X replaces ‘misaligned’ revenue sharing program with Original Content Rewards
X, the social media platform now owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is shaking up how it pays influencers and creators.
In announcing the change, the company said it will be winding down its existing Revenue Sharing program and replacing it with something called Original Content Rewards. X will stop accepting new Revenue Sharing participants, while existing participants will continue earning money through September 7.
Wired vs. wireless CarPlay: How are they different & which is better to use? - Engadget
To cable or not to cable?
Hadrian/Shutterstock
If you drive with an iPhone next to you every day, one of the biggest quality-of-life improvements you can make to your car is using Apple CarPlay. It's a feature that's been baked into iPhones since 2014 and lets you access navigation, messages, music and other apps through your car's infotainment system. You get simplified controls on a larger display and don't run the risk of being distracted trying to operate your phone while driving. Support for CarPlay goes all the way back to the iPhone 5, with most major car manufacturers, like Ford, Hyundai, BMW and Honda, having integrated it into their models.
Today’s the last day to get up to $400 off your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket
Let’s cut to the chase: Starting today, you can take an additional $100 off of our current $300 discount for your founder, investor, or attendee TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass, which is a nice bonus on top of our current discounted pricing.
Airbnb says AI is helping it ship features faster as it tests a new search function
Airbnb might be taking slow steps to roll out AI features to its consumer-facing interface, but the company is rapidly adopting the tech to build product. Earlier this year, the company said AI is writing 60% of its code. In its latest earnings call, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said AI is helping Airbnb create features a at rapid rate.
The Download: a censorship conspiracy theory and the first virus created by AI
Plus: AI has designed new viruses from scratch for the first time.
August 7, 2026
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
Vogue just gave another nod of approval to the tech world
Vogue World is coming to San Francisco next year — perhaps another indication that tech billionaires have become leaders in the fashion zeitgeist.
Of course, the announcement of the enormous fashion/art/music event doesn’t say that. Instead, Anna Wintour wrote that Vogue believes in celebrating cities and “San Francisco is a city like none other.”
Ford’s new electric truck, ‘Fathom,’ starts at $28,350
Ford’s next-generation electric truck will be called Fathom, and it will start at $28,350 when it goes on sale in 2027, the company said on Thursday.
A “destination and delivery” fee will bring that price up to $29,945, putting the Fathom just below the $30,000 mark that Ford has targeted since it first started talking more openly about the project in 2025.
Exclusive: Mirendil inks $100M+ Google Cloud deal to scale self-improving AI
AI lab Mirendil has signed a multiyear partnership with Google Cloud to source compute capacity for its self-improving AI research, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
The deal mirrors two trends shaping the AI industry: Cloud giants are courting startups with huge infrastructure commitments, and AI companies are snatching up as many compute deals as they can to secure access as they scale.
Meta claims its own AI also hacked into a third-party service during testing - Engadget
Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI, all used the same testing partner.
Poetra.RH/Shutterstock
Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 AI model accessed the internet from its supposed-to-be isolated testing environment and hacked into a third-party service. Andy Stone, Meta's spokesperson, has confirmed the incident to Bloomberg after The Information reported about the breach. Stone said the model was able to access the internet due to a misconfiguration in the testing environment by the company's evaluation partner Irregular. After gaining access to the internet, it then exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, "in a matter similar to previously reported instances with other companies."
Lucid Motors just delayed its affordable EV. Now what?
Lucid Motors was just months away from releasing its most affordable electric vehicle yet, a crossover SUV called the Cosmos that was supposed to start under $50,000. But this week, the company pushed the release of the Cosmos back by almost a full year to the second half of 2027, part of an effort by its new CEO to avoid the quality problems that Lucid has suffered with its existing EVs.