Friday, October 4, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! We've got plenty of AI stories (everyone's favorite!) on deck for you this morning, including some philosophical notes on what AGI even is, and whether "the law" is worth following. We're also reading about Waymo's new whips, Rivian's falling deliveries, more drama at Automattic, Russian hackers, and more. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Craig Barritt / Getty Images

1. What even is AGI? If you're confused about artificial general intelligence, don't feel bad. Even Fei-Fei Li, the so-called "godmother of AI," says she doesn't quite know what it is either. She's too focused on other more important AI things to find out. Read More

2. Don't tread on me: There's a new California AI bill that requires companies developing generative AI to publish a high-level summary of the data they used to train their systems. Few say they will comply. Read More

3. The AI hype ain't over: TC got the scoop that investors are scrambling to get a piece of AI audio startup ElevenLabs, which is raising a new round that could value it at $3 billion. Read More

Sponsored by Bank of America

What's next for tech companies

Read the latest insights on how tech companies can manage the challenge of raising capital and what they can do to keep growing.

Read Now

Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Rivian

🪫 Reduced output: Rivian says it will build fewer EVs this year than it did in 2023 due to a supply chain issue. Deliveries in the third quarter are also down compared to last quarter. It's a precarious time for the EV maker as it gears up to launch a lower-cost SUV. Read More

🤖 Data minimization: Sorry, Meta. The EU's top court has said that the social media giant can't just keep using people's information to spam them with ads indefinitely. Read More

🚗 Way mo' cars: Waymo is teeing up with Hyundai to bring the IONIQ 5 EV to its robotaxi network as it scales up its business. Those are the same vehicles that struggling AV startup Motional was using, which leads me to think: What's going on over there? Read More

🍿 Agree to disagree: Automattic employees are not impressed with how their CEO Matt Mullenweg has handled the scrap with WP Engine, so he told them to shape up or ship out. About 159 employees decided to leave, opting for a decent severance package. Read More

🌎 Jumping ship: Yet another OpenAI executive is leaving, and this time it's Tim Brooks, one of the co-leads on the company's video generator, Sora. He's off to help Google DeepMind build a world simulator. Read More

A Message from Radar

Stop overpaying for Google Maps

Radar is the all-in-one, cost-effective alternative to Google Maps Platform. Save up to 90% on geocoding, autocomplete, routing, and base maps. Thousands of companies use Radar's location tracking SDKs and maps APIs, including Panera, DICK'S Sporting Goods, T-Mobile, Zillow and more.

Learn More

Around the Web

🇳🇿 Drama down under: The New Zealand government is weighing up a law to force tech giants to pay up for content on their feeds, per Reuters. In classic Google fashion, the company has threatened to stop linking to NZ news content. Read More

🙈 A Russian hacking front: Ever think about visiting a 'nudify' site that uses AI to undress photos of people? Well, then you might deserve what's coming. Fin7's sites are honeypots for creeps that actually serve as vehicles for Russian malware, reports 404 Media. Read More

👑 Come for the king, best not miss: Bloomberg has a feature that explores how Sam Altman has concentrated power at the top after an exodus of executives, many of whom were involved in last year's attempt to oust the CEO. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Meta

🦛 Long live Moo Deng: Meta's latest generative video model, Movie Gen, can turn text prompts into relatively realistic video with sound, which means we can now have unlimited videos of Moo Deng, the unbelievably cute pygmy hippo. The model can't do voices yet, though. Read More