Only the Tech Relevant Stuff. No Fluff Pieces...No Politics.

TechCrunch

• OpenAI’s GPT-5 reportedly falling short of expectations 2024-12-21
  OpenAI’s efforts to develop its next major model, GPT-5, are running behind schedule, with results that don’t yet justify the enormous costs, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. This echoes an earlier report in The Information suggesting that OpenAI is looking to new strategies as GPT-5 might not represent as big […]
  Anthony Ha
• OpenAI announces new o3 model — but you can’t use it yet 2024-12-21
  Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re looking at OpenAI’s last — and biggest — announcement from its “12 Days of OpenAI” event; Apple’s potential entrance into the foldable market; and why Databricks is choosing to wait to go public. Let’s get into it. P.S. We’re off for the holidays! Week in Review […]
  Cody Corrall
• Google pushes back against DOJ’s ‘interventionist’ remedies in antitrust case 2024-12-21
  Google has offered up its own proposal in a recent antitrust case that saw the US Department of Justice argue that Google must sell its Chrome browser. US District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, with the DOJ then proposing a number […]
  Anthony Ha
• If climate tech is dead, what comes next? 2024-12-21
  Climate tech is about a decade old, and people are itching for a rebrand. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Tim De Chant
• Hollywood angels: Here are the celebrities who are also star VCs 2024-12-21
  Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol In Hollywood.  Everyone from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson is investing in startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Dominic-Madori Davis
• Meet Skyseed, a VC fund and incubator backing the Bluesky and AT Protocol ecosystem 2024-12-21
  On November 15, Peter Wang posted a message requesting ideas for a new incubator and fund to support experimental projects built on the burgeoning Bluesky/AT Protocol ecosystem. Four weeks later, Skyseed emerged with an initial commitment of $1 million. This turnaround, a speed underscored by the fact that the fund doesn’t even have a website […]
  Paul Sawers
• Sam Altman disputes Marc Andreessen’s description of AI meetings with Biden administration 2024-12-21
  Sam Altman dismissed what he called a "conspiracy theory" from a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Charles Rollet
• EV startup Canoo places remaining employees on a ‘mandatory unpaid break’ 2024-12-20
  Struggling electric van startup Canoo has placed its remaining employees on what it’s calling a “mandatory unpaid break” through at least the end of the year, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch. The company told employees they are being locked out of Canoo’s systems at the end of the day Friday, according to the […]
  Sean O'Kane
• After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed 2024-12-20
  On the first day of Y Combinator the founders of PearAI got “cancelled." They used the hate to launch a new product, raise $1 million. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Julie Bort
• Third member of LockBit ransomware gang has been arrested 2024-12-20
  LockBit is believed tobe responsible for at least $500 million in ransom payments alone. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Zack Whittaker
• Feds clear the way for robotaxis without steering wheels and pedals 2024-12-20
  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday proposed a new national framework that could make it easier for companies to deploy at scale autonomous vehicles without traditional manual driving controls — like steering wheels, pedals, and sideview mirrors.  The guidelines also require AV companies to share a whole lot more safety data with […]
  Rebecca Bellan
• ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot 2024-12-20
  ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 has been a big year for OpenAI, from its […]
  Kyle Wiggers, Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer
• VCs pledge not to take money from Russia or China, and Databricks raises a humongous round 2024-12-20
  Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was full of news, likely because it is also the last “real” week of 2024. Which is another way for us to say goodbye for […]
  Anna Heim
• Nvidia clears regulatory hurdle to acquire Run:ai 2024-12-20
  Chip company Nvidia gets the green light from the European Union to complete its acquisition of Run:ai. The EU came to a unanimous decision today that Nvidia could go ahead with its acquisition of Israeli GPU orchestration platform Run:ai, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The European Commission determined that if the merger went through, other […]
  Rebecca Szkutak
• Google is expanding Gemini’s in-depth research mode to 40 languages 2024-12-20
  Google said Friday that the company is expanding Gemini’s latest in-depth research mode to 40 more languages. The company launched the in-depth research mode earlier this month, allowing Google One AI premium plan users to unlock an AI-powered research assistant of sorts. The in-depth function works in a multi-step method, from creating a research plan […]
  Ivan Mehta
• Here’s the full list of 49 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024 2024-12-20
  In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Rebecca Szkutak
• OpenAI announces new o3 models 2024-12-20
  OpenAI saved its biggest announcement for the last day of its 12-day “shipmas” event. On Friday, the company unveiled o3, the successor to the o1 “reasoning” model it released earlier in the year. o3 is a model family, to be more precise — as was the case with o1. There’s o3 and o3-mini, a smaller, […]
  Maxwell Zeff, Kyle Wiggers
• OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos 2024-12-20
  OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 20. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the […]
  Cody Corrall
• Swizzle Ventures raises $5M for inaugural fund addressing women’s health and wealth 2024-12-20
  There is a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Ventures, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of the marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for its Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no target raise amount.  The firm, which quietly opened in 2023, is an early-stage firm looking to […]
  Dominic-Madori Davis
• Lerer Hippeau files to raise Fund IX 2024-12-20
  Lerer Hippeau, one of New York's most prolific and A-list VC firms, has filed to raise its ninth fund, according to an SEC filing made Wednesday. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
  Dominic-Madori Davis