Author: TechCrunch News

On Friday, the board of OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT and other viral AI-powered hits, did something unexpected but seemingly well within its right: removed the company’s CEO, Sam Altman. But judging by how the situation’s unfolded, it seems that OpenAI’s investors and partners — and many of its employees — were more comfortable…

Howdy, folks, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter that recaps the major tech industry happenings over the past week (or so). Microsoft’s Ignite conference, where the tech giant pitched its vision of a “copilot”-powered future, flooded the channels midweek. But there was plenty of note besides. In this edition of WiR, we…

OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman has quit the firm, he said Friday, hours after the Microsoft-backed giant abruptly fired its chief executive Sam Altman and assured that Brockman would remain at the startup. Brockman’s sudden departure adds to the day’s uncertainties at OpenAI, following closely on the heels of its maiden developer conference led…

In perhaps the most unexpected tech news of the year, billionaire and AI evangelist Sam Altman has been ejected from his CEO role at OpenAI by the company’s board after an apparent vote of no confidence. Its exact wording in a release issued this afternoon: Altman’s “departure follows a deliberative review process by the board,…

Ballistic Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to funding and incubating cybersecurity startups, is looking to raise as much as $300 million for a new fund, according to a regulatory filing. The San Francisco-based VC firm Wednesday filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $300 million for its second fund — over…

BrightDrop, the commercial EV subsidiary of General Motors that launched in 2021, is being swallowed up by its parent company. GM said Thursday that BrightDrop — a “startup” that spun out of the automaker’s Global Innovation organization to become a wholly owned subsidiary — will become part of GM. BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz, who was…

The founders of IRL, Abraham Shafi and Genrikh Khachatryan, are suing their investors, claiming that they intentionally sabotaged the company. At its peak, IRL was poised to become an event organizing alternative for Gen Z, who are using Facebook less and less. Shafi, the CEO, was suspended from IRL in April to investigate claims of…

During Microsoft’s Ignite 2023 event, the company’s annual IT pro conference, a slew of interesting updates were revealed for Teams, its Slack-like collaboration and messaging service. Among the dozens of updates here, some of the highlights are the initial rollout of voice isolation, an AI-driven noise reduction feature that can not just reduce repetitive noise…

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been more than a year since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (which has already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential…

Anu Hariharan, who led YC Continuity before the storied accelerator scrapped the program, has partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex executive Lucas Fox to launch a new fund that is targeting raising about $350 million and operating a program that some peg as “YC for growth,” four sources familiar with the…