TechCrunch Industry News

Anthropic has quietly removed from its website several voluntary commitments the company made in conjunction with the Biden Administration in 2023 to promote safe and “trustworthy” AI. The commitments, which included pledges to share information on managing AI risks across industry and government and research on AI bias and discrimination, were deleted from Anthropic’s transparency Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryan Breslow is once again the CEO of Bolt, the fintech company told TechCrunch on Wednesday. Bolt shared a communication that recently went out to investors in which Breslow wrote that “following a challenging few years,” he had been reinstated as Bolt’s CEO with “unanimous approval” of the board of the one-click checkout company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Agatha Nowicka, Founder of Female Foundry and author of the Female Innovation Index 2025, discusses the recent 12% decline in funding for women-founded startups in 2024, mirroring the broader 11% downturn in venture investments. She emphasizes the importance of detailed metrics to better assess funding landscapes. Agatha also encourages women in academia to embrace entrepreneurial paths, spotlighting the emerging deep tech ventures led by women and the unique challenges they face within the European startup ecosystem.

Colossal Biosciences, known for its outlandish goal to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2028, is claiming steady progress. It’s evidence: Genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur. To engineer the woolly mouse, the company’s scientists found mouse versions of mammoth genes and then used CRISPR to edit mice embryos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HackerPulse builds dashboards of information pulled from engineering tools to show how and where engineers spend their time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the latest government tech shake-up on Saturday, posting an unexpected offer of support for newly laid-off federal workers on the social network Bluesky. His message, which quickly gained traction, urged the displaced engineers and designers to turn the upheaval to their advantage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After kickstarting the market for making calls over the internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it will be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mozilla has responded to user backlash over the Firefox web browser’s new Terms of Use, which critics have called out for using overly broad language that appears to give the browser maker the rights to whatever data you input or upload. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore the future of automated decision-making in fintech, where hard-coded systems are being transformed. Discover how a startup is pioneering customizable workflows that enhance credit approval processes. Learn about the significant innovations and recent funding successes driving growth in the fintech sector. The importance of a robust data layer emerges as key for deep customer insights and staying competitive in a market hungry for modern solutions.

Inception, a new Palo Alto-based company started by Stanford computer science professor Stefano Ermon, claims to have developed a novel AI model based on “diffusion” technology. Inception calls it a diffusion-based large language model, or a “DLM” for short. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices