Techflier

Sam Altman says mathematicians are coming around after OpenAI upended mathematics. Bloomberg/Getty Images OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and mathematicians have a complicated relationship. OpenAI has taken credit for solving hundreds of math problems, irking many mathematicians. At a recent talk at Stanford, Altman said mathematicians have already gone from anger to acceptance. Like someone in mourning, Sam Altman said mathematicians went through phases after OpenAI began its blitz into the field. First, there was disbelief. Then, there was pain. "The day one reaction was like, 'We're cooked, and our field is over,'" OpenAI's CEO said. "'We're telling our grad students to switch majors.'" After that, there was anger. "The day three reaction was maybe like: 'It's horrible that OpenAI did this,'" Altman said at a recent talk at Stanford, before hundreds of students jittery about the viability of their future careers. Come day ...

As Amazon blocks AI agents from shopping on its site, Walmart is taking the opposite approach, introducing new technology that lets AI agents make purchases on customers' behalf, with controls over spending and transaction approvals. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sqmwdc1 via IFTTT

Legal AI startup Legora announced Wednesday that it raised a $550 million Series E round, valuing it at $8.8 billion.  from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/aqwC8Mo via IFTTT

Restaurant software company Olo is launching a delivery app. Bloomberg/Getty Images Restaurant software provider Olo is launching a delivery app. Olo will offer the same menu prices for delivery that in-person visitors get, it said. Other delivery services often mark up order prices. A new food delivery service is taking aim at menu mark-ups — and some entrenched rivals Restaurant ordering software company Olo is launching its own customer-focused app, it said on Tuesday. The app puts it in competition with more established delivery companies, such as DoorDash and Uber Eats . On Olo's app, customers will see the same prices that restaurants charge in-person patrons, the company said. By contrast, third-party delivery services often charge customers higher menu prices than diners would get at a restaurant. Offering in-store prices can save customers between 15% and 30%, Olo said. "It's a better experience for consumers and a more sustainable model for restaurants, with no ...

The company says the feature is designed for situations where users might be discussing something personal or planning a surprise and want to keep those conversations private when handing their device to friends or family to show them something in another chat. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vyQ3n2q via IFTTT

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced 10,000 more free 2-K seats. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expanding NYC's free 2-K program, adding 10,000 more seats across the city. New York's under-five population dropped post-pandemic, spurred by high childcare and housing costs. For parents to comfortably afford childcare in New York, they need to make $300,000. As families flee cities across the country in search of more affordable housing and childcare, New York City is angling to keep its youngest residents. On Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that 10,000 more seats under his signature free childcare for two-year-olds program will be covered in fall 2027. Under the expansion, all of the Bronx and Staten Island's school districts will be eligible. "For far too many New York City families, the joy of welcoming a child comes with a terrifying set of questions: How will I afford child care? Will I need to give up my job? Will I be forc...

After drawing acquisition interest earlier this year, the Nvidia challenger raised $1.5 billion to remain independent. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lr8WTKu via IFTTT

Heidi Widmer now helps her neighbor, who has Parkinson's. Courtesy of Heidi Widmer Heidi Widmer is a 35-year-old who moved into an apartment building in Los Angeles in July. For the first two weeks, she heard a loud sound from the apartment above and was annoyed. She found out the noise was being made by her neighbor, who has Parkinson's. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Heidi Widmer. It has been edited for length and clarity. In July, I moved into an apartment in Los Angeles , exhausted from a six-day drive across the country from New York. All I wanted to do was get into the apartment and sleep, and luckily, my bed had been delivered on the same day I arrived. Trying to fall asleep at 2 a.m., all I could hear was a loud noise coming from the apartment upstairs . It sounded as if someone was bowling. Although I was tempted to shout for them to be quiet, I held my tongue — I was the new neighbor and didn't want to be difficult. But the noise just didn...

A wine store in Paris was emptied of all its products during riots on Saturday. Nathan Rennolds/Business Insider Paris erupted as protests turned to riots and masked looters ransacked stores on Saturday. Small business owners took stock of what they'd lost on Sunday. "When I got back, they'd taken everything," one store owner told Business Insider. "When I got back, they'd taken everything." That's what one shopkeeper in Paris told me as she cleared debris from her store after major cost-of-living protests turned violent across parts of France. Chaotic scenes unfolded on Saturday as rioters clashed with police and set vehicles and trash bins alight before masked marchers began to ransack businesses, including in the trendy Marais shopping district. After hundreds of arrests and a tense, momentary calm on Sunday morning, more violence broke out Sunday evening as black-clad rioters dragged debris into streets and set it aflame. Employees at a boutique...

"You Can See Everything" is having the second biggest opening weekend ever for a documentary film. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/LzVGKlI via IFTTT

The composition of Anthropic’s workforce and the type of work getting done have changed significantly in the past year. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IAU02b3 via IFTTT

A new MapQuest feature allows users to find license plate reader cameras in their area. St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Contributor/Getty Images; Business Insider MapQuest is pulling the curtain back on automatic license plate readers. Users can now locate Flock Safety and other surveillance cameras on MapQuest's app. Critics of the tech have raised privacy concerns and potential misuse. MapQuest, the OG software to find your way from point A to point B , is taking on the surveillance state. The free mapping service unveiled a new feature for its mobile app on Thursday that allows users to turn on a "surveillance layer" on a map to locate known automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, along their route. MapQuest says the app can identify cameras developed by Flock Safety , Axon Enterprise , Motorola Solutions, and PlateSmart, among others. "The Roads Have Eyes!" the company said in its BlueSky post announcing the new feature. The Roads Have Eyes! 👁️ Turn on the Surv...

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images Sentiment toward the AI trade has diverged among big money and retail investors. Retail traders piling back into the top AI plays, Citadel Securities says. Meanwhile, institutional investors are turning increasingly defensive. Everyday investors have been piling into AI bets at a moment when institutional money is playing defense. Retail is showing renewed willingness to pour money into high-flying tech stocks, adding exposure to chips, neoclouds, and other infrastructure plays in the last week. "Retail buying is picking up again, even as overall trading activity remains below average," wrote Scott Rubner of Citadel Securities. "Last week, retail net bought $9.1 billion of US equities on our platform, the largest weekly net buying in 15 weeks (since late June) and the ninth-largest week over the past year." The buying was concentrated heavily in AI play. Semiconductors ...

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more The ESPN Unlimited and FOX One bundle costs $39.99 a month. ESPN; FOX; Business Insider Bundles have become one of the best ways to save on streaming services you were already planning to subscribe to, and ESPN and FOX are now getting in on the action. The ESPN Unlimited and FOX One bundle unlocks comprehensive live streams from ESPN and FOX properties, making it a cord-cutting sports fan's best friend. ESPN Unlimited and FOX One launched separately on August 21, 2025, and the ability to bundle them together was first introduced on October 2. The ESPN Unlimited and FOX One bundle costs $39.99 a month. Typically, ESPN Unlimited costs $31.99 a month (after a recent price hike) and FOX One costs $19.99 a month, meaning that you can save 23% (about $12) each month by bundling the two services together. Explore the ESPN Unlimited and FOX One bundle Both streaming apps serve as one-stop shops f...

Bluesky is bringing “social vibe coding” to its experimental Attie platform, allowing users to create interactive experiences like games, quizzes, and websites that can tap into the social network's audience. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9hCbmMt via IFTTT

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia during her inaugural press briefing on Tuesday. Win McNamee/Getty Images Prediction markets bettors are wagering on Katie Zacharia's tenure as White House press secretary. Zacharia, who has described herself as an attorney, had her first media briefing on Tuesday. She has since faced scrutiny over her legal qualifications. President Donald Trump's new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia , got off to a somewhat rocky start with her 14-minute debut media briefing on Tuesday. And now bettors on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are putting money down on how long the conservative commentator will last in the high-profile job. On Kalshi, bettors gave Zacharia a 38% chance of being out as White House press secretary before January 1 in a wager that had more than $313,000 in trading volume as of early afternoon Wednesday. Kalshi traders were more bearish over the longer term, putting the chance of Zacharia's departur...

The label will appear on the player page and include songs entirely generated by AI or partially, such as involved in composition and vocals. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sB2ZoPW via IFTTT

Lisbon , Portugal - 12 November 2025; Jesse Zhang, Co-founder & CEO, Decagon AI on Centre Stage during day two of Web Summit 2025 at the MEO Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo By Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images) Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images AI startup Decagon builds AI agents to automate customer support for enterprise customers. The company has hired an investment bank to evaluate M&A interest. The discussions with potential buyers, including software company ServiceNow, are in the early stages. Buzzy AI agent startup Decagon could be the latest company swept up in a growing wave of AI dealmaking. The company, which was last valued at $4.5 billion earlier this year, has hired a bank to evaluate acquisition interest, according to people familiar with the matter. Decagon has held early discussions with cloud software giant ServiceNow and additional companies, the people said. If a deal does not materialize, Decagon could ins...

NYSE Goldman Sachs sees the golden 'Goldilocks' backdrop ahead in markets. That refers to an ideal scenario for investors where economic growth is neither too hot or too cold. Strategists see both stocks and bonds outperforming in the coming months. The stock market's best-case scenario could be brewing, Goldman Sachs says. Strategists at the Wall Street bank are eyeing a Goldilocks situation for markets, a dream configuration where economic growth is neither too hot nor too cold. The idea is that the economy is growing at just the right pace to fuel investor optimism while keeping a lid on inflation. It's a setup that looks poised to spark a fresh rally in stocks as well as bonds in the coming months, the bank wrote in a note to clients on Monday. Goldman said it's shifted back to an overweight stance on stocks for the next three months and to an overweight stance on bonds over the next 12 months, citing a strong backdrop for economic growth and cooling inflatio...

What does this mean for a fall full of movies starring villainous tech CEOs? from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9Qxl7Xm via IFTTT

Less than 48 hours, TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 starts in San Francisco’s Moscone West. Save up to $100 on your pass before prices increase at the door, plus get 50% on a second pass. Or score other deals. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ChnG7fm via IFTTT

Alexandr Wang's wild X feed seemed to lack any rhyme or reason, but the 29-year-old said it helped serve a broader purpose. Bloomberg/Getty Images Alexandr Wang said his prolific X posting is part of a broader effort to make Meta cool again. The 29-year-old has filled his feed with memes about Muse, the company's AI agent. Wang said his posts "made an impact" on the growth of Muse. Alexandr Wang said he had trouble focusing during recent Meta meetings. On his mind: New memes to post about the company's popular new AI assistant. "I would just like think of a meme and I'd be like 'Oh God, I have to get this out,'" Wang said in a recent interview with podcaster David Senra, adding that his coworkers were "somewhat surprised" at the buzz his posts were generating. "It actually made an impact on growth," he said of the posts, "which is kind of hilarious." Much has been said about Meta's chief AI officer and his ...

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more Thuma pioneered the viral, tool-free bed frame trend inspired by Japanese joinery, a traditional woodworking technique that uses precision-cut interlocking joints instead of nails, screws, or glue. The result is a rock-solid, squeak-free frame that slots together for quick assembly. But with pricing starting from $1,195 for a queen, many will consider that a steep investment. Other brands have started to offer their own take on this bedroom staple, such as  Silk & Snow , which offers a solid-wood contender that matches Thuma's interlocking, hardware-free design for roughly $350 less. To see if the budget contender holds up among the best bed frames , we put both the Thuma Classic bed frame and the Silk & Snow Wooden bed frame through head-to-head testing in our own homes. While Silk & Snow is the clear overall value winner, Thuma's lifetime warranty, buy-it-for-life, and...

Is Apple hoping to get into the AI-generated podcast business? from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FDSEylP via IFTTT

The author wanted to leave her hometown as a child. Courtesy of the author I grew up thinking my small hometown was boring and couldn't wait to leave. Housing costs eventually brought my partner and me back when we wanted to buy. Now I appreciate the family support and community I couldn't see as a teenager. I didn't think parking spaces would have a particularly big impact on my life, but ultimately, it was the thought of not having to parallel park on the street every day that made me realize I was going to move back to the town I grew up in. My partner and I were trying to buy our first home together and hoped to stay in Oxford, the city where we had lived for the past five years. I was speaking to a real estate agent about what we were looking for, and he raised his eyebrows slightly when I told him our budget. He told me that if I wanted an off-street parking space within our budget, we needed to consider smaller towns outside the city. There was one town which we kn...

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images It could be decade or more until the housing market sees "normal" affordability, Redfin says. The real estate firm defines "normal" affordability as a mortgage payment-to-income ratio of 30% or lower. If mortgage rates and home prices stay on course, the US may not meet the bar for 10+ years. The US housing market is brutal, and it could be a decade or more before things return to normal. In a new report, Redfin outlined several scenarios for housing affordability over the coming decade. Assuming that mortgage rates stay at their current level and home prices keep rising at their current pace, affordability is unlikely to return to "normal" levels for at least the next 10 years, analysts at the real estate company wrote. Redfin said it defines "normal" affordability as the average mortgage payment-to-income ratio falling back to 30%, referring to the common guidance of keeping housing costs under 30% of your gro...

This undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East, shows the institute workers in a lab. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East via AP On October 2, an Irkutsk lab employee died from pneumonia. There's confusion over what illness the woman died from, with conflicting reports out of the region. The World Health Organization says the US is at "very low risk" of being exposed to the plague. After a technician at an anti-plague laboratory in Siberia died, Russian officials are attempting to calm global concerns. Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia, died on October 2 after being hospitalized days earlier for pneumonia in Shelekhov, a nearby town . The World Health Organization told the Associated Press on October 6 that the plague presents a "very low" risk to the broader European region. That doesn't mean we know everything —...