Latest AI News
Tinder owner Match Group is slowing hiring to pay for its increased use of AI tools
You might think the big story out of Match Group’s first-quarter earnings is Tinder’s turnaround. The dating app’s revenueis slightly up againafter quarter-after-quarter of declines. But we’d like to point to a comment the chief financial officer made about how the company is slowing its hiring right now because it needs more money to pay for AI tools for its employees. Ah, yes, the good ol’ “let’s blame AI” strategy! While speaking to analysts on the first-quarter earnings call, Match Group CFO Steven Bailey talked about how the dating app giant was investing in AI technology for internal use at the company — as well as how Match was paying for it. “We’re making a big push around AI enablement. We’re giving every employee in the company access to all the cutting-edge tools. We’re giving them the training they need to succeed. We’re setting expectations. We really want to become an AI-native company,” Bailey said. “We think it’s a huge opportunity. But these tools cost a lot of money, as I’m sure you know, and so the way we’re helping to pay for that is by slowing our hiring plans for the rest of the year,” he added. The company assured investors that the impact would be cost-neutral, as the slowed hiring and lower headcount would make up for the increased software expenses. Plus, Match Group is betting that the increased productivity from employees’ use of AI will ultimately increase revenue growth, the number-cruncher explained. While on the surface, this looks like another example of AI taking people’s jobs — in this case, forcing a company to lower its number of open positions — there’s likely more nuance to this story. Let’s keep in mind that Match Group’s flagship app, Tinder, has been struggling in recent years. This quarter may be the start of a turnaround, as monthly active usersdeclined by 7% in Marchcompared with the far-steeper 10% drop a year ago. Tinder registrations also grew for the first time since 2024, but by a mere 1%, asBloombergpointed out. This is perhaps a positive sign for Tinder. Or it might be a brief blip driven by users’ curiosity around various productimprovementsand new features,like IRL events. Time will tell. Match Group remains a company that has to work to squeeze more money out of an oft-dwindling, less active user base — which, to the company’s credit, it did exactly that. Match’srevenue was $864 millionin the first quarter, up 4% year-over-year. However, its next-quarterestimatesare coming in lower — around $850-$860 million, down 2% to flat year-over-year. All these struggles come after many months of what appears to be a growing disinterest in the use of dating apps by younger people. This generational shift sees peopleoptingtomeet up in real-life, perhaps by pursuing an interest, likerunning,book clubs, or ahobby that connects themwith other people, which then, in turn, expands their network, increasing their chance of meeting someone new. The trend coincides with aresurgence of nostalgic tech, like digital cameras, flip phones, boomboxes, and even landlines, signaling a generation that’s feeling burned out by always-on connectivity and looking for analog pleasures. Match Group is aware of this significant shift and says it’s pivoting to address the challenge by increasing the number of its own IRL events. “Gen Z desperately wants to connect. They know they want to meet new people. They just want to do it in a low-pressure, low-stakes way that doesn’t feel like a job interview,” Match’s CFO Rascoff told investors on the call. “Traditional dating apps are very highly structured and can be intimidating to a user under 30. So, I think the growth of these alternative ways to meet new people speaks to how Gen Z is trying to find lower-pressure ways to connect.” “We’ve obviously adapted our roadmap to this reality,” he said.
