Techin' Geek

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated a prohibition on the importation of new consumer routers produced abroad, citing potential cybersecurity threats.

The directive, released late Monday, stated that the import ban will “encompass all consumer-grade routers manufactured in foreign nations.” The FCC indicated that the order will not impact the importation or use of current routers, although new devices could receive an exemption if approved by the Departments of Defense or Homeland Security.

The FCC argued that routers produced overseas “present unacceptable dangers” to U.S. national security, alluding to threats from China-affiliated hacking groups Volt, Salt, and Flax Typhoon.

As per Reuters, China is believed to control approximately 60% of the market for consumer routers that connect residences and businesses to the internet.

The FCC asserted that it was taking steps because malicious hackers have taken advantage of vulnerabilities in foreign-made routers to target U.S. homes, disrupt networks, and facilitate cybercrime and espionage. 

Both state-sponsored hackers and cybercriminals have historically focused on routers as they provide access to home or business networks. Hackers are also capable of commandeering routers to launch attacks on other firms or organizations, overwhelming servers with excessive junk traffic, known as distributed denial-of-service attacks.

The FCC did not furnish evidence to suggest that domestically-made consumer routers are more secure compared to those created overseas. An FCC representative did not promptly respond to a request for comments.

Salt Typhoon, a China-backed cyber-espionage faction that has infiltrated numerous phone and internet companies globally, including in the United States, has been noted for exploiting weaknesses in routers produced by American technology leader Cisco. Flax Typhoon, another China-linked hacking organization which U.S. officials have accused of operating a vast botnet of compromised devices, targeted both U.S.-made and foreign-made routers to penetrate at least 126,000 devices in the United States, as well as thousands more worldwide. 

FCC chairman Brendan Carr stated in prepared comments that the agency will “continue to fulfill our role in ensuring that U.S. cyberspace, critical infrastructure, and supply chains are secure and protected.”

In spite of numerous Chinese cyber intrusions aimed at U.S. businesses and government entities, Carr was one of the two FCC commissioners who voted in November to eliminate cybersecurity regulations that mandated telecom operators to safeguard their lawful intercept systems against unauthorized access.

On Tuesday, Snapchat revealed it is introducing AI Clips in Lens Studio, its tool that enables creators to craft and release AR and AI effects known as Lenses. The new Clips represent an AI-enhanced Lens format that converts a single image into a five-second video.

In contrast to open-ended text-to-video applications, AI Clips are intended as a closed-prompt format, where Lens designers create the Lens, and users can tap it to produce a video using their own images.

For instance, a Lens designer could create a Lens that permits users to generate a clip of themselves strolling down a red carpet utilizing their photo.

Snapchat asserts that both seasoned and novice developers can leverage the new Lens format to convert a single prompt into a published Lens in just minutes without relying on external tools.

AI Clips are accessible to Snapchat users who subscribe to the platform’s Lens+ package, priced at $8.99 per month. As the name implies, Lens+ provides users with access to exclusive Lenses and AR experiences, alongside features included in the regular Snapchat+ subscription.

“For the first time, developers have the capability to create and publish photo-to-video AI directly to Snapchat via the GenAI Suite in Lens Studio,” Snapchat stated in a blog entry. “Currently, there is nothing available that merges closed-prompt AI video generation with direct photo input, genuine distribution, and monetization.”

Lens creators participating in Lens+ Payouts, Snapchat’s monetization initiative that allows developers to earn from their Lenses, can generate income from the AI Clips they produce.

Snapchat is not the sole platform aiming to facilitate users in creating AI clips from their photos, as YouTube announced the previous week that it is launching “Reimagine,” a new feature that enables users to change a single frame from an existing YouTube Short into an 8-second clip using their photo.

The introduction of AI Clips coincides with Snapchat’s declaration that users generated nearly two trillion Snaps, averaging 63,000 Snaps per second, in 2025.

On Tuesday, Spotify unveiled the global launch of a novel feature, SongDNA, enabling listeners to delve deeper into their preferred music.

Now accessible to Premium users on both iOS and Android, this feature offers an engaging experience that allows users to explore various elements of a song beyond the artist, songwriter, or performer. With SongDNA, listeners can investigate other relationships, such as who might have covered that track, as well as additional details like samples, interpolations, or what other works the song’s contributors have participated in.

