South Korea has once again postponed a decision on whether to approve Google’s request to transfer the high-precision map data it has on the country’s geography to its international servers. In February, Google had requested approval from the Korean National Geographic Information Institute to deploy a 1:5,000 scale map on its app in the country and also transfer that data to its servers abroad, a spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport confirmed to TechCrunch. The government was supposed to finalize its decision within 60 days, by mid-May, but the deadline has now been moved to August 11 as they are still in discussions, the spokesperson said. This is Google’s third request to South Korea on this topic, following previous requests in 2011 and 2016. The tech giant currently uses a 1:25,000 scale map in the country that includes points of interest and satellite images, according to media reports. A 1:5,000 scale high-precision map would offer a more detailed view that would include even the narrowest streets. When South Korean officials rejected Google’s request in 2016, they said an approval would only be granted if the U.S. tech firm sets up a data center in South Korea. The country also asked Google to blur sensitive locations, like national security facilities, on its maps for security purposes. Google has not yet said if it would set up a data center in South Korea. The company operates an array of data centers around the world, including in Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. Data restrictions by the government have impacted the performance of Google Maps and Apple Maps in South Korea. Foreigners and tourists often struggle to navigate with Google Maps due to the limited information and languages supported, often resorting to using local apps that do not support many foreign languages. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Local navigation apps such as Naver Maps, TMaps and Kakao Maps are most popular among local users. These apps offer map data at a scale of 1:5,000, and therefore, much more information and detail. Naver Maps, launched in 2002, has about 27 million monthly active users, while Kakao Maps and TMaps have around 11 million and 24 million MAUs, respectively. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Brief Posted: 1:12 AM PDT · May 15, 2025 Image Credits:mathisworks / Getty Images Harvey reportedly in discussions to raise $250M at $5B valuation Legal tech startup Harvey is in discussions to raise more than $250 million in a funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue that would value it at $5 billion, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. Sequoia Capital, which led the startup’s $300 million Series D just three months ago, is also expected to invest in this new round, Reuters reported, adding that investors are mostly drawn to the startup’s quick traction in the market. Harvey has enjoyed fast growth as lawyers and legal firms around the world find ways to use generative AI tech to simplify research, documentation, and quickly examine their data. The company recorded annualized run-rate revenue of $75 million in April, Reuters reported. The news comes just a couple days after Harvey said it would start using AI models from Anthropic and Google, adding to the models it uses from its backer, OpenAI. The report did not mention if the Open AI Startup Fund, which backed Harvey early in its life, would also invest in this round. Harvey, Coatue, Sequoia, and Kleiner Perkins did not immediately return requests for comment. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Topics

YouTube made its pitch to advertisers on Wednesday, accompanied by a flashy performance from Lady Gaga and special appearances from popular YouTubers like Brittany Broski and MrBeast.  During its Upfront presentation, YouTube executives introduced new ad formats coming to the platform, including an enhanced shoppable connected TV (CTV) offering that includes a new interactive product feed. The move is strategic for YouTube, as it recognizes that viewers often watch videos on the big screen while also using their phones to scroll through social media or shop online. The new shoppable format allows advertisers to display products on the right side of the TV screen during ads. The interactive feed acts as a storefront for brands where viewers can easily browse multiple products using their remotes. When a viewer selects an item, they’re prompted to scan a QR code with their smartphone to get a direct link for purchase.   Additionally, there’s a button for viewers to press and hold, allowing them to send the link to their phones to shop for all the products at once.  Image Credits:YouTube YouTube has become a dominant force in TV viewing. Nielsen reported that it has been the top platform for streaming watch time in the U.S. for over two years, surpassing streaming giants Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video. In the first quarter of 2025, TVs were the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S., according to internal data from the company. Notably, the company pointed to a Kantar survey, indicating that U.S. participants ranked YouTube as the No. 1 platform for seeking out information about brands. The company also said YouTube campaigns on CTV generated over 50 million monthly average conversions in the fourth quarter. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Shoppable ads have gained traction among streaming services and advertisers in recent years. Just this week, Amazon announced a new interactive shoppable ad format on Prime Video that highlights Amazon deals, user reviews, and Prime shipping details.

This is the eighth year of the annual prize, which is supported by AJ Small Projects-sponsor Marley. The annual prize is open to one final-year undergraduate and one postgraduate student from each ARB and RIBA-validated architecture course at a UK-based school. As always, the free-to-enter prize is a great platform to celebrate and support the work of both architecture students and universities across the UK, as the new generation of built-environment professionals emerges.Advertisement Last year, in line with the AJ’s advocacy for more sustainable architecture, the Sustainability Prize was incorporated into the main awards to encourage all entries to address issues of sustainability, be that environmental or social. Last year, for the first time in the award’s history, all the winners were from non-London schools, with students from Oxford Brookes and Strathclyde universities winning the undergraduate and postgraduate categories. All the winning projects emphasised play or current socio-environmental issues. Undergraduate winner: Above Beside Below: Fallen Tree Upcycling Centre by Hosea Cheung Hosea Cheung of Oxford Brookes University took the top prize in the undergraduate category for Above Beside Below: Fallen Tree Upcycling Centre. Centred around the topical environmental issue of climate resilience and tree loss, the project repurposed fallen trees into treasurable everyday consumables in an ambitious programme which included timber workshops, an auction house and an educational centre with tree nursery.Advertisement The judges deemed the thesis project a ‘compelling idea’ which addresses both economic and environmental issues successfully on a ‘scale that was technically ambitious’. They loved the idea of the brief and were very impressed by the presentation of ideas. ‘It felt very mature,’ they said. ‘It’s a really solid piece of work.’ Postgraduate winner: Beyond the School Gates: The High Street School by Jakob Young The postgraduate prize was awarded to an entirely hand-drawn project, Beyond the School Gates: The High Street School, by Jakob Young from the University of Strathclyde. Deemed ‘incredibly joyous’ by the jury, the project envisioned educational spaces as a communal asset through the concept of splitting a school along a high street. It took the form of a school bus, retrofitted former shop unit, modular pavilions and a ‘caretaker’s factory’. The judges thought the careful, colourful drawings were ‘totally brilliant’ and the socioeconomic programme ‘rigorous and fantastic’ – yet ‘all done with humour’. The 2024 prize was assessed by a jury consisting of returning judge Betty Owoo of the Greater London Authority, Sally Lewis of Stitch Architects, Craig Robertson of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Derin Fadina of Barr Gazetas – co-editor on the Students issue of the AJ. The deadline for entries is Friday 6 June 2025. Entries received from each school will be published in the AJ’s annual Student issue in September with the winner announced at the start of October. You can view last year’s edition here. How can I enter? You can enter the prize hereWho can enter? The prize is open to all RIBA and ARB-validated architecture schools in the UK. Only tutors may enter on behalf of their students. What are the categories? We encourage a tutor from each school to submit a final year project from two students – one at undergraduate level and/or one at postgraduate level (dependant on your course offering). We expect and encourage all entries to the Student Prize to address issues of sustainability, be that environmental or social. To reflect this, the sustainability category has been incorporated into the main awards and there is no separate Sustainability Prize. Is there a fee to enter? It’s free! When is the deadline to enter? Friday 6th June 2025. We understand that different universities have different deadlines so if you require an extension, please email Fran Williams at ajstudentprize@emap.com You can also find answers to further frequently asked questions on the website. AJ Student Prize is sponsored by

AI startup Stability AI has released Stable Audio Open Small, a “stereo” audio-generating AI model that the company claims is the fastest on the market — and efficient enough to run on smartphones. Stable Audio Open Small is the fruit of a collaboration between Stability AI and Arm, the chipmaker that produces many of the processors inside tablets, phones, and other mobile devices. While a number of AI-powered apps can generate audio, like Suno and Udio, most rely on cloud processing, meaning that they can’t be used offline. Stability also claims that Stable Audio Open Small’s training set is made up entirely of songs from the royalty-free audio libraries Free Music Archive and Freesound. That’s as opposed to the training sets of the aforementioned Suno and Udio, which reportedly contain copyrighted content, posing an IP risk. Stable Audio Open Small is 341 million parameters in size and optimized to run on Arm CPUs. (Parameters, sometimes referred to as “weights,” are the internal components of a model that guide its behavior.) Designed for quickly generating short audio samples and sound effects (e.g., drum and instrument riffs), Stable Audio Open Small can produce up to 11 seconds of audio on a smartphone in less than 8 seconds, claims Stability AI. Here’s a sample generated by Stable Audio Open Small: And here’s another one: The model isn’t without its limitations. Stable Audio Open Small only supports prompts written in English, and Stability notes in its documentation that the model can’t generate realistic vocals or high-quality songs. The model also doesn’t perform equally well across musical styles, Stability warns — a consequence of its Western-biased training data. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW In another potential wrinkle for devs, Stable Audio Open Small has somewhat restrictive usage terms. It’s free to use for researchers, hobbyists, and businesses with less than $1 million in annual revenue, but developers and organizations making over $1 million in revenue have to pay for Stability’s enterprise license. Stability, the beleaguered firm behind the popular image-generation model Stable Diffusion, raised new cash last year as investors, including Eric Schmidt and Napster founder Sean Parker, sought to turn the business around. Emad Mostaque, Stability’s co-founder and ex-CEO, reportedly mismanaged Stability into financial ruin, leading staff to resign, a partnership with Canva to fall through, and investors to grow concerned about the company’s prospects. In the last few months, Stability has hired a new CEO, appointed filmmaker James Cameron to its board of directors, and released several new image-generation models.

OpenAI is moving to publish the results of its internal AI model safety evaluations more regularly in what the outfit is saying is an effort to increase transparency. On Wednesday, OpenAI launched the Safety evaluations hub, a web page showing how the company’s models score on various tests for harmful content generation, jailbreaks, and hallucinations. OpenAI says that it’ll use the hub to share metrics on an “ongoing basis” and that it intends to update the hub with “major model updates” going forward. “As the science of AI evaluation evolves, we aim to share our progress on developing more scalable ways to measure model capability and safety,” wrote OpenAI in a blog post. “By sharing a subset of our safety evaluation results here, we hope this will not only make it easier to understand the safety performance of OpenAI systems over time, but also support community efforts⁠ to increase transparency across the field.” OpenAI says that it may add additional evaluations to the hub over time. In recent months, OpenAI has raised the ire of some ethicists for reportedly rushing the safety testing of certain flagship models and failing to release technical reports for others. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, also stands accused of misleading OpenAI executives about model safety reviews prior to his brief ouster in November 2023. Late last month, OpenAI was forced to roll back an update to the default model powering ChatGPT, GPT-4o, after users began reporting that it responded in an overly validating and agreeable way. X became flooded with screenshots of ChatGPT applauding all sorts of problematic, dangerous decisions and ideas. OpenAI said that it would implement several fixes and changes to prevent future such incidents, including introducing an opt-in “alpha phase” for some models that would allow certain ChatGPT users to test the models and give feedback before launch. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW

Austin Russell, who became a billionaire after his lidar startup Luminar went public, appears to be out as CEO, according to the company’s board. Luminar’s board announced Wednesday — the same day of its first-quarter earnings report — it had replaced Russell and appointed Paul Ricci to the role. Ricci is the former chairman and CEO of Nuance. The press release states that Russell resigned as president and CEO and as the chairperson of the board, effective immediately. The board said in the press release the resignation followed a code of business conduct and ethics inquiry for the audit committee of Luminar’s board. Russell will remain on the board and be “available to the incoming Chief Executive Officer on transition and technology matters,” according to the release. However, it’s not clear if Russell was forced out or if he resigned willingly. Russell could not be reached for comment. The board did not provide further details of this ethics inquiry except that it “does not impact any of the company’s financial results.” In a further twist, the company’s earnings report and slide presentation makes no mention of the change of leadership. The first-quarter press release even includes an upbeat statement from Russell that outlines the company’s strategy to drive down cost with its new Halo product. “In a world of macro uncertainty and adversity, we’re firing on all cylinders to ramp up production, ramp down costs, and capitalize on the future, as evidenced by our announcements today,” Russell said in the statement. “This kicks off our new operating plan for Luminar with a unified product platform, enabling radical focus and streamlining of the business, as well as unlocking value throughout our organization.” Meanwhile, the press release from the board tells another story. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW “We are excited to announce Paul as our next CEO,” board member Matt Simoncini said in a statement. “His track record speaks for itself. He is a visionary leader with a rare combination of technical insight and operational excellence. His commitment to innovation, his ability to scale organizations, and his instinct for anticipating where technology is heading make him the ideal person to lead us into our next chapter of growth. The Board has full confidence in his leadership, and we are excited about what lies ahead.” Simonici, who retired as CEO of Lear in 2018, is chair of the board’s audit committee, which also includes Jun Hong Heng, who is the founder and chief investment officer of technology investment firm Crescent Cove Advisers, Evergreen Capital Partners founder Dominick Schiano, and Daniel Tempesta, who served as executive VP and CFO at Nuance.Luminar burst onto the autonomous vehicle scene in April 2017 after operating for years in secrecy. Russell, who was just 22 years old at the time, was thrust into the spotlight and became a Silicon Valley success story. Luminar was founded by Russell in 2012, but it would be years before his company would be known by the public. He worked on the Luminar technology as a Thiel fellow, which gives young people $100,000 over two years to drop out of college and pursue their ideas. In 2021, Luminar merged with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos Inc., with a post-deal market valuation of $3.4 billion. Luminar raised $250 million prior to the SPAC announcement.

OpenAI is releasing its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini AI models in ChatGPT, the company announced in a post on X Wednesday. The GPT-4.1 models should help software engineers who are using ChatGPT to write or debug code, OpenAI spokesperson Shaokyi Amdo told TechCrunch. GPT-4.1 excels at coding and instruction following compared to GPT-4o, according to OpenAI, but is faster than its o-series of reasoning models. The company says it’s now rolling out GPT-4.1 to subscribers to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team. Meanwhile, OpenAI is releasing GPT-4.1 mini for free and paying users of ChatGPT. As a result of this update, OpenAI is removing GPT-4.0 mini from ChatGPT for all users, the company notes in GPT-4.1’s release notes. OpenAI launched GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini in April, but only released the models through its developer-facing API. At the time, the company faced criticism from the AI research community for shipping GPT-4.1 without a safety report. These researchers claimed OpenAI was lowering its standards around transparency into its AI models. However, OpenAI argued at the time that — despite GPT-4.1’s improved performance and speed compared to GPT-4o — this model was not a frontier model, and thus did not require the same safety reporting that more capable models do. “GPT-4.1 doesn’t introduce new modalities or ways of interacting with the model, and doesn’t surpass o3 in intelligence,” said OpenAI’s Head of Safety Systems Johannes Heidecke in a post on X Wednesday. “This means that the safety considerations here, while substantial, are different from frontier models.” Now, OpenAI is releasing more information about GPT-4.1 and all its AI models. Earlier on Wednesday, OpenAI committed to publish the results of its internal AI model safety evaluations more frequently as part of an effort to increase transparency. Those results will live in OpenAI’s new Safety Evaluations Hub, which it launched on Wednesday. The release of GPT-4.1 in ChatGPT comes at a time when there’s increased attention on AI coding tools. OpenAI is reportedly nearing the announcement of its $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf, one of the most popular AI coding tools on the market. Earlier on Wednesday, Google updated its Gemini chatbot to connect more easily to GitHub projects. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok appeared to experience a bug on Wednesday that caused it to reply to dozens of posts on X with information about “white genocide” in South Africa, even when the user didn’t ask anything about the subject. The strange responses stem from the X account for Grok, which replies to users with AI-generated posts whenever a user tags @grok. When asked about unrelated topics, Grok repeatedly told users about a “white genocide,” as well as the anti-apartheid chant “kill the boer.” Grok’s odd, unrelated replies are a reminder that AI chatbots are still a nascent technology, and may not always a reliable source for information. In recent months, AI model providers have struggled to moderate the responses of their AI chatbots, which have led to odd behaviors. OpenAI recently was forced to roll back an update to ChatGPT that caused the AI chatbot to be overly sycophantic. Meanwhile, Google has faced problems with its Gemini chatbot refusing to answer, or giving misinformation, around political topics. In one example of Grok’s misbehavior, a user asked Grok about a professional baseball player’s salary, and Grok responded that “The claim of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa is highly debated.” Several users posted on X about their confusing, odd interactions with the Grok AI chatbot on Wednesday. It’s unclear at this time what the cause of Grok’s odd answers are, but xAI’s chatbots have been manipulated in the past. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW In February, Grok 3 appeared to have briefly censored unflattering mentions of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. At the time, xAI engineering lead Igor Babuschkin seemed to confirm that Grok was briefly instructed to do so, though the company quickly reversed the instruction after the backlash drew greater attention. Whatever the cause of the bug may have been, Grok appears to be responding more normally to users now. A spokesperson for xAI did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has been reintroduced into Congress. If passed into law, this bill could impose some of the most significant legislative changes that the internet has seen in the U.S. since the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998. As it currently stands, KOSA would be able to hold social media platforms legally accountable if it’s proven that these companies aren’t doing enough to protect minors from harm. The bill includes a long list of possible harms, such as eating disorders, sexual exploitation, substance abuse, and suicide. Though it overwhelmingly passed through the Senate last year, the bill was stifled in the House. KOSA has faced much backlash since its introduction in 2022. Human rights groups like the ACLU raised concerns that the bill could be weaponized as a tool for censorship and surveillance. While amendments to KOSA have mitigated some of these concerns, groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fight for the Future have remained against the bill. “The bill’s authors have claimed over and over that this bill doesn’t impact speech. But the Duty of Care is about speech: it’s about blocking speech that the government believes is bad for kids,” Fight for the Future wrote in a statement. “And the people who will be determining what speech is harmful? They are the same ones using every tool to silence marginalized communities and attack those they perceive as enemies.” However, KOSA has garnered support from companies like Microsoft, Snap, and X; X CEO Linda Yaccarino even worked with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on the most recent draft of the bill. Google and Meta have remained opposed to the bill, but Apple announced today that it will support the legislation. “Apple is pleased to offer our support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Everyone has a part to play in keeping kids safe online, and we believe [this] legislation will have a meaningful impact on children’s online safety,” Timothy Powderly, Apple’s Senior Director of Government Affairs, said in a statement. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW