Tech Boys

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . Happy Friday! We don’t know about you, but we are both ready for some R&R after ploughing through a wall of deep-cringe texts from the Musk/Twitter trial. We hope you get some, too, this weekend. This afternoon, Tesla is running its second AI day. Last year’s was a hoot , and we have some predictions for what’s coming down the pipe today, too . — Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 3 Under attack : Microsoft confirmed that it “is aware” of some attacks to its Exchange server. Carly is staying on top of the story and reports that there is “no immediate fix.” Eyeing that sweet capital : Manish has a scoop that Uniswap Labs, a decentralized exchange, is going after over $100 million in new funding. Stream on : YouTube TV is offering a new à la carte option that enables subscribers to purchase stand-alone networks without subscribing to the...

Experts say Musk's teflon-like ability to evade repercussions is due to a complex interplay of exceptionalism, a fierce cult-like fandom, and a culture of "billionaire worship." Gotham/Getty Images Hundreds of Elon Musk's texts could work against him in his court battle with Twitter, experts say. The texts were released Thursday as a part of the pretrial discovery process for Twitter's lawsuit. The messages appear to show Musk was aware of issues with bots ahead of offering to buy the company. A trove of private text messages released Thursday between Elon Musk and big names in media and finance could pose a problem for the billionaire as he heads into a court battle with Twitter, several industry watchers told Insider. "It's not a good look and likely puts Musk in a weaker legal stance," Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives said. "This adds more agita to the Musk camp." The billionaire is set to square off with Twitter in a...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a screen set at Red Square as he addresses a rally and a concert marking the annexation of four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy - Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in central Moscow on September 30, 2022. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images Putin's annexation of four regions of Ukraine raises the risk of a nuclear weapon being used in the long-term, experts warn. "Russia is committing to an escalation," one Russia expert told Insider.  Putin sees this moment as one of "civilizational conflict with the West," a former senior intelligence officer told Insider. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions into Russia on Friday in a bombastic speech filled with anti-Western rhetoric, nuclear threats, and historical revisionism. He also warned that Russia "will defend our land with all the powers and means at our disposal." Russia watchers and ...

Crypto has evolved from a niche product into a critical piece of the infrastructure underpinning an entirely new vision for the internet — web3. Startups are at the core of this innovation, and despite volatility in the crypto markets, builders in the space have remained steady in their efforts to leverage blockchain technology to reshape online spaces and interactions. In November, TechCrunch is hosting TC Sessions: Crypto — a special event dedicated to the crypto and web3 space. The stage is filled with top VCs, industry experts – FTX’s Amy Wu, CEO of OpenSea, Devin Finzer and more!  Pitch on the live stage in person , in Miami, Florida. Pitch your Web3 or crypto tech startup TechCrunch is on the lookout for founders building web3 or crypto companies to pitch in-person at TC Sessions: Crypto. We know that web3 cuts across all industries and verticals – new protocols, finance, infrastructure, gaming, recruiting and more. Startups applying to pitch should have web3 or cryp...

Tesla is holding another AI Day, and it'll be particularly easy to tune in. The automaker is streaming its 2022 event tonight at 9:15PM Eastern on YouTube (below) as well as its website . Elon Musk has warned the presentation will be "highly technical" and could last six hours, but you may have multiple reasons to watch even if you're not fond of diagrams and in-depth explanations. Notably, Musk said in June that Tesla pushed AI Day to September 30th in hopes of having a functional Optimus humanoid robot . It would just be a prototype, but it would show that the company's vision of an autonomous helper exists beyond pretty 3D renders. The machine is meant to handle dangerous or monotonous tasks without requiring step-by-step instructions. You could also see improvements to Tesla's vehicle technology. The company's Full Self-Driving feature is still rough , and Tesla might explain how it plans to refine the system. You could also see upgrades to Aut...

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California walks through the Senate subway on her way to a vote at the US Capitol on September 12, 2022 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Dianne Feinstein got angry with aides trying to debrief her about a pending vote on Thursday. "I don't even know what that is," the 89-year-old Democrat said of a standard stopgap funding bill. Critics from both parties have questioned Feinstein's cognition and judgment in recent years. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein grew frustrated with staffers trying to prep her for what's become a routine Senate vote on Thursday, blurting out "I don't even know what that is" after aides asked if she had questions about the latest stopgap funding bill.  The internal discussion, which took place along a bank of elevators in the Senate basement and was loud enough for Insider to overhear, bubbled over into outrage as Feinstein struggled to get her bearings before the midaf...

VCG/VCG via Getty Images Apple exec Tony Blevins is leaving the company following a TikTok video of him making a crude joke. He was filmed earlier this month saying he fondles "big-breasted women" for a living. Blevins is a 22-year Apple veteran who works with the company's manufacturing and delivery partners. A senior Apple executive is leaving the company after a video of him making a crass joke went viral on TikTok, Bloomberg reports .  In a video published September 5 by TikTok content creator Daniel Mac, Tony Blevins — Apple's vice president of procurement — was approached while getting out of his Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a rare supercar that can cost more than $500,000. When asked what he does for a living — the theme of many of Mac's videos — Blevins responded: "I have rich cars, play golf and fondle big-breasted women, but I take weekends and major holidays off."  He added: "Also, if you're interested, I've got a hell ...

Conservative activist Ginni Thomas and January 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. AP Photos/Susan Walsh and J. Scott Applewhite Ginni Thomas told January 6 investigators that she still believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Committee chair Bennie Thompson told CNN about Thomas' comments during a closed-door interview. Her interview could become part of the next hearing "if there's something of merit," he told CNN. Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection that she still believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, despite a lack of evidence to support that claim. That's according to CNN reporter Annie Grayer, who spoke with Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the committee leading the probe into the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. "Yes,...

Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock Major US indexes plunged Thursday after staging a relief rally in the prior session.  UK prime minister Liz Truss stood by proposed tax cuts, despite a chorus of vocal critics. US Treasury yields hit multi-year highs this week as markets react to growing recession fears.  US stocks sank Thursday following a relief rally in the prior session, as mounting recession fears and UK market turmoil renewed the sell-off. Stocks recovered from their steepest losses of the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 600 points and the Nasdaq lower by nearly 4% at one point in the afternoon. Major indexes still ended deep in the red, though, with the S&P 500 hitting a new closing low for the year.  UK prime minister Liz Truss said that she stood by the government's plan to cut taxes, which earlier in the week rocked markets and sent the pound falling last week to 37-year lows. Top economists including Paul Krugman, Mohamed El-...

It’s demo day season. This morning marked the kickoff of VC firm 500 Global’s Fall 2022 Demo Day, which saw over a dozen startups give their best pitches to prospective investors — and customers. Participants ran the gamut from fintech and sustainability to edtech and developer tools, and several stood out from the rest of the pack. The event comes just weeks after Y Combinator had its bi-annual Demo Day , its first since moving operations back to in-person. 500 Global, formerly branded under 500 Startups , has an accelerator that competes with YC. Both outfits look to back early-stage founders with money and advice in exchange for equity. YC has backed over 3,500 founders, while 500 Global has backed more than 2,800 founders, according to each institution’s websites. Unlike YC, 500 Global has geographic-specific accelerator programs, similar to Techstars, with focus on areas like Aichi, Japan, Cambodia, and Alberta, Canada. That said, today’s debut from 500 Global is from its first ...

Ahead of bringing its Arc desktop GPUs to everyone in a couple of weeks, Intel has revealed more details about what to expect from the graphics cards in terms of specs and performance. The A770, which starts at $329 , will have 32 Xe cores, 32 ray-tracing units and a 2,100MHz graphics clock. In terms of RAM, it comes in 8GB and 16GB configurations, with up to 512 Gb/s and 560 Gb/s of memory bandwidth, respectively. As for the A750, which Intel just announced will start at $289, that has 28 Xe cores, 28 ray-tracing units, a 2,050MHz graphics clock, 8GB of memory and up to 512 Gb/s of memory bandwidth. All three cards, which will be available on October 12th, have 225W of total power. Intel claims that, based on benchmarking tests, you'll get more bang for your buck with these cards than NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 . It says the A770 offers 42 percent greater performance per dollar vs. the RTX 3060, while the A750 is seemingly 53 percent better on a per-dollar basis...

Everyone's favorite text-to-image generator Dall-E has a new competitor from Meta : A video-to-text generator called Make-A-Video . The tool generates short, soundless video snippets based on the same type of text prompts you feed to Dall-E. But Dall-E is child's play compared to Make-A-Video, at least according to Mark Zuckerberg. The Meta CEO noted in a Facebook post , “It’s much harder to generate video than photos because beyond correctly generating each pixel, the system also has to predict how they’ll change over time.” Make-A-Video doesn't have that problem because it "understand[s] motion in the physical world and apply it to traditional text-to-image generation." SEE ALSO: https://mashable.com/article/werid-dall-e-images Another Make-A-Video feature is the ability to add motion to static images. Make-A-Video's transformation of a static image of a woman doing a yoga pose, for example, has her leaning deeper into her stretch as a light fla...

Florida’s Space Coast continues to make preparations for the extremely powerful and slow-moving Hurricane Ian, with officials rolling rockets back to the safety of hangars and delaying launches until the storm passes. The massive storm made landfall near Fort Myers Wednesday afternoon, coming in at just a few miles per hour shy of the Category 5 threshold. Forecasters expect Ian to travel in a northeastern direction across the state, with major storm bands hitting the Space Coast — the section of Florida’s east coast that includes Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. That means strong winds and rain are all but likely, and the threat of storm surge and flooding remains distinct. By Wednesday afternoon, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center entered HURCON I, indicating that 50-knot sustained winds are likely within 12 hours. In light of these impending conditions, all non-essential facilities closed and the majority of staff were sent home. N...

Digital mortgage lender Better.com continues to lay off staff, and seemingly in as callous a way as possible. Indeed, whereas most companies try to avoid repeated layoffs, the outfit — which gained notoriety by laying off about 900 employees over Zoom on December 1, 2021 — has since been laying off smaller groups very systematically, say sources. The tactic accomplishes two things. One, it has a disconcerting effect on existing employees, who never know when the axe might fall so begin seeking to leave on their own, enabling Better.com to avoid laying them off and paying out related severance payments. Secondly, sources say Better.com is navigating around large severance payments by letting go 249 people or fewer at a time. Why that matters: The company’s recent layoffs are believed to have not triggered the WARN Act , which means it would not be required to pay out as much in severance to the affected employees. According to New York state law, by not laying off more than 250 peop...