This concept serves as an enhancement to the current “About the Song” function, enabling Spotify patrons to gain insights into the writers, producers, and collaborators behind their beloved music. This might help users understand how artists are intertwined and inspired by each other’s creations. For individuals within the music industry, the feature could facilitate the discovery of new collaborators, producers, engineers, and others they might wish to partner with.

It also grants professionals behind music production greater visibility and respect than they’ve previously experienced in the era of streaming.

TechCrunch reported in October that Spotify was crafting the SongDNA feature to assist users in discovering music via a song’s credits, after mentions of the feature were uncovered in the app’s code by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong. The following month, the company officially announced plans to roll out SongDNA in early 2026.

Partially, SongDNA is built on data from the community-driven music database WhoSampled, which Spotify acquired the previous year. This feature also competes with TIDAL’s interactive credits, which similarly highlight the contributors behind the tracks you listen to.

“By aggregating collaborators, samples, and covers in one location, we’re enabling fans to easily discover new music and understand how songs interconnect and evolve—while providing songwriters, producers, and rights holders significant acknowledgment for their contributions in the creation process,” stated Jacqueline Ankner, Spotify’s Head of Songwriter & Publisher Partnerships, in a press release.

The feature is currently being rolled out in beta to Premium users worldwide on iOS and Android devices, with plans for the completion of the rollout anticipated by April.

Mirage, the creator of the video editing application Captions, has successfully secured $75 million in growth funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF).

Throughout the past year, the company has implemented substantial modifications to its product and corporate branding. The business transitioned from Captions to Mirage in order to establish itself as an AI laboratory that develops various models and serves sectors like advertising and marketing. It has also developed a model specifically designed for pacing, framing, and attention dynamics in brief videos.

In January 2025, the firm adopted a freemium model to enhance its competitiveness against applications like ByteDance’s CapCut and Meta’s Edits, which was launched later that year. It now offers a comprehensive video creation suite, incorporating several features from Captions, allowing businesses to produce and share videos in large quantities.

Gaurav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Mirage, mentioned that the organization intends to develop additional models. However, he did not elaborate on what the forthcoming models would accomplish, merely stating that they would concentrate on “assembly intelligence” — essentially assembling a video from various sources and elements.

Discussing Mirage’s innovative audio model, which claims to maintain accents in generated videos, Misra remarked, “The rationale behind the audio model was our discovery of an accent gap because many of our users are international. Accents hold significant importance. I recall my dad trying to utilize the app, and he would pronounce a word in an Indian accent, which always translated into an American accent in the app.”

According to information from analytics firm AppFigures, Captions has been downloaded over 3.2 million times in the past year, generating $28.4 million in in-app revenue. Misra stated that the platform has been utilized to produce over 200 million videos to date, attracting a global user base, with only 25% of its revenue originating from the U.S.

Presently, Mirage’s marketing suite is accessible online, while Captions primarily provides a mobile-optimized editing suite. The organization plans to integrate these two platforms to more effectively target small businesses that may wish to develop marketing videos.

Pranav Singhvi, managing director of General Catalyst’s CVF fund, mentioned that Mirage possesses strong product-market alignment.

“Mirage’s business model is thoroughly understood. They have a clear strategy for utilizing each dollar to achieve an appealing ROI. Considering the market they are pursuing, it’s essentially an infinite total addressable market. They can initiate within the creator and influencer sectors and subsequently leverage that to sell to enterprises as well,” Singhvi conveyed to TechCrunch.

Numerous companies are developing AI video-generation frameworks for marketing. Canva has rolled out various tools for marketing creation and analytics, while platforms such as D-ID, HeyGen, Webflow, and Avataar have been launching new models and features.

Nevertheless, Singhvi appears to have confidence in Mirage’s positioning and unit economics. “Despite the existence of other tools, Mirage is evidently ahead of the competition from a unit economics standpoint. Ultimately, it’s all a reflection of their product,” he noted.

Mirage intends to utilize the new funding to accelerate growth and expand into rapidly growing Asian markets.

On Tuesday, TikTok revealed it is rolling out new advertising formats, which include a feature that presents another brand’s logo alongside TikTok’s logo on the launch page when users access the app.

The newly introduced “Logo Takeover” advertisement format enables companies to co-brand with TikTok in a manner that seizes users’ attention right from the moment they launch the app. TikTok asserts that this ad format reflects partnership, trustworthiness, and cultural significance while providing advertisers with extensive outreach.

A fresh “Prime Time” ad format permits brands to display a series of ads at designated moments, such as during live events or other interactive periods. This format shows three consecutive ads from a single advertiser to the same user within a specific 15-minute timeframe. TikTok indicates that brands can leverage this format to narrate a continuous storyline during peak activity phases.

Additionally, a new “Top Reach” ad format merges two of TikTok’s existing ad placements, TopView and TopFeed. TopView is the initial ad users encounter upon opening the app, while TopFeed is the first in-feed advertisement displayed in the For You feed. TikTok claims that by merging these placements, brands can engage the highest number of users for the day through prominent visibility.

While TikTok maintains that these new ad formats will empower brands to enhance their reach, they may prove to be more intrusive than existing ad placements on the platform. For example, encountering an ad within the first second of launching the app could be frustrating, and users might not appreciate seeing three advertisements from the same brand in just 15 minutes. Nevertheless, TikTok does not regard these as interruptions.

“TikTok is where people go to discover what’s trending at the moment,” stated Khartoon Weiss, VP, GM, Global Business Solutions at TikTok, in a press announcement. “Major cultural occurrences first appear on TikTok, along with the everyday items people share with one another. This implies brands are not interrupting users – they are entering the discussion. What distinguishes TikTok is that advertisements coexist with the content and products people already cherish. Whether it’s a creator’s video, a search outcome, or a live shopping experience, brands can engage in ways that feel organic and beneficial.”

Moreover, the social platform is enhancing its TikTok Pulse suite with a new “Pulse Mentions” feature that positions brands alongside moments when users are already engaging in discussions about them and their categories. The new “Pulse Tastemakers” addition enables brands to associate their advertisements with a selection of qualifying creators.

In a recent viral segment, Senator Bernie Sanders sought to highlight the AI industry’s threat to American privacy, but instead showcased how AI chatbots’ inclination to concur with and praise users can cause them to reflect users’ beliefs instead of serving as tools for exploration.

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This issue is not new as the rise in “AI psychosis” cases reveals, where AI chatbots validate irrational thoughts of individuals with mental instability. Allegedly, some dark instances have even resulted in users taking their own lives, as claimed in several lawsuits.

In the scenario with Sanders, the AI’s flattery took the form of a chatbot that tailored its responses to match the senator’s views.

It’s notable that the dialogue commenced with Sanders introducing himself to Claude (incorrectly calling it an AI “agent”) — a tactic that could influence the chatbot’s replies.

As Sanders poses inquiries regarding the data collection practices of AI firms and related privacy issues, Claude responds in alignment with what the politician expects. This response style stems partly from how Sanders phrases his inquiries, such as, “What might astonish the American public about data collection?” or “How can we have faith that AI firms will safeguard privacy while profiting from personal data?” Such leading inquiries compel the chatbot to accept the premise and generate a corresponding answer. That’s how these systems are designed.

When Claude’s responses indicated a complexity that surpassed Sanders’ framing, he countered, pushing the chatbot to concede, with a hint of self-mockery, that the senator was “absolutely correct.”

The sycophantic tendency of AI can lead individuals down perilous paths if they regard a chatbot as an infallible source of truth, rather than a tool susceptible to user influence.

It remains uncertain if Sanders is aware of this dynamic and simply disregards it (considering this is essentially an advertisement!), or if he genuinely believes he has outsmarted Claude into acting as a whistleblower for the AI sector.

Moreover, one must also consider whether Sanders’ team guided the chatbot’s responses, given that this was a scripted “interview.”

While genuine concerns about data collection and privacy exist, the situation is not as clear-cut as the AI answers in this segment suggest.

We currently inhabit a landscape where businesses methodically gather and sell user data online — a practice that has been ongoing for years. We are aware that social media giants such as Meta have transformed personalized advertising into a lucrative multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Furthermore, with regular transparency reports from tech behemoths, we recognize that governments globally frequently seek access to user data for their interests.

AI may provide a fresh avenue for lawmakers to potentially oversee, yet personal data has long been the lifeblood of the digital marketplace. (Ironically, Anthropic is an AI entity that has vowed not to exploit personalized advertising for profit, contrary to the implications of its responses to Sanders.)

While the overall dialogue between Sanders and Claude misses the mark for anyone familiar with the workings of AI chatbots, we can at least appreciate it for generating some entertaining new memes.

The site Archive.today, known for bypassing paywalls, along with several related domains (such as .is and .ph), has been restricted by Russian authorities, as indicated by the error messages encountered when trying to access its sites.

The blocks were evident as of Monday when TechCrunch accessed the sites from the Eastern U.S.

A message in Russian stated: “Access to the Internet resource Blocked by decision of the public authorities,” referencing the government body tasked with internet regulation, Roskomnadzor.

As per Roskomnadzor’s record for Archive.is, officials indicated that “access is limited to the page,” but did not provide a reason at the time of reporting. At the time TechCrunch checked, Archive.today was not listed as blocked.

A Roskomnadzor representative did not promptly reply to TechCrunch’s questions outside of Moscow’s working hours.

TechCrunch was still able to access the Archive sites through various devices and networks, and successfully archived a web page despite the apparent restrictions. The extent of the block and the party responsible for its implementation remain unclear.

Archive.today is a prominent site for saving copies of web pages, including those typically obscured by paywalls or subscription logins. Wikipedia editors recently opted to eliminate hundreds of thousands of links to Archive.today, alleging that it uses users’ web browsers—without their consent—to inundate the website of a blogger critical of its practices with excessive network traffic.

The operators of Archive.today have not responded to requests for comments.

(h/t Ryan O’Horo on Bluesky)

On Monday, Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) put forward a proposal that could restrict prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket from permitting users to bet on sports events or engage in casino-type activities.

This bipartisan legislation would exclude FanDuel and DraftKings, which are governed by state-specific gambling regulations, rather than national ones.

“Contracts for sports prediction are essentially sports wagers — just labeled differently. Yet, these contracts are presently available in all fifty states in blatant contravention of both state and federal laws,” Schiff stated.

Gambling has gained significant traction in American society after a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that allowed states to make sports betting legal. The total amount wagered on sports surged from $4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023. Most major professional sports leagues have partnerships with gambling firms, despite prominent athletes potentially facing incarceration for their alleged involvement in money laundering schemes.

Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket fall under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is why Schiff and Curtis are capable of addressing them through federal oversight, instead of leaving them to state-regulated sportsbooks. However, these senators contend that there’s not much difference in practice between wagering on sports through federally or state-sanctioned applications. For example, Kalshi’s Super Bowl trading volume hit over $1 billion this year — a staggering 2700% increase compared to the previous year.

“An excessive number of young individuals in Utah are being exposed to addictive sports wagering and casino gaming contracts that should be regulated at the state level, not under federal oversight,” Curtis remarked.

Curtis’ worries regarding gambling dependency are valid. Researchers at the Qualcomm Institute and School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego scrutinized online search data and discovered that when online sportsbooks became accessible, requests for assistance with gambling addiction grew by 61% and have continued to rise since.

A representative for Kalshi, Elisabeth Diana, informed TechCrunch that this legislation would hinder competition and drive users towards offshore prediction markets.

“This bill appears driven by casino interests that feel threatened by competition. Their primary concern seems to be safeguarding their monopolies instead of protecting consumers,” Diana stated.

Polymarket did not provide a response to a request for comment.

Kalshi has encountered further legal difficulties recently — the app is currently under a temporary ban in Nevada and faces criminal accusations in Arizona.

Lovable, the app development platform powered by AI and last appraised at $6.6 billion, is actively seeking acquisitions. On Monday, the co-founder and CEO of the startup, Anton Osika, revealed on X that the firm is in search of “additional exceptional teams and startups to become part of Lovable.”

“A lot of individuals in essential positions at Lovable were founders before coming to us,” he shared in a post. “We’ve cultivated our culture in a manner that enables founder-types to flourish internally, allowing them to operate independently and initiate projects.”

Osika indicated that this opportunity would permit those engaged in intriguing projects to scale their efforts and directed interested individuals to contact the company’s M&A & Partnerships lead, Théo Daniellot.

Lovable’s interest in acquiring teams or smaller firms comes at a moment when it faces competition from other tools such as Cursor, Replit, and Bolt, as well as the coding capabilities of the AI models themselves. The company’s growth leader, Elena Verna, has previously expressed concerns about competition from larger AI organizations like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Despite these concerns, Lovable continues to experience substantial growth, recently announcing an ARR of $400 million, up from $200 million at the close of 2025. The platform now hosts over 200,000 new vibe-coding projects generated daily.

This marks not the first instance of Lovable engaging in M&A, as it previously acquired the cloud service provider Molnett in November to enhance its cloud infrastructure team.

TechCrunch contacted Lovable to inquire if the company would provide additional insights regarding the types of startups, projects, or teams it is currently considering.