In Brief

Early-stage venture firm A* on Tuesday announced a $450 million Fund III. The firm takes a generalist approach, backing companies across categories including AI applications, fintech, healthcare, and security.

The average check size for this fund will be between $3 million and $5 million, with the aim to back at least 30 startups. The capital will be deployed over the next two to three years, as with the firm’s previous funds. Limited partners include nonprofits, foundations, and endowments; Carnegie Mellon University is among the publicly named backers.

A*, founded in 2020 and run by Kevin Hartz and Bennet Siegel, previously raised a $315 million Fund II in 2024 and a $300 million Fund I in 2021. Hartz is a serial entrepreneur best known for co-founding Xoom, the international money-transfer service PayPal later acquired for $1.1 billion in 2015, and Eventbrite, the event-ticketing platform that went public in 2018. Siegel came up through Boston Consulting Group and Altamont Capital Partners before spending four years as a partner at Coatue Management.

The firm has also drawn attention for backing unusually young founders, even as the practice has become more common since. Hartz told TechCrunch last fall that close to 20% of the firm’s current portfolio involve teenage entrepreneurs. Among others of its investments, it has backed the fintech company Ramp and the AI firm Mercor.

This story was updated to clarify the name of the firm.

Former Tesla executive Drew Baglino has quietly founded a heat pump startup, TechCrunch has learned.

This is the second company founded by Baglino in the two years since he left Tesla. Sources confirmed the existence of the startup, called Sadi Thermal Machines, and TechCrunch has reviewed company filings in Delaware and California.

Sadi was formed in June 2025 and shares its Scotts Valley, California, headquarters with Heron Power, a startup also founded by Baglino, that sells solid-state transformers, according to company filings.

The name of the company is an apparent reference to Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, a pioneering French physicist whose work formed the foundation of modern thermodynamics, including the internal combustion engine and the heat pump. Little is known about Sadi Thermal Machines, however, it appears to employ several Tesla alumni, according to a review of LinkedIn and a source familiar with the startup.

TechCrunch was unable to reach Baglino or the PR firm that represents Heron Power. This article will be updated if they respond.

Before founding Heron Power and Sadi Thermal Machines, Baglino spent nearly two decades at Tesla, where he worked on everything from the original Roadster to the Powerwall and Powerpack energy storage systems. When Baglino left Tesla in April 2024, he had risen to senior vice president, overseeing the development of the company’s core energy technologies, including electric motors, batteries, and power electronics.

Along the way, Baglino worked on Tesla’s heat pumps. He’s cited as an inventor on a patent for a thermal management system that operates two coolant loops, one to cool the battery and another to cool drivetrain components.

To manage the two loops, Baglino and his teammates developed three-way and four-way valves that give an EV’s thermal management system more sophisticated control over the temperature of various components. Such a system allows Tesla to harvest heat from the traction motor, for example, and use it to pre-heat the battery to ensure optimal performance when fast charging in cold weather.

The patent lays out some of the design principles that form the basis of Tesla’s “octovalve” system that first appeared in the Model Y. The heat pump in that vehicle manages the temperature of the cabin, batteries, and motors, all in a package that’s about the size of a suitcase.

When it debuted, Tesla’s octovalve system was more advanced than that of its competitors, and for at least a brief period, the company considered developing a heat pump for residential and commercial settings. Tesla executives, including Baglino and CEO Elon Musk, mused on such a system during an earnings call in 2022. They discussed a heat pump that would handle both HVAC and water heating.

“From a mission perspective, it’s very aligned,” Baglino said. “We have learned a lot about how to make capable and reliable heat pumps that work in all environmental conditions and are excited about the idea of working on that problem one day. Let me put it that way, it’s definitely aligned with our mission to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.”

Making a heat pump for the home, he added, would be easier. “Way harder in a vehicle,” he said. “It’s so constrained on mass and volume and energy.”

But Musk then added one of his famous qualifiers. “It is a thing we will do, but we’re not committing to a time frame at this point,” he said. Tesla has yet to release a residential HVAC or water heating system.

“People should do it anyway,” Baglino said on the call. With Sadi Thermal Machines, he appears poised to make good on that statement.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally took the stand this morning to defend himself against his former co-founder Elon Musk’s lawsuit challenging OpenAI’s corporate structure.

Altman was immediately asked what he thought of Musk’s allegation that OpenAI’s other founders “stole a charity” when they launched a for-profit subsidiary to market products based on the company’s AI models.

“It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” Altman said after several seconds of silence. “We created one of the largest charities in the world. This foundation is doing incredible work and will do much more.”

Musk’s attorneys have been at pains to point out that OpenAI’s foundation, which now has assets on the order of $200 billion, didn’t have full-time employees until earlier this year. OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor testified today that was simply because of the challenge of converting OpenAI equity to cash, which was accomplished with the organization’s most recent restructuring in 2025.

The central question posed by Musk’s lawyers is whether the company’s commitment to safety had been left behind as its commercial power grew. But Altman said that in 2017, during a pivotal period when the founders wrestled with how to obtain the funding to power their AI models, Musk’s “specific plans on safety made me worry.”

He described a “particularly hair-raising moment” in the debate when Musk was asked what would happen if he died while controlling a hypothetical OpenAI for-profit. In Altman’s telling, Musk said, “Maybe OpenAI should pass to my children.”

Altman said that Musk’s focus on controlling the initial for-profit gave him pause because OpenAI was dedicated to keeping advanced AI out of the hands of a single person, and Altman, with his experience running the prominent startup accelerator Y Combinator, knew “founders who had control usually did not give it up.”

Altman also testified that Musk's management tactics, which might have worked for engineering and manufacturing, didn't work at OpenAI.

"I don't think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab," Altman said. "He had demotivated some of our most key researchers. He had at one point required Greg and Ilya to make a list of the researchers and list out their accomplishments and stack rank them and take a chainsaw through a bunch. That did huge damage for a long time to the culture of the organization."

Indeed, Altman cast himself as defending the "sweat equity" of fellow co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, the two people effectively running OpenAI at the time while Musk and Altman had other jobs.

After that clash went unresolved, Musk ultimately left OpenAI's board and started competing AI initiatives at Tesla and his own AI startup, xAI. But Altman kept in touch with the mercurial businessman, updating him on OpenAI's work and seeking his funding and advice.

OpenAI's lawyers noted that Musk had been kept up to date and asked to participate in the investments that his lawsuits now claim corrupted the non-profit.

During one discussion of a Microsoft investment into OpenAI in 2018, Altman said that "unlike a lot of meetings with Mr. Musk, this was a good vibes meeting," where Musk spent a "long conversation showing us memes on his phone."

As investors scramble to get their hands on shares of AI companies of all stripes, Anthropic this week updated its website to warn investors that a slew of private and secondary investment platforms that offer access to shares in the AI company are not, in fact, allowed to do so.

The company named Open Doors Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama Capital, Lionheart Ventures, Hiive (new offerings), Forge Global (new offerings), Sydecar, and Upmarket as companies that are not authorized to provide access to buy or sell its shares.

“Any sale or transfer of Anthropic stock, or any interest in Anthropic stock, offered by these firms is void and will not be recognized on our books and records,” the company’s support page reads.

Reached for comment, Forge Global claimed to have been included erroneously. “We are working with Anthropic to remove Forge’s name from this alert,” the platform told TechCrunch. “Forge does not facilitate transactions in any private company’s shares without the explicit approval of the company.”

Sydecar, meanwhile, said it only acts in an administrative capacity. “The company does not buy or sell securities or solicit transactions in any private companies. Further, Sydecar requires sponsors to attest that they have reviewed relevant documents relating to the transferability of shares and that they have the required approvals and consents from the company,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Anthropic’s update comes alongside a rise in the number of investment platforms offering exposure to AI companies’ shares (and thus their growth) via secondary markets where existing shareholders sell their shares, “tokenized” securities, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), or secondary market holdings.

The company, rumored to be raising fresh funding at a $900 billion valuation, has especially been in demand, with some secondary market brokers telling TechCrunch last month that it’s one of the “hardest” stocks to source.

"Anthropic is right to take seriously concerns around unauthorized share sales and investment scams," Hiive spokesperson Dakota Betts said in an emailed statement. "We share those concerns. They are a major reason why Hiive invested heavily in legal, compliance, and diligence infrastructure from the beginning, and all share transfers facilitated by Hiive are approved by the issuer."

Over the past year, some crypto companies, like crypto exchange OKX, have spun up investment products selling exposure to AI companies. These often take the form of pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts, which are derivative instruments that track the value of private companies on secondary markets but don't offer ownership of actual shares.

SPVs are different from those derivative systems, offering investors a chance to buy shares of an entity that holds at least some stake in Anthropic. That equity could be from an official investor or could have been acquired when an investor is forced to liquidate its holdings, as happened during the bankruptcy of FTX. In other cases, the equity claim may be entirely fraudulent.

Anthropic says both its preferred and common stock are subject to transfer restrictions, which means any share sale or transfer not approved by its board of directors will be considered invalid. According to Anthropic, any third-party platform (specifically SPVs and retail investment firms) that claims to sell its shares directly or using forward contracts are unauthorized to do so.

"We do not permit special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to acquire Anthropic stock and any transfer of shares to an SPV are void under our transfer restrictions," the company's blog reads. "Offers to invest in Anthropic’s past or future financing rounds through an SPV are prohibited."

Note: This story was updated to include comments from Hiive and Sydecar.

Potholes are a pesky problem — just ask scooter company Lime, which listed them as an official risk to its business in its IPO filing last week.

History is littered with claims that technology can help solve or blunt the problem of potholes, and still they persist. But as cars become increasingly laden with advanced sensors, they are becoming a tool that can quickly alert cities to potholes and other municipal problems.

Last month, Waymo and Waze announced a pilot program to share pothole data with local governments. Now, fleet management company Samsara says it’s one-upping that idea with its own AI-powered offering that it calls “Ground Intelligence.”

Samsara has spent the last decade giving its customers cameras to mount inside millions of trucks for driver monitoring, theft prevention, and helping with liability claims. The San Francisco-based company has taken all that data and trained its own model that can detect multiple different types of potholes and determine how quickly they are deteriorating.

The idea is that Samsara-equipped trucks are far more prevalent than Waymo’s robotaxi fleet, which currently stands at just around 3,000 vehicles. Even as that number grows, Samsara believes it will be able to collect more data and, crucially, more repeat data from the same locations that show how potholes change over time.

Samsara believes this data will be valuable to cities — the company announced Tuesday that it has multiple cities under contract and that the city of Chicago is coming on as a new customer — and that it will be the first in a series of insights and data points that will be offered in Ground Intelligence. Other potential features include detecting graffiti, broken guardrails, low-hanging power lines, or really “anything that we can observe that has relevance to a city, or also to the private sector,” said Samsara’s senior vice president of product, Johan Land.

Typically, Land said, cities have to either dispatch workers or sift through hundreds of 311 calls to find these problems. It’s a lot of noise. Samsara’s pitch is that it can deliver the signal, and quickly, because of the sheer number of commercial trucks and vans that already use its cameras.

Ground Intelligence works as a dashboard. It proactively populates warnings on a map of developing potholes and other potential problems. It also allows cities to pull anonymized footage from vehicle cameras to confirm citizen reports of downed street signs, clogged sewers, or other public infrastructure problems.

"That's the magic here; it takes a process that was reactive and makes it proactive," Land said. "That means that you don't just go and fix one pothole. You plan it out: 'I know where all the potholes are in this area. I go out and I fix one by one, in one sweep.'"

Samsara is also thinking up other ways to leverage this moving municipal surveillance network it has built. On Tuesday, it announced a product called Waste Intelligence, which makes it easier for waste management companies to quickly confirm if their customers' trash or recycling was picked up. Samsara also announced a "ridership management" offering, which can help alert bus drivers to "unexpected boarding events," or create a "digital manifest" for school buses.

In Brief

Google and SpaceX are in talks to launch orbital data centers in space, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The potential deal comes as SpaceX gears up for its $1.75 trillion IPO later this year, selling investors on the idea that data centers in space will be the cheapest place to put AI compute within the next few years. It also follows Anthropic’s deal with SpaceX last week to use computing resources from xAI’s data center in Memphis, Tennessee, with the potential to work together on orbital ones in the future. (SpaceX acquired xAI in February.)

Google is reportedly talking to other rocket-launch companies as well. The company also plans to launch prototype satellites by 2027 as part of an initiative called Project Suncatcher, announced late last year.

Elon Musk has created hype for orbital data centers, claiming they are cheaper to operate. Advocates also point out they are free from the local backlash that U.S. ground-based buildouts attract. However, as TechCrunch recently reported, today’s terrestrial data centers are much cheaper than those in orbit once satellite construction and launch costs are factored in.

Google invested $900 million in SpaceX in 2015, according to regulatory filings.

TechCrunch has reached out to Google and SpaceX for comment.

At Google’s virtual Android Show: I/O Edition event on Tuesday, the tech giant announced a series of upcoming updates and features, including improved Gemini Intelligence features; new hardware called Googlebook; and other Android improvements, like vibe-coded widgets, Gemini in Chrome, and new emoji.

The features are arriving ahead of Google’s annual developer conference this month, which will largely focus on AI, as it did last year.

Below, we’ve compiled all of Google’s announcements for you right here.

Googlebook

Image Credits:Google

Google unveiled Googlebook, its new line of laptops built with Gemini at their core. The tech giant is working with partners like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks in a variety of shapes and sizes.

The company says Googlebooks, which are launching this fall, are the first laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence to offer personal and proactive help.

The laptops will ship with “Magic Pointer,” a new kind of cursor with Gemini built in; compatibility with Android phones that will allow people to use apps from their phone right from their Googlebook; the ability to create custom widgets; and more.

Create My Widget

Image Credits:Google (screenshot)

Google unveiled a new “Create My Widget” feature that lets users vibe-code their own custom widgets. The feature will first launch on the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer.

Users will be able to create widgets by describing what they want using natural language. For example, you could ask the feature to “suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week” in order to get a custom dashboard that you can add and resize on your home screen.

Image Credits:Google

Android Auto is getting a refresh that brings more personalization, widgets, and an edge-to-edge experience to your dash to fit any screen, whether it’s an ultrawide angle, a circle, or a unique shape. Users can add widgets that let them see the things that matter most at a glance, even while using navigation.

Image Credits:Google

Media apps like YouTube Music and Spotify are also getting redesigned interfaces aimed at making them easier to use in the car.

Additionally, for the first time in Android Auto, you’ll be able to watch videos on apps like YouTube in 60 fps full HD in supported cars later this year, starting with BMW, Ford, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Škoda, Tata, and Volvo.

Image Credits:Google

Google said Gemini is now rolling out broadly on Android Auto, letting drivers ask questions, brainstorm ideas, or learn about topics hands-free while on the road. The company also said users will be able to place food orders from the car, beginning with DoorDash.

3D Emoji

Image Credits:Google

Google announced that all 4,000 Android emojis have been refined to make them more true to how they actually are. Launching later this year, the new emojis are designed to feel less flat and more expressive and real.

Features for creators

Android is launching a “Screen Reactions” feature that records you and your screen at the same time, a format often seen on TikTok and Instagram Reels. The feature is first rolling out on Pixel devices this summer.

Image Credits:Google

Google also partnered with Meta to bring the best of Instagram to its Android devices, including Ultra HDR, native stabilization, and night mode. Additionally, the company optimized the capture-to-upload pipeline to ensure your photos and videos remain sharp when you post them.

The tech giant is bringing new tools to Meta’s Edit app, exclusively on Android, including “smart enhance” to upscale photos and “sound separation” to boost and remove sounds.

Gemini’s agentic features

Image Credits:Google

Under Gemini Intelligence, the assistant will be able to take data from one app and perform multistep functions across apps. For instance, you can take a photo of an event flyer and ask the assistant to find that event on sites like Expedia.

With this feature, users could also invoke the assistant with their grocery list on screen and ask it to build a cart based on those items in the shopping app of their choice.

Image Credits:Google

Gemini in Chrome

The company is now introducing Gemini in Chrome to Android, after earlier launches on iOS and desktop, allowing users to summarize content or ask questions about what they see on the webpage. Android users will also get the experimental auto-browse feature that can navigate websites and complete tasks like booking a ticket on a user’s behalf.

Form filling

Gemini will be able to use data from Personal Intelligence to help users fill out complex forms on mobile through an opt-in feature.

Image Credits:Google

Dictation

Google launched a new feature in Gboard called Rambler that turns your speech into cleaned-up text — similar to apps like Wispr Flow and Monologue. The feature removes filler words like “ums” and “ahs” and also understands when you say “Let’s meet at 3 PM… um, 2 PM” and posts “Let’s meet at 2 PM” as a final result.

Image Credits:Google (screenshot)

Extended AirDrop support

Last year, Google added a way for Pixel phones to share photos and files with iPhones by making Quick Share work with AirDrop. The company said that this year, the feature will be available to users of other smartphone companies, including Samsung, Oppo,

OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor.

What’s more, if you don’t have a compatible device, you can use Quick Share on any device to generate a QR code, which will let you share files to the iPhone through the cloud.

Plus, Google said that soon users will be able to access Quick Share available within apps like WhatsApp.

Easier iPhone to Android transfer

Google is planning to introduce a new iOS-to-Android transfer that lets you import your passwords, photos, messages, favorite apps, contacts, eSIM, and your homescreen layout from your iPhone to your new Android phone. This feature will launch on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices this year.

Pause Point

Image Credits:Google

A new Android feature will allow you to pause when launching an app you’ve labeled as one of your distractions. Before being able to scroll, game, or do whatever else it is that wastes your time, you’ll have to take a 10-second break and be confronted with other choices you could make instead — like launching your Google Play Books app to read, for instance. You can also optionally set a timer that cuts you off from using the app before you dive in.

Improved threat protection features

Image Credits:Google

Google is also expanding its default-on theft protections to all Android users globally after earlier tests in Brazil. The features will be enabled by default on all new Android 17 devices, as well as freshly reset devices or those that have upgraded to the latest OS.

When enabled, features like Remote Lock and Theft Detection Lock will be automatically enabled, and Google is reducing the number of times a thief can try to guess your PIN or password. There will also be longer wait times between failed attempts. Law enforcement will now be able to access the device’s IMEI from the lock screen on Android 12 and higher, too, allowing them to quickly verify a device’s ownership if stolen.

In addition, the theft protections will be extended to devices running Android 10 and up in select markets, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the U.K.

Pixel users with up-to-date software and Advanced Protection Mode switched on now get Intrusion Logging, a security feature that helps to investigate suspected spyware attacks and device compromises.

Anthropic announced Tuesday that it is launching a host of new chatbot features designed to provide automated assistance to law firms. The new features expand Claude for Legal — the law-focused plug-in that launched earlier this year — offering users a new set of legal plug-ins and MCP connectors designed for specific areas of law.

The new tools come amid hot competition in the legal AI space. In March, the AI law startup Harvey, which uses agentic AI to automate legal workflows, raised $200 million at a valuation of $11 billion. Last month, a rival startup, Legora, raised a $600 million Series D and launched a high-profile ad campaign featuring Jude Law. Legora offers similar services to Harvey — automated solutions built to simplify the often byzantine law processes that have traditionally involved entire teams of humans.

Anthropic’s new tools are designed to help law firms automate specific clerical functions — things like document search and review, case law resources, deposition prep, document drafting, and other related areas. The plug-ins — which represent a bundle of functions and automated tools — are designed to work across legal fields like commercial, privacy, corporate, employment, product, and AI governance, Anthropic says.

Anthropic is also offering a number of model context protocol connectors. MCPs connect specific data sources and third-party systems to AI models, allowing the models to interact with them directly. In this case, the new MCP connectors integrate Claude into a variety of software applications that are already routinely used by law firms — applications for document management like Docusign and file search platforms like Box. Legal research sites like Thomson Reuters (which operates Westlaw) can also be connected.

The new connectors and plug-ins are being made available to all paying Claude customers, the company said. The new features also build upon other plug-ins designed for the legal industry that the company launched in February.

“The legal sector is facing mounting pressure to adopt AI, and the firms and in-house teams that move are pulling ahead fast,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Claude is making a deeper push into knowledge work, with the legal sector emerging as one of its most significant and fastest-growing industries.”

As AI companies have sought to court law firms, AI-related failures have caused real problems in court. Dozens of lawyers have been caught using AI to generate error-ridden legal documents, as has at least one major law firm. Last year, California issued a first-of-its-kind fine against an attorney who had used ChatGPT to draft an appeal riddled with fake quotes. Federal judges have also been caught using it to draft rulings, a trend that drew the scrutiny of congressional leaders last year. Meanwhile, AI-generated lawsuits are said to be clogging the arteries of justice — overwhelming courts with stacks of bizarrely argued legal “slop.”

Google announced Rambler, a new AI-powered voice dictation feature for Gboard — its widely used Android keyboard app — at its Android Show: I/O Edition 2026 event on Tuesday morning. The launch puts Google in direct competition with the likes of Wispr Flow and Typeless, a growing crop of AI-powered dictation apps that have built audiences on desktop and mobile in recent years — most of which have yet to establish a strong foothold on Android.

Just like other dictation apps, Rambler removes filler words like “ums” and “ahs.” It also understands midsentence corrections like, “I am going to meet you on Wednesday at our usual coffee shop at 3 p.m. … um, 2 p.m.”

Google said it is using Gemini-based multilingual models that also support code switching. Code switching means users can move between languages midsentence — say, from English to Hindi — and Rambler will follow along without losing context. It’s a capability that reflects how many multilingual speakers actually communicate, and one that most Western dictation apps have been slow to support.

The company said that Gboard will clearly indicate to its users that the Rambler feature is in use. It doesn’t store any voice recordings and uses the audio only to transcribe what users speak. Google mentioned during the briefing that, as you can use the Rambler feature across all apps, it is like “reinventing the keyboard.”

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On privacy, Ben Greenwood, director of Android Core Experiences, said Google uses a combination of on-device and cloud-based processing and has “invested significantly over many years” to ensure features are “safe and private” — a calculated message to users weighing Rambler against third-party dictation apps that may handle data differently.

In the past few years, a host of dictation apps — Wispr Flow, Willow, Superwhisper, Monologue, Handy, and Typeless — have cropped up. But until now, most of that activity has been on desktop and iOS, leaving Android relatively underserved. Google itself released AI Edge Eloquent, an offline-first dictation app powered by its on-device Gemma AI models, on iOS last month.

Rambler is Google's clearest move yet to close that gap. These new features will be limited to Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones for an initial summer rollout but will eventually reach other Android devices. The core advantage here is distribution: Gboard is the default keyboard for the vast majority of Android users worldwide, meaning Rambler arrives pre-installed for hundreds of millions of people. When a platform player enters a market at the operating-system level, stand-alone apps need a compelling reason — better accuracy, deeper features, or stronger privacy guarantees — to justify a separate download.

For dictation startups, the question is no longer whether they can build something good — it's whether they can build something good enough that users actively go looking for it.

An anti-doomscrolling feature is now built into Android. (Yes, things have gotten that bad.)

On Tuesday, Google announced Pause Point, which is designed to keep users from engaging with addictive apps on Android, the mobile operating system that powers Google’s Pixel smartphones, Samsung devices, and others.

Pause Point works by requiring a 10-second pause after you open any app you’ve labeled for yourself as being a distraction. TikTok, Instagram, X, and even Google’s YouTube could be the kinds of apps labeled as “distracting” by Android device owners worried about the power of time-sucking algorithms to eat away at their day.

Image Credits:Google

With the addition, Google isn’t only thinking of users’ well-being, of course.

It’s reacting to increasing regulatory pressure around social media harms and algorithmic dangers. Today, many countries and U.S. states have created laws to restrict or ban minors from using social media, as the impacts of these apps on young people’s mental well-being have become better understood.

Google can now point to a feature like Pause Point to claim it’s part of the solution, not the problem.

“Android is more capable than ever, but we also want to give you the tools to disconnect when you need to,” explained Dieter Bohn, previously executive editor at The Verge, now director of product operations for Google’s Platforms & Ecosystems organization, in a press briefing about the Android 17 update.

“I think that we are all guilty of going into our phone and then opening some app and getting stuck on autopilot, and an hour has gone by,” he said.

To date, social media app makers, including YouTube, have turned to the idea of app timers as a way to remind you to take a break or stop scrolling. Pause Point flips that idea on its head, as it interrupts the app’s launch — and the dopamine flood that follows — to force you to stop and rethink whether this is what you actually want to do, or is just a habit you’d like to break.

Google says you could use the time Pause Point enables to do a short breathing exercise or to think about other things you could do instead of scrolling. For instance, the feature can suggest more worthwhile apps, like a favorite fitness app, an audiobook app, the Kindle or Google Play Books app, or others.

Image Credits:Google

You can also choose to scroll through some favorite photos for ideas — perhaps those reminding you of other engaging activities, like outdoor walks, your pets, or arts and crafts.

Plus, Pause Point lets you choose to set an app timer before you dive in, which makes the time you spend in-app feel more intentional at the start. This could work better than a default timer, which is always set for the same length of time, even as the circumstances leading you to take a break from scrolling can vary.

Image Credits:Google

The feature is harder to turn off than traditional app timers, too, many of which can simply be ignored. Instead, Pause Point requires a phone restart to turn it off, Google says, which also makes you think before disabling it.

Pause Point may not be as fun (or adorable) as the screen-time-focused or self-care apps like Finch or Hank Green’s Focus Friend, but it does have the advantage of being built into Android itself, which could help it gain traction.

Google on Tuesday unveiled Googlebook, its new line of laptops built around Gemini, Google’s flagship family of AI models. The tech giant is working with partners like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to make the first Googlebooks in a variety of shapes and sizes.

The company says the Googlebook, set to launch this fall, is the first laptop designed from the ground up around Gemini to offer personal and proactive help.

Googlebooks will ship with “Magic Pointer,” a new AI-powered cursor with Gemini built in. Rather than just pointing and clicking, wiggling the cursor will surface quick, contextual suggestions based on what’s on your screen. For example, if you point at a date in an email, you can quickly set up a meeting. Or, if you select two images, like your living room and a new couch, you can visualize them together.

Image Credits:Google

“We thought, we can take Gemini Intelligence and make the pointer truly smart and intelligent,” said Alexander Kuscher, Google’s senior director of Android tablets and laptops, in a briefing with reporters. “As you wiggle and you move over the screen, it will tell you what it can interact with, and contextually offer you the actions that you can do … It really exemplifies how we think about AI features throughout Googlebooks. It’s built in, but not in your face.”

The new laptops will also be compatible with Android phones, allowing people to use apps from their phone directly from their Googlebook. For example, if you’re using your laptop and remember you need to complete your daily Duolingo lesson but don’t want to reach for your phone, you can access the app directly on your laptop instead.

Image Credits:Google

Additionally, users will be able to easily access files from their phone directly through Googlebook’s file browser, allowing them to view, search, or insert them directly on their laptop.

Users will also be able to use Google’s new “Create your Widget” feature on Googlebook to build custom widgets by prompting Gemini. Gemini can also pull information from the web and connect with Google apps like Gmail and Calendar to build a single, personalized dashboard. For example, if you’re planning a family reunion in Berlin, it can gather your flight and hotel details, surface restaurant reservations, and even add a countdown.

Image Credits:Google

The bigger story here may be what Googlebook replaces. The unveiling of Googlebook comes 15 years after Google introduced the Chromebook -- the affordable, browser-based laptop that became a fixture in schools and workplaces worldwide. The new Googlebooks will essentially succeed the Chromebook, although the company won't outright say so. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the company plans to continue supporting current Chromebook users, with devices receiving updates through their existing support commitments. The company added that many Chromebooks will also be eligible to transition to the new experience but didn't share specifics on what this would look like.

Google isn't just refreshing its laptop lineup -- it's beginning a long transition away from ChromeOS, the platform it built its laptop presence on, and toward a new Android-based operating system with AI built in at the foundation. And with the biggest names in PC hardware already signed on, this is a platform play as much as a hardware one -- and a direct answer to Microsoft, which has been pushing its own AI-native Copilot+ PCs since 2024.

Google on Tuesday unveiled a new “Create My Widget” feature for Android that allows users to vibe-code their own custom widgets. The feature will first launch on the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer.

To create a widget, users will be able to describe what they want using natural language. For example, you could ask the feature to “suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week” in order to get a custom dashboard that you can add and resize on your home screen.

Or, if you’re a cyclist who only cares about wind speed and rain, you can create a weather widget that just surfaces those exact stats on your home screen.

Gemini can also pull information from the web and connect with Google apps like Gmail and Calendar to build a single, personalized dashboard. For instance, if you’re planning a family reunion in Berlin, it can gather your flight and hotel details, surface restaurant reservations, and even add a countdown.

Image Credits:Google

The feature signals Google’s latest push to bring generative AI deeper into the Android experience, as tech companies race to make customization tools more accessible to everyday users.

“This is like you asking your personal assistant a question, and having them just bring you the answer on repeat,” said Ben Greenwood, director, PM, Android Core Experiences, during a briefing with reporters. “So think of it as asking Gemini things about the world, things about its knowledge of what’s going on and events, as well as things about your personal data. Those are sort of the two areas that unlock an enormous number of use cases that we’re super excited about.”

The company announced the new feature alongside the unveiling of Gemini Intelligence, which will bring additional features like advanced autofill, an AI-powered voice dictation feature for Gboard, and more.

Google announced a number of new Gemini Intelligence-branded AI features at its Android Show: I/O Edition event on Tuesday. These include the ability for AI to complete tasks across apps, browse the web, fill out forms, dictate speech, and even allow you to vibe-code your own Android widgets.

Gemini gets more powerful

The company had already introduced some agentic capabilities, such as ordering food or booking a ride, to Gemini at the Samsung Galaxy S26 launch earlier this year. There, Google announced that Gemini would soon be able to perform more complex tasks, like booking a front-row bike for a spin class, finding a class syllabus in Gmail, and then searching for books related to that topic.

Image Credits:Google

Now Google’s AI assistant will be able to handle a multistep process, like copying a grocery list from your notes app, then adding items to the cart in your shopping app. To use this feature, you’ll press the phone’s power button and describe the task. Meanwhile, the content on the phone’s screen acts as the context for the assistant. Google noted that Gemini will wait for your final confirmation to complete the checkout.

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In addition, a feature first introduced in January had allowed Gemini to browse the web for you and complete tasks like booking an appointment, as part of an experimental rollout. Today, Google said this auto-browse feature is making its way to Android, too.

In late June, Android devices will also get Gemini in Chrome, an AI feature that will help users summarize content or ask questions about what is on the web page, similar to how Gemini in Chrome works on the desktop.

Another small but useful addition is that Gemini will be able to fill out forms on your behalf after learning details about you through Personal Intelligence. (Google said this feature is opt-in, and you can turn it off via settings anytime.)

Plus, Gemini will come to Android's Gboard keyboard. Google is using Gemini's multimodal capabilities by introducing a feature called Rambler in Gboard, which is similar to those found in other AI-powered dictation apps. The feature will let you speak in your own tone, transcribe the speech, and format it by removing filler words.

Image Credits:Google (screenshot)

Vibe-code your own Android widgets

Vibe-coding apps are picking up pace, and Google wants to give Android users a taste of this, too.

The company is introducing a way for users to build Android widgets by describing them in natural language. For example, users can build a meal-planning widget using query text like, "Suggest three high-protein meal prep recipes every week."

Image Credits:Google (screenshot)

The idea of creating a widget is not novel to Gemini. Notably, the hardware startup Nothing also released a similar tool last year.

Google said that Gemini Intelligence will follow the company's Material 3 expressive design language in its features.

The company said that these AI-powered features will first make their way to the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices this summer and will be available across other Android devices later this year.

Google is rolling out a new opt-in feature in Android that aims to help security researchers investigate spyware attacks.

The feature is called “Intrusion Logging” and is part of Android’s Advanced Protection Mode, which Google launched last year, an opt-in special security mode that enables certain features with the goal of making the device harder to hack. Advanced Protection Mode is designed to counter government spyware attacks and police forensic devices that try to extract data from a person’s phone.

These two types of attacks can also be combined. In at least one documented case in Serbia, authorities used a law enforcement forensic tool made by Cellebrite to unlock a device, and then installed spyware as a further step to continue monitoring the target.

The rollout of Intrusion Logging is the first time a phone maker has launched a feature with the goal of helping security researchers investigate spyware attacks. To achieve that, Android’s Intrusion Logging creates a new type of log, which records errors and collects evidence when something goes wrong with the software, to provide visibility into suspected spyware attacks.

Amnesty International, which worked with Google to develop the feature, called Intrusion Logging “a fundamental shift in the amount and quality of forensic data available on Android devices.”

“Until now, forensic analysis has relied on logs that were never designed for intrusion detection,” Amnesty wrote in a blog post that explains in detail how Intrusion Logging works. That meant earlier logs were not that useful for researchers, as they did not remain on the device for long and were often overwritten, effectively erasing potential evidence of attacks.

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, the head of Amnesty’s Security Lab, told TechCrunch that Android’s technical limits “have made it difficult to deeply analyze system logs and files for signs of compromise, unlike with iOS.”

“These limits have meant we've been unable to reliably detect known attacks against Android,” said Ó Cearbhaill, who has for years investigated dozens of cases of spyware abuse around the world.

The ability to better detect spyware attacks should improve with Intrusion Logging. Google announced the feature a year ago, but the company is deploying it only now. In a Tuesday blog post, Google said that Intrusion Logging “is currently rolling out to all devices running the Android 16 December update and newer.”

How Intrusion Logging works

Intrusion Logging captures events related to security and potential intrusions. For starters, the feature creates and collects logs once a day and stores them encrypted in a users’ Google account in the cloud. Uploading logs to the cloud potentially prevents spyware from deleting evidence of a device compromise. The logs are also encrypted so that only the user can access and share the logs with investigators, and Google cannot access them.

Among the events that Intrusion Logging keeps track of includes when the phone was unlocked; when applications have been installed and uninstalled; what websites and servers the phone connected to; whether someone connected to Android Debug Bridge, a tool that allows a computer or a device such as a forensic tool like Cellebrite to connect to an Android device; and whether someone tried to delete the logs related to these events, which could indicate an attempt to hide evidence of an attack.

In the event of a spyware attack, these logs can help investigators understand when and how authorities may have hacked or forcibly unlocked someone's device and connected it to a forensics tool, or used to install spyware or stalkerware. The logs can also determine if a phone at some point connected to a malicious website that tries to hack the visiting device, or accessed servers designed to extract data from the phone.

Contact Us Do you have more information about spyware attacks, or spyware makers? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or Do you have more information about spyware attacks, or spyware makers? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email .

While it is a step forward, Intrusion Logging has some limits. For now, along with having to enable Advanced Protection Mode, the feature requires Android’s latest software version, it is only available for Google-made Pixel devices, and the device has to be linked with a Google account. Intrusion Logging keeps records of browser navigation history and connections, which people may be wary of sharing with investigators.

Google says Advanced Protection Mode and Intrusion Logging are for people who think they may be at risk of attacks done with spyware and forensic devices, such as human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and dissidents. Advanced Protection Mode is similar to Lockdown Mode for Apple devices, which was also meant for at-risk users and is seen as an effective way to protect against spyware.

As recently as March, Apple said it has never detected a successful attack against users who have Lockdown Mode enabled. In 2023, security researchers at Citizen Lab said Lockdown Mode actively blocked an attempt to infect a target with NSO’s spyware.

In its blog post, Amnesty has included step-by-step instructions on how to download the logs if a user suspects or has been notified that they have been targeted with spyware. Apple, Google, and Meta have sent threat notifications to users for years, which researchers say have been crucial to finding and exposing cases of abuse.

Trying to get off billionaire-owned social media but don’t know where to start? A new app called Indigo is launching today to let users explore the open social web across multiple services, all under one roof.

Decentralized social media is having a moment, as more people realize they want control over their algorithms, feeds, moderation choices, and other aspects of participating in online communities. However, there are multiple paths to choose from. Users can opt for decentralized servers that make up the social network Mastodon, built on the older ActivityPub protocol (also now used by Meta’s Threads), or they can join the newer social network Bluesky, which runs on the AT Protocol.

Image Credits:Indigo

Indigo doesn’t force people to choose. Instead, the app brings the separate social networks together in one seamless experience, with a unified timeline that syncs across devices and a composer that lets users cross-post to both services at once.

The app is designed by Soapbox Software — the same team that developed the cross-posting tool Croissant, which offers an easy way to post to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads from one interface. Indigo co-creator Ben McCarthy, who also developed the Obscura apps and others, noted to TechCrunch that the new app was built on the team’s previous experience with Croissant, while also adding new features that make it a great stand-alone app for users of both open social networks.

Image Credits:Indigo

When using Indigo, you can distinguish Bluesky from Mastodon posts in your timeline: Bluesky profiles are outlined in blue, while Mastodon profiles appear in purple.

The app also includes other tools and features, including options that let users automatically scroll to the top as new posts arrive, hide NSFW content, mute users or keywords, filter which replies you see, enable a dark mode, and more.

Plus, you can access all your custom feeds and lists from across both social networks through the app’s “more” menu, track your notifications across both services, and search across Bluesky and Mastodon using Indigo’s universal search.

Image Credits:Indigo

The ability to cross-post, sync timelines across devices, and track trends across the networks requires a paid subscription of either $4.99 per month or $34.99 per year. (There’s also a $119.99 one-time purchase option for those dedicated to the open social web.) Currently, Indigo works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

In Brief

Community Bank, which operates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, disclosed a cybersecurity incident that exposed customers’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.

In an 8-K filing dated May 7 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank said it detected an exposure of customers’ personal data due to the use of “an unauthorized artificial intelligence-based software application.”

The bank said it disclosed the incident “due to the volume and sensitive nature of the non-public information at issue.”

