

Despite bitter rivalry, Kalshi, Polymarket CEOs back $35M predictions markets VC fund

As prediction markets explode, the new firm called 5(c) Capital, will back startups supporting the burgeoning category.

Trump's MAHA pick for surgeon general flounders amid GOP doubts

She stalled over MAHA woo-woo, anti-vaccine views, and lacking medical background.

Someone has publicly leaked an exploit kit that can hack millions of iPhones

Leaked "DarkSword" exploits published to GitHub allow hackers and cybercriminals to target iPhone users running old versions of iOS with spyware, according to cybersecurity…

A Billionaire-Backed Startup Wants to Grow 'Organ Sacks' to Replace Animal Testing

R3 Bio has a bold idea for replacing lab animals: genetically-engineered whole organ systems that lack a brain. The long-term goal, says a cofounder, is to make human versions.

Apple will talk iOS 27, macOS 27, and more at WWDC 2026 on June 8

WWDC is often light on hardware, but it's where big software announcements happen.

Startup Gimlet Labs is solving the AI inference bottleneck in a surprisingly elegant way

Gimlet Labs just raised an $80 million Series A for tech that lets AI run across NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, ARM, Cerebras and d-Matrix chips, simultaneously.

In-hub motors make this humble Hyundai a monster on ice

In-wheel motors have been around since the very beginning of electric motoring. Ferdinand Porsche developed one way back in 1900, and the US sent them to the moon in our Lunar…

Elizabeth Warren calls Pentagon’s decision to bar Anthropic ‘retaliation’

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) equated the DOD's decision to label Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" as retaliation, arguing that the…

FBI says Iranian hackers are using Telegram to steal data in malware attacks

Hackers working for Iran’s government are using Telegram in hacking operations that use malware to target dissidents, opposition groups, and journalists who oppose its regime,…

Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me

Today, I’m talking with Shishir Mehrotra, who is CEO of Superhuman — that’s the company formerly known as Grammarly, which is still its flagship product.  Shishir also used…

Every bulb on Govee’s new outdoor string lights can display multicolor effects

Govee has announced a new set of outdoor string lights that allows for more color customization than competitors' products, as well as the company's existing color-changing set.…

Don’t Listen to Anyone Who Thinks Secession Will Solve Anything

Americans increasingly fantasize about a divorce between red and blue states—but they dread the thought of civil war. You can’t have one without the other.

Samsung adds native AirDrop support to Galaxy S26 devices

Samsung is bringing AirDrop support to the Quick Share feature on Galaxy devices, starting with the S26 series. The new AirDrop feature will begin rolling out in Korea starting…

AI influencer awards season is upon us

First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year - perhaps the inevitable next step for the AI influencer…

Topical Dancer is propulsive, playful, and political

Last week's recommendation, Sotomayor's Wabi Sabi, has a very particular vibe that you don't find in a lot of records. One of the few things it called to mind was 2022's Topical…

The SEC drops its four-year-old investigation into EV startup Faraday Future

After four years, and multiple subpoenas and depositions, the beleaguered startup has dodged yet another bullet.

Cursor admits its new coding model was built on top of Moonshot AI’s Kimi

Building on top of a Chinese model feels particularly fraught right now.

Crimson Desert dev apologizes for use of AI art

Reviews of Crimson Desert have been mixed, but the bigger issue for the game has been the discovery of what appeared to be AI-generated assets in the final release. Now the…

Elon Musk unveils chip manufacturing plans for SpaceX and Tesla

Elon Musk recently outlined ambitious plans for a chip-building collaboration Tesla and SpaceX — but he has a history of overpromising.

TechCrunch Mobility: Uber everywhere, all at once

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

The best early deals you can already grab from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Amazon’s Prime Day sale may arrive earlier than usual this year, but there’s a deal event happening much sooner: Amazon’s annual Big Spring Sale, which is happening March 25th…

AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the games

AI was everywhere at the GDC Festival of Gaming this year. Vendors at the event pitched generative AI tools for things like making AI-driven NPCs and even entire games from a chat…

An exclusive tour of Amazon’s Trainium lab, the chip that’s won over Anthropic, OpenAI, even Apple

Shortly after Amazon announced its $50 billion investment in OpenAI, AWS invited me on a private tour of the chip lab at the heart of the deal.

Online age checks came first — a VPN crackdown could be next

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about online age verification and your privacy, follow Emma Roth.…

Delve accused of misleading customers with ‘fake compliance’

An anonymous Substack post accuses compliance startup Delve of “falsely” convincing “hundreds of customers they were compliant” with privacy and security regulations.

Musk says he’s building Terafab chip plant in Austin, Texas

Elon Musk announced plans to build a Terafab plant in Austin, Texas, that will be jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX. The goal is to eventually build chips at scale for robotics,…

The pint-sized Sonos Roam 2 is more than 20 percent off this weekend

Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see…

Mexico City's 'Xoli' Chatbot Will Help World Cup Tourists Navigate the City

The launch of “Xoli” adds to the technological efforts promoted by the federal government to turn the 2026 World Cup into an engine of development for the entire country.

Mining the deep ocean

Policymakers debate if we even need deep ocean mining and if we can do it safely.

Are AI tokens the new signing bonus or just a cost of doing business?

Maybe tokens really will become the fourth pillar of engineering compensation. But engineers might want to hold the line before embracing this as a straightforward win.

Halide co-founder is suing former partner for bringing source code to Apple

Lux Optics co-founder Sebastiaan de With made headlines when he joined Apple in late January. The company was behind Halide, one of the most popular photography apps for the…

Publisher pulls horror novel ‘Shy Girl’ over AI concerns

Hachette Book Group said it will not be publishing “Shy Girl” over concerns that artificial intelligence was used to generate the text.

Delve accused of misleading customers with ‘fake compliance’

An anonymous Substack post accuses compliance startup Delve of “falsely” convincing “hundreds of customers they were compliant” with privacy and security regulations.

The AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off right now, nearly matching their best-ever price

Less than a week ago, Apple announced the forthcoming AirPods Max 2, a pair of over-ear headphones that leverage the company’s H2 chip for AI-powered live translation,…

Here are 20 of our favorite outdoor deals from REI’s Member Days Sale

REI’s latest sale is in full swing. The outdoor retailer’s exclusive shopping event runs through Monday, March 23rd, bringing with it a batch of discounts on Garmin watches,…

How fusion power works and the startups pursuing it

Fusion power promises to generate large amounts of clean electricity from nearly limitless fuel. This article explains the main approaches and the companies that use them.

The gen AI Kool-Aid tastes like eugenics

Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn't fully…

Oeuf is a punishing platformer in a cozy shell

The funny shape of eggs is the curious lifeblood of Oeuf, the new physics platformer by prolific developer Increpare Games. In a gaming landscape saturated with complex systems…