Brendan Wallace has a lot on his mind lately. Wallace is the co-founder of Fifth Wall Ventures, a nine-year-old proptech venture firm with $3.2 billion in assets under management. Hes also a homeowner in L.A., which continues to battle raging wildfires. While his place remains intact, many of his friends havent been so lucky.Wallace is becoming accustomed to external forces beyond his control. First, the pandemic drastically altered the landscape for many of Fifth Walls limited partners, which reads like a whos who of real estate (CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Lennar). Unfortunately for many of those same players, office vacancy rates still stand at roughly 20% nationwide, and analysts dont expect that number to budge as many companies abandon the idea of a full return to the office. Proptech has also taken its slings and arrows in recent years, partly owing to high-fliers whose fortunes turned fast, like WeWork, which emerged from bankruptcy last June following a failed IPO and massive restructuring.Change typically presents hidden benefits, however, and Wallace believes the industry is poised for a bounce back. As he sees it, there are ballooning opportunities tied to asset resilience or using tech to help real estate assets withstand damage and disruption. He also sees a huge opportunity to help Fifth Walls limited partners more aggressively seize on the tech industrys demand for data centers and the energy required to fuel them.We talked with Wallace recently about some of those trends, along with life in L.A. during what has felt to so many like the apocalypse. You can listen in on that full chat here or read on for excerpts from our conversation, edited lightly for length.Youre in L.A. How are you doing?Its just tragic what has happened. Everyone on our team is safe. Were in Santa Monica and they had to evacuate our office. This is a crucible moment for Los Angeles, and theres going to be a lot of reflection on the other side of this, with the big political and economic questions that California has been grappling with for a long time coming into the fore. Thats a positive thing, but right now, its just devastating to see parts of this beautiful, amazing city destroyed.How are you thinking about what comes next? Theres going to be a lot of cleanup, a lot of reconstruction. That must represent unexpected opportunities, as unseemly as that is to say.I wouldnt say opportunities . . .I do not think that on the other side of this crisis, people are going to stop wanting to live in Los Angeles . . .So I remain optimistic that this will be a moment of rebuilding and reimagination for one of Americas greatest cities. And I would say we at Fifth Wall are excited to be a part of that. What being a part of that looks like? I dont know yet.A major issue that homeowners and business owners were dealing with is [even before the fires] is the flight of insurance providers from the state . . .Were one of the most active investors in fintech for the residential industry. Fifth Wall invested in Hippo, which is a home insurance company that was very active in California. [Editors note: Hippo stopped writing new homeowners insurance nationwide last summer.] I mean, a lot of the regulation that was very well-intentioned and focused on benefiting consumers has actually had the opposite effect, and its creating market asymmetries that are exacerbating the very problems we have now, which is a lot of homes being uninsured or people getting their insurance canceled. So what we are excited about is two things: there are better solutions for consumers that could be developed, and were interested in potentially investing in them. The other thing that Id like to see is a streamlining of the amount of bureaucracy that is required to launch insurance companies.Regulations aside, does the math work out? Its hard to understand how startups with different regulations can [insure] California when these devastating things happen that make it very hard for insurers to recoup their investments.Its very hard to answer that question without looking at a county-by-county analysis. Its possible that some areas are going to be uninsurable, but its also possible that some areas are going to be uninsurable that otherwise would be without regulation, and the latter is what Im focused on mitigating.This isnt just a California problem. It might be more acute in California and the value of homes might be higher in California, but we have to solve this as a nation.Do you think the wildfires might reshape the way real estate is valued in these high-risk areas? That doesnt seem to have happened in, say, Miami.I think it is going to increase prices for a few reasons. Theres going to be a lot of new construction in Southern California thats going to drive up the replacement cost for homes. People are still going to want to live in these beautiful parts of the country; you arent going to see an exodus of people simply because of this.The increase in insurance premiums is also going to lead to less affordability of homes, and that could have downward pressure [meaning houses might cost slightly less because sellers have to factor in the high cost of insurance]. The net of it, though, is this is going to increase a lot of home prices throughout Southern California and especially in West Los Angeles.ICON, a builder of 3D-printed homes last valued around $2 billion, cuts about 25% of staffYoure an investor in ICON, a 3d printer of modular homes. Do you see a potential opportunity for that company? We reported that it laid off a quarter of its staff just this month before the fires broke out.ICON is a really exciting business. Fifth Wall is a small investor in that company. Our thesis was not so much around wildfire prevention or post-natural-disaster rebuilding but around, how do you build homes faster and cheaper and with fewer materials than you do today? What theyve built is a way of effectively printing a home and in the process, massively reducing the waste associated with home construction.One of the crazy stats that most people dont know is that about 5% of all the material in U.S. landfills is material that went to a construction site and then went straight to a landfill. Its a massive problem that drives up cost for the consumer, makes it harder to operate construction companies, and has a massive carbon footprint. The question, I think, is: how can you scale that up? Can you make that cost effective?Have you made investment in companies that are specifically focused on making nonflammable materials?No, but we should, and I think its a space that will receive a lot of attention right now. . .[Going forward] retrofitting is going to be the big problem. Most of the homes we need to protect are already built, and they are built with materials that can be very hard to rip out. And so in real estate tech, the bulk of the problem and the bulk of the value that you can add to society is by retrofitting the assets we already have, whether those be buildings or homes or infrastructure assets.Of course, in rebuilding, we should be very cognizant about the materials used, and we should use the best solutions. But the vast majority of the homes at risk in Southern California already exist today.Broadly speaking, the proptech sector has seen fewer deals in recent years. Is it fair to say that overall interest in the industry has cooled?It has absolutely cooled. I think we just lived through and are still in cold, bitter capital markets for proptech. You hadnt seen any big M&A events. Basically none of the focused venture funds, Fifth Wall included, raised any capital during that period. There were very little VC inflows to the space.The flip side of that is what youre seeing now companies that survived this Darwinian extinction event. The companies that made the right cost cuts, that pivoted their business model, that pivoted their marketing, and that went through recapitalizations are emerging on the other side of this stronger, more viable, and more durable in a long term. I do think spring has sprung for the prop tech industry, and youre seeing lots of positive indicators for the space right now. [Editors note: Here, Wallace references the IPO of ServiceTitan, a Fifth Wall portfolio company that makes software for contractors and went public in December, and the recent sale of another portfolio company, Industrious, to its partial owner, CBRE.]What about this existential threat to the office industry about which weve been hearing for years?Long term [there are questions] about the office industry, but alongside that youre seeing explosive growth in categories that were never even thought of as real estate before. Data centers are absolutely exploding. And some of those that that explosion is forcing the real estate industry to grapple with big questions. Like, the AI revolution that has everyone enthralled is absolutely not possible without a massive scale up of data centers in the U.S. Yet a massive scale up of data centers in the U.S. is absolutely not possible without massive production of new energy. Go on . . .We need racks of servers that can do training and do inference all over the world and we need lots of them. This is not a surprise or a secret in real estate capital markets; data centers have probably been for the past two years the hottest asset class in the real estate industry. But now theres an associated problem thats emerging . . . which is that data center is so energy intensive, the local utility will not allow you to plug in that grid . . .Thats forcing the real estate industry to say, We have to be in the energy business ourselves if we want to be in the business of computational data centers.What are your LPs expecting you to do? Are you going to be investing in fusion startups now?Fusion is obviously really exciting, but we have a more near-term problem. We need the energy now or next year. Ideally, we do not want those to be fossil-fuel based, dirty energy sources . . so that really leads to the renewables that we know are cost viable, [which is] most obviously solar. [So] the bottom line is, yes, we are investing in solutions to accelerate the development of solar alongside our real estate investors, and real estate companies will become energy development companies themselves.

