TechCrunch Newsletters - New year transitions

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

It’s that time of day, peeps: Daily Crunch time. To those who celebrated the Christmas holiday on Monday, I hope it exceeded expectations and you’re entering this quieter workweek relatively well rested.

TechCrunch’s intrepid security desk is back at it, covering news this morning of CBS and Paramount owner National Amusements suffering a large data breach. According to the company, the breach, in which hackers stole the personal information of tens of thousands of people, occurred last December — but National Amusement didn’t begin notifying those affected until a few weeks ago. Learn more.

As for the rest of today’s roundup, you’ll find a mix of more timely pieces, retrospectives and forward-looking analyses — best enjoyed in a comfy sweater and with your holiday beverage of choice in hand.

Image Credits: Pavlo Gonchar / SOPA Images / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

Writing for TechCrunch+, Tim posits that EV fast-charging networks will face a challenge in 2024. For years, electric vehicle charging companies have had little competition — except with each other. But soon, they’ll have to contend with Tesla’s much-lauded Supercharger network. After Ford signed an agreement with Tesla to give its EVs access to 12,000 Superchargers, other automakers followed suit, including GM, Rivian, Volvo, Mercedes, Nissan and Volkswagen. Read more.

In a lighthearted feature, Amanda covers the internet moments that defined 2023, like when a submarine of billionaires disappeared, the first-ever presidential mugshot hit social media and hundreds of thousands of people got fooled into thinking AI-generated Balenciaga images were legit. As Amanda notes, the trends aren’t just entertaining — they give us a sneak peek into what we can expect in the future. Read the full list.

Elsewhere, Paul dove into the struggle between open source and proprietary software — hardly a new struggle but one that came into sharp relief in 2023. As established technologies relied on by millions hit a chaos curve, Paul writes, it made people realize how beholden they were to a platform they had little control over (e.g., OpenAI, Unity). Learn more.

Image Credits: Electrify America

On the pods

Today on Equity, Alex sat down with Deepka Rana from VC firm Northzone to chat through a bevy of key topics for the new year, including where venture capital is heading, the prognosis for startups at different stages of maturity, why 2023 was “the year of adjustment” and the fate of AI in the EU, where regulation is afoot. Listen here.