Monday, June 30, 2025

Spotify adds recommendation tweaks to Discover Weekly

Monday, June 30, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! It's Ram again taking over for Rebecca. This morning, we're reading about a long overdue update to Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist, a VC investor's thoughts on AI and consulting, and why not all jobs are threatened by AI just yet. We've also got a bunch more stories lined up from the weekend, so let's dive in!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Spotify

1. More post-metal, please: After 10 years, Spotify has finally updated its Discover Weekly playlist, which now features new controls that let you push the playlist's recommendations in a certain direction. Read More

2. They say if you chant "software-like margins" 13 times on a moonless night, you'll summon a horde of venture capitalists. I joke, but Navin Chaddha, managing director of Mayfield, thinks AI is set to make such margins a reality for people-heavy industries like consulting, law, and accounting. That is why, he says, startups should focus on neglected markets instead of fighting with consulting firms. Read More

3. No, AI's not taking over just yet, and the proof is in the pudding. A bunch of researchers recently put Anthropic's Claude to the test, putting it in charge of a vending machine. The poor bot tried its best, but got fooled into filling its fridge with tungsten cubes, was easily fooled, and even got talked into giving "Anthropic employees" discounts. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Apple

👍 Entering the big leagues: Apple's finally got a box office hit with 'F1', which is currently topping the charts. The film may not earn back its $200 million budget, but the win comes after a long string of releases that have often fallen short of success at the box office. Read More

🎉 A huge win: Commonwealth Fusion Systems has potentially landed a major customer. Google just promised to buy 50% of the startup's first fusion reactor's output, and has also invested in a major funding round. Read More

👀 Finally: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that Sam Altman-backed World, which aims to scan everyone's eyeballs to verify that they're human, presents significant risks to user privacy in how it's going about the process. Read More

📚 Change is not always good: A slate of authors have penned an open letter to publishers, urging them to limit how much AI they use, and preserve some jobs for people, like audiobook narration. The letter also argues that AI companies have stolen authors' work. Read More

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Around the Web

🛑 Not everything's supposed to go viral: The U.K.'s Ofcom is considering holding social network companies accountable for what goes viral on their platforms, particularly illegal content, the BBC reports. The regulator also wants platforms to use tech to proactively detect content that could be harmful to children. Read More

🎮 Mama mia! Nintendo has pulled its Switch 2 console from Amazon's U.S. store after it found that third-party merchants were selling games for cheap on the site, Bloomberg reports. Amazon tried to assuage Nintendo with labels of authenticity, but Nintendo wasn't satisfied. Read More

Before You Go

🤝 A deal in the making? U.S. President Donald Trump has apparently found buyers for TikTok. It's a "group of very wealthy people," Trump said, adding that he'll say who they are in a couple of weeks. Read More

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Sunday, June 29, 2025

Cybercrime gang targets transportation

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By Anthony Ha

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images

A collective of young, largely English-speaking hackers called Scattered Spider is now targeting airlines and the transportation sector, according to cybersecurity experts.

The warning comes after at least two airlines have reported intrusions in the last month, including a WestJet incident that media reports have already connected to Scattered Spider.

The group previously targeted the retail sector, insurance agencies, hotel chains, casinos, and even tech companies. Scattered Spider is known for using deceptive tactics like social engineering and phishing to steal sensitive data, and it has also been connected to threats of violence.

Keep reading to see what else TechCrunch is covering this weekend.

Weekend news and opinion

Image Credits: Artur Widak/NurPhoto / Getty Images

TikTok tests brand messaging tool: TikTok's new "bulletin boards" feature sounds similar to Instagram's broadcast channels, allowing brands and creators to share one-to-many messages with their followers. Early testers include People magazine and the Jonas Brothers.

YouTube's video editing app is coming to iPhones: Job listings reveal that Google is looking to hire engineers in India to work on a version of the YouTube Create app for iOS. The app is a free tool for content creators.

Jesse Draper closes $30 million fund: The investor's Halogen Ventures has raised a third fund to invest in startups building the "future of the family."

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What else we're reading 📗

In an attempt to assess how AI is actually transforming work right now, journalist Brian Merchant solicited anonymous testimonials from employees at companies like Google, TikTok, and Adobe, with an initial focus on workers who were laid off due to AI. One said that AI killed their previous job at Adobe and is already poised to have a similar effect on their new role in the public sector.

Also, I got a chance to watch "M3GAN 2.0" with Engadget's Devindra Hardawar, so I was eagerly awaiting his review, which looks at how the campy horror franchise reflects our current AI anxieties.