Why Apple sends spyware victims to a nonprofit

Also: The South Korean 'Genius Girl' who closed a $100M AI fund

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Friday, December 20, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got notes on Sam Altman's stake in OpenAI, a new AI fund out of South Korea, and Apple's strategy for dealing with spyware attacks. We've also got stories on a new startup by Twitch's former CEO, fresh truckloads of cash for Perplexity, startups helping industries wrap their heads around AI, and more.  Before we jump in, a quick heads up that TechCrunch AM will be on break next week, so we'll see you in 2025! Happy Holidays! — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg / Getty Images 1. Oh, you mean that equity: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has always said he doesn't have an equity stake in the company, claiming he runs it out of love. But it turns out he did have a stake through a Sequoia fund that he's since sold. Read More 2. From Genius Girl to Silicon Valley: Songyee Yoon was so dedicated to her work at university that she became the inspiration for a South Korean TV show character. Today, armed with an PhD from MIT and experience running video game developer NCSoft, Yoon has launched Principle Venture Partners, a $100 million fund to back AI startups. Read More 3. Apple doing the right thing: When people become targets of spyware attacks, Apple alerts them and sends them to Access Now, a nonprofit and digital helpline. Cybersecurity experts who work with human rights defenders agree that Apple's approach is the right one. Read More   A Message from ICU Medical Technologies KronoSafe® by Startup ICU Medical Technologies: Safer, Faster, and More Efficient Temporary Cardiac Pacing KronoSafe® is the first temporary pacemaker with active-fixation leads, reducing complications from 35% to just 5%. ICU Medical Technologies' groundbreaking system enhances safety, shortens ICU stays by 75%, and provides out-of-hospital cardiac stimulation solutions that are compatible with most pacemaker generators. This revolutionary solution can generate up to 50% savings compared to standard care costs. Learn More   Morning must-reads Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons 🪄 The problem of AI alignment: TC's Kyle Wiggers got the scoop that Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is launching a new startup. Stem AI is currently in stealth, but public documents show the startup is developing software for AI that "understands, cooperates with, and aligns with human behavior…" Read More 🫧 How big can the bubble get? Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million round at a $9 billion valuation as it goes toe-to-toe with OpenAI in the AI-powered search market. The fundraise comes a week after Perplexity acquired Carbon. Read More 🎥 And just like that: TuSimple is embracing its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company's new name is CreateAI, but it's still dealing with drama over its attempts to pivot and send its U.S. cash to China. Read More  📦 Seriously, where's my package? The logistics industry is an essential one, even though it can be fragmented and inefficient at times. Is it ready to be disrupted by AI agents? Boon thinks so, and it's just raised $20.5 million to prove that out. Read More 🥽 Do you have protection? Mindgard, a British university spinoff, is one of several startups that have emerged to help companies handle the unique threats that come from integrating new AI capabilities. Like playing a game of whack-a-mole, no doubt. Read More 💶 Angels on steroids: Europe has seen a rise in the number of firms run by solo general partners setting out on their own. One of the latest, Robin Capital, just closed a €15 million fund. Robin Haak, the firm's GP, spoke to TC's Mike Butcher about the challenges of raising in today's venture environment and his hopes for the fund. Read More   A Message from Comprehensive.io FREE real-time salary data from 5,000 startups Want to see what other companies are paying for a given role? Comprehensive.io offers salary data from 5,000 tech companies and startups, giving you insight into how pay is trending in the job market right now. View Free Data   Around the web 🤖 Generalized robotics is hard to achieve, because robotics doesn't have the same internet-scale dataset that LLMs have. But a group of researchers this week unveiled Genesis, a new open-source simulator that lets robots practice tasks in simulation 430,000 times faster than they can in the real world, reports Ars Technica. Read More 🪃 Fair dinkum! Australia passed one of the strictest laws banning kids under 16 from using social media that holds platforms responsible for verifying kids' ages. NPR spoke to Julie Inman Grant, Australia's internet enforcer, about how it'll work and what the unintended consequences of the regulation could be. Read More 🚦 Nvidia has gotten the green light from the EU to buy Israeli startup Run:ai, reports Bloomberg. The EU was investigating whether the deal would be bad for competition, but found that other software compatible with Nvidia's hardware will still be available in the market. Read More Before you go Image Credits: Toyota 🏀 Nothin' but net: Toyota researchers have created a humanoid robot that can shoot hoops, and how. It currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive free throws by a humanoid robot. Now they just have to get it to say "Kobe!" after every shot. Watch Now Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations, Parsons Corporation (Remote) Systems Integrator & DBA, Air Line Pilots Association (Tysons, VA) Startup Backend Engineer, Athlete To Athlete (Santa Monica, CA) Senior Network Operations Engineer, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Manager of Unified Technology Solutions, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA) 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. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

