Technology

OpenAI-backed biotech company Chai Discovery raises $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation

OpenAI-backed biotech company Chai Discovery raises $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation

🚀 Discover this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: AI,Biotech & Health,artificial intelligence,Chai Discovery,In Brief,OpenAI,venture capital 📌 Key idea: Chai Discovery, a biotech startup backed by OpenAI, announced a $130 million Series B round at a valuation of $1.3 billion on Monday. The round was led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, the company said. Other participants include: Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite Venture Fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, and new investors Glade Brook and Emerson Collective. The company's total funding now stands at more than $225 million. The company is one of a growing industry…
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Venture capitalists discuss why most consumer AI startups lack viability

Venture capitalists discuss why most consumer AI startups lack viability

💥 Discover this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: AI,Gadgets,Startups,consumer,Goodwater Capital,Scribble Ventures,StrictlyVC ✅ Key idea: Even three years into the AI ​​boom, most AI startups still make money by selling to businesses, not individual consumers. Although consumers have quickly adopted general-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT, most consumer-grade GenAI applications have yet to resonate. “A lot of the early AI applications around video, audio, and images were pretty cool,” Chi-Hua Chen, co-founder and managing partner at Goodwater Capital, said on stage at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event in early December. "But then Sora and Nano Banana came along, and the Chinese open sourced…
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I hate that I love Riverside’s AI-driven software, Rewind, for podcasters

I hate that I love Riverside’s AI-driven software, Rewind, for podcasters

💥 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: Media & Entertainment,Podcasting,Riverside 💡 Here’s what you’ll learn: Online podcast recording platform Riverside has come out with its own version of an end-of-year review as “Wrapped” on Spotify. The feed, called “Rewind,” creates three personalized videos for podcasters. Instead of sharing stats like how many minutes I've logged, or how many episodes I've created, Riverside created a fifteen-second laugh track, showcasing a quick succession of clips in which my podcast host and I engaged in pissing each other off. The following video is similar, except it's a great clip of…
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Disney’s OpenAI deal is exclusive for just one year — then it’s open season

Disney’s OpenAI deal is exclusive for just one year — then it’s open season

🔥 Read this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: AI,Media & Entertainment,Disney,OpenAI,sora ✅ Key idea: Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that the three-year licensing partnership between Disney and OpenAI includes just one exclusivity. The company signed a partnership with OpenAI last week that will bring its iconic characters to the AI ​​company's Sora video generator. Once this year's exclusivity ends, Disney is free to sign similar deals with other AI companies. The deal gives OpenAI a top-tier content partner, allowing users to draw on more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars to create content…
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Ford is starting a battery storage business to power data centers and the grid

Ford is starting a battery storage business to power data centers and the grid

💥 Read this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: TC,Transportation ✅ Main takeaway: Amid Ford's shift away from making large electric vehicles, the automaker is adding a new production line to find a home for its batteries. Ford said Monday that rather than thwarting plans to build batteries for those vehicles, it will shift that capacity into a new battery storage business. These storage systems, which will use cheaper LFP batteries, will be used to power data centers and help reduce demand on the electrical grid. Ford says the battery storage systems will begin shipping in 2027 and that…
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Merriam-Webster names “slop” its word of the year

Merriam-Webster names “slop” its word of the year

🚀 Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: AI,Merriam-Webster,Veo,sora,artificial intelligence,slop 📌 Main takeaway: The impact of artificial intelligence on social media channels has not gone unnoticed by the most important American dictionaries. Amid the onslaught of content that has swept the Internet over the past 12 months, Merriam-Webster announced Sunday that its word for 2025 is “dirty.” The dictionary defines the term as “low-quality digital content usually mass-produced by artificial intelligence.” "He loves The mud, Sludgeand clay, slope It has the wet sound of something you don't want to touch. “Regression seeps into everything,” the dictionary writes,…
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Google’s Dark Web Report feature will no longer be available starting in February

Google’s Dark Web Report feature will no longer be available starting in February

🔥 Check out this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: Apps,dark web,DEADPOOL,Google ✅ Key idea: Google has revealed that the Dark Web Report feature will be discontinued starting February 16, 2026. The beginning has begunAbout a year and a half ago, this tool was intended to help users monitor their personal information on the dark web For some users, the Dark Web Report seemed like a valuable tool, scanning numerous data breaches and alerting them if their personal information — such as email addresses, names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers — was found in compromised databases. However, as…
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Topics add new communities, and test badges for highly engaged members

Topics add new communities, and test badges for highly engaged members

✨ Read this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: Apps,Social,social network,Meta,Threads,social 💡 Main takeaway: Meta social network Threads is expanding the number of threads available through its newest Communities feature, the company announced Monday. This expansion may lead people to use communities on Reddit and X less. The platform initially launched more than 100 communities in October, including those dedicated to basketball, TV, K-pop, books and more, to better compete with other social networks. With the current expansion, Threads now has over 200 communities, with additions including team-specific spaces such as Lakers Threads, Knicks Threads, and Spurs Threads. The…
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Zoom is bringing its AI assistant to the web with free access to users

Zoom is bringing its AI assistant to the web with free access to users

🚀 Read this trending post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: Apps,AI assistant,meetings,productivity,zoom ✅ Here’s what you’ll learn: Zoom today released its AI Assistant for the web as part of the AI ​​Companion 3.0 release. The company also allows free users to access Assistant features, such as summarizing meetings, listing action items, or getting insights from meetings with boundaries. The company said Basic plan users can use the AI ​​companion during three meetings each month, each of which will include a meeting summary, in-meeting questions, and AI note-taking capabilities. In addition, they can ask 20 questions through the side panel and…
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The Facebook Messenger desktop app no ​​longer exists

The Facebook Messenger desktop app no ​​longer exists

💥 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 Category: Apps,Social,chat apps,Facebook,Messenger,Meta,social media 💡 Key idea: RIP to the Facebook Messenger desktop app. The native app for Mac and Windows is no longer available to users as of today, December 15, 2025, and existing users are being directed to Facebook's website to continue using the popular messaging service. Although originally launched at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Messenger desktop app couldn't handle as many video call participants as business-focused competitors like Zoom, and it didn't offer screen sharing or easy-to-share URLs. The writing was on the wall that…
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