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Khosla-backed robotics startup Genesis AI has gone full-stack, demo shows
Genesis AI, a startup that raised a $105 million seed round to build foundational AI for robotics, has unveiled its first model, GENE-26.5, and it comes with surprise hands. In a demo video, the company showcased various advanced tasks performed by a set of robotic hands it has designed in-house. “The model has always been the goal, because a better model means better intelligence,” Genesis cofounder and CEO Zhou Xian told TechCrunch. But the company soon realized that it needed control over the hardware. “So we decided to go full stack,” he said. Other well-funded companies operate at the intersection of AI and robotics — such asPhysical IntelligenceandSkild AI. Zhian also acknowledged that “there’s probably 50 or 100 robotic hand companies out there.” But he and his cofounder Théophile Gervet hope that building their own will give them the upper hand. The key difference is that Genesis’ hand has the same size and shape as a human hand — rather than the two-finger grippers many robotics companies have been using — reducing the gap with real-world conditions. “That lets us collect a lot more data than was previously possible, to train a model that can do many more tasks,” said Gervet, a former research scientist at Mistral AI who is now Genesis’ president. Of all the physical manipulation tasks showcased in the video below, Gervet’s personal favorite is cooking, because it proves that the robot has been able to complete a long series of difficult tasks, such as cracking an egg and slicing a tomato. But Genesis has also tasked its robots with preparing smoothies, playing the piano, and solving Rubik’s cube — a roboticsgimmick. Other tasks, such as lab work, are closer to what could be the commercial applications of Genesis’ technology. But what happens behind the scenes is just as important: the startup has also developed a sensor-loaded glove that works as a real-life double of its robotic hand, collecting data that can more readily be used. “Our idea was that if we could design a robotic hand that tries to mimic a human hand as much as possible, we can instantly unlock huge amounts of human data without having to worry about what people call the ‘embodiment gap’ in robotics research,” Xian said. Others havetried their handat that problem; the main novelty is how Genesis combines this with its model. The current version is named GENE-26.5 for May 2026, but Xian expects there will be many iterations, thanks to the simulation it has developed. “The real bottleneck for the iteration speed of the model is evaluation. So this helps us speed up model training a lot,” he said. Beyond simulation, though, data will be key to training models that can help robots perform more tasks. That’s also where Genesis’ glove could come in handy. Gervet said that, unlike clunky data collection devices that get in the way, it is just as light and easy to wear as the security gloves already used in many industries, while relatively cheap to make. “We’re in talks with a lot of customers right now, and a lot of the value of a glove would be that, for the first time, you can wear the data collection device when you’re doing your daily job, whether it’s a lab technician for pharma or for manufacturing,” Gervet said. This would also be complemented by ‘egocentric video data’ — people filming themselves doing the task. Still, it remains to be seen whether workers would be happy to wear the very gloves and cameras that could train robots to replace them, and whether they will get extra pay for that training. That will be between Genesis’ customers and their employees, Gervet suggested. “We haven’t nailed the details yet,” he said. Either way, they may decide not to share that data with the startup, the founders acknowledged. But the startup also has avenues of its own to build its ‘human skill library’ — it could also pay third-party partners to collect data. Its model is already trained on “massive amounts of human-based internet videos,” according to a press release that didn’t mention compensation. Combined with its simulation system, this could help Genesis lower the costs of its technology for real-world applications like the one it has demonstrated. “This marks an important milestone for their team and the robotics industry more broadly,” said Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, who invested in the startup. In July 2025, just a few months after its creation, the startup had emerged from stealth with a$105 million seed roundco-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures, with additional backers including Bpifrance, HSG, and individuals like Schmidt, but also Xavier Niel, Daniela Rus, and Vladlen Koltun. This funding helped Genesis increase its headcount. With offices in Paris and California, it has also expanded to London. “One big reason we decided to be in Europe is there is a huge talent density across the whole continent,” Gervet said. Its team of 60 people is split around “40-45% in Europe and 50-55% in the U.S,” and the startup is currently hiring in all three locations. Aside from hiring, the company also plans to reveal its first general-purpose robot shortly, which Xian told TechCrunch will be a full-body robot, not just hands. But he insisted that the roadmap is still the same. “Our goal is to build the most capable robotic system,” he said.
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Google updates AI search to include ‘expert advice’ from Reddit and other web forums
Google isupdating searchto refine its AI experience by adding additional context to links, like conversations from web forums, as well as a feature that highlights links from a user’s news subscriptions. While citing web forums and discussion boards can help users find answers to more niche queries, this design choice could also prove chaotic. Two years ago, Google overhauled its search experience to put AI front and center — when you search for something, Google will often summon an “AI Overview,” which has spurred mixed reception from users. People quickly pointed out how the feature could be exploited, since it failed to recognize sarcasm or information that comes from dubious sources. (It citedThe Onionwhen telling someone to eat “one small rock per day,” and used Reddit to advise someone to putglue on their pizzato make the cheese stick better.) Though Google’s AI Overviews have improved significantly, they still — like anything powered by an LLM — are prone to hallucination. A recentNew York Times analysisfound that the AI Overviews were correct about nine times out of 10. But for a company that processes trillions of queries a year, that success rate would mean that hundreds of thousands of searches turn up inaccurate results every minute. Of course, not every search has an objective yes-or-no answer, which is why Google might want to pull in voices from web forums where people discuss such questions — there’s a reason why people often add “Reddit” to the end of their Google searches. “For many searches, people are increasingly seeking out advice from others,” Googleexplains. “To help you find the most helpful insights to explore further, AI responses will now include a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media, and other firsthand sources. We’re also adding more context to these links, like a creator’s name, handle, or community name, to help you decide which discussions you might want to read or participate in.” But now Google is complicating the role of its AI Overviews. Is the AI Overview supposed to answer a question, or is it supposed to serve you a variety of sources that might have the information you’re looking for? Isn’t that basically just a normal Google search? Google will, at least, add more context to where its AI Overview commentary comes from, which might help users decipher if they’re getting information from a trustworthy source. It’s similar to how ChatGPT or Claude will sometimes provide links that are supposed to back up its claims. Still, we’d recommend double-checking that the AI is not hallucinating the validity of these citations.
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Apple Agrees to Pay $250 Million Settlement to iPhone 16, iPhone 15 Pro Owners Over AI Claims
Apple launched the iPhone 16 series in September 2024 with the Cupertino-based tech giant's first smartphones to ship with its “Apple Intelligence” suite of tools, a term used by the company instead of artificial intelligence (AI). The tech giant also announced that the 2023-launched iPhone 15 Pro series will also get support for its new AI-powered functionalities. However, last year, a number of class action lawsuits by iPhone owners were reportedly filed against Apple for over-committing and under-delivering on its AI promise. Now, the company has reportedly reached an agreement to pay compensation to millions of affected consumers.
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OpenAI Upgrades ChatGPT’s Default AI Model to GPT-5.5 Instant, Adds New Capabilities
OpenAI, on Tuesday, announced that it is updating the default artificial intelligence (AI) model in ChatGPT. The default model is available to everyone when they first open the website or the app, including those on the free tier. So far, this experience has been powered by the GPT-5.3 Instant, but now, the San Francisco-based AI giant is replacing it with the GPT-5.5 Instant. Some of the key improvements include more personalised responses, higher intelligence in image analysis and answering science and math questions, and a natural conversational tone.
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Claude Opus 4.7, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and Others Score 0% on New SWE Benchmark
ProgramBench tests SWE agents' ability to develop complete software projects holistically from scratch.
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'AI-First' is Now Mandatory for Big 6 IT Audits, But They Don't Know How
India's AI and cloud boom is forcing IT companies to rethink how they audit—and how they get audited.
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Karnataka Taps Naukri to Fast-Track GCC Hiring Beyond Bengaluru
The Govt–Naukri pact provides 90 days of hiring assistance and reduces setup time for GCCs outside Bengaluru.
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Coforge’s AI Push Drives Growth as Peers Struggle for Visibility
Coforge’s aggressive AI push is paying off, with strong revenue growth and margin expansion outpacing the sector.
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Sarvam, YCP India to Drive Enterprise AI Adoption With Focus on Business Impact
The partnership blends a sovereign AI platform with execution expertise to scale high-impact enterprise deployments.
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Jensen Huang Says NVIDIA’s China Chip Share Has Fallen to Zero
Jensen Huang urges Washington to rethink export controls and keep US chip firms active in China.
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Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone open a restaurant
Marc Lore, the veteran e-commerce entrepreneur who sold his previous startups to Amazon and Walmart, has big plans to infuse AI into hiscurrent venture,Wonder. The centerpiece of those plans is Wonder Create, an initiative that would let anyone — from food entrepreneurs to social media influencers — use AI to design and launch their own restaurant brand in under a minute. The virtual restaurant would then go live across Wonder’s growing network of tech-enabled kitchen locations, currently numbering 120 and expected to reach 400 next year. Lore’s startup, a vertically integrated dining and delivery platform, has evolved from food trucks to fast casual restaurants with 10 to 20 seats. These are not normal restaurants, though; they are “programmable cooking platforms” capable of operating as 25 different types of restaurants based on cuisine, within their all-electric kitchens that are increasingly becoming robotic. Speakingat The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” conference this week, Lore said these kitchens have a 700-ingredient library. The “restaurants” they house actually consist of many different brands that operate from within these locations. In addition to a staff of up to 12 people in these kitchens, cooking tech, like conveyors and robotic arms, are involved in the cooking process. The company alsojust bought Spice Robotics, a maker of an automatic bowl-making machine previously used by Sweetgreen. Next year, it plans to offer an “infinite sauce machine” that can make bout 80% of all the sauces found in recipes on the internet today. Wonder Create wasannouncedearlier this year as a way for anyone to use Wonder’s software to launch their own restaurant brand and recipes. Lore offered more details as how this would work by leveraging AI technology, describing the plan as something like a “Shopify front-end with an AI prompt.” “You type in what kind of restaurant you want to build. It builds the restaurant — AI does — in under a minute. It does the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all the recipes for your restaurant,” Lore explained during an interview at the WSJ event. The would-be restaurateur could then refine the prompt if changes were needed. When ready to go live, the restaurant would launch across all of Wonder’s locations. The company currently has 120 of these “programmable cooking platforms” in operation, a number that’s expected to grow to 400 next year. As it adds robotics to the equation, the company won’t necessarily reduce headcount, Lore noted. Instead, it will increase the number of meals a kitchen can produce in a given period. “We have about 7 million throughput capacity with 12 people,” he said. “We see a path to getting to 20 million throughput out of 2,500 square feet with just 12 people. The goal also is…I guess by 2035, to have 1,000 unique restaurants operating out of the 2,500 square feet,” Lore added. The goal with these AI-created “restaurants” is to allow people to experiment with food in new ways. A restaurateur could test recipes to gauge customer reaction before adding dishes to his own brick-and-mortar locations, for example. Lore sees other use cases for the platform, too, like letting influencers connect with their audience through their own “restaurant” brands without having to actually launch their own chains. “It could be a mega-influencer, a micro-influencer — anyone that wants to monetize their following,” Lore said. “Or it could be a private trainer that wants to make specific bowls. It could be a not-for-profit. It could be Disney for [marketing] their new movie. Anybody can make a restaurant.” Whether that many people actually want to is an open question. Ghost kitchens — a similar concept that promised to let brands sell food without owning a restaurant — had a rocky run in the early 2020s, with several high-profile operators scaling back or shutting down after struggling to build customer loyalty. Wonder’s added layer of automation and AI may address some of those pitfalls, but the model is still unproven at scale. MrBeast Burger, a famous ghost kitchen experiments, vividly illustrated the challenge. The brand faced widespread complaints over inconsistent food quality — a consequence of relying on dozens of different contracted kitchens and staff. Wonder’s programmable, increasingly automated kitchens are designed to solve exactly that problem. There are still limits to this idea, Lore admitted. Wonder’s team (including its robots) can’t do things like toss and stretch pizza dough or slice and roll sushi. Instead, Wonder’s focus is on simpler basics like burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, and bowls. The whole plan comes together with Lore’s other acquisitions —Grubhub for its 250 million-deliveries-per-year businessandBlue Apronfor its meal kit business. Now, Wonder is focused on buying restaurant brands, like New York City-basedBlue Ribbon Fried Chicken, which it snapped up for $6.5 million in February. “When you buy a brand — and you can buy a brand that has 10 locations, or even 50 locations — and then overnight put it in 1,000, there’s just an incredible arbitrage there,” Lore noted.
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