Google releases its own 'reasoning' AI model

Plus: Chime files to IPO

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Szkutak Thursday, December 19, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch TC PM! Today we dive into Google's new "reasoning" model; we learn about a new VC pledge against taking money from controversial sources; and we've got the scoop on Anysphere's new funding round. Let's do it! TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Maxwell Zeff 🧠 Another day, another "reasoning" model: Today it is Google's turn to release a "reasoning" AI model, or a model that fact-checks itself. The new model is beautifully named Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, and as the name suggests, it's still in the experimental stage. Read more 🚕 Robotaxis, y'all: Tesla might be getting closer to having its robotaxis on the road. The company is evaluating multiple cities in the Lone Star state to test its long-awaited robotaxi service. Austin seems to be at the top of the list. Read more 💵 Non-controversial capital: More than 20 venture firms have signed a pledge, the Clean Capital Certification, that says they haven't taken money from China, Iran, Cuba, or Russia. Read more   A Message from Carta Save on QSBS The tax rules around Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) can save founders millions — but only if it's done properly. With Carta 409A + QSBS plans, experts are here to help. Sign up before the end of the year and save big. Get 30% on 409A and QSBS attestation with Carta, or bundle with Carta cap table, and save 35%. Offer ends December 31. Schedule a Demo   Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images 💳 What's an IPO? Digital bank Chime has filed its confidential paperwork to go public. This isn't the biggest surprise, as the company hired Morgan Stanley bankers back in September. Regardless, this will be welcome news to the venture community. Read more 💰 Cash for a coding assistant: AI coding assistant startup Anysphere raised its second round of funding in four months, securing $100 million in this latest round that values it at $2.6 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital. Read more 📈 Dollars for Decart: Decart, a startup building a fully integrated AI research lab, raised a $32 million round that values the company at more than $500 million just months after it emerged from stealth. Read more 🫵 Knock, knock, it's the GDPR: The Bavarian data protection authority, which enforces the rules of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, told Sam Altman's World (Worldcoin) company that it would have to comprehensively delete user data if they request it. Read more 🎨 AI airbrushing: Instagram teased a new set of AI tools that would allow creators to change essentially everything in a video using text prompts. While the tools look impressive in the video Instagram released, who knows how they will look in practice. Read more   A Message from Comprehensive.io FREE real-time salary data from 5,000 startups Want to see what other companies are paying for a given role? Comprehensive.io offers salary data from 5,000 tech companies and startups, giving you insight into how pay is trending in the job market right now. View Free Data   Around the web ⛔️ Well, well, well: In the U.K., the Creative Rights in AI Coalition has rejected a proposal from the Labour government to make a copyright exemption to help AI companies train their models. I can't say this is surprising. Read more 🙌 Building and transitioning: Building a startup is hard in every circumstance, but even more so when a founder is also simultaneously going through a large change in their life. Cadstrom founder Margot Blouin knows this well: She launched her AI startup while transitioning her gender to live openly as a woman. Read more Featured jobs from CrunchBoard Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations, Parsons Corporation (Remote) Systems Integrator & DBA, Air Line Pilots Association (Tysons, VA) Startup Backend Engineer, Athlete To Athlete (Santa Monica, CA) Senior Network Operations Engineer, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) Manager of Unified Technology Solutions, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA) 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. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy