Google puts AI ABCs and 123s in the classroom

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Welcome back to TechCrunch PM! Education was top of mind today, at least in the way Google is doing it. We also got a scoop about Web Summit, the events company that had a tumultuous year in 2023. Well, the hits just keep on coming. And Klarna unveils its first subscription plan. Read on.

— Christine

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Google in the classroom: Google unveiled a few new AI-powered features for education. This includes making the ability to answer questions to a YouTube video more widely available to teachers. It also announced 15 — count ’em, 15 — new Chromebooks that will launch this year. Ah, ah, ah.

Web Summit CEO jumps ship: In the same hasty manner that Katherine Maher took the helm of event company Web Summit, she decided to leave. Maher will now head up NPR. It’s a bit ironic, Mike Butcher points out, that Maher was brought in three months ago to right-side the company following founder Paddy Cosgrave’s forced resignation. Since Mike wasn’t actually able to talk to Maher (she only gave one interview to . . . you guessed it), we don’t yet know the “why.”

Mo’ data, mo’ data quality problems: Anomalo picked up $33 million in Series B capital amid fast revenue growth. The startup, providing a machine learning approach to data quality, saw annual recurring revenue increase 177% as more companies put larger quantities of data on the cloud and in data warehouses.

Image Credits: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile for Web Summit / Getty Images

More top reads

Klarna Plus: Fintech company Klarna introduced its first subscription plan dubbed “Klarna Plus.” For $7.99, subscribers get perks like no added service fees when using Klarna’s One Time Card, double rewards points and exclusive discounts. Bonus: New subscribers get $8 off their first purchase.

There’s an AI ‘brain drain’ in academia: Over on TechCrunch+, Kyle looks at why AI PhDs aren’t making the leap into the AI industry.

Prompt Security wants to make GenAI safe: The company came out of stealth today with $5 million and a technology for organizations to ensure that their employees aren’t leaking data to generative AI tools, including those not officially endorsed by the company’s IT teams.

Atomico backs Deeploi: With all of the technology one needs to build a company, it’s no surprise that you can muck it up. That’s where Deeploi comes in. The German startup offers an “IT-as-a-service” platform for small businesses to get them on the right first footing.

Meesho GMV tops $5B: Social commerce is a thing, just not everywhere. Don’t tell that to India’s social commerce platform Meesho, which is rapidly gaining user traction. Even faster than Flipkart and Amazon India.

Feds kick off National AI Research Resource: A year to the day after it was proposed, the National AI Research Resource is coming online in the form of a pilot program. A group of U.S. agencies and private partners are applying billions in federal funding toward public-access tools for aspiring AI scientists and engineers.

Apple eyes taking a cut of in-app purchases: Apple wants you to download apps from the App Store. However, the European Union is saying people shouldn’t have to do that. Apple still wants its commission, and it seems it will do whatever is necessary to get it.

Ring, ring: Amazon decided to reverse course and revoke police and fire department access to Ring footage via the Neighbors app.

Get your virtual reality game on: Two gaming companies are collaborating on a virtual reality Dungeons & Dragons.

Image Credits: Klarna

On the pods

Today’s Equity has us asking, “Who knew M&A would be the thing we couldn’t shut up about?” Among the action, go inside Artisse AI’s seed round, Bilt Rewards’ big VC win and Kittl, another example of a European startup taking on a massive global market. Listen here.