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With help from its internal AI tools, Google says it has patched more security flaws in its Chrome browser in the last month than in the past two years combined. The tech giant announced on Thursday that it has fixed a whopping 1,072 security bugs in the last two versions of Chrome, both released in June. That is more than the number of bugs patched in the previous 23 versions released over the last two years, which totalled 1,036 fixes. Ever since the advent of LLMs, cybersecurity experts have warned that AI-powered systems would find an increasingly and exponentially enormous…
Vehicles purpose-built to drive without human help received the first-ever approval in the US to pick up paid customers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Thursday.The company, Amazon subsidiary Zoox, says it will soon begin to charge for rides in Las Vegas, where it’s been carrying passengers for free since last year. The company is also currently picking up a limited set of passengers in Austin, Miami, and San Francisco, all for free.The approval is a milestone for the autonomous vehicle industry. Waymo, the nation’s leading robotaxi provider, uses vehicles that still meet government design standards—with steering…
The numbers$632 million – Net revenue growth for Q2, a 6% increase YoY.$1.22 billion – Stagwell’s year-to-date net revenue, a 5% increase from 2025.$171 million – Stagwell’s new business for Q2, a 45% increase YoY, according to chairman and CEO Mark Penn.16% – Growth from Stagwell’s top 100 clients.$109 million – This quarter’s adjusted EBITDA, which increased 15% YoY.Watercooler talkStagwell notched a strong second quarter according to chairman and CEO, Mark Penn, with net revenue growing to $632 million—a 6% increase year-over-year.During an earnings call with investors, Penn told investors he attributed the success to its aggressive strategy for new…
LinkedIn is taking aim at the “AI slop” — low-quality, artificially generated content — filling its feed. On Thursday, the company announced that it’s adding a new feature to let users click a “seems like AI slop” button when someone’s post appears to have been written with AI. The move reflects a broader shift across online publishing platforms to cut back on AI content, as people have grown frustrated with the computer-written, inauthentic posts filling the web. Last week, for instance, newsletter platform Substack added a tool to help users identify when the content they’re reading on its site was…
A trip to college—or even hard nights home for high school—might come with an expense you didn’t think about: a good office chair. Dorm chairs are hard, awful, and not exactly ergonomic.Luckily, there are some decent back-to-school office chair deals right now, among chairs I can vouch for. My colleagues at WIRED and I have been testing and tracking the best office chairs for more than seven years. The ProtoArc Flexer Pro ($176) is half the price it was last year, probably the best deal of the moment. Others of our budget favorites, like the Staples Dexley ($169), are kinda…
What if your brand could become a lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis?In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, we turn the mic over to Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project. A nationally recognized LGBTQ+ advocate and nonprofit leader, Jaymes oversees the organization’s crisis intervention, research, education, advocacy, and peer support programs serving LGBTQ+ young people across the United States.Jaymes shares how brands can become powerful allies in suicide prevention by moving beyond sponsorships and embracing meaningful partnerships.They explore why LGBTQ+ youth mental health should be treated as a universal human issue, how authentic storytelling and celebrity engagement can…
Okta on Thursday agreed to acquire AI identity security startup Permiso Security, betting that demand for protecting AI agents and other machine identities will grow as enterprises deploy autonomous software across their operations. The identity management company did not disclose the terms of the transaction. But TechCrunch has learned that the acquisition is valued at just under $200 million and is structured as an almost all-cash deal, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. A spokesperson for Okta did not dispute the figure when asked by TechCrunch, but would not comment on specifics of the deal terms. The…
Google DeepMind just released a new version of its artificial intelligence model Gemini, and it can control a range of different robots—including humanoids capable of dextrous tasks like screwing in lightbulbs and tying trash bags.Gemini Robotics 2 combines several different AI models into a single system. Taken together, they allow a robot to make sense of its surroundings and how to act in it. A vision language model (VLM), which understands images and video, can communicate with humans and reason how to perform different tasks. Two vision language action (VLA) models, trained to understand how to move in physical space,…
Tesla has built its 10 millionth electric vehicle, according to a social media post by the company early on Thursday. The milestone comes six years after the company built its one millionth vehicle. Crossing the 10 million mark means Tesla is halfway to reaching one of the four core “product goals” that unlocks the full value of CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, which shareholders approved last year. By 2035, Musk has to ensure the company builds 20 million vehicles, reaches 10 million active subscriptions for its “Full Self-Driving” software, delivers one million “bots,” and puts one million robotaxis…
Friend CEO Avi Schiffmann welcomes me into his palace—what he calls his large apartment in San Francisco.He sits on the couch in his living room, clad in an orange shirt emblazoned with a cartoon version of the motorcycle driven by Italian racer Valentino Rossi. He props his feet up on the side table and leans back, a round, softly glowing circular Friend pendant dangling from a yellow cord around his neck.This is the second iteration of the Friend necklace, the controversial AI companion device that just about everyone (me included) seems to hate. The company announced the device on Thursday…
Executive search firm Christian & Timbers estimates that there are only about 2,000 engineers in the U.S. with the special cocktail of sector know-how, gravitas, and hands-on applied AI experience needed to consistently help enterprises see a return on their AI expenditures. “Not 2,000 available,” reads the study, shared exclusively with TechCrunch. “2,000 total.” As enterprises move from trying to access the best models to figuring out how to implement them into workflows that meaningfully improves their bottom line, it appears the forward-deployed engineer (FDE) — engineers who work within client organizations to build, implement and deploy software or AI…
On July 14, internet history was made. After capturing video of a cryptid-like raccoon with a hunched spine and stumpy tail in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, Kiana Hall uploaded the footage to her Instagram account, referring to the sprightly little furball as “Jimothy.” (Later, asked in the comments where this name had come from, Hall replied that the animal “looked like a Jimothy to me.”)Within days, the clip had been viewed millions of times, spawning memes, fan art, plushie toys, and more. City leaders proclaimed a “Jimothy Summer” in honor of the local mascot, and next week, the Seattle Mariners will…
The Federal Trade Commission is suing healthcare giant Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing its customers’ medical and healthcare information with advertisers and tech giants, like Meta and Snap, as well as for misleading consumers about its privacy practices. The lawsuit is the federal consumer watchdog’s latest crackdown in recent years on healthcare companies that share sensitive information with outside companies without their customers’ knowledge. Hims & Hers, now a publicly traded company, provides prescription medication for sexual wellness, mental health conditions, weight loss, and other issues, and as such handles a large amount of sensitive patient data. Companies typically…
Polymarket’s every move is under close scrutiny these days, as the prediction market giant fights dozens of legal battles about how it can operate. But one hiring decision has remained under the radar: Late last year, Polymarket brought on former Department of Government Efficiency affiliate Jonathan Mendelson as a senior strategic executive.Prior to his stint at Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE, Mendelson worked as an investor for the venture capital firm Accel in San Francisco, which invests in technology companies. At DOGE, Mendelson was technically employed by the General Services Administration, but worked as an advisor to the Securities and Exchange…
Spider-Man: Brand New Day remembers what the comics have always been about—a man who keeps getting back up, even at his lowest. If you are looking for a typical superhero flick, hitting action beats and cameos and not much else, look elsewhere.Brand New Day, which hits theaters July 31, is a deeply emotional, more mature Spider-Man film than anything in the “Home” trilogy. The characters have grown up, Ned and MJ have moved on, and Peter Parker is trying to make his way in the world alone—a difficult feat with or without superpowers.The movie speaks to the current moment on…
The numbers14% – year-on-year revenue growth in Q2, with net sales reaching a record $7.7 billion (€6.74 billion).$243 million (€212 million) – additional marketing spend in Q2, up 30% from a year earlier, driven by FIFA World Cup campaigns and activations.$1.05 billion (€924 million) – total marketing bill in Q2.$658 million (€574 million) – operating profit for the three months to June, below analyst estimates.17% – how much Adidas shares tumbled after the earnings release, marking its biggest daily decline on record.Watercooler talkAs it posted record quarterly net sales, Adidas chief executive (CEO) Bjørn Gulden said its Timothée Chalamet-fronted World…