Technology
Anthropic used Pokémon to benchmark its newest AI model

Anthropic used Pokémon to benchmark its newest AI model. Yes, really.
In a blog post published Monday, Anthropic said that it tested its latest model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, on the Game Boy classic Pokémon Red. The company equipped the model with basic memory, screen pixel input, and function calls to press buttons and navigate around the screen, allowing it to play Pokémon continuously.
A unique feature of Claude 3.7 Sonnet is its ability to engage in “extended thinking.” Like OpenAI’s o3-mini and DeepSeek’s R1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet can “reason” through challenging problems by applying more computing — and taking more time.
That came in handy in Pokémon Red, apparently.
Compared to a previous version of Claude, Claude 3.0 Sonnet, which failed to leave the house in Pallet Town where the story begins, Claude 3.7 Sonnet successfully battled three Pokémon gym leaders and won their badges.

Now, it’s not clear how much computing was required for Claude 3.7 Sonnet to reach those milestones — and how long each took. Anthropic only said that the model performed 35,000 actions to reach the last gym leader, Surge.
It surely won’t be long before some enterprising developer finds out.
Pokémon Red is more of a toy benchmark than anything. However, there is a long history of games being used for AI benchmarking purposes. In the past few months alone, a number of new apps and platforms have cropped up to test models’ game-playing abilities on titles ranging from Street Fighter to Pictionary.

A blog which focuses on business, Networth, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement, Celebrities, Top Lists, Travelling, Health, and lifestyle. A source that provides you with each and every top piece of information about the world. We cover various different topics.
Technology
A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone.
We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs — and what could be at stake with increased innovation.
Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known tech layoffs that have occurred in 2025, which will be updated regularly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.
Table of Contents
April
GM
Is laying off 200 people at its Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck facility in Michigan, which produces GM’s electric vehicles. The job cut comes amid the EV slowdown and is not caused by tariffs, according to a report.
Zopper
Has reportedly let go of around 100 employees since the start of 2025. Earlier this week, about 50 employees from the tech and product teams were let go in the latest round of job cuts. The India-based insurtech startup has raised a total of $125 million to date.
Turo
Will reduce its workforce by 150 positions following its decision not to proceed with its IPO, per Bloomberg. The San Francisco-based car rental startup, which had about 1,000 staff in 2024, said the layoffs will bolster its long-term growth plans during economic uncertainty.
GupShup
Laid off roughly 200 employees to improve efficiency and profitability. It’s the startup’s second round of layoffs in five months, following the job cuts of around 300 employees in December. The conversational AI company, backed by Tiger Global and Fidelity, was last valued at $1.4 billion in 2021. The startup is based in San Francisco and operates in India.
Forto
Has reportedly eliminated 200 jobs, affecting around one-third of its employees. The German logistics startup reduced a significant number of sales staff.
Wicresoft
Will stop its operations in China, affecting around 2,000 employees. The move came after Microsoft decided to end outsourcing after-sales support to Wicresoft amid increasing trade tensions. Wicresoft, Microsoft’s first joint venture in China, was founded in 2022 and operates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. It has over 10,000 employees.
Five9
Plans to cut 123 jobs, affecting about 4% of its workforce, according to a report by MarketWatch. The software company prioritizes key strategic areas like artificial intelligence for profitable growth.
Has laid off hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices division, which covers Android, Pixel phones, the Chrome browser, and more, according to The Information.
Microsoft
Is contemplating additional layoffs that could happen by May, Business Insider reported, citing anonymous sources. The company is said to be discussing reducing the number of middle managers and non-coders in a bid to increase the ratio of programmers to product managers.
Automattic
The WordPress.com developer is laying off 16% of its workforce across departments. Before the layoffs, the company’s website showed it had 1,744 employees, so more than 270 staff may have been laid off.
Canva
Has let go of 10 to 12 technical writers approximately nine months after telling its employees to use generative AI tools wherever possible. The company, which had around 5,500 staff in 2024, was valued at $26 billion after a secondary stock sale in 2024.
March
Northvolt
Has laid off 2,800 employees, impacting 62% of its total staff. The layoffs come weeks after the embattled Swedish battery maker filed for bankruptcy.
Block
Let go of 931 employees, around 8% of its workforce, as part of a reorganization, according to an internal email seen by TechCrunch. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of the fintech company, wrote in the email that the layoffs were not for financial reasons or to replace workers with AI.
Brightcove
Has laid off 198 employees, who make up about two-thirds of its U.S. workforce, per a media report. The layoff comes a month after the company was acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italian app developer, for $233 million. Brightcove had 600 employees worldwide, with 300 in the U.S., as of December 2023.
Acxiom
Has reportedly laid off 130 employees, or 3.5% of its total workforce of 3,700 people. Acxiom is owned by IPG, and the news comes just a day after IPG and Omnicom Group shareholders approved the companies’ potential merger.
Sequoia Capital
Plans to close its office in Washington, D.C., and let go of its policy team there by the end of March, TechCrunch has confirmed. Sequoia opened its Washington office five years ago to deepen its relationship with policymakers. Three full-time employees are expected to be affected, per Forbes.
Siemens
Announced plans to let go of approximately 5,600 jobs globally in its automation and electric-vehicle charging businesses as part of efforts to improve competitiveness.
HelloFresh
Is reportedly laying off 273 employees, closing its distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, and consolidating to another site in Irving to manage the volume in the region.
Otorio
Has cut 45 employees, more than half of its workforce, after being acquired by cybersecurity company Armis for $120 million in March.
ActiveFence
Will reportedly reduce 22 employees, representing 7% of its workforce. Most of those affected are based in Israel as the company undergoes a streamlining process. The New York- and Tel Aviv-headquartered cybersecurity firm has raised $100 million at a valuation of about $500 million in 2021.
D-ID
Will cut 22 jobs, affecting nearly a quarter of its total workforce, following the announcement of the AI startup’s strategic partnership with Microsoft.
NASA
Announced it will be shutting down several of its offices in accordance with Elon Musk’s DOGE, including its Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy and the DEI branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.
Zonar Systems
Has reportedly laid off some staff, according to LinkedIn posts from ex-employees. The company has not confirmed the layoffs, and it is currently unknown how many workers were affected.
Wayfair
Announced plans to let go of 340 employees in its technology division as part of a new restructuring effort.
HPE
Will cut 2,500 employees, or 5% of its total staff, in response to its shares sliding 19% in the first fiscal quarter.
TikTok
Will cut up to 300 workers in Dublin, accounting for roughly 10% of the company’s workforce in Ireland.
LiveRamp
Announced it will lay off 65 employees, affecting 5% of its total workforce.
Ola Electric
Is reportedly set to lay off over 1,000 employees and contractors in a cost-cutting effort. It’s the second round of cuts for the company in just five months.
Rec Room
Reduced its total headcount by 16% as the gaming startup shifts its focus to be “scrappier” and “more efficient.”
ANS Commerce
Was shut down just three years after it was acquired by Flipkart. It is currently unknown how many employees were affected.
February
HP
Will cut up to 2,000 jobs as part of its “Future Now” restructuring plan that hopes to save the company $300 million before the end of its fiscal year.
GrubHub
Announced 500 job cuts after it was sold to Wonder Group for $650 million. The number of cuts affected more than 20% of its previous workforce.
Autodesk
Announced plans to lay off 1,350 employees, affecting 9% of its total workforce, in an attempt to reshape its GTM model. The company is also making reductions in its facilities, though it does not plan to close any offices.
Is planning to cut employees in its People Operations and cloud organizations teams in a new reorganization effort. The company is offering a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based People Operations employees.
Nautilus
Reduced its headcount by 25 employees, accounting for 16% of its total workforce. The company is planning to release a commercial version of its proteome analysis platform in 2026.
eBay
Will reportedly cut a few dozen employees in Israel, potentially affecting 10% of its 250-person workforce in the country.
Starbucks
Cut 1,100 jobs in a reorganizing effort that affected its tech workers. The coffee chain will now outsource some tech work to third-party employees.
Commercetools
Laid off dozens of employees over the last few weeks, including around 10% of staff in one day, after failing to meet its sales growth targets. The “headless commerce” platform raised money at a $1.9 billion valuation just a few years ago.
Dayforce
Will cut roughly 5% of its current workforce in a new efficiency drive to increase profitability and growth.
Expedia
Laid off more employees in a new effort to cut costs, though the total number is unknown. Last year, the travel giant cut about 1,500 roles in its Product & Technology division.
Skybox Security
Has ceased operations and has laid off its employees after selling its business and technology to Israeli cybersecurity company Tufin. The cuts affect roughly 300 people.
HerMD
Is shutting down its operations amid “ongoing challenges in healthcare.” It’s unclear the number of employees affected. In 2023, the women’s healthcare startup raised $18 million to fund its expansion.
Zendesk
Cut 51 jobs in its San Francisco headquarters, according to state filings with the Employment Development Department. The SaaS startup previously reduced its headcount by 8% in 2023.
Vendease
Has cut 120 employees, impacting 44% of its total staff. It’s the Y Combinator-backed Nigerian startup’s second layoff round in just five months.
Logically
Reportedly laid off dozens of employees as part of a new cost-cutting effort that aims to ensure “long-term success” in the startup’s mission to curb misinformation online.
Blue Origin
Will lay off about 10% of its workforce, affecting more than 1,000 employees. According to an email to staff obtained by CNN, the cuts will largely have an impact on positions in engineering and program management.
Redfin
Announced in an SEC filing that it will cut around 450 positions between February and July 2025, with a complete restructuring set to be completed in the fall, following its new partnership with Zillow.
Sophos
Is laying off 6% of its total workforce, the cybersecurity firm confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come less than two weeks after Sophos acquired Secureworks for $859 million.
Zepz
Will cut nearly 200 employees as it introduces redundancy measures and closes down its operations in Poland and Kenya.
Unity
Reportedly conducted another round of layoffs. It’s unknown how many employees were affected.
JustWorks
Cut nearly 200 employees, CEO Mike Seckler announced in a note to employees, citing “potential adverse events” like a recession or rising interest rates.
Bird
Cut 120 jobs, affecting roughly one-third of its total workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The move comes just a year after the Dutch startup cut 90 employees following its rebrand.
Sprinklr
Laid off about 500 employees, affecting 15% of its workforce, citing poor business performance. The new cuts follow two earlier layoff rounds for the company that affected roughly 200 employees.
Sonos
Reportedly let go of approximately 200 employees, according to The Verge. The company previously cut 100 employees as part of a layoff round in August 2024.
Workday
Laid off 1,750 employees, as originally reported by Bloomberg and confirmed independently by TechCrunch. The cuts affect roughly 8.5% of the enterprise HR platform’s total headcount.
Okta
Laid off 180 employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come just over one year after the access and identity management giant let go of 400 workers.
Cruise
Is laying off 50% of its workforce, including CEO Marc Whitten and several other top executives, as it prepares to shut down operations. What remains of the autonomous vehicle company will move under General Motors.
Salesforce
Is reportedly eliminating more than 1,000 jobs. The cuts come as the giant is actively recruiting and hiring workers to sell new AI products.
January
Cushion
Has shut down operations, CEO Paul Kesserwani announced on LinkedIn. The fintech startup’s post-money valuation in 2022 was $82.4 million, according to PitchBook.
Placer.ai
Laid off 150 employees based in the U.S., affecting roughly 18% of its total workforce, in an effort to reach profitability.
Amazon
Laid off dozens of workers in its communications department in order to help the company “move faster, increase ownership, strengthen our culture, and bring teams closer to customers.”
Stripe
Is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported by Business Insider. However, according to the memo, the fintech giant is planning to grow its total headcount by 17%.
Textio
Laid off 15 employees as the augmented writing startup undergoes a restructuring effort.
Pocket FM
Is cutting 75 employees in an effort to “ensure the long-term sustainability and success” of the company. The audio company last cut 200 writers in July 2024 months after partnering with ElevenLabs.
Aurora Solar
Is planning to cut 58 employees in response to an “ongoing macroeconomic challenges and continued uncertainty in the solar industry.”
Meta
Announced in an internal memo that it will cut 5% of its staff targeting “low performers” as the company prepares for “an intense year.” As of its latest quarterly report, Meta currently has more than 72,000 employees.
Wayfair
Will cut up to 730 jobs, impacting 3% of its total workforce, as it plans to exit operations in Germany and focus on physical retailers.
Pandion
Is shutting down its operations, impacting 63 employees. The delivery startup said employees will be paid through January 15 without severance.
Icon
Is laying off 114 employees as part of a team realignment, per a new WARN notice filing, focusing its efforts on a robotic printing system.
Altruist
Eliminated 37 jobs, impacting roughly 10% of its total workforce, even as the company pursues “aggressive” hiring.
Aqua Security
Is cutting dozens of employees across its global markets as part of a strategic reorganization to increase profitability.
SolarEdge Technologies
Plans to lay off 400 employees globally. It’s the company’s fourth layoff round since January 2024 as the solar industry as a whole faces a downturn.
Level
The fintech startup, founded in 2018, abruptly shut down earlier this year. Per an email from CEO Paul Aaron, the closure follows an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer, though Employer.com has a new offer under consideration to acquire the company post-shutdown.

A blog which focuses on business, Networth, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement, Celebrities, Top Lists, Travelling, Health, and lifestyle. A source that provides you with each and every top piece of information about the world. We cover various different topics.
Technology
OpenAI pursued Cursor maker before entering into talks to buy Windsurf for $3B

When news broke that OpenAI was in talks to acquire AI coding company Windsurf for $3 billion, one of the first questions on the mind of anyone following the space was likely: “Why not buy Cursor creator Anysphere instead?”
After all, OpenAI Startup Fund has been an investor in Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, since the quickly growing coding assistant’s seed round in late 2023. (Anysphere is often referred to by its product name, Cursor.) It turns out that OpenAI indeed approached Anysphere in 2024 and again earlier this year about a potential acquisition, according to a report from CNBC. The talks failed. Instead, Anysphere has been in talks to raise capital at about $10 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported last month.
OpenAI’s desire to move on to acquisition discussions with another coding assistant maker signals how important capturing a slice of the code generation market has become for the ChatGPT maker. Windsurf is generating about $40 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), TechCrunch reported in February. Meanwhile, Anysphere’s Cursor reportedly makes about $200 million on an ARR basis.
While OpenAI’s Codex CLI “agent,” which the company released Wednesday, can also write and edit code, its attempt to buy Windsurf suggests the company doesn’t want to wait for CLI to gain traction with customers.

A blog which focuses on business, Networth, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement, Celebrities, Top Lists, Travelling, Health, and lifestyle. A source that provides you with each and every top piece of information about the world. We cover various different topics.
Technology
Google’s latest AI model report lacks key safety details, experts say

On Thursday, weeks after launching its most powerful AI model yet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google published a technical report showing the results of its internal safety evaluations. However, the report is light on the details, experts say, making it difficult to determine which risks the model might pose.
Technical reports provide useful — and unflattering, at times — info that companies don’t always widely advertise about their AI. By and large, the AI community sees these reports as good-faith efforts to support independent research and safety evaluations.
Google takes a different safety reporting approach than some of its AI rivals, publishing technical reports only once it considers a model to have graduated from the “experimental” stage. The company also doesn’t include findings from all of its “dangerous capability” evaluations in these write-ups; it reserves those for a separate audit.
Several experts TechCrunch spoke with were still disappointed by the sparsity of the Gemini 2.5 Pro report, however, which they noted doesn’t mention Google’s Frontier Safety Framework (FSF). Google introduced the FSF last year in what it described as an effort to identify future AI capabilities that could cause “severe harm.”
“This [report] is very sparse, contains minimal information, and came out weeks after the model was already made available to the public,” Peter Wildeford, co-founder of the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy, told TechCrunch. “It’s impossible to verify if Google is living up to its public commitments and thus impossible to assess the safety and security of their models.”
Thomas Woodside, co-founder of the Secure AI Project, said that while he’s glad Google released a report for Gemini 2.5 Pro, he’s not convinced of the company’s commitment to delivering timely supplemental safety evaluations. Woodside pointed out that the last time Google published the results of dangerous capability tests was in June 2024 — for a model announced in February that same year.
Not inspiring much confidence, Google hasn’t made available a report for Gemini 2.5 Flash, a smaller, more efficient model the company announced last week. A spokesperson told TechCrunch a report for Flash is “coming soon.”
“I hope this is a promise from Google to start publishing more frequent updates,” Woodside told TechCrunch. “Those updates should include the results of evaluations for models that haven’t been publicly deployed yet, since those models could also pose serious risks.”
Google may have been one of the first AI labs to propose standardized reports for models, but it’s not the only one that’s been accused of underdelivering on transparency lately. Meta released a similarly skimpy safety evaluation of its new Llama 4 open models, and OpenAI opted not to publish any report for its GPT-4.1 series.
Hanging over Google’s head are assurances the tech giant made to regulators to maintain a high standard of AI safety testing and reporting. Two years ago, Google told the U.S. government it would publish safety reports for all “significant” public AI models “within scope.” The company followed up that promise with similar commitments to other countries, pledging to “provide public transparency” around AI products.
Kevin Bankston, a senior adviser on AI governance at the Center for Democracy and Technology, called the trend of sporadic and vague reports a “race to the bottom” on AI safety.
“Combined with reports that competing labs like OpenAI have shaved their safety testing time before release from months to days, this meager documentation for Google’s top AI model tells a troubling story of a race to the bottom on AI safety and transparency as companies rush their models to market,” he told TechCrunch.
Google has said in statements that, while not detailed in its technical reports, it conducts safety testing and “adversarial red teaming” for models ahead of release.

A blog which focuses on business, Networth, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement, Celebrities, Top Lists, Travelling, Health, and lifestyle. A source that provides you with each and every top piece of information about the world. We cover various different topics.
-
News3 weeks ago
California-Mexico border, once overwhelmed, now nearly empty
-
Technology3 weeks ago
Beyond Bluesky: These are the apps building social experiences on the AT Protocol
-
Entertainment2 weeks ago
Mel Gibson Can Own Guns Again After DOJ Removes Domestic Violence Restrictions
-
Entertainment3 weeks ago
Billboard Women in Music 2025 red carpet: Becky G, Meghan Trainor and more
-
Technology2 weeks ago
TechCrunch Mobility: Tesla takes a hit, tariff chaos begins, and one EV startup hits a milestone
-
Life Style3 weeks ago
180 Funny Quotes of the Day for Laughs, Positive Vibes and Stress Relief
-
Life Style2 weeks ago
145 Inspirational Mother’s Day Quotes to Help You Express Your Love and Gratitude
-
Business3 weeks ago
Would You Try a ‘Severance’ Procedure for a $500K Salary?