Anthony Ha, Author at TechCrunch

World of Warcraft turns 20

Anthony Ha — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 22:26:25 +0000

Blizzard Entertainment first released World of Warcraft in November 2004, so The New York Times celebrated the anniversary by outlining the many ways we can still see the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game’s influence’s 20 years later. For one thing, while multiplayer games and early social networks such as MySpace already existed, WoW provided a […]

What is Bluesky when it’s not the underdog?

Anthony Ha — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 19:51:11 +0000

Bluesky is having a moment — a moment that’s already stretched on for nearly three months. Over the summer, the social media app saw a wave of new signups in Brazil after X (formerly Twitter) was temporarily banned there. And in the United States, unhappiness with changes at X, and with owner Elon Musk’s close […]

Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight shows Netflix still struggles with live events

Anthony Ha — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 21:43:24 +0000

Viewers have been talking about Friday evening’s boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul — but probably not for the reasons Netflix was hoping. Yes, the 27-year-old Paul (a YouTuber turned professional boxer) defeated the 58-year-old Tyson (a former heavyweight champion who came out of retirement for this match) in eight rounds, but the […]

TikTok parent ByteDance reportedly values itself at $300 billion

Anthony Ha — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 17:26:40 +0000

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, valued itself at $300 billion in a recent share buyback offer, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. That number might sound familiar, as the WSJ previously reported on a ByteDance buyback offer at a $300 billion valuation back in September 2022. But a year […]

Elon Musk’s X is moving its legal disputes to northern Texas

Anthony Ha — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:00:44 +0000

Lawsuits against X (formerly Twitter) will soon be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The shift was first announced last month as part of a broader set of changes to X’s terms of service and privacy policy. Now, with the changes set to take effect on November 15, The […]

TSMC reportedly halts advanced chip shipments to Chinese companies

Anthony Ha — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 19:30:49 +0000

After a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was found inside a Huawei processor, the U.S. Department of Commerce has ordered the company to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, according to a report in Reuters. Huawei faces significant trade restrictions from the U.S., so the pause on shipments is supposed […]

FTX bankruptcy estate sues Anthony Scaramucci, FWD.us, others

Anthony Ha — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 00:05:30 +0000

Bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX filed 23 lawsuits Friday against Anthony Scaramucci (pictured above), his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, and other organizations, including Crypto.com and the Mark Zuckerberg-backed lobbying group Fwd.us. These lawsuits are an attempt to claw back money for FTX’s creditors following the company’s collapse. FTX claims that the money targeted in these suits […]

OpenAI reportedly developing new strategies to deal with AI improvement slowdown

Anthony Ha — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 23:26:46 +0000

OpenAI’s next flagship model might not represent as big a leap forward as its predecessors, according to a new report in The Information. Employees who tested the new model, code-named Orion, reportedly found that even though its performance exceeds OpenAI’s existing models, there was less improvement than they’d seen in the jump from GPT-3 to […]

iPhones might be harder for police to unlock, thanks to new reboot feature

Anthony Ha — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:41:54 +0000

New code introduced in the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system could make it more difficult for both police and thieves to unlock iPhones. 404 Media reported Thursday that law enforcement officials were warning each other that phones being stored for forensic examination seemed to be rebooting themselves — something that security experts confirmed […]

And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2024 is: Salva Health

Isabelle Johannessen, Anthony Ha — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 23:29:56 +0000

Over the last three days, 20 startups participated in the incredibly competitive Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt. These 20 companies were selected as the best of the Startup Battlefield 200 and competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After three days of intense pitching, we have a winner. The […]

Betaworks focuses on AI applications in its latest Camp

Anthony Ha — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000

For its most recent Camp, VC and accelerator Betaworks was on the lookout for startups building native applications made possible by AI. The program was first announced in May. To explain this focus, managing partner John Borthwick wrote at the time that while things like AI chatbots and writing assistants exist, “we aren’t yet living […]

Here are the 5 Startup Battlefield finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Isabelle Johannessen, Anthony Ha — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 02:00:00 +0000

The time has finally come to announce the five finalists of the Startup Battlefield. It all started earlier this year when the TechCrunch editorial team selected 200 companies from thousands that applied. From there, the team then chose the 20 finalists who pitched this week onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to investor judges and packed […]

Instagram is lowering video quality for unpopular videos

Anthony Ha — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 20:25:17 +0000

The popularity of an Instagram video can affect its actual video quality: According to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads), videos that are more popular get shown in higher quality, while less popular videos get shown in lower quality. In a video (via The Verge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show […]

The next Mac mini might be nearly as small as an Apple TV

Anthony Ha — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 18:58:38 +0000

The Mac mini will be getting an upgrade this week, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The mini is Apple’s desktop computer (really just a small gray box) positioned between the consumer iMac and the company’s professional-grade desktops. The new mini is reportedly getting smaller — nearly the size of an Apple TV set-top box. It […]

OpenAI’s Whisper transcription tool has hallucination issues, researchers say

Anthony Ha — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 20:49:16 +0000

Software engineers, developers, and academic researchers have serious concerns about transcriptions from OpenAI’s Whisper, according to a report in the Associated Press. While there’s been no shortage of discussion around generative AI’s tendency to hallucinate — basically, to make stuff up — it’s a bit surprising that this is an issue in transcription, where you’d […]

Apple wins $250 from Masimo in watch patent trial

Anthony Ha — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 19:53:20 +0000

A federal jury ruled Friday that Masimo smartwatches infringed Apple patents, but Apple isn’t getting a big payday. Bloomberg Law reports that the company was only seeking the statutory minimum of $250, and that’s all it was awarded. Apple’s attorney John Desmarais reportedly told jurors, “We’re not here for the money.” Instead, he said the […]

Perplexity is reportedly looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation

Anthony Ha — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 21:18:34 +0000

AI search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and hopes to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal. If a deal happens with those terms, it would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its $3 billion valuation when it raised from SoftBank over the summer. The WSJ […]

Lyft is working on a ‘service animal opt-in feature’ for passengers

Anthony Ha — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 17:19:26 +0000

Uber and Lyft need to do more to support disabled passengers, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, according to protesters who gathered outside the companies’ headquarters on October 15. Wired spoke to protesters who shared stories about drivers passing them by or refusing to let them bring their guide dogs on a ride. […]

Gusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI

Anthony Ha — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000

As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that nontechnical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding than an average engineer on […]

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly fundraising for a new AI startup

Anthony Ha — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 21:36:40 +0000

Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters. This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. When she left, Murati wrote on X that OpenAI […]