Devin Coldewey

Writer & Photographer, TechCrunch

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He first wrote for TechCrunch in 2007.

His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Devin Coldewey

Latest from Devin Coldewey

AI hardware has taken on a new shape with Friend’s $99 necklace — a pendant that gives you an AI friend to talk to and…

AI Friends, deepfake foes, and which Tiger Global partner is leaving now

The U.S. Copyright Office has issued the first part of a report on how AI may affect its domain, and its first recommendation out of the gate is: we need…

Copyright Office tells Congress: ‘Urgent need’ to outlaw AI-powered impersonation

We say something “goes viral” because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. But these days it may be more accurate to…

Disinformation may ‘go nuclear’ rather than ‘go viral,’ researchers say

Meta’s machine learning model, Segment Anything, has a sequel: It now takes the model to the video domain, showing how fast the field is moving.

Zuckerberg touts Meta’s latest video vision AI with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Featured Article

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

Max Space’s expandable habitats promise to be larger, stronger, and more versatile than anything like them ever launched, not to mention cheaper and lighter by far than a solid, machined structure.

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

If the models continue eating each other’s data, perhaps without even knowing it, they’ll progressively get weirder and dumber until they collapse.

‘Model collapse’: Scientists warn against letting AI eat its own tail

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused…

Announcing the agenda for the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

As AI competition heats up, Perplexity has proven resilient due to its focus on using the technology strictly as a tool to let people “learn anything in their own way.”…

Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas on accelerating everyday AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

What this means for the space industry is that theory has become reality: The possibility of designing a habitation within a lunar tunnel is a reasonable proposition.

Moon cave! Discovery could redirect lunar colony and startup plays

A new study examines whether AI could be an automated helpmeet in creative tasks, with mixed results: It appeared to help less naturally creative people write more original short stories…

Experiment finds AI boosts creativity individually — but lowers it collectively

Although these companies’ claims are artfully couched, it’s clear that they want to express that the model sees in some sense of the word.

‘Visual’ AI models might not see anything at all

The essential labor of data work, like moderation and annotation, is systematically hidden from those who benefit from the fruits of that labor. A new project puts the lived experiences…

Data workers detail exploitation by tech industry in DAIR report

There’s no need to worry that your secret ChatGPT conversations were obtained in a recently reported breach of OpenAI’s systems. The hack itself, while troubling, appears to have been superficial…

OpenAI breach is a reminder that AI companies are treasure troves for hackers

Google totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI is using — perhaps because the answer is “way more than we’d care to say.”

Google’s environmental report pointedly avoids AI’s actual energy cost

This is by no means a complete list, just a few of the most obvious tricks that AI can supercharge.

AI-powered scams and what you can do about them

If the FCC is not empowered to settle this ambiguity in a very old law that was written well before Friday’s broadband and mobile networks, who is?

Forget the debate, the Supreme Court just declared open season on regulators

Specifically, according to the FCC, carriers would simply have to provide unlocking services 60 days after activation.

FCC rule would make carriers unlock all phones after 60 days

Giving robots a human-like exterior has been the standard for years — centuries even. But giving them actual, living skin that can be manipulated into horrifying, slimy expressions? That’s new.…

This smiling robot face made of living skin is absolute nightmare fuel

Unfortunately for Udio and Suno, the RIAA has a few thousand smoking guns in the lawsuit: songs it owns that are clearly being regurgitated by the music models.

The RIAA’s lawsuit against generative music startups will be the bloodbath AI needs

We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated Space Stage to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under…

Announcing the agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, generative AI is beginning to spam up academic publishing — a discouraging new development on the disinformation…

This Week in AI: Generative AI is spamming up academic journals

The future of the space industry may look a lot like its past, or so believes Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San…

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck on reshaping the space economy at Disrupt 2024

No one knows what AI looks like, or even is supposed to look like. It does everything, but looks like nothing.

Apple joins the race to find an AI icon that makes sense

The high-profile addition is likely intended to satisfy critics who think that OpenAI is moving faster than is wise for its customers and possibly humanity.

Former NSA head joins OpenAI board and safety committee

A Finnish startup called Flow Computing is making one of the wildest claims ever heard in silicon engineering: by adding its proprietary companion chip, any CPU can instantly double its…

Flow claims it can 100x any CPU’s power with its companion chip and some elbow grease

“Messages via Satellite,” announced at Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote, works much like the SOS feature does.

iPhones will soon text via satellite

Cartwheel helps animators go from zero to basic movement, so creating a scene or character with elementary motions like taking a step, swatting a fly or sitting down is easier.

Cartwheel generates 3D animations from scratch to power up creators

Kobo put out a handful of new e-readers a few weeks back: color versions of the excellent Libra 2 and Clara, as well as an updated monochrome version of the…

Kobo’s new e-readers are a sidegrade most can skip (with one exception)
AI

WTF is AI?

What is AI? We’ve put together this non-technical guide to give anyone a fighting chance to understand how and why today’s AI works.

WTF is AI?

The 2024 election is likely to be the first in which faked audio and video of candidates is a serious factor. As campaigns warm up, voters should be aware: voice…

Voice cloning of political figures is still easy as pie