In BriefPosted:2:56 PM PST January 25, 2025Image Credits:Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty ImagesTrump administration reportedly negotiating an Oracle takeover of TikTokThe Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report in NPR.Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app briefly went dark before the law took effect on January 20 until incoming President Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order delaying the ban.At the time, Trump also outlined his initial thought on a deal to save TikTok creating a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership.NPRs reporting suggests that a deal is now shaping up where Oracle would take control of TikToks global operations while ByteDance retains a minority stake.Trump tried to force TikTok to sell during his first term, with Oracle emerging as a potential buyer. While that didnt happen, TikTok later said it shifted all its U.S. traffic to Oracle servers. And at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said hed be open to either X owner Elon Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison buying the app.Meanwhile, some of the senators who supported the ban-or-sell bill have expressed confusion about Trumps plans and said the law requires ByteDance to fully divest.Topics

2024 was a busy year for lawmakers (and lobbyists) concerned about AI most notably in California, where Gavin Newsom signed 18 new AI laws while also vetoing high-profile AI legislation.And 2025 could see just as much activity, especially on the state level, according to Mark Weatherford. Weatherford has, in his words, seen the sausage making of policy and legislation at both the state and federal levels; hes served as Chief Information Security Officer for the states of California and Colorado, as well as Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity under President Barack Obama.Weatherford said that in recent years, hes held different job titles, but his role usually boils down to figuring out how do we raise the level of conversation around security and around privacy so that we can help influence how policy is made. Last fall, he joined synthetic data company Gretel as its vice president of policy and standards.So I was excited to talk to him about what he thinks comes next in AI regulation and why he thinks states are likely to lead the way.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.That goal of raising the level of conversation will probably resonate with many folks in the tech industry, who have maybe watched congressional hearings about social media or related topics in the past and clutched their heads, seeing what some elected officials know and dont know. How optimistic are you that lawmakers can get the context they need in order to make informed decisions around regulation?Well, Im very confident they can get there. What Im less confident about is the timeline to get there. You know, AI is changing daily. Its mindblowing to me that issues we were talking about just a month ago have already evolved into something else. So I am confident that the government will get there, but they need people to help guide them, staff them, educate them.Earlier this week, the US House of Representatives had a task force they started about a year ago, a task force on artificial intelligence, and they released their report well, it took them a year to do this. Its a 230 page report; Im wading through it right now. [Weatherford and I first spoke in December.][When it comes to] the sausage making of policy and legislation, youve got two different very partisan organizations, and theyre trying to come together and create something that makes everybody happy, which means everything gets watered down just a little bit. It just takes a long time, and now, as we move into a new administration, everythings up in the air on how much attention certain things are going to get or not.It sounds like your viewpoint is that we may see more regulatory action on the state level in 2025 than on the federal level. Is that right?I absolutely believe that. I mean, in California, I think Governor [Gavin] Newsom, just within the last couple months, signed 12 pieces of legislation that had something to do with AI. [Again, its 18 by TechCrunchs count.)] He vetoed the big bill on AI, which was going to really require AI companies to invest a lot more in testing and really slow things down.In fact, I gave a talk in Sacramento yesterday to the California Cybersecurity Education Summit, and I talked a little bit about the legislation thats happening across the entire US, all of the states, and its like something like over 400 different pieces of legislation at the state level have been introduced just in the past 12 months. So theres a lot going on there.And I think one of the big concerns, its a big concern in technology in general, and in cybersecurity, but were seeing it on the artificial intelligence side right now, is that theres a harmonization requirement. Harmonization is the word that [the Department of Homeland Security] and Harry Coker at the [Biden] White House have been using to [refer to]: How do we harmonize all of these rules and regulations around these different things so that we dont have this [situation] of everybody doing their own thing, which drives companies crazy. Because then they have to figure out, how do they comply with all these different laws and regulations in different states?I do think theres going to be a lot more activity on the state side, and hopefully we can harmonize these a little bit so theres not this very diverse set of regulations that companies have to comply with.I hadnt heard that term, but that was going to be my next question: I imagine most people would agree that harmonization is a good goal, but are there mechanisms by which thats happening? What incentive do the states have to actually make sure their laws and regulations are in line with each other?Honestly, theres not a lot of incentive to harmonize regulations, except that I can see the same kind of language popping up in different states which to me, indicates that theyre all looking at what each others doing.But from a purely, like, Lets take a strategic plan approach to this amongst all the states, thats not going to happen, I dont have any high hopes for it happening.Do you think other states might sort of follow Californias lead in terms of the general approach?A lot of people dont like to hear this, but California does kind of push the envelope [in tech legislation] that helps people to come along, because they do all the heavy lifting, they do a lot of the work to do the research that goes into some of that legislation.The 12 bills that Governor Newsom just passed were across the map, everything from pornography to using data to train websites to all different kinds of things. They have been pretty comprehensive about leaning forward there.Although my understanding is that they passed more targeted, specific measures and then the bigger regulation that got most of the attention, Governor Newsom ultimately vetoed it.I could see both sides of it. Theres the privacy component that was driving the bill initially, but then you have to consider the cost of doing these things, and the requirements that it levies on artificial intelligence companies to be innovative. So theres a balance there.I would fully expect [in 2025] that California is going to pass something a little bit more strict than than what they did [in 2024].And your sense is that on the federal level, theres certainly interest, like the House report that you mentioned, but its not necessarily going to be as big a priority or that were going to see major legislation next year?Well, I dont know. It depends on how much emphasis the [new] Congress brings in. I think were going to see. I mean, you read what I read, and what I read is that theres going to be an emphasis on less regulation. But technology in many respects, certainly around privacy and cybersecurity, its kind of a bipartisan issue, its good for everybody.Im not a huge fan of regulation, theres a lot of duplication and a lot of wasted resources that happen with so much different legislation. But at the same time, when the safety and security of society is at stake, as it is with AI, I think theres, theres definitely a place for more regulation.You mentioned it being a bipartisan issue. My sense is that when there is a split, its not always predictable it isnt just all the Republican votes versus all the Democratic votes.Thats a great point. Geography matters, whether we like to admit it or not, that, and thats why places like California are really being leaning forward in some of their legislation compared to some other states.Obviously, this is an area that Gretel works in, but it seems like you believe, or the company believes, that as theres more regulation, it pushes the industry in the direction of more synthetic data.Maybe. One of the reasons Im here is, I believe synthetic data is the future of AI. Without data, theres no AI, and quality of data is becoming more of an issue, as the pool of data either it gets used up or shrinks. Theres going to be more and more of a need for high quality synthetic data that ensures privacy and eliminates bias and takes care of all of those kind of nontechnical, soft issues. We believe that synthetic data is the answer to that. In fact, Im 100% convinced of it.This is less directly about policy, though I think it has sort of policy implications, but I would love to hear more about what brought you around to that point of view. I think theres other folks who recognize the problems youre talking about, but think of synthetic data potentially amplifying whatever biases or problems were in the original data, as opposed to solving the problem.Sure, thats the technical part of the conversation. Our customers feel like we have solved that, and there is this concept of the flywheel of data generation that if you generate bad data, it gets worse and worse and worse, but building in controls into this flywheel that validates that the data is not getting worse, that its staying equally or getting better each time the fly will comes around. Thats the problem Gretel has solved.Many Trump-aligned figures in Silicon Valley have been warning about AI censorship the various weights and guardrails that companies put around the content created by generative AI. Do you think thats likely to be regulated? Should it be?Regarding concerns about AI censorship, the government has a number of administrative levers they can pull, and when there is a perceived risk to society, its almost certain they will take action.However, finding that sweet spot between reasonable content moderation and restrictive censorship will be a challenge. The incoming administration has been pretty clear that less regulation is better will be the modus operandi, so whether through formal legislation or executive order, or less formal means such as [National Institute of Standards and Technology] guidelines and frameworks or joint statements via interagency coordination, we should expect some guidance.I want to get back to this question of what good AI regulation might look like. Theres this big spread in terms of how people talk about AI, like its either going to save the world or going to destroy the world, its the most amazing technology, or its wildly overhyped. Theres so many divergent opinions about the technologys potential and its risks. How can a single piece or even multiple pieces of AI regulation encompass that?I think we have to be very careful about managing the sprawl of AI. We have already seen with deepfakes and some of the really negative aspects, its concerning to see young kids now in high school and even younger that are generating deep fakes that are getting them in trouble with the law. So I think theres a place for legislation that controls how people can use artificial intelligence that doesnt violate what may be an existing law we create a new law that reinforces current law, but just taking the AI component into it.I think we those of us that have been in the technology space all have to remember, a lot of this stuff that we just consider second nature to us, when I talk to my family members and some of my friends that are not in technology, they literally dont have a clue what Im talking about most of the time. We dont want people to feel like that big government is over-regulating, but its important to talk about these things in language that non-technologists can understand.But on the other hand, you probably can tell it just from talking to me, I am giddy about the future of AI. I see so much goodness coming. I do think were going to have a couple of bumpy years as people more in tune with it and more understand it, and legislation is going to have a place there, to both let people understand what AI means to them and put some guardrails up around AI.

In BriefPosted:9:18 AM PST January 25, 2025Image Credits:Dimitrios Kambouris/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Getty ImagesPaul McCartney calls on UK government to protect artists from AILegendary musician Paul McCartney is warning against proposed changes to UK copyright law that would allow tech companies to freely train their models on online content unless the copyright holders actively opt out.In excerpts of an interview with the BBC, McCartney said the government needs to do more to protect musicians and other artists.Were the people, youre the government! he said. Youre supposed to protect us. Thats your job. So if youre putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or youre not going to have them.McCartney isnt necessarily opposed to the use of AI in creating music indeed, he took advantage of the technology last year to clean up an old John Lennon demo and create what McCartney called the last Beatles record. However, he suggested that AI (or at least AI with a loose approach to copyright) poses an economic threat to artists.You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they dont own it, and they dont have anything to do with it, and anyone who wants can just rip it off, McCartney said.Adding that the moneys going somewhere, he said the financial rewards for creating a hit song should go to the artist, not just some tech giant somewhere.Topics

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week were diving into OpenAIs newly released AI agent, called Operator. We also look at where TikTok stands after being resuscitated, whether its time to go back to Tumblr, and more! Lets get into it.OpenAI launched a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can independently perform certain actions like book travel accommodations, make restaurant reservations, and shop online. When users activate Operator, a small window will pop up showing a dedicated web browser that the agent uses to complete tasks, along with text explaining what the agent is doing. The feature will first roll out to U.S. users on ChatGPTs $200 per month Pro subscription plan.Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate. The enormous infrastructure project would funnel as much as $500 billion from investors like SoftBank and Middle East AI fund MGX into data centers that support OpenAIs AI workloads. But Musk claims that Stargate doesnt have the money it says it does. Its important to note, though, that he is not a neutral party and happens to be embroiled in a lawsuit with OpenAI.Hackers found a way to remotely unlock, start, and track millions of Subarus, according to a report from Wired. Two security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in a Subaru web portal that allowed them to hijack car controls and track driver location data. Subaru has since fixed the vulnerabilities after the researchers reported their findings to the Japanese automaker.This is TechCrunchs Week in Review, where we recap the weeks biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.NewsImage Credits:MrBeast/YouTubeUnpacking Samsung Unpacked: Samsungs annual Unpacked event was this week, featuring the reveal of its Galaxy S25 line, new features for Gemini Live, advancements in smart home technology, and more. We put together a handy recap of every reveal you might have missed. Read morePerplexity launches an AI agent: The AI-powered search engine startup launched Perplexity Assistant, which the company says uses reasoning, search, and apps to help with daily tasks. The assistant is available for Android devices and can take multi-app actions. Read moreWill MrBeast buy TikTok? YouTube celebrity MrBeast is in talks to join a number of bids for TikToks U.S. operations, though he hasnt chosen one exclusively yet. While MrBeast is certainly wealthy, it is his celebrity that has attracted multiple bidders. Read moreFitbit gets burned: Fitbit settled with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission over a long-standing defect that caused some wearers to sustain burns. Fitbit will pay a $12.25 million penalty for the issues surrounding the Ionic smartwatch. Read moreTime to dust off your Tumblr blog: Tumblr has finally launched Tumblr TV, a GIF discovery feature a decade in the making that has since evolved to also host short-form videos to compete with TikTok. I wonder if the fandom GIFs I made in 2012 are still there Read moreNow, thats what I call smol : A team at AI dev platform Hugging Face has released SmolVLM-256M and SmolVLM-500M, which theyre claiming to be the smallest AI models that can analyze images, short videos, and text. Read moreThats one way to get a charge: Carnegie Mellon researchers debuted Power-Over-Skin, whose technology allows for electrical currents to travel through human skin to power things like blood sugar monitors, pacemakers, and even consumer wearables. Read moreStripe axes 300 employees: The fintech giant is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported by Business Insider. However, Stripe plans to continue hiring in 2025 to grow its total headcount by 17%. Read moreMeta copycats CapCut: Meta announced a new video editing app called Edits shortly after ByteDances video editing app CapCut was removed from Apples App Store and the Google Play Store as part of the U.S. TikTok ban. Read moreJust in case TikTok goes dark for real: While TikTok is back online in the U.S., its future remains uncertain. Bookmarking backup service Dewey has a solution that saves your favorite TikToks and allows you to access them at any time even if TikTok disappears again. Read more

In BriefPosted:8:42 PM PST January 24, 2025Image Credits:Matt Cardy (opens in a new window) / Getty ImagesWall Street banks plan sale of X debt at a discountBankers are reportedly gearing up to offload debt used to fund Elon Musks social network, for which he paid $44 million in 2022 including $13 billion in financing. Morgan Stanley is leading the charge, hoping to sell senior debt at between 90 and 95 cents on the dollar, reports the WSJ.As notes the outlet, bankers typically dont hold debt for years, but volatile periods can impact those plans, and volatility has defined X since Musks takeover, with advertisers skedaddling over concerns that extreme content on the platform could damage their brands. Though Journal sources say that Xs financials are improving, Musk himself told staffers in a January email seen by the WSJ that, Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and were barely breaking even.Musk reportedly observed in that same email Xs power in shaping national conversations and outcomes. It isnt clear that its power is luring back advertisers, however. Meanwhile, a gesture made by Musk at President Trumps inaugural celebration that many construed as a fascist salute could further complicate the equation for big brands.TopicsSocial

Character AI, a platform that lets users engage in roleplay with AI chatbots, has filed a motion to dismiss a case brought against it by the parent of a teen who committed suicide, allegedly after becoming hooked on the companys technology.In October, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character AI in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, over the death of her son, Sewell Setzer III. According to Garcia, her 14-year-old son developed an emotional attachment to a chatbot on Character AI, Dany, which he texted constantly to the point where he began to pull away from the real world.Following Setzers death, Character AIsaidit would roll out a number of new safety features, including improved detection, response, and intervention related to chats that violate its terms of service. But Garcia is fighting for additional guardrails, including changes that might result in chatbots on Character AI losing their ability to tell stories and personal anecdotes.In the motion to dismiss, counsel for Character AI asserts the platform is protected against liability by the First Amendment, just as computer code is. The motion may not persuade a judge, and Character AIs legal justifications may change as the case proceeds. But the motion possibly hints at early elements of Character AIs defense.The First Amendment prohibits tort liability against media and technology companies arising from allegedly harmful speech, including speech allegedly resulting in suicide, the filing reads. The only difference between this case and those that have come before is that some of the speech here involves AI. But the context of the expressive speech whether a conversation with an AI chatbot or an interaction with a video game character does not change the First Amendment analysis.To be clear, Character AIs counsel isnt asserting the companys First Amendment rights. Rather, the motion argues that Character AIs users would have their First Amendment rights violated should the lawsuit against the platform succeed. The motion doesnt address whether Character AI might be held harmless under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal safe-harbor law that protects social media and other online platforms from liability for third-party content. The laws authors have implied that Section 230 doesnt protect output from AI like Character AIs chatbots, but its far from a settled legal matter.Counsel for Character AI also claims that Garcias real intention is to shut down Character AI and prompt legislation regulating technologies like it. Should the plaintiffs be successful, it would have a chilling effect on both Character AI and the entire nascent generative AI industry, counsel for the platform says. Apart from counsels stated intention to shut down Character AI, [their complaint] seeks drastic changes that would materially limit the nature and volume of speech on the platform, the filing reads. These changes would radically restrict the ability of Character AIs millions of users to generate and participate in conversations with characters.The lawsuit, which also names Character AI corporate benefactor Alphabet as a defendant, is but one of several lawsuits that Character AI is facing relating to how minors interact with the AI-generated content on its platform. Other suits allege that Character AI exposeda 9-year-old to hypersexualized contentand promoted self-harm toa 17-year-old user.In December, Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton announced he was launching an investigation intoCharacter AIand 14 other tech firms over alleged violations of the states online privacy and safety laws for children. These investigations are a critical step toward ensuring that social media and AI companies comply with our laws designed to protect children from exploitation and harm, said Paxton in a press release.Character AI is part of aboomingindustryofAIcompanionshipapps the mental health effects of which are largely unstudied. Some experts have expressed concerns that these apps could exacerbate feelings of loneliness and anxiety.Character AI, which was founded in 2021 by Google AI researcher Noam Shazeer, and which Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion to reverse acquihire, has claimed that it continues to take steps to improve safety and moderation. In December, the company rolled out new safety tools, a separate AI model for teens, blocks on sensitive content, and more prominent disclaimers notifying users that its AI characters are not real people.Character AI has gone through a number of personnel changes afterShazeer and the companys other co-founder, Daniel De Freitas, left for Google. The platform hireda former YouTube exec, Erin Teague, as chief product officer, and named Dominic Perella, who was Character AIs general counsel, interim CEO.Character AI recently began testing games on the web in an effort to boost user engagement and retention.TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter!Sign up hereto get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

UnitedHealth has confirmed the ransomware attack on its Change Healthcare unit last February affected around 190 million people in America nearly double previous estimates.The U.S. health insurance giant confirmed the latest number to TechCrunch on Friday after the markets closed.Change Healthcare has determined the estimated total number of individuals impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack is approximately 190 million, said Tyler Mason, a spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group in an email to TechCrunch. The vast majority of those people have already been provided individual or substitute notice. The final number will be confirmed and filed with the Office for Civil Rights at a later date.UnitedHealths spokesperson said the company was not aware of any misuse of individuals information as a result of this incident and has not seen electronic medical record databases appear in the data during the analysis.The February 2024 cyberattack is the largest breach of medical data in U.S. history and caused months of outages across the U.S. healthcare system. Change Healthcare, a health tech giant and UnitedHealth subsidiary, is one of the largest handlers of health, medical data, and patient records; its also one of the biggest processors of healthcare claims in the United States.The data breach resulted in the theft of massive quantities of health and insurance-related information, some of which was published online by the hackers who claimed responsibility for the breach. Change Healthcare subsequently paid at least two ransoms to prevent further publication of the stolen files.UnitedHealth previously put the number of affected individuals at around 100 million people when the company filed its preliminary analysis with the Office for Civil Rights, the unit under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that investigates data breaches.In its data breach notice, Change Healthcare said that the cybercriminals stole names and addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and government identity documents, which included Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers, and passport numbers. The stolen health data also includes diagnoses, medications, test results, imaging, and care and treatment plans, as well as health insurance information. Change said the data also includes financial and banking information found in patient claims.The breach was attributed to the ALPHV ransomware gang, a prolific Russian language cybercrime group. According to testimony by UnitedHealth Groups CEO Andrew Witty to lawmakers last year, the hackers broke into Changes systems using a stolen account credential, which was not protected with multi-factor authentication.How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline

In BriefPosted:3:24 PM PST January 24, 2025Image Credits:Eugene Gologursky/The New York Times / Getty ImagesRetro Biosciences, backed by Sam Altman, is raising $1 billion to extend human lifespanOpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doubling down on Retro Biosciences, a biotech startup based in San Francisco that wants humans to live 10 years longer than what it calls a healthy human lifespan.Altman previously provided Retro Biosciences entire seed round of $180 million. Now, the startup is raising a $1 billion Series A that Altman is joining, the Financial Times reports.Retro Biosciences, which says it plans to launch trials for drugs targeting diseases like Alzheimers, recently trained a model with OpenAI to turn regular cells into stem cells.CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix told the FT he wants to move fast by discovering and developing a drug in the 2020s. The startup joins other major billionaire-backed longevity efforts, including Altos Labs, which launched with $3 billion in 2022 backed by Jeff Bezos, and Unity Biotechnology, supported by both Bezos and Peter Thiel.Topics

Companies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty.According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase. Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which would support the benchmarking of AI systems developed in the U.S. Others, including OpenAI, put their weight behind the Advancement and Reliability Act, which would set up a dedicated government center for AI research. Most AI labs that is, companies dedicated almost exclusively to commercializing various kinds of AI tech spent more backing legislative agenda items in 2024 than in 2023, the data shows. OpenAI upped its lobbying expenditures to $1.76 million last year from $260,000 in 2023. Anthropic, OpenAIs close rival, more than doubled its spend from $280,000 in 2023 to $720,000 last year, and enterprise-focused startup Cohere boosted its spending to $230,000 in 2024 from just $70,000 two years ago.Both OpenAI and Anthropic made hires over the last year to coordinate their policymaker outreach. Anthropic brought on its first in-house lobbyist, Department of Justice alum Rachel Appleton, and OpenAI hired political veteran Chris Lehane as its new VP of policy.All told, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere set aside $2.71 million combined for their 2024 federal lobbying initiatives. Thats a tiny figure compared to what the larger tech industry put toward lobbying in the same timeframe ($61.5 million), but more than four times the total that the three AI labs spent in 2023 ($610,000).TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere for comment but did not hear back as of press time.Last year was a tumultuous one in domestic AI policymaking. In the first half alone, Congressional lawmakers considered more than 90 AI-related pieces of legislation, according to the Brennan Center. At the state level, over 700 laws were proposed.Congress made little headway, prompting state lawmakers to forge ahead. Tennesseebecamethe first state to protect voice artists from unauthorizedAI cloning. Coloradoadopteda tiered, risk-based approach to AI policy. And California governor Gavin Newsom signeddozensof AI-related safety bills, a few of which require AI companies to disclose details about their training.However, no state officials were successful in enacting AI regulation as comprehensive as international frameworks like the EUs AI Act.After a protracted battle with special interests, Governor NewsomvetoedbillSB 1047, which would have imposed wide-ranging safety and transparency requirements on AI developers. Texas TRAIGA (Texas Responsible AI Governance Act) bill, which is even broader in scope, may suffer the same fate once it makes its way through the statehouse.Its unclear whether the federal government can make more progress on AI legislation this year versus last, or even whether theres a strong appetite for codification. President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to largely deregulate the industry, clearing what he perceives to be roadblocks to U.S. dominance in AI. During his first day in office, Trumprevokedan executive order by former president Joe Biden that sought to reduce risks AI might pose to consumers, workers, and national security. On Thursday, Trump signed an EO instructing federal agencies to suspend certain Biden-era AI policies and programs, potentially including export rules on AI models.In November, Anthropic called for targeted federal AI regulation within the next 18 months, warning that the window for proactive risk prevention is closing fast. For its part, OpenAIin a recent policy doc calledon the U.S. government to take moresubstantive actionon AI and infrastructure to support the technologys development.

Elon Musks X has started expanding the rollout of its dedicated vertical video feed to users around the globe just days after its debut in the U.S., TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with the company.On Friday, TechCrunch spotted the new feature had appeared in various regions outside the U.S., including India, Australia, and some European markets. An X spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch the global rollout of the vertical video feed was currently underway. The new feature is accessible through a dedicated tab in the X app, where it has a prominent placement next to the Grok button. The spokesperson also confirmed that the rollout is specific to iOS, meaning Android users need to wait a bit longer. (The company did not share an exact timeframe for the Android launch.)Earlier this week, X released its vertical video feed in the U.S. amid uncertainty around TikToks future in the market as a result of the TikTok ban. Enforcement of the ban is currently on pause as President Trump extended the deadline for TikTok to make a deal that would cede some control to a U.S. entity, if not a full divestment of its U.S. operations, to protect national security interests. In addition to providing entertainment, the new video feature also allows X to display ads after users scroll through a few short videos. This helps the company generate additional revenue by keeping users engaged with the video content a strategy common across social networks, including Instagram, TikTok, and others. Video experiences have become a key focus for X in general. Last year, the platform launched a standalone TV app to show videos from creators and organizations. X also enabled users in 2022 to scroll through short videos by tapping on a video in the timeline and swiping it up.

