Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Snowflake is betting that the future of AI⁠ isn’t just analyzing data, it’s acting on it. That means a shift away from chatbots and toward autonomous agents that can actually get work done. And Snowflake is reorganizing fast to keep up, from shipping hundreds of AI features to restructuring teams along the way. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy to unpack the company’s transformation and what it signals about where AI is headed next. Listen to the full episode to hear: Why Ramaswamy believes the chatbot era is ending and…

Demand for Apple’s Mac Mini has skyrocketed, particularly in China, as the small computer has become an ideal platform for experimenting with autonomous AI agents like OpenClaw and others. Now, a company called Astropad is building out a remote desktop solution specifically for this use case. On Tuesday, Astropad CEO Matt Ronge introduced Astropad Workbench, a remote desktop solution for Apple devices that he pitches as made “for the AI era.” While an AI agent running on a Mac Mini may not need a screen, its operator (the human) will want to log in at times to see what’s happening…

In response to escalating concerns about child safety online, OpenAI has unveiled a blueprint to enhance U.S. child protection efforts amid the AI boom. The Child Safety Blueprint, which was released Tuesday, is designed to help with faster detection, better reporting, and more efficient investigation into cases of AI-enabled child exploitation. The overall goal of the Child Safety Blueprint is to tackle the alarming rise in child sexual exploitation linked to advancements in AI. According to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), more than 8,000 reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse content were detected in the first half of 2025, a…

Databricks co-founder and CTO Matei Zaharia almost missed the email telling him that he was the 2026 recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing. “Yeah, it was a surprise,” he told TechCrunch. Back in 2009, the tech Zaharia developed for his PhD at UC Berkeley, under the tutelage of famed professor Ion Stoica, was launched into Databricks. Zaharia had created a way to dramatically speed the results of slow, clunky, big data projects and released it as an open source project called Spark. Big data was in those days what AI is today and Spark turned the tech industry on…

You don’t attend TechCrunch Disrupt to sit in the audience. You go to gain leverage. Whether 2026 is a build, fundraise, hire, or scale year, this is where momentum compounds. With just three days left before these steep discounts end on April 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT, this is your opportunity to save up to $500 on your pass and secure your spot at the center of the tech ecosystem. Register here to save. What you gain at TechCrunch Disrupt From October 13 to 15 at Moscone West, 10,000+ founders, operators, and VCs will converge for three days of high-signal conversations and deal-making. Disrupt is not just content. It is access. You get: Tactical…

Software giant Atlassian announced new AI tools and agents on Wednesday with a focus on turning data into visual assets and applications. This includes the rollout of the visual tool Remix in open beta. Remix allows enterprises to turn the data and information stored in Atlassian’s content collaboration software Confluence into assets including charts and graphics. Remix will recommend which visual format makes the most sense for the data or information at hand and create these visual assets without requiring the users to open another application or software. The company also announced three new third-party agents that run within Confluence…

The brand-safety battles that once pitted CMOs against Big Tech are over. Now, there’s a new war brewing over “AI safety.” Loading audio narration… More and more dollars are flowing into AI-powered platforms that promise to automatically create ads and choose where they’re placed.The rapid shift is causing headaches for some CMOs.”CMOs want to see the numbers” to help them understand precisely how these AI platforms are driving metrics like revenue, new customer acquisition, and brand equity, Tim Lathrop, a VP at the media agency Mediassociates, told me.Cross-industry efforts are taking shape to demand more transparency from tech giants like…

Marketers have to sift through mountains of data as they try to make their ads perform better. A new startup, Pomo, is using AI to help.Pomo shared exclusively with CMO Insider that it had raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Databricks Ventures, Seven Stars, SV Angel, Timeless Partners, and 645 Ventures.It also got angel investments from Scott Belsky, who led product at Adobe; Mehdi Ghissassi, the past product head of DeepMind and Google Brain; and Massimo Mascaro, formerly of Google AI.Pomo — whose name is a riff on post-modern advertising — is a…

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Fired Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman told The Associated Press on Wednesday in his first interview since the ouster that he was “blindsided” by the move but has no hard feelings and is unlikely to sue.Rothman was fired on Tuesday night in a unanimous vote by the board of regents following a roughly 30-minute closed-door discussion. Regents have not given a reason for firing Rothman, who was in the job for just under four years.“Absolutely I was blindsided,” Rothman told the AP. He said he has still not been given a reason for his firing.“I…

Engineers, take note. Instagram’s former VP has some advice. Loading audio narration… James Everingham spent over eight years at Meta, along with stints at Yahoo and Netscape, according to his LinkedIn profile. On “The Peterman Pod,” he shared five tips for young engineers looking to forge connections and climb the ladder in software engineering.First, it’s all about being curious, especially about others’ work. He recommended that young people “ask a lot of questions,” calling it a “great way to build relationships within a company.”Then there’s the mentorship question. When Everingham was starting his career, he wanted “good mentors around,” he…