Claude heads to the classroom

Plus: New details from the Rippling/Deel saga

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Szkutak Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Welcome to TC PM! Today we learn that Anthropic is releasing a new Claude chatbot tier aimed at higher ed; we meet a bunch of neat startups in sectors ranging from sales tech to fintech; and we dive into the latest details on Rippling's spying accusation against rival Deel. Dig in! TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch 🎓 Claude university: Anthropic today announced Claude for Education, a tier of its AI chatbot that is designed for higher education. This version includes a few new features aimed at students and educators like "Learning Mode," which is where Claude asks questions back to users.  🤭 The drama! We've got more info on Rippling's lawsuit against rival Deel. According to an affidavit released today, Deel's CEO and CFO, father-son duo Alex Bouaziz and Philippe Bouaziz, respectively, did in fact ask one of their employees to spy on Rippling for them. And that's just the beginning.  ⏰ Amazon wants TikTok: ByteDance needs to divest from TikTok's U.S. operations by Saturday. Amazon today announced a late bid for the social media service. Unlike some other bids in recent weeks, Amazon is bidding for the whole shebang. If you want to look back at the whole TikTok saga, we've got you covered.   A Message from Silicon Valley Bank Grow from seed to Series A with SVB With 40+ years of industry experience, Silicon Valley Bank gives your seed funding the support it needs to bloom. Learn More   Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch ☹️ More layoffs: Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, and more, has laid off 16% of its staff, which looks to be about 270 people. The layoffs affect employees across 90 different countries and come after the company has had quite the tumultuous year.  🧱 All the GPUs: Parasail is a new startup taking a horizontal approach to AI hardware by delivering on-demand GPUs to its customers from a variety of sources. The company just launched its platform today and has raised $10 million in VC funding.  🧾 Sales AI: The market of AI-powered tools for sales representatives could be considered saturated. Actively AI thinks it is taking a slightly different approach by building a "reasoning" model that helps companies sift through their data to find higher-value prospects.  🎙️ Early detection: Today's episode of Equity features a conversation with Valentina Agudelo, the co-founder and CEO of Salva Health. Agudelo talked about why she built her early detection breast cancer screening device and the impact that tools like this can have on rural healthcare markets.  🏡 Room to Roam: Assumable mortgages can be transferred from seller to buyer to avoid the buyer having to take on a new mortgage, which could come with a higher interest rate. Roam is a startup that is making it easier for prospective homebuyers to find these opportunities.    A Message from TechCrunch Events Scale, invest, connect — TC All Stage is the place to be on July 15! TC All Stage is where founders and VCs scale smarter. Join us in Boston on July 17 for two stages packed with insights on early growth and post-Series A success. Breakouts, roundtables, and elite networking await. Speakers include Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures), Chris Gardner (Underscore VC), and more. Save up to $210 now. Register Now   Around the web 🧑‍🍳 Recipe for disaster: Y Combinator group partner Tom Blomfield launched an app called Recipe Ninja, which uses AI to create recipes from a single prompt. While this sounds harmless in theory, of course many users have used it to create horrific recipes like cyanide ice cream. Oops! 👀 Zuck's meddling: Mark Zuckerberg does not want Meta to face its antitrust trial later this month. He has been meeting with White House officials in recent days to try to find a settlement that would prevent the company from going to court. Now, why would they be afraid to go on trial?  Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

Nintendo Switch 2 comes out June 5 for $450

Also: Tesla's quarterly deliveries hit two-year low

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at the not-so-secure antics of the National Security Council, Tesla's fresh misfortunes, and Peter Diamandis' thoughts on longevity tech. We've also got notes on OpenAI doing yet more shady training, a startup trying to crack clean hydrogen, the Nintendo Switch 2, what the UFC and Meta have in common, and more. Let's go! — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Jim Watson / Getty Images 1. Security is a construct: After discussing highly sensitive war plans on Signal and leaking them to a journalist, it appears senior members of Trump's National Security Council, including Michael Waltz, reportedly used personal Gmail accounts to conduct government communication. Read More  2. Haters gonna hate: Tesla reported its worst delivery numbers in more than two years as the brand suffers a backlash to Elon Musk's political maneuverings, including his participation in DOGE. In Q1 2025, Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles, down from 495,570 in Q4 2024 and 386,810 in Q1 2024. Read More 3. Here we go again: We got fresh details on the Nintendo Switch 2! The console is coming out on June 5, costs $450, and will arrive both on its own and as part of a bundle with Mario Kart World. Check out the other details, like how big it will be, the controller situation, how much storage it will have, and more here: Read More   A Message from Persona Verify more users without sacrificing security. Verify users during onboarding to fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, build trust, and protect your business and customers. Persona's low-code identity verification platform adapts to risk signals in real time — increasing friction for potential fraudsters while fast-tracking good users so you can maximize conversion and minimize risk. Sign Up Now   Morning Must-Reads Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images 🤦 Non-consensual training: The AI Disclosures Project is accusing OpenAI of using non-publicly available books that it didn't license to train its models. Specifically, the watchdog says OpenAI likely trained its GPT-4o model on paywalled books from O'Reilly Media. Read More 🔋 The problem with clean hydrogen is that it's neither easy to make nor distribute efficiently. Fourier thinks it's found a way with modular electrolyzers that take inspiration from AI data servers, and it's now raised an $18.5 million Series A from General Catalyst and others. Read More 👶 Forever young? TC's EIC Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC's Alex Gove spoke to Peter Diamandis, the co-founder of Singularity University, who laid out his vision for how tech will transform our lives and make major advances in longevity in the future. But will those advances be only for the ultra wealthy? Read More 🚙 Womp, womp: Along with Tesla, Rivian also reported unimpressive deliveries in Q1, its worst quarterly mark since the end of 2022. The EV startup doesn't expect the slow start to impact its overall delivery forecast for the year: between 46,000 and 51,000 EVs. Read More 🤓 Supply and demand: The Wikimedia Foundation says the bandwidth used for multimedia downloads from Wikimedia Commons has surged 50% since last January. And no, it's not because people have suddenly developed a new hunger for knowledge. It's AI – what else? Read More   A Message from TechCrunch Events Scale, invest, connect — TC All Stage is the place to be on July 15! TC All Stage is where founders & VCs unlock smarter growth. Join us in Boston on July 15 for expert insights on early-stage growth & post-Series A scaling. Two Breakout stages, Roundtable discussions & elite networking. Speakers include Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Jahanvi Sardana (Index Ventures) & more. Save up to $210 — register today! Register Now   Around the Web 🤖 Humanoids on the up: Agility Robotics is about to secure $400 million in new funding, per The Information. That's on top of the $150 million it raised in December for building humanoid robots. Read More 🥊 mAsCuLiNiTy: The UFC has reached a multi-million-dollar, multi-year sponsorship deal with Meta as Mark Zuckerberg trucks onwards in his quest to erase any perceptions that he's a nerdy Harvard boy. The UFC's integration with Meta will span its portfolio, from Meta AI and Meta Glasses to Instagram and Threads, per CNBC. Read More Before You Go 🧾 Gotta file 'em all: Accounting software firm Open Ledger has a way to distract from the drudgery of filing taxes. Its new product, PokeTax, lets users take on Tax Trainers who represent different parts of the tax form, like income or deductions. It's a play on Pokemon Showdown, and it's real. Read More  Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Head of Strategic Finance, GITAI USA (Torrance, CA) Senior Software Engineer, Source (Remote) Engineering & Support Senior Director, AAOS (Rosemont, IL) Research Systems Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Machine Control Technician, Sinacola (Dallas, TX) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch AI TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy