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Allan Brooks never set out to reinvent mathematics. But after weeks spent talking with ChatGPT, the 47-year-old Canadian came to believe he had discovered a new form of math powerful enough to take down the internet. Brooks — who had no history of mental illness or mathematical genius — spent 21 days in May spiraling deeper into the chatbot’s reassurances, …

AI search startup Perplexity is making its new Comet browser available to everyone in the world for free as it works to position the product against big browsers and search engines. For certain paid subscribers, the startup has also launched a new “background assistant” to handle multiple tasks via Comet.   Perplexity first launched Comet to subscribers of its $200-per-month Max plan three months ago, and …

Amazon is rolling out a new feature that makes it easier to buy more throughout the week. The company said it’s now updating its Amazon Shopping app and website with a new addition that lets Prime members add items to upcoming deliveries with one tap, instead of having to create a new order. The feature is designed to better reflect …

Rivian now expects to deliver no more than 43,500 electric vehicles by the end of 2025, which would represent a nearly 16% drop from last year’s sales. The company announced the new guidance for investors on Thursday alongside production and delivery figures for the third quarter of this year. Rivian saw deliveries jump to 13,201 vehicles, up from 10,661 and …

On Thursday, Andreessen Horowitz released its first AI Spending Report in partnership with the fintech firm Mercury. Using transaction data from Mercury, the report analyzes the top 50 AI-native application layer companies that startups are spending money on, similar to the previously published Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps.  a16z partners Olivia Moore and Seema Amble say the data shows …

Consumer AI is having its breakout moment — and few startups have captured the spotlight this year quite like Phia. The AI-powered shopping assistant has become one of 2025’s buzziest launches, not only for its vision of how Gen Z shops, but also for the powerhouse founders leading it: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October …

Google says hackers associated with a prolific ransomware group are sending extortion emails to executives at “numerous” large organizations after claiming to have stolen their sensitive information from a suite of business software products developed by Oracle. In a statement provided to TechCrunch, Google’s head of cybercrime analysis Genevieve Stark said the hackers began sending emails to executives around September …

OpenAI has sold $6.6 billion in shares held by current and former employees, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The sale pushed OpenAI’s total valuation to $500 billion, the highest ever achieved by a privately held company. Purchasers included SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, MGX, and T. Rowe Price, the report said. The sale was not a conventional …

Apple is sidelining plans to overhaul its Vision Pro VR glasses to focus on developing AI smart glasses that can compete with products from Meta, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Although the company had been developing a cheaper and lighter version of its Vision Pro, Apple is moving staff from that project to work on smart …