Tech

If you’ve been thinking about applying to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, this is it — applications close tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Whether you’re a student, aspiring founder, marketer, event pro, or just looking to get your foot in the door of the tech world, this is your chance to: Get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the …

The Department of Energy has instituted a long list of banned words at the direction of a Trump appointee, including some that many would consider politically neutral. The “words to avoid” were sent in an email to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on Friday, according to Politico, which saw the memo. “Please ensure that every member …

OpenAI began testing a new safety routing system in ChatGPT over the weekend, and on Monday introduced parental controls to the chatbot — drawing mixed reactions from users. The safety features come in response to numerous incidents of certain ChatGPT models validating users’ delusional thinking instead of redirecting harmful conversations. OpenAI is facing a wrongful death lawsuit tied to one such incident, after a teenage boy died by suicide after months of …

After nearly a decade of serving as a digital time capsule for moments from your life, Snapchat is now putting a price on its Memories features. The social media giant announced that free access to the feature will be limited to 5GB. If your memories exceed this limit, you’ll need to subscribe to one of its new Memories Storage plans. …

The social network Bluesky will begin verifying users’ ages in the state of Ohio to comply with new regulations, starting on Monday, September 29. The company — which offers an open and decentralized competitor to X and Threads — says it will enable the Kids Web Services’ (KWS) age verification solution in the state. This is the same solution that …

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, brings founders, investors, and innovators together to explore the future of technology. One fireside chat you won’t want to miss is with Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood and founder and CEO of Aetherflux, a U.S. aerospace company delivering energy to Earth through space solar power. He’ll sit front and …

Polars, the Amsterdam-based company behind the popular open source project of the same name, has raised €18 million (about $21 million) in a Series A round led by Accel, with participation from Bain Capital Partners and angel investors. But while raising this kind of money is the dream of many developers, its creator Ritchie Vink didn’t set out to do …

Instagram has chosen India and South Korea to test a new interface that displays the app’s Reels page first. The company first showed off a similar design when it launched its first iPad app earlier this month. The new interface has Stories up top, like it did previously, but the DM button now lives on the navigation bar in the …

Frequently Asked Questions What Kinds of Coffee Subscriptions Are There? AccordionItemContainerButton There are two kinds of coffee subscription providers: roasters and retailers. Roasters are cafés and small-batch producers who buy raw beans from farmers all over the world and roast them to perfection. By buying from a roaster, you’re directly supporting the people who make your favorite coffees; there’s no …

Manny Medina, previously best-known as the founder of sales automation startup Outreach ($4.4 billion valuation), has wowed investors with his young startup, Paid. Paid just closed an oversubscribed $21.6 million seed round led by Lightspeed. With the €10 million pre-seed round it raised in March, London-based Paid has already raised $33.3 million and hasn’t even hit its Series A yet. …