Long before Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s 112th mayor, he understood that if you want to reach young voters, you have to meet them online.  Now, in classic Mamdani fashion, the mayor has taken that strategy even further. On Thursday, Polygon exclusively revealed that Mamdani is launching a recurring Twitch livestream series titled “Talk…

Waymo has suspended robotaxi service on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami as it works to improve performance in construction zones, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Waymo said it’s in the process of integrating “recent technical learnings into our software and expect to resume these routes soon.” Waymo robotaxis are…

While there are some shocking revelations in SpaceX’s S-1 as it gets ready to become a public company, Elon Musk’s total control of the company perhaps isn’t one of them. I could argue that the oddball provision where Elon Musk gets up to a billion more shares to add to his already oversized, company-controlling cache…

Watch out, Suno. Spotify on Thursday announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to allow fans to use generative AI technology to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs. The tool will launch as a paid add-on available only to Spotify’s Premium subscribers and will offer a revenue share with participating artists…

Elon Musk has incredible sway over the companies he leads. And while he already calls himself “TechnoKing” at Tesla, he is a real ruler over SpaceX, wielding an unprecedented level of control over one of the most valuable companies in the world.  Musk’s monarchical grip on SpaceX was finally laid bare in the company’s IPO…

Fire season kicked off early in California this year, with flames already approaching a former nuclear test site outside of Los Angeles. The rising number of natural disasters in California, and around the world, demand our attention — and, in Silicon Valley, venture investment. Convective Capital, an early-stage venture fund led by Bill Clerico, announced…

President Donald Trump has delayed signing an executive order that would allow the government to evaluate AI models before they’re released.  Trump claimed he is not happy with the language of the order: “I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” he told the White House press pool. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I…

Fragrance tech company Patina says it has raised $2 million in funding investors, including Betaworks and True Ventures.  The company focuses on creating new scent molecules using advanced molecular design, machine learning, and scent research. Today, most of the scent molecules used in consumer products are created by a small number of specialized labs, which…

Alongside tools for AI-generated podcasts, Spotify on Thursday introduced a new, ElevenLabs-powered AI tool for self-publishing audiobooks within the Spotify for Authors platform. The company said at its Investor Day event that the feature will launch in beta this June on an invite-only basis, initially with support for the English language only. The AI-powered audiobook…