Monday, May 20, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we’ve got notes on even more consolidation in the cybersecurity industry, why companies are in love with internal hackathons, New York’s potential as a quantum-computing hub, and OpenAI pausing the creepy Scarlett Johansson-like voice in ChatGPT. Also, I’ll be one of your new hosts for the Equity podcast on Mondays, so make sure you check it out! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images

1. CyberArk shells out for Venafi: Consolidation is the name of the game these days in cybersecurity. CyberArk is acquiring Venafi, a specialist in machine identity, from private equity firm Thoma Bravo for a good $1.54 billion. Bigger companies are snapping up smaller ones in order to stay on top of the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape, so this is a space well worth watching. Read More

2. UK wants to keep an eye on AI: The U.K. is setting up shop in San Francisco, where most of the AI action is, to keep an eye on things. The Bay Area is the home of the biggest companies building all the AI tech, and given the recent drama at OpenAI around its Superalignment team, it’s no wonder the U.K. wants to be closer to what’s happening on the ground. Read More

3. Adobe bullies indie dev over logo: Adobe has threatened legal action against retro game emulator Delta because its logo looks too similar to Adobe’s. Delta recently hit the top of Apple’s App Store charts, but sadly its popularity has been accompanied by unwanted attention from a tech giant with deep pockets. Read More

Morning Must Reads

Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images

The hackathon is coming from inside the house: Do you think your company isn’t innovating? Are you trying to solve some hard AI problems? Just host an internal hackathon to get your devs to build stuff for fun (and profit)! Companies like DevPost help organizations run and manage hackathons, which have become an increasingly common activity to encourage collaboration and solve big problems. Read More

Instagram wants a peek at your life: Instagram is developing a new feature called “Peek” that allows users to post “authentic” photos that can only be viewed once within 24 hours. It’s a take on popular features from Snapchat and BeReal, keeping up with Meta’s theme of “borrowing” from competitors. What even is an “authentic” photo? It’s one you take in the moment, not uploaded from your gallery, and can’t be edited or filtered. Read More

A marketplace for software vendors: Tech has come a long way since the ‘90s, but many companies still rely on old-school tactics like cold calling and emails to sell their software. Sagetap wants to change that, and recently raised $6.8 million to boost its AI-powered software marketplace where vendors can list their services and buyers can browse a database of vetted products. Read More

Openseed VC backs expert early-stage founders: London-based Openseed VC has reached the first close of its $10 million, angel-style, early-stage fund that will back pre-seed startups in Africa and Europe. The VC is focused on specific founder profiles: First-time founders who were domain experts at high-growth tech companies, or second-time founders who have built and exited a startup. Read More

Space tourism is a thing again: Jeff Bezos' space flight company, Blue Origin, is resuming its crewed flights after two years. The company recently completed its latest flight, which saw six tourist crew members flying all the way to the edge of space. Read More

Around the Web

Yeah, OpenAI, you totally did not intend Sky to sound like Johansson: Did you see OpenAI’s new demo of its new Sky voice feature? The one where an OpenAI engineer talks to a flirty ChatGPT about a job interview? A lot of people felt the feature sounded eerily similar to actress Scarlett Johansson’s voice in the movie “Her,” and OpenAI is now pausing that voice, reports Bloomberg. Read More

Don’t be a couch potato, be a digital nomad: At least 58 countries are now offering digital nomad visas even as companies go back to forcing people to back to offices, reports the Financial Times. These countries don’t want dirty backpackers with laptops, though: They’re trying to lure remote workers to stay and become permanent residents in their countries in order to combat problems like aging populations. Read More

Turning New York into the quantum computing state: Nvidia co-founder Curtis Priem is donating over $75 million so that the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute can have an IBM quantum-computing system, reports the Wall Street Journal. The end game? To establish New York’s Hudson Valley as the epicenter of quantum-computing research in the country. Read More

A MESSAGE FROM ESPER

Overcoming Challenges with Operationalizing AI
at the Edge

Bridging the gap from an AI pilot to real-world impact is challenging, but not if you have the right tools to optimize deployment, reduce costs, and update with fluidity. It’s not impossible — it’s reality. Let’s break it down.

Before You Go

Image Credits: Grafissimo / Getty Images

Nap pod = 🚩🚩🚩: The rise of AI startups has brought back Silicon Valley’s hustle culture, only this time with a neat new piece of hardware: Nap pods. Working at a startup can sometimes be an all-in endeavor, and sleeping at the office is sometimes a part of that. While this seems like a huge red flag for anyone wanting a work-life balance, I bet someone like Elon Musk, a famous connoisseur of sleeping under a desk, would scoff and call these nap pods a luxury. Read More