Monday, June 17, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we’ve got some heartening news about helping everyone reap the benefits of AI as well as some dystopian notes on AI taking creative jobs, anti-ad blocking attempts at YouTube, and shakeups in the world of big tech antitrust.

Oh, and just a quick note: Applications for TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield close today just before midnight! This is your last chance to get up on that Disrupt stage and pitch your startup to a huge audience filled with top investors, media outlets and other important players. — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. AI needs some schooling on nuance: ChatGPT and other generative AI chatbots struggle with cultural nuance, often spitting out answers that largely reflect a Euro-centric worldview. A handful of Black-owned chatbots and ChatGPT versions – like Latimer.AI, ChatBlackGPT and Spark Plug – have cropped up to ensure Black POVs are included in the AI conversation and that Black founders get a cut of this trillion-dollar industry. Now do one for women! Read More

2. The market loves AI + healthtech: Tempus, a genomic testing and data analysis company started by Groupon’s founder, had a warm welcome to the Nasdaq, raising $441 million, and rising 15% on its first day on the market. It’s perhaps a signal that investors are frothing for startups that not only do healthtech, but do it with a promise of genAI. Read More

3. TikTok launches AI avatars for creators: The short video platform is now letting creators make customized avatars of themselves, and use pre-built avatars that were made using stock actors to scale their reach for branded content and ads. It’s also launching an “AI Dubbing” tool that creators can use to expand the reach of ads. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Apple Intelligence has a branding issue: Apple finally took the wraps off its AI strategy, but the tech giant’s AI branding feels… confused. Apple’s not exactly alone, though: After all, how do you create an icon for an AI that does everything but looks like nothing? Read More

There’s no escaping ads on YouTube: Got an ad blocker like SponsorBlock? YouTube is testing out a way around that. SponsorBlock says YouTube is trying out a server-side ad injection with a limited number of users. Read More

YouTube adds Community Notes: TechCrunch got the scoop that YouTube is experimenting with a new “Notes” feature, a la X, that allows viewers to add notes with more context and information under videos. Things like, ‘Hey, this song is a parody,’ or ‘This is actually an old event presented as current news.’ It’s a push in the right direction for combating misinformation during an election year. Read More

Proton goes non-profit: Where some companies have decided to ditch their nonprofit missions to rake in those dollars, others are going the opposite route. Swiss company Proton, which makes privacy-focused apps like ProtonMail, is following in the footsteps of Signal and Mozilla and transitioning to a non-profit foundation model. Read More

Tinybird is not so tiny anymore: Enterprise data startup Tinybird has raised a $30 million Series B at a $240 million valuation to help companies ingest big data and reuse the information in their products in real time. Read More

Oyo’s valuation takes a hit: The Indian budget-hotel chain startup just raised a fresh round of about $100 million to $125 million, sources told TechCrunch. The downside? That round has apparently slashed the startup’s valuation to $2.5 billion, down from a peak of $10 billion in 2019. How did the once-hot startup fall so far? Read More

Farewell, Care/of, we hardly knew ye: Not a month after I signed up for vitamin subscription company Care/of, I got a message saying it has shut down. The company said it’s run out of money to continue operations. This is the second such company to die on me, and I wonder if the unit economics for such a business simply don’t work on venture scale? Read More

Albedo is ready for its close up: Albedo is preparing to take its first satellite to orbit next spring, the first step in its plan to turn the Earth observation industry upside down. Albedo claims to take ultra high-res photos for commercial use, which has previously been the exclusive purview of American defense and intelligence orgs. Read More

The legacy of Lina Khan: FTC Chair Lina Khan was the youngest person appointed to her position in 2021. She’ll be stepping down in September, so it’s worth a look at her legacy of spearheading the enforcement of anticompetition and consumer protection laws. Read More

Softbank helps Perplexity enter Japan: Perplexity is using its deal with Softbank to expand its user base and data touchpoints in the latter’s home market of Japan. Softbank and two of its telecom companies plan to offer free, one-year subscriptions to Perplexity’s premium tier, Perplexity Pro, starting June 19. Read More

Around the Web

Google goes to trial for adtech monopoly: Alphabet will have to defend itself against the DOJ’s claims that Google has a monopoly on online advertising technology, reports Bloomberg. Google had tried to get a judge to decide the case before trial, but to no avail! The DOJ will see it in court in September. Read More

Context, Consent, Control: Here’s a helpful bit of alliteration from Tech Policy Press to ensure tech companies stay on their best behavior in the Age of AI. Context helps us understand who has the right to what AI datasets contain. Consent helps us break down the “right to learn” versus the “right to monetize.” And Control is about empowering people to refuse the use of their data to train AI models. There’s a lot more in the article. Read More

How AI has changed copywriting: A dystopian read from BBC about how AI has eaten up copywriting jobs en masse. And now, a slim number of copywriters are being paid a pittance to make AI's spewings sound more human. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Tracking the tech layoffs of 2024: Layoffs across the tech industry keep happening as venture dollars dry out and LPs demand that companies big and small get more streamlined. We’re here to cover those layoffs and help you keep track of them all. Read More