It’s unclear exactly what happened, but based on the language in the filing, it appears someone working for Community Bank may have uploaded customer data to an online AI chatbot, potentially exposing that information to the chatbot maker.

While Community Bank did not disclose how many customers were affected by the incident, nor what AI application was involved, the company said it is “evaluating the customer data that was affected” and is sending notifications in accordance with relevant laws.

Community Bank’s chief executive John Montgomery did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

The Register first reported the security lapse.

Threads is testing a Meta AI integration that works similarly to X’s Grok. Users with a public account will be able to mention Meta AI in a post or a reply to get more context. The feature is currently in beta testing in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Argentina, and Singapore.

Meta told TechCrunch in an email that the feature is designed to help people get real-time context about trends and breaking stories, as well as receive recommendations, all within conversations.

Now users can mention Meta AI to ask questions like, “Why are people talking about the World Cup this month?,” “Whose Met Gala looks are trending right now?,” or “How are the Knicks doing in the playoffs?” Meta AI will then process the invocation and respond as a public reply authored by the @meta.ai account. Meta AI will respond in the language used in the post it was mentioned in.

By integrating Meta AI into its platform, Threads is positioning itself as not just a destination for chatting about news and trends, but also a place where you can get information and recommendations without having to leave the app.

The idea is similar to Grok’s role on X, which is filled with posts of users asking the AI chatbot questions like, “Is this real?” or “Explain this.” Of course, giving an AI chatbot this level of visibility carries risks, as seen on X when Grok generated posts praising Hitler. Still, Meta AI notably has stronger safeguards in place than Grok, though it remains to be seen whether it will be prone to similar issues.

Meta notes that if you want to see fewer Meta AI replies in your feed, you can mute @meta.ai, use the “Not interested” option on any Meta AI post, or hide a Meta AI reply that appears directly on your post.

The company says it plans to learn from early feedback and will continue improving the experience before expanding it to more people.

As bad actors weaponize AI to exploit software vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to bolster their cybersecurity defenses.

Fortunately, those very AI tools are also helping businesses fight back.

The need for such capabilities has helped Exaforce, an AI startup that detects and thwarts attacks in real time, secure a $125 million Series B. The round valued the three-year-old startup at $725 million and saw participation from HarbourVest, Peak XV, Mayfield, Khosla Ventures, and Seligman Ventures.

The massive funding round comes just a year after Exaforce raised a $75 million Series A, bringing its total funding to $200 million. The influx of capital underscores both the high cost of building and selling an AI-enabled security operations center (SOC), and the massive market opportunity investors see in the space.

Exaforce says it uses AI agents, called “Exabots,” with deep data analysis to automate security operations, taking the heavy lifting off of human analysts.

For the startup’s co-founder and CEO Ankur Singla, the mission is straightforward: Apply AI to catch and stop threats as they happen. “It’s a very simple mandate, but it’s very complex to execute,” he said.

The real challenge for security teams is that the vast majority of threat alerts are false positives. “A security operations person gets hundreds of alerts. How do you know what is a real, high-priority alert?” said Umesh Padval, a managing partner at Seligman Ventures, comparing the work of security teams to looking for a needle in a haystack.

Exaforce claims its AI platform can reduce manual, time-consuming tasks by as much as 90%.

Recognizing the rise in cyberattacks, the startup recently introduced "vibe hunting," a feature that lets security teams query its AI platform with natural language to investigate potential attacks based on simple hunches. “With vibe hunting, you can ask a very simple hypothesis like, ‘Did we get any new attacks from Iran?’” Singla said.

Exaforce officially brought its product to market in the fourth quarter of last year, following two years of testing with design partners. The startup has since added 20 customers, including notable names like Replit and Guardant Health. Due to the rise in cyberattacks, Singla told TechCrunch that Exaforce expects to reach 40 to 50 customers by the year's end.

High-profile attacks have “supercharged our ability to get to customers, because the customers now don't ask, ‘Why do I need this?’” Singla said. The question he is hearing more often now is: “How do I operationalize it?”

Exaforce isn’t alone in applying AI to security operations. The company faces competition from startups such as 7AI, Dropzone AI, and Prophet Security, as well as industry giants Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.

Waymo has issued a software update to its fleet of nearly 4,000 vehicles to help them avoid flooded roads as part of a recall announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Tuesday.

But the company hasn’t fully solved the problem of how its vehicles behave in these conditions. In documents released by NHTSA, the federal safety regulator says Waymo is still “developing the final remedy for this recall.”

The issue appears to be that Waymo’s robotaxis were slowing, but not stopping, when encountering flooded roads that they could not traverse, according to the NHTSA. Robotaxis using both Waymo’s fifth- and sixth-generation autonomous vehicle systems are affected.

The regulator said the recall applies to 3,791 vehicles — giving us a more up-to-date understanding of just how many vehicles Waymo has on the roads in around a dozen U.S. cities.

Waymo has now issued multiple recalls for its self-driving cars. The company’s first recall came in February 2024 after it discovered two robotaxis in Phoenix had separately crashed into the same towed vehicle. Since then, Waymo has issued recalls to fix low-speed crashes with parking gates and telephone poles, as well as to address illegal driving in the vicinity of school buses.

Waymo decided to issue the recall in late April after its robotaxis struggled to navigate flooding in central Texas; in one incident, an empty robotaxi was swept away in San Antonio. The company has also paused operations in the city.

The initial update sent to its fleet places “restrictions at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway,” according to the NHTSA.

"We have identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways, and have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to this scenario," Waymo said in a statement. "We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur."