Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to TechCrunch AM! It’s a newsy Tuesday, friends. We have lots of cybersecurity updates, none of which are good news; more AI models from Adobe and Microsoft, Amazon entering the grocery delivery wars, and several neat startups you should definitely keep an eye on. Let’s dive in! — Alex

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Pascal

1. Shine bright like a diamond: Pascal is a startup that employs lab-grown diamonds to offer consumers lower-cost diamond jewelry in the $500 to $1,000 price bracket. Its focus on hip-hop fashion has helped it generate rapid sales: the company expects revenue to grow to $20 million to $30 million this year. A16z is an investor. Read More

2. UnitedHealth breach impacts huge swath of U.S. citizens: The recent ransomware attack on UnitedHealth subsidiary, Change Healthcare, has led to a massive leak of U.S. healthcare data. The breach is so large that it may impact “a substantial proportion of people in America,” the company said. What is unclear is how the company’s share price is flat on a one-year time frame given its massive failure to protect critical data. Read More

3. Adobe’s image generation abilities improve: Something that we take for granted today is how quickly AI models will improve. Adobe has some results of that work to show off in its third-generation model, Firefly Image 3. Early TechCrunch testing found that compared to its predecessor, the new model shows material improvements. Adobe’s data licensing model is also something to keep an eye on. Read More

A MESSAGE FROM DELINEA

Beyond Passwords: IT Talks on Authentication's Next Wave

Learn how modern workplaces are adapting to passwordless technologies while addressing security and compliance concerns.

Morning Must Reads

Image Credits: Amazon

Amazon expands its grocery delivery service: Amazon is not yet done expanding its delivery empire. Now in 3,500 cities and towns across the United States, consumers can snag a grocery delivery subscription for $9.99 per month (less if you receive government assistance). The service will compete with offerings from traditional department stores like Target and former startups like Instacart. Read More

Smart locks used in rental homes aren’t very secure: It’s ironic that many ‘smart’ products in the world are actually rather dumb, but here we are. Chirp makes access control systems that are used in many rental homes, and it turns out that its locks have a vulnerability that “allows anyone to remotely control any lock in an affected home,” TechCrunch reports. Chirp was informed years ago, but the issue remains in place, researchers say. Read More

Meet the startups from HAX’s upcoming demo day: SOSV’s HAX program is organizing its first demo day in four years, so TechCrunch swung by its Newark facility for a peek. Venture firm SOSV also runs IndieBio, which focuses on biotech startups. We have an early look at some of the presenting HAX startups. Read More

Dating apps are increasingly data hungry: A Mozilla report finds that dating apps have become more data-hungry and intrusive since 202. In a sense, it makes sense: everyone wants to use data to hone their products, so the more, the better. But when it comes to dating profiles and other personal information, you probably don’t want your dating app taking cues from the NSA. Read More

Bump raises $3M for its creator-focused finance management service: The creator economy has not been a Big Thing with venture capitalists for some time, but that isn’t stopping founders. Bump’s project to help creators better manage their businesses spent a half-year fundraising, and despite a deluge of ‘nos’, the startup managed to close its seed round, bringing its total capital raised to $3.5 million. Read More

Around the Web

Google tries to find war footing: Google’s search and ads boss, Prabhakar Raghavan, sat his massive team down and told them that growth will be harder to earn, they need to move faster, and that the costs of new hardware for AI work are significant, CNBC reports. Read More

Microsoft debuts new LLMs: The Verge has notes on Phi-3 Mini, a new 3.8-billion-parameter LLM from Microsoft. Yep, Microsoft, the company that owns nearly half of OpenAI’s for-profit arm. In other words, no matter how good your partners are, you still want to make your own tech. Read More

iPhone sales slip in China: Apple’s smartphone market share in China is under pressure from local competition. From Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, Apple’s market share in the country fell from 19.7% to 15.7%, according to Counterpoint Research. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Rivian

Rivian will pay you to ditch your gas-powered truck: Want to swap your current gas-guzzling car for an EV truck? If you trade in your current car, Rivian will give you a discount of up to $5,000 on one of its electric vehicles. Not a bad deal, right? The EV industry is currently undergoing something of a price war, which makes this discount program kind of predictable, even if it is cheeky. Read More