tech

David Crowther & Rani Molla10/6/25

OpenAI’s social app for AI videos, Sora, spent the weekend at the top of the App Store rankings

Last week OpenAI unveiled Sora, an AI-only social media app for its latest text-to-video generation model Sora 2. Despite the obvious threat of copyright lawsuits from just about every major studio, artist, or creative owner, the app’s release has prompted a deluge of AI slop invading social media feeds on TikTok, Instagram, X, Threads, Reddit, and more.

But the true home for the always bizarre, often realistic, and occasionally funny clips was on its dedicated iOS social app where they were made.

Designed for people to “create, remix each other’s generations” and “discover new videos in a customizable Sora feed,” the app allows users to bring themselves into videos via cameos. They can also “cameo” others. And, while that might creep some people out, others are apparently loving it. The currently invite-only app spent the weekend at the top of the free App Store in the US, after bumping Google’s Gemini from the top slot last week.

Per data from Appfigures, Sora continued to beat out rival AI apps like Gemini and sister app ChatGPT to the top spot over the weekend. You are going to see a lot more AI-generated videos over the coming years. Brace yourself.

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Claire Yubin Oh

isn’t it aironic?

Stack Overflow’s forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company’s still kicking... thanks to AI

The platform is raking in millions of dollars in revenue, with AI an ironic new source of revenue.

tech

Jon Keegan1/6/26

AI leaderboard maker LMArena hits $1.7 billion valuation

If you want to know who’s up and who’s down in the AI model world, look no further than LMArena’s leaderboard. The startup has just raised a $150 million series A fundraising round, with a valuation of $1.7 billion.

In seven months, LMArena has raised $250 million, according to TechCrunch.

The leaderboard started as a research project by cofounders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley.

The public leaderboard — formerly known as “Chatbot Arena” — shows the results of human evaluations of AI models for various tasks. Users can rate which model did a better job on one task in a sort of blind taste test.

The leaderboard is a hotly contested proving grounds for new models, and the company occupies a powerful position in an industry that lacks independent, industry-standard evaluations.

LMArena lands $1.7B valuation four months after launching its product | TechCrunch

LMArena lands $1.7B valuation four months after launching its product | TechCrunch

The leaderboard started as a research project by cofounders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley.

The public leaderboard — formerly known as “Chatbot Arena” — shows the results of human evaluations of AI models for various tasks. Users can rate which model did a better job on one task in a sort of blind taste test.

The leaderboard is a hotly contested proving grounds for new models, and the company occupies a powerful position in an industry that lacks independent, industry-standard evaluations.

tech

Rani Molla1/6/26

Uber jumps after unveiling Lucid robotaxi at CES

Uber shares jumped more than 5% after the company unveiled a production-intent robotaxi developed in partnership with Lucid and Nuro at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday. The autonomous vehicle runs on Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor computer. Nvidia itself announced a slate of autonomous hardware and software announcements at CES.

The companies said this fall that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for the joint effort. The robotaxi is already being tested on public roads, with a commercial launch planned for later this year.

Uber + Lucid + Nvidia is just another example of the tangled web of partnerships in the autonomous driving space, where Nvidia is now becoming more and more prominent.

This is Uber's new robotaxi from Lucid and Nuro | TechCrunch

This is Uber's new robotaxi from Lucid and Nuro | TechCrunch

The companies said this fall that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for the joint effort. The robotaxi is already being tested on public roads, with a commercial launch planned for later this year.

Uber + Lucid + Nvidia is just another example of the tangled web of partnerships in the autonomous driving space, where Nvidia is now becoming more and more prominent.

tech

Rani Molla1/6/26

Meta delays international Ray-Ban Display expansion thanks to “unprecedented demand” and “extremely limited inventory”

Meta said today that it’s delaying the early 2026 international expansion of its Ray-Ban Display glasses because of “extremely limited inventory” and “unprecedented demand.” The company didn’t specify whether the issue was more supply or demand, but has previously insisted its smart glasses are a hit.

Waitlists for the smart glasses, which are controlled with a band you wear on your wrist, extend “well into 2026.”

“We’ll continue to focus on fulfilling orders in the US while we re-evaluate our approach to international availability,” the company wrote. Expansion had been planned for the UK, France, Italy, and Canada.

In order to buy the smart glasses, consumers must do an in-person product demo to ensure the tech is “properly fitted to you,” according to Meta. Demos in New York City are unavailable for the next few weeks, the company’s scheduling website shows. It also notes that “that due to high demand, the product may be sold out and unavailable for purchase after your demo.”

US-AI-TECH-COMPUTERS-TELECOM

Nvidia’s autonomous tech gives other automakers a chance to take on Tesla

Nvidia made a number of autonomous vehicle announcements at CES yesterday that should have Tesla worried.

Rani Molla1/6/26

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