One day last November, my dog, Forrest, sat on the cold marble steps of the Smithsonian's natural-history museum in Washington, D.C., ready to meet Celine Halioua, a woman who may one day add a tail-wagging year or so to his life, and also the lives of millions of other dogs. In 2019, Halioua founded a company called Loyal, and in February 2025, a pill that she developed for dogs was deemed likely to be effective by the FDA. If the company ticks a few remaining boxes, the drug could soon be on sale, kick-starting a new era of longevity medicine that could eventually also lengthen humans' lives. More than 10,000 years ago, dogs made a farseeing bet on humans. They padded carefully up to our campfires, ate scraps, and kept watch, hitching their fates to a species that would soon bestride the planet. They have since become the fourth-most-populous large land mammal, trailing only sheep, cows, and goats, which all lead less pampered lives. Now we're trying to keep our best animal friends around longer too....

In addition to relaunching 'Narnia' on big screens and serving as writer-director Greta Gerwig's first film since 'Barbie,' 'The Magician's Nephew' also looks like the next step in Netflix's relationship with movie theaters ' and it's becoming an even bigger step with the delay. The company had previously said 'The Magician's Nephew' would play exclusively on Imax screens for at least two weeks before a streaming release for Christmas. That would be an ambitious theatrical release by Netflix's standards, but relatively limited compared to many other Hollywood blockbusters. Now, Netflix says 'The Magician's Nephew' will begin exclusive Imax previews on February 10, 2027, followed by a wide global release in theaters on February 12. (In Netflix's words, it will be a 'global eventized release.') The movie won't start streaming until April 2. The company's announcement doesn't get more specific about which theaters will be showing 'The Magician's Nephew,' but Imax released a statement noting that the delay will allow the film to have 'a full theatrical window,' so the major theater chains are unlikely to complain...

Ask Jeeves first launched in 1996 and, with its focus on answering conversational questions posed in natural language, was arguably a precursor to today's AI-powered chatbots. For most of its 30-year history, however, it's been overshadowed by other search products, especially Google. Holding company IAC acquired Ask Jeeves in 2005, quickly dropped 'Jeeves' from the name, and by 2010 had scaled back its search product to refocus on Q&A. That same year, IAC Chairman Barry Diller said at TechCrunch Disrupt that Ask.com was not competitive with Google and was not valued in IAC's stock. A message on the Ask.com website currently reads, 'As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world's questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026.' StrictlyVC kicks off the year in SF. Register now for unfiltered fireside chats and VC insights with leaders from Uber, Replit, Eclipse, and more. Plus, high-value connections that actually move the needle. Tickets are limited....

Uber has a long-term ambition that goes well beyond shuttling passengers: the company eventually wants to outfit its human drivers' cars with sensors to soak up real-world data for autonomous vehicle (AV) companies ' and potentially other companies training AI models on physical-world scenarios. Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's chief technology officer, revealed the plan in an interview at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, describing it as a natural extension of a nascent program the company announced in late January called AV Labs. 'That is the direction we want to go eventually,' Naga said of equipping human drivers' vehicles. 'But first we need to get the understanding of the sensor kits and how they all work. There are some regulations ' we have to make sure every state has [clarity on] what sensors mean, and what sharing it means.' For now, AV Labs relies on a small, dedicated fleet of sensor-equipped cars that Uber operates itself, separate from its driver network. But the ambition is clearly much larger. Uber has millions of drivers globally, and if even a fraction of those cars could be transformed into rolling data-collection platforms, the scale of what Uber could offer the AV industry would dwarf what any individual AV company could assemble on its own....