TechCrunch Daily Crunch
1,806 episodes — Page 7 of 37
YouTube launches an ad-free Premium Lite subscription
Plus - Prime Video tests AI dubbing for select movies and TV series; Apple adds AI-powered app review summaries with iOS 18.4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google still limits how Gemini answers political questions
Plus - Amazon is reportedly developing its own AI ‘reasoning’ model; OpenAI launches $50M grant program to help fund academic research Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anthropic raises $3.5B to fuel its AI ambitions
Plus - Google upgrades Colab with an AI agent tool; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian joins Frank McCourt’s TikTok bid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Microsoft hangs up on Skype
Plus, Tesla applies for ride-hail permit in California—but there's a catch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok revamps its desktop platform
Plus - Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez headed to space on Blue Origin mission; Instagram may spin off Reels into a separate app Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon unveils the new and improved Alexa+
Plus - Google makes it easier to delete personal info from Search results; YouTube surpasses 1B monthly podcast viewers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DeepSeek reopens access to its API
Plus - DoorDash to pay delivery workers nearly $17M for using tips to cover wages; Sam Bankman-Fried’s first post from prison isn’t even good Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok (with Douyin) becomes first app to reach $6B in annual consumer spending
Plus - SoundCloud partners with TicketMaster to let artists list events; Google Drive users can now access and search transcripts for videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bybit says it was hacked and lost $1.4 billion—with a 'B'
Plus, a report says AI coding assistants aren’t a panacea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI now serves 400M users every week
Plus - Instagram’s new ad format lets creators get paid for testimonials in comments; Spotify partners with ElevenLabs to expand its library of AI-narrated audiobooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
X in talks to raise money at a $44B valuation
Google’s ‘Career Dreamer’ uses AI to help you explore job possibilities; Instagram upgrades DMs with music-sharing, message scheduling, translation and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon kills Inspire
Plus - Fiverr wants gig workers to offload some of their work to AI; Facebook now only stores live videos for 30 days, will delete old broadcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What to know about TikTok’s uncertain future in the US
TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for four years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Just this past month, the app experienced a temporary outage in the U.S. that left millions of users in suspense before it was quickly restored. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How this weekend’s ‘Tesla Takeover’ protests against Elon Musk came together on Bluesky
Plus, Instagram tests a 'dislike' button for comments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube Shorts adds Veo 2
Plus - Meta CTO says staff should quit if they don’t like Meta’s new policies; Google Gemini now brings receipts to your AI chats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple is reportedly exploring humanoid robots
Plus - Las Vegas just got a Netflix restaurant; Meta in talks to acquire AI chip firm FuriosaAI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube gets an AI update
Plus - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls Musk’s bid an attempt to ‘slow us down’; Built on Bluesky, Pinksky brings its Instagram-like app to Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Elon Musk-led team submits $97.4B bid for OpenAI
Plus - Apple Music adds a better-sounding Spatial Audio version of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show; TikTok wants Android users to sideload its app Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
HPE begins notifying data breach victims after Russian government hack
Plus - Pinterest lists DEI attacks as possible business risk in latest filing; UK government reportedly demands Apple backdoor to access encrypted cloud data Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotify, Warner Music Group sign new deal to help deliver ‘further paid subscription tiers’
Plus - Snapchat+ subscribers can now create custom AI-generated stickers; Tinder revamps ‘Explore’ page to connect people with similar dating intentions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini
Plus - Workday cuts nearly 2,000 employees; Snap says TikTok uncertainty benefited its business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Deepfake videos are getting shockingly good
Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system, OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
President Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok
Plus - The Beatles won a Grammy, thanks to AI; Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI startup Perplexity sued for alleged trademark infringement
Plus - WhatsApp says it disrupted a hacking campaign targeting journalists with Paragon spyware; Apple Intelligence will support more languages starting in April Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Zuckerberg teases a 2025 return to ‘OG Facebook’
Plus - How DeepSeek changed Silicon Valley’s AI landscape; Amazon hikes prices for its Music Unlimited subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A Majority of US teens have lost trust in Big Tech
American teens have lost their faith in Big Tech, according to a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit offering reviews and ratings for media and technology, which more recently includes AI products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok
Plus - Eric Schmidt says DeepSeek marks a ‘turning point’ for the global AI race; Waymo begins testing robotaxis on LA freeways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity
Plus - Flip, the TikTok Shop rival, launches a creator fund that grants up to $100M of equity; Kodiak has made its first driverless truck deliveries to customer Atlas Energy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI launches Operator
Plus - Threads rolls out a post scheduler, ‘markup’ feature, and more; X sees a jump in consumer spending on mobile, despite decline in daily active users Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Scale AI is facing a third worker lawsuit in about a month
In 2015, the blogging site Tumblr launched a GIF discovery feature called Tumblr TV as an experimental product. Now, with the U.S. TikTok ban leaving the fate of the short-form video app uncertain, Tumblr has decided it’s finally time to launch Tumblr TV, which has since evolved to support video, to all its users as one of its standard features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meta lures TikTok creators with $5K bonuses
Plus - Meta is building Oakley smart glasses for athletes; Spotify’s educational audio courses could be coming to US Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok competitors claim the top of the App Store
Plus - Meta confirms it will keep fact-checkers outside the U.S. ‘for now’; DeepSeek claims its reasoning model beats OpenAI’s o1 on certain benchmarks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban
Plus, OpenAI is trying to extend human life, with help from a longevity startup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative
Plus - Threads might let you add music to your posts in the future; TikTok ban poised to be delayed as Trump explores ways to extend deadline Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bluesky is getting its own photo-sharing app
Google raises the price of Workspace plans, includes its AI features for free; LinkedIn adds free AI tools for job hunters and recruiters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok users’ attempted migration to Chinese app RedNote isn’t going too well
Plus, Meta cuts 5% of its workforce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Biden administration proposes sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips
Plus - eBay acquires Caramel to reduce risk and complexity of online car sales; Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are slamming Meta over its fact-checking policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TikTok warns of looming shutdown as Supreme Court weighs sell-or-ban law
Plus, Meta eliminates its DEI programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Comcast and other TV streamers are now chasing YouTube’s ad dollars
Plus - Google folds more AI teams into DeepMind to ‘accelerate the research to developer pipeline’; Google searches for deleting Facebook, Instagram explode after Meta ends fact-checking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Watch Duty surpasses ChatGPT as top free app on App Store
Watch Duty surpasses ChatGPT as top free app on App Store; Mastodon CEO calls Meta’s moderation changes ‘deeply troubling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Uber teams up with Nvidia to scale autonomous driving faster
Plus - Telegram reports spike in sharing user data with law enforcement; Feds investigate Tesla’s ‘Actual Smart Summon’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google is forming a new team to build AI that can simulate the physical world
Plus - Online spending grew 3% to a record $1.2T over holiday period; Samsung says its home robot will roll out this year Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
xAI’s next-gen AI model didn’t arrive on time
Spotify’s partner program for podcast hosts is now available Telegram rolls out third-party account verification, filters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nonprofit group joins Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition
Plus, Apple TV+ is free this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI just announces new o3 models
"Plus, Google is expanding Gemini’s in-depth research mode to 40 languages." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tesla is courting Texas cities to test its promised robotaxi service
Instagram teases AI tools for editing appearances, backgrounds in videos; Google releases its own ‘reasoning’ AI model Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
App downloads decline in 2024
Plus - OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline; Instagram Threads adds ‘Use Media’ feature for resharing photos and videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Threads now has 100M daily active users
Plus - Grubhub to pay $25M for ‘deceptive’ practices against customers, drivers; OpenAI says it has no plans for a Sora API — yet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube will let creators opt in to third-party AI training
Plus - Meta updates its smart glasses with real-time AI video; Instagram now lets you schedule DMs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI fires back against Musk
"Plus, UnitedHealth’s Optum left an AI chatbot exposed to the internet." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices