Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Welcome back to TechCrunch PM. This afternoon, we look at a new AI-powered search engine, a bug that lets anyone impersonate Microsoft employees, YouTube getting serious about ad blockers, and much more. Let’s go!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Genspark

Move over, Perplexity: Genspark is a new AI-powered search engine that taps generative AI to write custom summaries in response to search queries. Type in a search and Genspark will generate a Sparkpage: a single-page overview pieced together from websites and content around the web. But Genspark, like its competitors, has to grapple with its ability to generate ethically questionable search results. Read more

A world where humans and AI coexist: Founded by former Snap engineer Vu Tran, Butterflies is a social network where humans and AIs interact with each other through posts, comments and DMs. Although companies like Meta and Snap have introduced AI chatbots in their apps, Vu sees Butterflies as a way to bring more creativity to humans’ relationships with AI. Read more

Hacker arrested: Spanish police have arrested a British national accused of leading an organized cybercrime group that broke into dozens of U.S. companies. Spanish police said the alleged hacker ringleader used phishing techniques to steal passwords to break into at least 45 companies, which allowed the theft of companies’ internal information and cryptocurrency. Read more

A MESSAGE FROM AWS

Applications now open for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator

The AWS Generative AI Accelerator supports the most promising generative AI startups with up to $1 million in AWS credits, personalized mentorship, and access to a global network of experts. Over 10 weeks, startups will accelerate their growth, innovate with AWS technology, and redefine the future of generative AI.

Learn More

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty Images

Beware, Outlook users: A researcher has found a bug that allows anyone to impersonate Microsoft corporate email accounts, making phishing attempts look credible and more likely to trick their targets. The bug appears to only work when sending the email to Outlook accounts, which could impact a pool of at least 400 million users all over the world. Read more

Get schooled on AI: Apple announced that it will train all Apple Developer Academy students and mentors on the fundamentals of AI, with alumni also able to take part. Starting this fall, students will learn how to build, train, and deploy machine learning models across Apple devices. Read more

A new way to react to funny TikToks: Seen is a new social app where your friends can record a live video reaction to the funny memes you send them. You can send videos in a private one-on-one iMessage or group chat with up to 11 people, and the app has native integration with TikTok. Read more

Snapchat’s new AR features: At the Augmented World Expo, Snap teased an early version of its real-time, on-device image diffusion model that can generate vivid AR experiences. Snapchat users will start to see Lenses with this generative model in the coming months, and Snap plans to bring it to creators by the end of the year. Read more

Policy is crucial to spread the AI wealth: This week on Found, we have an interview from TechCrunch’s Strictly VC event in Washington. Becca sat down with Steve Case, the founder of AOL, to discuss policy, innovation, and AI. Case, now the founder of Revolution Ventures, told the live audience that open access not only helped his company back in the ’90s but is also why the internet was able to progress in the way that it did. Regulators should aim for the same goal with AI policy despite the potential risks. Listen here

TechCrunch Minute

Image Credits: Getty Images / MirageC

YouTube is serious about blocking ad blockers: In an effort to curb the use of ad blockers and move users to YouTube Premium, the company is now testing server-side ad injection. Instead of ads and video content arriving separately on your device, ads will now be embedded directly into the video stream before it even reaches you. Hit play and let’s chat!

Around the web

Apple shifts its focus to a cheaper Vision Pro: A new report from The Information claims that Apple is halting development on the next Apple Vision Pro device due to declining sales. The report finds that the company is continuing its efforts to provide a more affordable option to the $3,499 headset by the end of 2025. Read more

AI chatbots could be spreading Russian propaganda: A report from NewsGuard has found that leading AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, xAI’s Grok, Microsoft’s Copilot and more are spreading Russian disinformation tied to John Mark Dougan when prompted. Read more

You can finally play as Zelda: Today’s Nintendo Direct had a slew of video game reveals for the later half of the year. Announcements included the first ever Zelda-led The Legend of Zelda game, the first Mario & Luigi game in almost nine years, and a long-awaited first look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Read more