Companies that want to build AI voice into their products are rushing to work with ElevenLabs, the startup that develops synthetic voice technology like voice cloning and dubbing tools. Now ElevenLabs is turning up the volume on its business with a huge series C raise, just a year after a sizable series B.The New York startup has closed a Series C of $250 million at a valuation of between $3 billion and $3.3 billion, multiple sources tell TechCrunch. The round is being led by ICONIQ Growth, several people said. Andreessen Horowitz, one of the lead investors in the companys $80 million Series B in January, 2024, was another name mentioned as a potential investor in this round. ElevenLabs, ICONIQ Growth and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to our request for comment.For months, investors have been scrambling to invest in ElevenLabs after a blockbuster period of growth for the company, with its AI audio technology getting used everywhere, TechCrunch was the first to report in October.On the back of a strong funnel of business, sources tell us that ElevenLabs was initially looking for funding at a $4 billion valuation. But a $3 billion valuation is still triple the unicorn valuation that the company landed with that year-ago Series B. One source said the company has been preparing to announce the round this month so official confirmation may come any day now.ElevenLabs fundraise comes after a strong few years both for the company and the wider industry. The company was founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski who respectively previously worked at Palantir and Google. Childhood friends from Poland, the pair were inspired by the poor quality of dubbing in the American videos they watched growing up, and they saw an opportunity to use AI to develop something better.Their idea was a clear example of right idea-right time. As generative AI services have become more advanced, multimedia has come to the fore, and there has been a growing interest in building applications that include sound and video alongside GenAI text services.ElevenLabs released its first beta product in January 2023, and by the time it had raised its Series A of $19 million in June 2023, it had gone viral.Some of that growth has not been without controversy, with stories of fake news being created with its tech. But as ElevenLabs has developed a raft of detection tools and other safeguards to prevent misuse, it has emerged as a key partner for enabling speech-based services for an increasingly high-profile number of businesses.Its technology, usable via an API and priced at a number of usage tiers, covers a wide range of use cases: translating text to speech (in multiple languages), cloning voices, changing voices in an audio track, creating entirely new voices; alongside other voice editing tools.Customers include other technology platforms such as Syntheisa, the text-to-video startup that works with businesses and itself announced a fundraise of $180 million earlier this month; publishing giants like Washington Post, Harper Collins and Bertelsmann, which says 36 businesses are using ElevenLabs tech in their content creation; and gaming companies, among others.Usage has led to a rapid rise in sales. In October, sources told us that ElevenLabs annualized recurring revenue (ARR) had grown from $25 million in 2023 to $80 million. Two people in November estimated that its ARR was likely closer to $90 million. If the latter figure is accurate, a $4 billion valuation would have put its valuation multiple at 44 times ARR; in the end it seems the deal has been done at a slightly more moderate multiple of 37 times ARR.For some context on that number, these are not the most exuberant valuations at the moment: investors appear willing to pay as much as 50 times ARR for the fastest-growing generative AI companies.Anysphere, the maker of a popular AI-coding assistant Cursor, has received multiple unsolicited offers valuing the company at about $2.5 billion, which translates to about 52 times ARR, TechCrunch reported in November. The company has seen its revenue grow from $4 million annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in April to $4 million a month as of last month. (ARR is commonly calculated by multiplying the latest monthly revenue by 12.) However, by the time the deal, which was led by Thrive at a valuation of $2.5 billion, was announced earlier this month, Anysphere had reached $100 million in ARR, The New York Times reported. That implies that the company was valued at 25 times ARR.ElevenLabs more temperate multiple may be a function of the companys competitors, which include a plethora of startups but also giants like Google and OpenAI.Other past backers of the company have included Sequoia, Credo Ventures, Concept Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Disney, and nearly two dozen high-profile angel investors.

Welcome to Startups Weekly your weekly recap of everything you cant miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.This week was supposed to be a short one in the U.S., as it started with a holiday. But Inauguration Day kept some founders busy, and the following days brought us more than their fair share of startup news.Most interesting startup stories from the weekImage Credits:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via GettyThis week reminded us that not all sales are created equal, and that it is often worth looking beyond the price tag. Plus, there were legal troubles for an AI decacorn.No divvy: Divvy Homes, a rent-to-own startup backed by a16z, is selling to a division of Brookfield Properties for about $1 billion. However, some shareholders may not see a dime from the sale.Beauty for sale: Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever agreed to acquire Peak XV-backed Indian skincare startup Minimalist for about $342 million more than the $300 million valuation it reportedly sought in a fundraising attempt last year.Big markdown: AI-powered parking platform Metropolis acquired computer vision company Oosto for a fraction of what the startup had raised to date. Formerly known as AnyVision, it had lost backers over its technology being used in controversial surveillance applications.Legal clash: Valued at $13.8 billion last year, Scale AI is facing its third worker lawsuit of 2025, with contractors claiming they suffered psychological harm from writing prompts about disturbing content. A spokesperson for Scale AI said it had numerous safeguards in place.Most interesting VC and funding news this weekImage Credits:Ati MotorsSeries B rounds announced this week varied greatly in size, with some of these exceeding other Series C rounds. And for companies that dont quite feel like going public yet, there are still more letters in the alphabet.Pre-IPO letters: Data analytics platform Databricksclosed a $10 billion Series J equity funding roundat a $62 billion valuation, with an additional $5.25 billion in debt financing. Meta is backing the company as a strategic investor.From cat to unicorn: Neko Health, the Swedish body-scanning startup co-founded by Spotifys Daniel Ek, and whose name means cat in Japanese, raised a $260 million Series B round of funding at $1.8 billion post-money.Money to move: Lindus Health, a startup backed by Peter Thiel and Creandum that is currently moving its HQ from the U.K. to the U.S., secured a $55 million Series B round to fix the broken clinical trial industry.Spending less: AI-powered SaaS spend management platform Vertice raised a $50 million Series C round of funding led by Lakestar, at a valuation close to $500 million, according to sources.Indian robotics: Indian-based autonomous mobile robots startup Ati Motors raised a $20 million Series B to grow internationally. The U.S. already dominates Atis revenues, and the company hopes to further benefit from demand for robotics manufactured outside of China.Crypto crypto crypto: Capitalizing on cryptos comeback, AngelList and CoinList teamed up to launch crypto special purpose vehicles and crypto roll-up vehicles that will let crypto founders raise capital using crypto coins.Last but not leastImage Credits:Getty ImagesAI is still red hot, but there are always subsectors that VCs are more interested in. To figure out which types of AI startups theyd most like to back this year, TechCrunch rounded up some findings from our recent survey of 20 enterprise VCs. In short: Think companies, not features.

Apple released new figures Friday, highlighting user adoption of iOS 18. Released in public form back in September 2024, the mobile operating system is now installed on 68% of compatible devices. That number jumps to 78% on iPhones released in the last four years.As for the remaining iPhones out there, 19% are running iOS 17, and 13% are using an earlier version. Similarly, 19% of iPhones released in the last four years are currently running iOS 17.The figure drops to 5% with earlier iOS builds understandable, given the overall percentage of those devices that shipped with either iOS 17 or 18, along with early adopters propensity to keep their devices running the latest OS updates. As 9 to 5 Mac points out, the figures presented are similar to those Apple issued in 2024 around iOS 17 adoption.The companys small model approach to generative AI, Apple Intelligence, was the marquee feature for iOS 18. That arrived with the operating systems first major update, 18.1, with additional features arriving with 18.2. The current public version is 18.2.1. Of course, Apple Intelligence has had some stumbles out of the gate, including one that required the company to roll back News notification summaries.iPadOS 18s adoption figures, meanwhile, are markedly lower than its mobile counterpart. Currently, 53% of all iPads are running iPadOS 18. That figure jumps to 63% for those released in the last four years.

In BriefPosted:7:39 AM PST January 24, 2025Image Credits:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty ImagesMark Zuckerberg says Meta will have 1.3M GPUs for AI by year-endMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company plans to significantly up its capital expenditures this year as it aims to keep pace with rivals in the cutthroat AI space. In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg said that Meta expects to spend $60 billion-$80 billion on capex in 2025, primarily on data centers and growing the companys AI development teams. That projected range is around double the $35 billion-$40 billion Meta spent on CapEx last year.Zuckerberg also wrote that Meta plans to bring around one gigawatt of compute online this year, roughly the amount of power consumed by 750,000 average homes, and expects the companys data centers to pack over 1.3 million GPUs by year-end.Metas investments come as AI rivals pour billions into their own infrastructure projects. Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion on AI data centers in 2025, while OpenAI is contributing to a joint venture, Stargate, that could yield it hundreds of billions of dollars worth of data center resources.Topics

Flip is a social commerce app that lets shoppers become creators. They can share honest reviews and earn cash based on engagement on the platform. As Flip competes with TikTok Shop and other platforms in a highly competitive market, it has introduced a new creator fund that offers a unique opportunity to help it stand out.The creator fund quietly rolled out earlier this week and provides up to $100 million worth of equity to participating creators over the next five or so years. Grants range from $6,000 to $100,000, depending on a creators level of engagement. Notably, Flip aims to distribute up to $1 million per day for the first 30 days of the program.The new grant system sets Flip apart from competitors because it offers users equity in the company. Equity funds typically have the potential for substantial long-term returns, so creators who remain with the program could see significant benefits, depending on Flips success in the near future. (However, its important to note these returns arent guaranteed and vary based on market conditions.)Image Credits:FlipTo be eligible, a Flip creator must have over 4,000 followers and at least 10 videos posted in the last 30 days, each garnering around 3,000 views. Flip also accepts creators with at least 20,000 followers on other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Flip reviews applications and awards grants within 48 to 72 hours, the company notes.Payments will occur in five years or sooner in the event of a company sale. In either case, payments will be made in cash. Regarding a potential acquisition, however, Flip President Eddie Vivas shared with TechCrunch, We dont currently see an acquisition as an interesting outcome for our company. Our goal is to take the company public one day.Within 72 hours of launching the program, nearly 10,000 influencers have applied, according to Vivas. He said that approximately 22% of the applications came from large influencers. Users can currently view a live leaderboard of all the grants on the creator fund page. As of this writing, the highest grant awarded is $67,000 to Tyler K (@cheftyler).As TikToks future in the U.S. remains unclear, Flip is likely counting on its new creator fund to incentivize more users to actively participate on the platform.Image Credits:Flip (screenshot)Amid the current TikTok drama, Flip has seen significant growth, garnering 580,000 new downloads in January alone, according to estimates from app store intelligence provider Appfigures. On Monday, Flip made it to the No. 10 spot in the Overall Top Charts in Apples U.S. App Store.Additionally, Flip is currently gaining about 250,000 new users daily, with people spending an average of 35 minutes in the app every day, according to the company.To maintain traction and stay competitive, Vivas said that Flip plans to introduce additional social features in the coming months. These include polls, group chats, and elegant ways to repost, he said.We are focused on becoming a more full-featured, dynamic social commerce platform building on the base we have today, which is now clearly working, Vivas said.Flip, which launched in 2021, has raised $236 million to date. The company is valued at $1.1 billion.

Landy Liu knows how hard it is to save for a home.While working at mortgage startup Better.com, he spent years dealing with first-home home buyers who felt overwhelmed when it came to shopping for homes. By the time it was his turn in 2022, mortgage rates had nearly doubled, and he found himself in one of the most challenging homebuying environments in decades.I put my purchase on hold and used my down payment to start Foyer, where I am a user alongside our members, he told TechCrunch.Foyer is a platform that helps consumers save for down payments, essentially acting as a 401k for homeownership, Liu said. He noted that specialized saving accounts and apps exist these days for nearly every big milestone, retirement, college tuition, even major health expenses, he said. Yet while there are general options in the market for saving up for down payments, there is nothing akin to a platform focused on down payments for homes.We believe homeownership is a vital part of the American dream and first-time homebuyers need all the help they can get, he added.On Foyer, users can create target savings goals and access personalized guidance on the best ways to save for a home, information about mortgage rates, and choosing a real estate firm. The company has a subscription model, offering memberships to users looking for more support. It can connect users with real estate professionals and also allows customers to earn rewards that can be used towards a home purchase.Real estate service providers spend billions annually marketing to end users and now they are able to more directly support the financial wellness of aspiring homebuyers, Liu said.Buying a home has become quite challenging in the past few years, with many aspiring homebuyers finding themselves priced out of the market completely, far away from hitting the milestones that generations previously hit at young ages. Saving for ones home requires better planning than ever, he said.Investors clearly see some shine in the idea. Today, Foyer is announcing a $6.2 million seed round led by Alpaca VC and Hometeam Ventures. Accion Venture Lab and Clocktower Ventures also participated in the round.Homeownership plays a crucial role in building long-term financial security, particularly for underserved communities that have historically been shut out of wealth-building opportunities, Amee Parhboo, a managing partner at Accion Venture Lab, told TechCrunch.David Goldberg, general partner at Alpaca VC, said what drew the firm to Foyer was its reimagined approach to homeownership.The combination of high-yield savings, education, and strategic partnerships makes this a compelling bet on the future of homebuying, he told TechCrunch.Liu said he met the lead investors through mutual connections in the fintech and proptech space. For now, Liu said Foyers main competition is traditional savings accounts. Foyer launched last year in Michigan but has since spread throughout the country, attracting more than 10,000 users, it said.The fresh capital will help the company expand and enhance product features.Home affordability is in crisis and yet homeownership remains the greatest source of wealth creation for middle-class and minority families in the United States, Liu said. Foyer is providing a solution for first-time homebuyers, a dedicated savings account that works for the next generation of homeowners.

The U.K.s antitrust regulator has reached an agreement with Google to counter the scourge of fake online reviews. The internet giant has committed to several remedies.Bogus endorsements have blighted the web since the creation of user reviews, which is why regulators around the world have been upping the ante on tech companies to put measures in place to curb such practices.The U.K.s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into several online platforms way back in May 2020, with formal enforcement cases launched against Google and Amazon the following year. The CMA had expressed concerns about whether the companies were doing enough to eradicate fake or misleading reviews.Some five years on, and the CMA has finally concluded the Google facet of the investigation, while the Amazon investigation rolls on for now. As part of the deal, the CMA says that Google is putting in place rigorous steps to identify and remove fake reviews on Google and Google Maps. This will include removing any identified fake reviews and banning the individuals behind those reviews from posting new reviews. Businesses will also have warnings emblazoned across their Google profiles, warning consumers that it has detected suspicious activity, while the ability to leave new reviews on that profile will be removed.While Google does lean on AI and machine learning to identify some fake reviews, it also relies on good old-fashioned human feedback. As such, the CMA says that Google has agreed to implement a new system to make it easier for consumers to report concerning reviews this will also include situations where they have been offered an incentive to post a positive review. Under reviewIts difficult to overestimate the impact that online reviews can have on a business, with CMA research indicating that as much as $23 billion of online spending is influenced by feedback posted publicly by previous customers. As the preeminent search engine in many markets, Google was always going to be a central figure in any efforts to reduce the spread of fake reviews, while Amazon is an obvious target as one of the worlds largest marketplaces.Left unchecked, fake reviews damage peoples trust and leave businesses who do the right thing at a disadvantage, Sarah Cardell, chief executive at the CMA, said in a statement. The changes weve secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices. They also help to create a level-playing field for fair dealing firms.The CMA has targeted other online platforms in the past over issues related to fake reviews, including Facebook and eBay. In the U.S., meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently finalized a new rule prohibiting specific practices around fake reviews, with penalties of up to $51,744 per violation.As part of their agreement, the CMA says that Google will report back to it over a three-year period to provide progress updates.A Google spokesperson said that it already blocks millions of fake reviews annually, many of which before theyre even published. Our work with regulators around the world, including the CMA, is part of our ongoing efforts to fight fake content and bad actors, the spokesperson said.

Apple announced on Thursday a new API called the AdvancedCommerceAPI to support more in-app purchase formats, such as subscriptions and content add-ons. The company added that it is not changing the commission structure to support these use cases.The AppStore facilitates billions of transactions annually to help developers grow their businesses and provide a world-class customer experience. To further support developers evolving business models such as exceptionally large content catalogs, creator experiences, and subscriptions with optional add-ons were introducing the AdvancedCommerceAPI, the company said in an announcement.Image Credits: AppleIn an accompanying support document, Apple expanded on the use cases and the eligibility of apps and developers to apply for this program across three broad categories. Apple said the first use case is apps that have a big library of one-time purchases with frequent updates, such as audiobooks or courses; the second use case is apps adding creator-led content where users can purchase access to that content as a one-time or renewable subscription; and the third use case is users buying add-ons within a subscription service, such as additional channels, sports, or regional content, sold as renewable purchase.Last year, Apple asked creator platform Patreon to switch to the App Store billing system for creator content or risk being booted out. In response, the company said it will start slowly migrating to Apples payment system for its iOS app and will complete the process by November 2025. Apples decision to debut a new API could be to support use cases like Patreons better. After the EU forced Apple to allow alternative payment processing and third-party app stores on the platform, the company has been trying to create more value for developers to stay within Apples ecosystem. The company started allowing retro game emulators across the world. Plus, it launched a way for developers to offer discounts to customers with lapsed subscriptions.

LG Electronics is betting on robotics as its next big growth driver. The South Korean electronics company said on Friday that it has agreed to acquire an additional 30% stake in Bear Robotics, a California-based startup it previously backed that is building AI-powered server robots for restaurants. The deal gives LG a majority ownership of 51% in the startup, which will now become a subsidiary of the larger company. LG declined to comment on the value of its latest stake; a local outlet in Korea say its around $180 million. If accurate, that would give Bear an overall valuation of $600 million. A company spokesperson added that the exact figure would be disclosed once the deal closes.Bear is known for its expertise in AI technology that is capable of controlling multiple robots, specifically the management of fleets remotely, LG said in its statement. The tech giant intends to integrate Bear with its commercial robot unit, which has developed LG CLOi Robots, to reinforce its home robot and industrial robot divisions.The tech behemoth says it is working on developing a comprehensive software platform for commercial, industrial, and home robots using Bears technology. With the robotics industry moving more towards AI-focused solutions, this investment and deal is expected to improve LGs robotics software capabilities, LG said.The news comes less than a year after the electronics company poured $60 million into Bear Robotics in March 2024. That deal already made LG into Bears largest shareholder. Bears previous funding in 2022 valued it at over $490 million, per PitchBook data.CEO and founder John Ha and the Bear management team will remain and continue to help create synergies with LGs robotics unit. Ha, a former Google software engineer turned restaurateur, founded Bear in 2017 after witnessing the challenges of running a restaurant, which motivated him to develop serving robots. The SoftBank-backed startup operates indoor delivery robots in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. Its robots are designed to help deliver food to restaurant customers.A man dressed in a baristas outfit watches as an LG CLOi CoBot Barista robot makes pour-over coffee, at the LG booth, January 8, 2020 at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES is one of the largest tech shows on the planet, showcasing more than 4,500 exhibiting companies representing the entire consumer technology ecosystem. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)Image Credits:Robyn Beck (opens in a new window) / Getty ImagesThis additional investment underscores our dedication to positioning robots as a pivotal growth engine for the company, reflecting our belief in their inevitable role in the future, Lee Sam-soo, chief strategy officer at LG Electronics, said in a statement. We will persist in driving innovation across all sectors of robotics, encompassing commercial, industrial and home applications.Robots and robotics were a bit theme this year at CES 2025, and LG made itself a part of that story. with LG CEO William Cho emphasizing the potential for robots to broaden their applications beyond their current roles in sectors like hospitality and delivery logistics.LGs interest in the tech goes back well before this year and the recent vogue of AI in everything, with both Korea and Japan being early commercial adopters of some of the earliest iterations in the field. The Korean electronics company has been researching and developing robot software and hardware more than a decade. In 2017, LG deployed guide robots at South Koreas largest airport, Incheon International Airport.LGs home and industrial robotsLG also has a substantial home robotics business by way of its LG Home Appliance Solution Division. Its home robots are designed to work with home appliances and other domestic scenarios. One example the self-driving AI home hub, a project named Q9, which is scheduled for release later this year. It has autonomous driving technology and can sense voices, sounds, and images. The Q9 has Microsofts voice recognition and synthesis technology, so users can have easy and natural conversations with it.Its industrial robot, the Autonomous Vertical Articulated Robot, uses sensors to navigate, move, and carry out tasks with its robotic arm.Samsung, LGs rival in the electronics sector, said earlier this month that it will roll out its home robot in the first half of this year.Bear Robotics, a robot waiter startup, just picked up $60M from LG

U.S. authorities have indicted five people over their alleged involvement in a multi-year North Korean IT worker scheme that saw them obtain remote employment with dozens of American companies.The Department of Justice on Thursday announced the indictment of North Korean citizens Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song; Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes of Mexico, and U.S. nationals Erick Ntekereze Prince and Emanuel Ashtor.The DOJ said the FBI arrested Ntekereze and Ashtor, and a search of Ashtors home in North Carolina found evidence of a laptop farm that hosted company-provided laptops to deceive organizations into thinking they had hired workers based in the U.S.Alonso was also arrested in the Netherlands after a U.S. warrant was issued.According to the indictment, Ntekereze and Ashtor allegedly installed remote access software, including Anydesk and TeamViewer, on the company-provided devices, allowing the North Koreans to conceal their locations. The two Americans also provided Jin and Pak with forged identity documents, including U.S. passports and U.S. bank accounts.The indictment alleges that the defendants gained employment from at least 64 American organizations over the course of the multi-year scheme, which ran from April 2018 through August 2024. These included a U.S. financial institution, a San Francisco-based technology company, and a Palo Alto-headquartered IT organization.According to the Justice Department, payments from ten of those companies generated at least $866,255 in revenue, most of which was laundered through a Chinese bank account.The Department of Justice remains committed to disrupting North Koreas cyber-enabled sanctions-evading schemes, which seek to trick U.S. companies into funding the North Korean regimes priorities, including its weapons programs, Devin DeBacker, supervisory official with the Justice Departments National Security Division, said in a statement.Alongside Thursdays indictments, which come just days after the Treasury Department sanctioned two individuals and four entities for allegedly engaging in similar behavior, the FBI released an advisory warning that North Korean IT workers are increasingly engaging in malicious activity, including data extortion.The agency said it has observed North Korean IT workers leveraging unlawful access to company networks to exfiltrate proprietary and sensitive data, facilitate cyber-criminal activities, and conduct revenue-generating activity on behalf of the regime.

Tata Electronics has acquired a 60% controlling stake in the Indian arm of Apple assembly partner, Pegatron, as the conglomerate expands its iPhone manufacturing capacity in the country.Taiwan-based Pegatron operates an iPhone production plant near Chennai in Indias sourthern state of Tamil Nadu. The deal comes less than a year after Tata Electronics acquired smartphone assembly company Wistrons Indian business. Pegatron and Tata did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but Tata said the acquisition fits into its strategy of growing its manufacturing footprint in the country.We look forward to a new era of AI, digital and technology-led manufacturing as we bring up these new facilities and expand our operations in India, Randhir Thakur, CEO & MD of Tata Electronics, said in a statement.Tata, which began assembling iPhones in India just last year, is quickly emerging as one of Apples most important partners in Asia as the tech giant works to expand its manufacturing base outside of China.More to follow.

Seattle-based Madrona Capital is celebrating its 30 years in business by raising $770 million in fresh capital. This is the firms largest fundraise to date, exceeding $690 million across two funds Madrona closed in 2022.While an 11% capital pool upsize may not seem significant, any increase at a time when many venture outfits are forced to reduce their fund hauls is a sign that limited partners are excited about the firms prospects and recent track record.Madronas managing director, Matt McIlwain, told TechCrunch that it helped that last year in a market where exits were few and far between the firm sold a few portfolio companies and distributed capital to its investors. The firms recent exits include Lexion, which sold to Docusign for $165 million, and Octo AI, which Nvidia acquired for a reported $250 million.The LP community is generally concerned about distributions, McIlwain said. I think we stood out as a firm that had done really well on that front, not just this past year, but over many years.Madrona started as a group of super angels who wrote a check to an online bookseller, Amazon, in 1995. The firm has since evolved into a multi-stage investor that has backed companies like Redfin, Smartsheet, Snowflake and, more recently, AI startups Typeface and Runway.Although Madrona undoubtedly benefited from being the largest VC firm in the same geographic location as Amazon and Microsoft, it decided to venture beyond Seattle by opening an office in Silicon Valley in 2022.McIlwain said that the fresh capital will be used to invest in AI applications in domains ranging from travel to life sciences, as well as in infrastructure companies that can remove friction between foundational models and users. The firm will back about 30 pre-seed, seed and Series A startups from its approximately $490 million early-stage fund, and the remaining capital will go towards 12 companies raising their Series B or Series C.As Madrona enters its fourth decade, it is extremely optimistic about whats ahead in 2025. McIlwain described the current conditions as a risk-on mindset that will help foster entrepreneurship and create value.

In BriefPosted:6:23 PM PST January 23, 2025Image Credits:NvidiaReliance plans worlds biggest AI data centre in India, report saysMukesh Ambanis Reliance is planning to build what could become the worlds largest data center in Jamnagar, India, with a capacity of three gigawatts to capitalize on surging AI demand.The facility would dwarf the current largest data center, Microsofts 600-megawatt site in Virginia, Bloomberg reported Friday. The project could cost between $20 billion to $30 billion, the report added. Ambani raised more than $25 billion in 2020 from a group of investors including Meta, Google, Silver Lake, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala and PIF to fund the growth of Reliances retail and telecom ventures that now dominate the country. Reliance is Indias most valuable company.Ambani aims to power the facility primarily with renewable energy from an adjacent green energy complex that will produce solar, wind and hydrogen power.Ambani is buying chips from Nvidia for the data center, the report added. Nvidia and Reliance announced a partnership to build infrastructure for AI applications in India in October.The Jamnagar project comes as OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle this week pledged up to $500 billion for AI infrastructure in the United States through their Stargate Project.Topics

Tesla has announced that its redesigned Model Y SUV is coming to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March, with a starting price just shy of $60,000. The news comes just two weeks after Tesla first revealed the new-look Model Y and said it was coming to China and other Asian markets, also in March. Thursdays announcement means the company is effectively launching the revamped SUV simultaneously around the globe a departure from the multiple-month gap between the Asian and North American launch of the Model 3 sedan refresh in late 2023 and early 2024.The redesigned Model Y is being launched at a crucial time for Tesla, which delivered fewer vehicles in 2024 than it did in 2023. Tesla has repeatedly warned investors that it is in between two major growth waves coming off the success of the Model Y and promised that it will roll outmysterious new modelsmeant to be built on existing production lines. Those models will likely be cheaper than Teslas current offerings (which start in the low $40,000 range), but its not clear by how much.CEO Elon Musk has implied that those new models, plus the Cybercab that was teased last October, will help bridge the companys evolution from an automaker into a robotics and AI player.But at the same time, Teslas vehicle lineup has been aging. Tesla has now refreshed each of its core vehicles the Model S and 3 sedans and the Model X and Y SUVs but has only launched one truly new model in the last four years, the Cybertruck. While it became the best-selling electric truck in the U.S. in 2024, the Cybertruck did little to boost the companys bottom line last year, and it does not seem to be the runaway hit Musk hoped for.The new-look Model Y could offer some relief, though it is coming in at a higher price point than the existing versions. The starting price for the Launch Series special edition, which is an all-wheel-drive variant, is $59,990. That gets buyers a 320-mile-range battery and it includes Teslas most advanced driver-assistance software, which it calls Full Self-Driving (Supervised) typically an $8,000 option. The older Model Y currently starts at $44,990 for a 337-mile rear-wheel drive version.The most noticeable changes to the new Model Y come on the exterior, where the bubbly front fascia has been ditched in favor of a more cinched nose with a thin light bar that stretches across the hood. The rear of the vehicle also now has a light strip that stretches the full width. Inside the refreshed SUV, Tesla has added a configurable light strip that rims the cabin. Theres a new rear-passenger touchscreen and some quality-of-life upgrades like powered rear seats and improved suspension.

OpenAI says that it might store chats and associated screenshots from customers who use Operator, the companys AI agent tool, for up to 90 days even after a user manually deletes them.OpenAI has a similar deleted data retention policy for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. However, the retention period for ChatGPT is only 30 days, which is 60 days shorter than Operators.OpenAI says its policies around data retention for Operator are designed to combat abuse. As agents are a relatively new technology, we wanted to make sure our teams have the time to better understand and review potential abuse vectors, an OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch. This retention period allows us to enhance fraud monitoring and ensure the product remains safe from misuse, while still giving users control over their data.OpenAI announced Operator on Thursday and released it in a research preview for subscribers to the companys $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan. Operator is a general-purpose AI agent with a built-in browser that can independently perform certain actions on websites.OpenAI claims that Operator can automate tasks like booking travel accommodations, making restaurant reservations, and shopping online. There are several task categories users can choose from within the Operator interface, including shopping, delivery, dining, and travel.Operator captures screenshots of its built-in browser to help it understand how and when to take actions in apps, like when to use buttons and which forms to complete. To be clear, Operator doesnt capture screenshots when it gets stuck, like when the tool needs a password. OpenAI calls this take over mode.Still, some users may be wary of volunteering screenshots of their online activities to a company that may keep them for upwards of three months. OpenAI notes that, as with ChatGPT, Operator data may be accessed by a limited number of authorized OpenAI personnel and trusted service providers for purposes like investigating abuse and handling legal matters.

In BriefPosted:3:29 PM PST January 23, 2025Image Credits:Getty ImagesEven some of the best AI cant beat this new benchmarkThe nonprofit Center for AI Safety (CAIS) and Scale AI, a company that provides a number of data labeling and AI development services, have released a challenging new benchmark for frontier AI systems.The benchmark, called Humanitys Last Exam, includes thousands of crowdsourced questions touching on subjects like mathematics, humanities, and the natural sciences.To make the evaluation tougher, the questions are in multiple formats, including formats that incorporate diagrams and images. In a preliminary study, not a single publicly available flagship AI system managed to score better than 10% on Humanitys Last Exam. CAIS and Scale AI say they plan open up the benchmark to the research community so that researchers can dig deeper into the variations and evaluate new AI models.Topics

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the formation of a working group to propose federal regulations for digital assets including cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and stablecoins and evaluate a national crypto stockpile. Ex-PayPal COO and founder of VC firm Craft Ventures David Sacks, Trumps pick for crypto an AI czar, will lead the working group. The group will also include the Treasury Secretary, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, and other top officials.Trumps latest executive order titled Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology comes two days after the Securities and Exchange Commission, currently led by crypto-friendly Republican Mark Uyeda, launched a crypto task force to draw clear regulatory lines for the market. Uyeda will also be a part of the presidential working group. Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler had a reputation in the crypto community for pursuing stricter regulation of cryptocurrencies. Trumps order also protects individuals rights to access, use, develop, and transact on public blockchain. This would formally protect blockchain activities as lawful.The EO signed Thursday repeals Biden-era rules around cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Specifically, it repeals an executive order from former President Joe Biden signed in 2022 to address the risks and harness the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying blockchain technology, while emphasizing the need to protect consumers and investors. Trumps order also repeals a framework published by the Treasury Department in 2022 for international engagement in crypto and blockchain development.While Biden-era policies focused on risk mitigation and international collaboration, Trumps order prioritizes economic liberty and U.S. sovereignty.Another big difference is that Bidens executive order directed various federal agencies to explore the development of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Trumps order prohibits CBDCs, meaning the government cant create a digital version of the dollar directly controlled by the central bank. At the same time, the order promotes privately issued U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, with the goal of bolstering the dollars dominance in global trade and digital finance. In other words, Trump is signaling his commitment to keeping cryptocurrencies under a decentralized financial system.Its worth noting that Trump launched a memecoin $TRUMP days before his inauguration. The memecoin stood at an $6.84 billion valuation as of Thursday afternoon. Critics have warned that Trumps token erodes boundaries between the presidents political and business interests, and some have argued it has the makings of a classic pump-and-dump scheme.Previous administrations have approached the crypto world with caution due to concerns that it can easily be used in association with illicit and illegal activities, like ransomware payments and money laundering. One of the most prescient examples of the dangers of crypto is the downfall of crypto trading platform FTX, which exposed massive fraud, misappropriation of customer funds, and a lack of regulatory oversight. Many in the crypto industry argue that FTXs crash is exactly why clearer regulation designed for the industry is needed. And there are some companies, like Chainalysis, that have made strides in creating trust in crypto by providing compliance and investigation software and track virtual currencies. Topics

JetBrains, the company behind coding tools like the IntelliJ IDE for Java and Kotlin (and, indeed, the Kotlin language itself), on Thursday launched Junie, a new AI coding agent. This agent, the company says, will be able to handle routine development tasks for when you want to create new applications and understand the context of existing projects you may want to extend with new features.Using the well-regarded SWEBench Verified benchmark of 500 common developer tasks, Junie is able to solve 53.6% of them on a single run. Not too long ago, that would have been the top score, but its worth noting that at this point, the top-performing models score more than 60%, with Weights & Biases Programmer O1 crosscheck5 currently leading the pack with a score of 64.6%. JetBrains itself calls Junies score promising.But even with a lower score, JetBrains service may have an advantage because of its tight integration with the rest of the JetBrains IDE. The company notes that even as Junie helps developers get their work done, the human is always in control, even when delegating tasks to the agent. AI-generated code can be just as flawed as developer-written code, the company writes in the announcement. Ultimately, Junie will not just speed up development it is poised to raise the bar for code quality, too. By combining the power ofJetBrainsIDEs with LLMs, Junie can generate code, run inspections, write tests, and verify they have passed.It may be a bit before you can try that out yourself, though. The service is only available through an early access program behind a waitlist. For now, it also only works on Linux and Mac, and in the IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate and PyCharm Professional IDEs, with WebStorm coming soon.

A security researcher found a hidden unreleased feature in the Waymo app that allowed her to display whatever characters she wanted on the robotaxis top display.Jane Manchun Wong, a well-known security researcher, posted an image on X on Saturday showing the top display of a Waymo car officially called dome that included her X handle, and other strings of characters.I hacked my Waymo into showing weird texts like empty string, wongmjane, and emojis as the Car ID, pls dont ban me or patch it @waymo lol, she wrote.Wong, who lives in San Francisco, told TechCrunch that she was able to customize the characters on the self-driving Jaguar I-Pace dome by fiddling with the Waymo mobile app on her Android phone as she waited for the robotaxi to show up.The good old magic of messing around with the Waymo mobile app. I guess their servers didnt validate the input for the Car ID from non-employees, said Wong. So no jailbreaking or rooting the car itself. All I did was change the Car ID to something beyond what itd normally accept. A pretty harmless thing I suppose.Despite her pleas, it appears Waymo updated the app to stop riders from customizing the dome like Wong did. On Tuesday, Wong posted an update saying she was not able to change the Car ID anymore.Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp confirmed that Wong found a hidden feature, and the company shut it down for regular users like Wong.Jane identified an unreleased feature given her advanced Android knowledge, Karp told TechCrunch. We have restricted access to the dome display features.In 2020, Waymo announced that it added moving LEDs to its dome so that it can act as a mechanism for riders to identify the vehicle day and night and know which vehicle is theirs when there may be more than one Waymo car waiting.The dome is also used to communicate with pedestrians that the car is yielding to them, or to cyclists that the passenger is about to open the cars door. And the company has also used the display for marketing purposes.