Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

AI’s biggest champions have argued for some time that the technology will usher in an era of unprecedented productivity gains, richly rewarding workers who harness it while displacing those who don’t. Zeb Evans, CEO of the collaboration software startup ClickUp, claims that this shift is imminent. Last Thursday, Evans announced on X that the company, which was last valued in 2021 at $4 billion, had laid off 22% of its workforce yet characterized that reduction as not a cost-cutting measure, but rather a radical embrace of AI that will propel the company to the next level. “Most savings from this…

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical on Monday, dubbed Magnifica Humanitas, on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.” And while AI is the hook, the problems Leo focuses on are older and more pervasive: inequality, war, the erosion of democracy, and the concentration of power in the hands of those who don’t necessarily care whether humanity writ large remains magnificent. Throughout the 200-page document, which the pope presented alongside Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, Leo argues that technology built and governed by a small elite cannot, by definition, serve the common good.  “When such power is…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition begins Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. After a long run at a convention center in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation’s capital this year at Constitution Hall, a few blocks from the White House.Another change for this year: ESPN NFL analyst and recent “Celebrity Jeopardy!”…

The deadline to apply or nominate for Startup Battlefield 200 is Friday, May 27. This program is your shot at VC access, global visibility, TechCrunch coverage, and $100,000 in equity-free funding. If you’re building a breakout startup — or know a founder who is — now is the time to move. Apply today for the opportunity to take the TechCrunch Disrupt Stage alongside 200 of the world’s most promising early-stage startups. Image Credits:TechCrunch Final countdown for early-stage founders Pre-Series A founders, this is your last call: the strongest startups are already entering the arena, and the application window is closing fast. If your startup has already been nominated, don’t wait to finish your application. The final…

Five days. That’s all that’s left to lock in one of the smartest advantages you can give yourself as a founder, investor, or operator right now. Early Bird savings for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 end May 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register now to save up to $410 before prices increase and secure your spot at the center of the startup ecosystem. Winning as a startup isn’t just about pitching Advancing from idea to IPO takes time and how you spend that time can make the difference in whether you stall or scale. Many think it’s the pitch that slows things down. But in reality, it’s access. Fundraising is a long game of chasing proximity. Cold…

Who doesn’t love ’90s tech?For millennials, the decade’s most-loved gadgets came with particular rituals: rewinding VHS tapes before returning them to Blockbuster, burning CDs for road trips, or blowing into a Nintendo cartridge before reinserting it.Today, as younger consumers seek alternatives to modern digital life — and constant notifications — some of these analog items are gaining traction again.Among them, Gen Z consumers have been embracing the simplicity of flip phones, digital cameras, and landlines. Companies have responded by reimagining retro products: One such item, Tin Can, resembles a landline but runs off a home’s WiFi, and some parents are…

In a lengthy address about AI published on Monday, Pope Leo XIV sounded the alarm on everything from mass job losses to Big Tech’s grip on AI.The pope’s first encyclical, a major letter to the Church that lays out a pope’s thinking on a moral or social challenge, is a 245-paragraph text titled “Magnifica humanitas: on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”AI leaders lobbied the Vatican ahead of the letter’s release, and Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah spoke at the Vatican City after the pope unveiled it.The pope also thanked Olah and vowed to work together with…

Jensen Huang is best known as the billionaire CEO who transformed Nvidia into the world’s most valuable company. On the side, the tech mogul has been building a reputation as a street food influencer.On Sunday, Nvidia and the company’s newsroom account posted videos on X of Huang visiting the Raohe Street Night Market in Taipei, Taiwan, where crowds of onlookers gathered as he ordered food from local vendors.Spotted: A spontaneous stop from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang brought crowds out to Taipei’s Raohe St. Night Market tonight. pic.twitter.com/LiAAdmDpne— NVIDIA Newsroom (@nvidianewsroom) May 24, 2026 Huang also took the opportunity to scribble…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Carol Merlo and her son, Kevin Masterson. Merlo is a 73-year-old entrepreneurship coach from Dallas. Masterson is a 41-year-old AI mentor from Lewisville, Texas. It’s been edited for length and clarity.Carol Merlo: I used ChatGPT for personal stuff, like, what supplement should I take for this? What do you think of that? What’s wrong with this bush?Kevin Masterson: It’s real! She totally doctored up a bush and brought it back to life with AI.Merlo: I use ChatGPT for that because it doesn’t need to speak in complete sentences. I still rely…

It’s almost impossible to ignore AI.That doesn’t mean it’s always easy to understand. From agentic AI to UBI, tech CEOs, Wall Street, and politicians increasingly sound like they are speaking another language. The terms seem to change almost as quickly as AI models themselves advance.Even if you don’t use AI, chances are your bank, your doctor, the streaming service you’re using, and maybe even your car do.Here’s a list of the people, companies, and terms you need to know to talk about AI, in alphabetical order.The AI terms you need to knowAgentic: A type of artificial intelligence that can make…