Sarah Perez

Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok are significantly closing the gap to ChatGPT in consumer adoption, with Gemini reaching the No. 2 position and Grok growing to 20 million monthly active users in under a year.

“Author of "Google and Grok are catching up to ChatGPT, says a16z's latest AI report" in TechCrunch”

ChatGPT's mobile app has generated $2 billion in cumulative consumer spending since May 2023, earning approximately 30x more than all competing AI chatbots combined.

“Author of "ChatGPT's mobile app has generated $2B to date, earns $2.91 per install" in TechCrunch”

Amazon launches Lens Live, an AI-powered visual search feature that allows customers to discover products by pointing their camera at real-world items and integrates with the AI shopping assistant Rufus.

“Author of "Amazon Lets You Shop With Your Camera"”

OpenAI's Sora video-generation app, which topped the App Store in October 2024, is experiencing significant declines with downloads falling 32% in December and 45% in January 2026, while consumer spending dropped 32% month-over-month.

“Author of "Openai Sora App Struggling Stellar" in Yahoo Finance”

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger advises AI builders to approach development playfully and iteratively rather than expecting expertise from the start, comparing the learning curve to mastering a musical instrument.

“Author of "OpenClaw Creator's Advice to AI Builders is to be More Playful and Allow Yourself Time to Improve" in TechCrunch”

Spotify's best developers have not written any code since December, using an internal AI system called 'Honk' powered by Claude Code to automate coding tasks and accelerate feature deployment.

“Author of "Spotify's Best Developers Haven't Written A Line Of Code Since December"”

Tinder is launching Chemistry, an AI-powered feature that reduces swipe fatigue by using questions and Camera Roll access to deliver curated matches instead of endless swiping.

“Author of "Tinder Turning To AI To Solve Swipe Fatigue"”

Spotify launched 'Promoted Playlists,' a new AI feature allowing Premium subscribers to create personalized playlists using detailed text prompts that consider entire listening history and world knowledge.

“Author of "Spotify Wants You To Design Your Own Discover Weekly"”

Limitless, an AI pendant startup, has been acquired by Meta as the AI wearable hardware market consolidates around larger tech companies, signaling the end of the AI pendant era for smaller startups.

“Author of "The AI Pendant Era is Officially Over"”

“Author of "OpenAI Says It's Fixed ChatGPT's Em Dash Problem" in TechCrunch”

Wikimedia Foundation announced a paid enterprise platform and new guidelines requiring AI developers to attribute Wikipedia content and access it responsibly to ensure the nonprofit's sustainability amid declining human traffic and AI bot scraping.

“Author of "Wikipedia Wants a New Deal with AI"”

People Inc. signed a pay-per-use AI content licensing deal with Microsoft, becoming the second major publisher to monetize AI training content after blocking crawlers forced AI companies to the negotiating table.

“Author of "Publishers are done being the free snack"”

Pinterest CEO reports open source AI models deliver comparable performance to proprietary models at orders of magnitude lower cost for visual AI use cases.

“Author of "Pinterest CEO Touts Open Source AI: 'Tremendous Performance' With Reduced Costs" in TechCrunch”

Shopify reports AI traffic to online stores up 7x since January and AI-driven orders up 11x, positioning the company as a leader in agentic commerce through partnerships with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft.

“Author of "Shopify Says AI Traffic is Up 7x Since January, AI-Driven Orders Are Up 11x" in TechCrunch”

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky warns that AI chatbots cannot yet replace Google as a lead source, citing non-proprietary AI models and the need for custom tuning and interfaces for effective deployment.

“Author of "TechCrunch" in TechCrunch”

ChatGPT's mobile app download growth has slowed significantly since April, with U.S. users spending 22.5% less time in the app and opening it 20.7% fewer times per day since July, suggesting the app may have peaked.

“Author of "ChatGPT's Mobile App Is Seeing Slowing Download Growth and Daily Use, Analysis Shows" in TechCrunch”

Meta AI's mobile app daily active users surged from 775,000 to 2.7 million in four weeks following the September launch of its Vibes AI-generated video feed, potentially boosted by OpenAI's Sora gating strategy.

“Author of "Meta AI's App Downloads and Daily Users Spiked After Launch of 'Vibes' AI Video Feed" in TechCrunch”

Google launched a Gemini-powered 'Help me schedule' feature in Gmail that uses AI to suggest optimal meeting times based on calendar availability and email context, competing with established scheduling tools like Calendly and Zoom.

“Author of "Google's New AI Feature Just Ended the Scheduling Struggle"”

Over a dozen Sora-branded copycat apps flooded Apple's App Store following OpenAI's official app launch, with some accumulating 50,000+ installs despite trademark infringement and fraudulent intent.

“Author of "Sora copycats flooded Apple's App Store, and some still remain" in TechCrunch”

OpenAI's Sora video-generation app achieved 627,000 iOS downloads in its first week, surpassing ChatGPT's inaugural week performance despite operating in invite-only mode.

“Author of "From Zero to App Store Hero"”

OpenAI's Sora video-generation app achieved 627,000 iOS downloads in its first week, nearly matching ChatGPT's 606,000 first-week downloads, and reached one million downloads in under five days despite operating in invite-only mode.

“Author of "Sora's iOS Downloads in its First Week Was Nearly as Big as ChatGPT's Launch" in TechCrunch”

Apple has reached a formal agreement with Google to integrate Gemini AI technology into Siri and potentially other iPhone features, addressing Apple's lag in the AI race before the delayed 2026 Siri overhaul.

“Author of "Apple is Literally Asking Google to Power the Next Siri"”

Neon Mobile, a social app now ranked No. 2 on Apple's App Store, pays users for their phone call recordings to sell to AI companies for training, raising privacy and wiretap law concerns.

“Author of "Neon, the No. 2 Social App on the Apple App Store, Pays Users to Record Their Phone Calls and Sells " in TechCrunch”

Perplexity's AI-powered Comet browser gains major distribution through PayPal partnership, offering free year of Perplexity Pro to PayPal and Venmo users while expanding agentic commerce capabilities.

“Author of "Miss Out On Comet Now, And You'll Regret It Later"”

Google Photos now allows users to edit photos using natural language voice or text commands powered by Gemini, enabling non-technical users to perform complex edits like object removal, background changes, and lighting adjustments.

“Author of "Editing Photos Manually? Couldn't Be Us Anymore"”

ChatGPT's mobile app has generated $2 billion in global consumer spending since May 2023, with 30x higher revenue than combined competitors Claude, Copilot, and Grok combined.

“Author of "ChatGPT App $2B Revenue" in TechCrunch”