techcrunch

Krafton acquires a controlling stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million. The deal aligns with Krafton's vision to establish India as a global hub for game development, leveraging Nautilus's expertise in cricket games to enhance and expand the Real Cricket franchise and explore new genres.

OpenAI has updated its Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, making the AI assistant more engaging and less likely to interrupt users. These enhancements promise a better conversational experience, offering a more natural and concise interaction. Both free and paying users benefit from these improvements aimed at reducing interruptions and enhancing the AI's personality.

Google's Gemini AI model is reportedly able to remove watermarks from stock images, raising concerns about potential illegal use. The model, labeled as experimental, often struggles with semi-transparent or large watermarks. In contrast, AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI restrict watermark removal to avoid unethical practices.

Indian authorities, acting on a US request, arrested Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national and co-founder of the sanctioned Garantex cryptocurrency exchange. Besciokov is accused by US authorities of laundering billions for criminal groups, including North Korean hackers.

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, is taking over as CEO of Relativity Space, replacing co-founder Tim Ellis. Schmidt brings substantial financial backing and leadership experience to the rocket company known for its 3D-printed rockets. Ellis will continue supporting the company as a co-founder and board member.

OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9 billion deal with CoreWeave, enhancing their cloud computing capabilities with over 250,000 Nvidia GPUs. The agreement signals a shift from OpenAI's reliance on Microsoft and supports CoreWeave's upcoming IPO. This move underscores the evolving AI landscape as OpenAI seeks more computing power and diverse infrastructure.

Russian crypto exchange Garantex is accused of laundering proceeds of crime. Now, one of its chiefs is in India’s net. How did they wash dirty cash? A quick lowdown

Uber has introduced the 'Uber for Teens' service in India, allowing teenagers aged 13-17 to book rides under parental supervision.

Alphabet's Waymo is rapidly expanding its robotaxi network, now offering over 200,000 paid rides weekly, a 20x increase in under two years. Plans are underway for expansion into Austin, Atlanta, and Miami by 2026. Waymo's autonomous system logs over a million miles weekly and will soon debut in Tokyo. CEO Sundar Pichai highlights forthcoming technological advancements.

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft's Copilot, which grants access to over 20,000 private or deleted GitHub repositories from more than 16,000 organizations. This issue results from Microsoft's Bing search engine caching content that remains accessible via Copilot, posing risks to confidential information like intellectual property and access keys.

Perplexity has announced the launch of an AI-driven web browser, Comet, designed to enhance internet browsing with automation and deep research capabilities. Expected to rival established players, Comet’s unique features aim to redefine user experience. The launch follows Perplexity’s recent product expansions and comes amid legal challenges over content reproduction concerns.

Amazon is discontinuing its TikTok-like feature, 'Inspire,' due to low engagement and the need to better align with customer preferences. Instead, the company is introducing 'Rufus,' an AI shopping assistant designed to enhance product discovery and shopping efficiency through personalized recommendations.

Google has launched the Lens screen-searching feature for iPhone users, enabling easy searches through Google Chrome or the Google app. Users can look up items on their screens by drawing, highlighting, or tapping, and the update is rolling out globally this week. AI Overviews will also provide instant details in Google Lens searches.

Amazon has announced the discontinuation of its Android app store and the Amazon Coins program effective August 20, 2025. Developers can no longer submit new apps and in-app purchases will be disabled for Amazon.co.jp customers. However, the app store will remain available on Amazon devices such as Fire TV and Fire tablets.

Valve has removed PirateFi from the Steam store after discovering it contained Vidar, an info-stealing malware.

AI researchers from Stanford and the University of Washington have developed a reasoning model, s1, for less than $50 using cloud compute credits. The model, distilled from Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, demonstrates strong performance in math and coding tests, comparable to leading models like OpenAI's o1 and DeepSeek's R1.

Meta's Chief Information Security Officer, Guy Rosen, has sternly warned employees that any leaks of company information will result in termination. This follows the recent firing of offenders. CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the challenging upcoming year focused on AI, advising employees to brace for intensity and further efficiency measures including layoffs.

DeepSeek’s open-source AI reasoning model, R1, has gained significant attention, briefly overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT in popularity. Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger praised R1 for its innovative potential and emphasized the importance of affordability, resourcefulness, and openness in computing history. Gelsinger’s current role involves integrating R1 into Gloo for improved communication.

OpenAI's Nick Turley is set to testify against Google in a US antitrust case. The DOJ seeks his testimony to demonstrate Google's restrictive practices in the search market. Google challenges the selective nature of the witness and requests additional documents from OpenAI.

A security flaw in popular Indian bike-taxi app Rapido's feedback form exposed user and driver data, including names, emails, and phone numbers. Discovered by a security researcher, the vulnerability stemmed from an API linked to a third-party service. Rapido has since secured the portal, but users are urged to be vigilant against potential scams.