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Influencer who had child with Elon Musk sues XAI over deepfake images

Ashley St. Clair is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop xAI’s Grok from creating images that undress her.

Republican Confronted Over Alleged Insider Trading in Elon Musk’s Grok

Representative Lisa McClain's husband purchased between $100,001 and $250,000 in private stocks of xAI on December 15, 2025.

Elon Musk Predicts This Airline Will ‘Lose Customers’ in Latest Feud

In the U.S., budget airlines have been on the decline as lower income customers struggle to pay for travel and luxury ...

Elon Musk says retirement savings 'won't matter' in 20 years. We asked 7 personal finance and AI gurus what they think.

Elon Musk said retirement savings will be "irrelevant" in 20 years if he's right about an abundant future. Experts see ...

Europe's biggest airline doesn't want Starlink on its planes. Elon Musk says it will lose customers

Elon Musk said Ryanair "will lose customers to airlines that do have internet" after its CEO said he wasn't interested in ...

Claude Code just got updated with one of the most-requested user features

Anthropic's open source standard, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), released in late 2024, allows users to connect AI models and the agents atop them to external tools in a structured, reliable format. It is the engine behind Anthropic's hit AI agentic programming harness, Claude Code, allowing it to access numerous functions like web browsing and file creation immediately when asked.But there was one problem: Claude Code typically had to "read" the instruction manual for eve

AI video startup, Higgsfield, founded by ex-Snap exec, lands $1.3B valuation

Higgsfield says it's on a $200 million annual revenue run rate. So it opened its previous Series A round back up and sold another $80 million in shares.

Iran’s internet shutdown is now one of its longest ever, as protests continue

Iran’s government-imposed internet shutdown enters its second week as authorities continue their violent crackdown on protesters.

Transition Raises $6M to Ease the Copper Shortage

As global demand for copper surges, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and electrification, the world could face a major copper shortage as early as 2040, with demand potentially outstripping supply by 25%. Transition Metal Solutions spoke to TechCrunch about its novel approach to copper extraction inspired by prebiotics. Instead of engineering or isolating individual “super” microbes to leach copper from ore, a strategy that has repeatedly underperformed, the company focuses on boosting

Announcing SOSV’s VC-Founder Energy Matchup March 2-6

Announcing the 2026 VC-Founder EnergyMatchup, with meetings taking place online between March 2nd (Monday) and March 6th (Friday).This virtual event will bring together 250+ startups and 250+ investors for 1:1 meetings online, scheduled at mutually convenient times.In 2025, SOSV Matchups generated over 6,500 one-on-one meetings in categories that included Health Tech, Climate Tech, and Robotics, receiving high praise from over 4,400 participants:“It’s months of deal flow in a single week” (inves

The US imposes 25% tariff on Nvidia’s H200 AI chips headed to China

The Trump administration formalized its 25% cut of H200 chip sales in China with a tariff that applies to certain semiconductors.

OpenAI invests in Sam Altman’s brain computer interface startup Merge Labs

Merge Labs is a “research lab” dedicated to “bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability.” OpenAI wrote the largest check in Merge Labs' $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation.

Wikimedia Foundation announces new AI partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity, and others

The AI partnerships allow companies to access the org's content, like Wikipedia, at scale.

US senators demand answers from X, Meta, Alphabet, and others on sexualized deepfakes

In a letter to the leaders of X, Meta, Alphabet, Snap, Reddit, and TikTok, several U.S. senators are demanding the companies provide proof that they have "robust protections and policies" in place, and how they plan to curb the rise of sexualized deepfakes on their platforms.

How one startup is using prebiotics to try and ease the copper shortage

Transition Metal Solutions is applying a special cocktail to coax microbes into unlocking more copper from ore.

Spotify raises its subscription prices in the US again

Spotify raised prices for its subscription plan in the U.S. for the third time in three years, as it hiked the monthly plan from $11.99 per month to $12.99 per month.

Parloa triples its valuation in 8 months to $3B with $350M raise

The massive round was led by existing investor General Catalyst, with participation from other returning backers.

Tiger Global loses India tax case tied to Walmart-Flipkart deal in blow to offshore playbook

Tiger Global's case in India is being closely watched by investors.

What AI is actually doing to jobs in Europe

In January 2026, London’s mayor gave a blunt warning that has reverberated far beyond City Hall: artificial intelligence could trigger “mass unemployment” in the capital’s core industries unless policymakers act now. His words came with an unexpected counterweight: an announcement of free AI training and a dedicated task force to help workers adapt. This juxtaposition captures a tension shaping Europe’s labour landscape: fear and opportunity locked in the same story. The anxiety isn’t limited to

After Italy, WhatsApp excludes Brazil from rival chatbot ban

WhatsApp is allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users in Brazil, days after the country's competition agency ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from the app.