President Biden signs TikTok bill

Plus: Robotaxis face new legislation in California and more

View this email online in your browser By Anthony Ha Sunday, April 28, 2024 Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch A bill forcing TikTok owner ByteDance to either sell the app or see it banned in the U.S. was passed by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden this week. That doesn't mean TikTok will disappear immediately from American users' phones. The bill gives ByteDance nine months to find a buyer, with an option for President Biden to extend the purchase window to a full year. And before that happens, TikTok is likely to challenge the bill in court on free speech grounds. The TechCrunch team has been examining the news from a variety of angles: What it means for Gen Z's political voice, what it means for the creator economy, which alternative apps to explore, and how TikTok bans have played out internationally. Elsewhere, TechCrunch alum and former VC MG Siegler argues that this is the end of TikTok as we know it, with the app now tainted in the eyes of potential advertisers.  Hope your week was better than TikTok's! Read on to see what TechCrunch has been up to this weekend. Weekend news Image Credits: Shy Kids CALIFORNIA'S LATEST BATTLE OVER AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Rebecca Bellan examines the debate over SB 915, a bill in California's state Senate that would give cities more power to set their own robotaxi rules — rules like hours of operation and appropriate pickup and drop-off locations. When introducing the bill, state senator Dave Cortese presented it as a way to give local governments more of a say in how robotaxis are deployed in their communities, while the CEO of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association told TechCrunch that it will create unnecessary complications and obstacles. Read More MONGODB'S CEO WEIGHS IN ON AI HYPE Dev Ittycheria, who's been CEO of MongoDB for the past decade, talked to Paul Sawers about how the company has evolved, what's next, and how it responded to a recent cybersecurity incident. He also weighed in on the current AI hype, arguing, "My life has not been changed by AI." Read More CLIMATE STARTUPS FACE A VALLEY OF DEATH While there's been an exciting explosion of startups tackling different aspects of the climate crisis, as well as a greater willingness from VCs to fund those startups in their early stages, Tim De Chant argues that the real challenge comes when the companies need money to scale. That's especially true if they're building hardware — but as Nest and Mill co-founder Matt Rogers told Paul, "You can't solve climate with SaaS." Read More THE PLUSES AND MINUSES OF AI-GENERATED VIDEO Production team Shy Kids is sharing more details about their work with OpenAI to create promotional videos using OpenAI's generative tool Sora. Devin Coldewey's main takeaway from their comments: The demo films that attracted all that attention last month didn't just emerge fully formed from Sora. Instead, they needed professional work like storyboarding, editing, and color correction. Read More What else we're reading Image Credits: Flickr/Jon S The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI's Sam Altman, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai will be among the executives on an Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board that will advise the Department of Homeland Security and provide recommendations on how different organizations can use AI safely. Read More Engadget's Cherlynn Low shared her first impressions of the latest generative AI device, the Rabbit R1. Even though Low is skeptical about this whole category, she said she'll be buying herself an R1. Read More Before you go I know tech news isn't supposed to go here, but come on: It's wild that Jeff Lawson bought The Onion. Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Got a tip? tips@techcrunch.com Question about our events? events@techcrunch.com Want to advertise on TechCrunch.com? advertise@techcrunch.com Interested in sponsoring live events? sponsors@techcrunch.com Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

Tesla Autopilot investigation closed

Inside the IBM-HashiCorp deal and Thoma Bravo takes another company private

View this email online in your browser By Christine Hall Friday, April 26, 2024 Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. It was a busy day, what with all the Tesla and M&A action going on. Take a gander at the latest Pitch Deck Teardown and remember to get your Disrupt speaker application in by midnight. Have a good weekend! TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Tesla Government tells Tesla its Autopilot warnings don't do enough: The electric vehicle maker's executives may be wiping off their brows now that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its long-standing investigation into Tesla's Autopilot driver-assistance system. However, the work has only just begun. Read More Inside the IBM-HashiCorp deal: Ron Miller and Alex Wilhelm take a look at whether this $6.4 billion deal is a good one — and whether it is going to be more complex than originally thought. Read More OpenAI Startup Fund raises $15 million: The OpenAI Startup Fund has a second special-purpose vehicle that will invest in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law and the sciences. Read More Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images Thoma Bravo takes another company private: This time it's U.K. cybersecurity company Darktrace. Paul writes that Darktrace "had previously rebuffed approaches from Thoma Bravo on the grounds that the offers were too low — something that the duo have now clearly resolved with the amended bid." I'm assuming $5 billion was an offer they couldn't refuse. Read More Extra, extra, read all about it: Audio journalism startup Curio raised $4.4 million for Rio, an "AI news anchor" designed to help readers connect with the stories and topics they're most interested in from trustworthy sources. Read More This is no joke: America's favorite satirical news publication The Onion has a new owner. He's the co-founder and former CEO of Twilio, and he's ready to help it make a change for the better. Read More Pitch Deck Teardown: Young companies have to start somewhere. Read what Haje had to say about NOQX's $200,000 pre-seed deck. Read More That's fake: Apple's claim that its App Store is trustworthy was tested this week when RockAuto, an auto parts dealer popular with home mechanics and other DIYers, asked for an imposter app to be removed from the App Store. You can pretty much guess what happened since we are writing about it. Read More Google wants to practice its English: Google is testing a new "Speaking practice" feature in Search that helps global users improve their conversational English skills. Read More Want to speak at Disrupt? Time is running out: Applications close at midnight. Read More Around the web Alphabet shares soar: CNBC reports Google's parent company saw shares shoot up 10% Friday following the announcement of better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and the approval of its first-ever dividend. Happiness is all around. A Barclays analyst wrote, "Google is in the sweet spot of accelerating growth, expanding margins while shipping product faster, and returning capital — basically proving the naysayers wrong." Read More  Intel is having a terrible, no good, very bad year: MarketWatch gets into Intel's less-than-stellar earnings and what it means for the chip maker's future. Read More  No one wants to pay for an Apple Vision Pro: Probably not a shocker to you that folks aren't lining up to separate themselves from $3,500. Even the Forbes reporter writes that "the price-tag alone was going to kill this thing before it ever had a chance to make a splash." What did Apple do? Slashed the number of shipments by half. Read More A MESSAGE FROM BRAINDATE Discover Braindate's transformative approach to networking Braindate's transformative approach to networking and learning has been embraced by leading tech conferences worldwide. Millions of connections around the world were created through Braindate at events. Learn how Braindate could elevate connections at your event. Contact our team TechCrunch Minute Rabbit's R1 vs. Humane's Ai Pin — which had the best launch?: In the battle between the Ai Pin and R1, and who will reign supreme, it will likely come down to preference. And how much you have in your wallet. Hit play and let's chat!  Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Got a tip? tips@techcrunch.com Question about our events? events@techcrunch.com Want to advertise on TechCrunch.com? advertise@techcrunch.com Interested in sponsoring live events? sponsors@techcrunch.com Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy