Fisker on the brink of collapse

Plus: ThreadsDeck makes our day and Canva's rap battle of the ages

View this email online in your browser By Christine Hall Friday, May 31, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch PM! We made it to Friday again, and this afternoon we look at several stories, including Fisker on the brink of collapse, a way to pin Threads, a venture capital firm that is still betting on Asia, voice cloning and a Pitch Deck Teardown. Have a great weekend! Today is your last day to save up to $800 on your Disrupt pass. Book your early-bird pass by 11:59 p.m. PT tonight!   TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Bryce Durbin Fisker's last days: Because of a parts shortage, Fisker cannibalized some returned cars for spare parts, including some used for marketing purposes. Henrik Fisker's Ocean SUV was among that group. Employees removed his car's steering wheel, some interior panels and even his driver's seat cushion for use in customer cars. Read more Meet ThreadsDeck: We are still mourning TweetDeck, but Meta is making us feel a bit better. After testing a way for Threads users to pin columns to the home screen of its desktop web app, Instagram is now rolling out this alternative view globally — just in time for everyone to discuss the hottest political news of the year: the Trump verdict. Read more Bitcoin crypto exchange hacked: Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed it was the victim of a hack resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin, or about $305 million. It's still investigating the leak and working to mitigate further thefts. Read more Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: Canva This is the summer's big rap battle: No, it's not between Drake and Kendrick Lamar — it's between Canva and an enterprise CIO. Canva's enterprise business model video was panned by many people on social media, but isn't it the point to get people talking? Read more Antler is still bullish on Asia: Asia's startup ecosystem hasn't been doing well in the past couple years, as everything from geopolitics to higher interest rates affected investors' willingness to write checks. Though there hasn't been a huge decline in the number of fundraising rounds, the rounds have shrunk — investors are no longer spending as much as they used to. Antler is an exception. Read more Targeting drones: ZeroMark wants to give soldiers a better system that can be attached to nearly any infantry rifle in around 30 seconds, all to boost the shooter's probability of taking out robotic "suicide" drones. Read more That sounds like me: Voice cloning startup ElevenLabs introduced its new tool for users to generate sound effects through prompts today. Now available to everyone, the tool allows users to type in prompts like "waves crashing," "metal clanging," "birds chirping" and "racing car engine" to generate snippets of sounds. Read more Pitch Deck Teardown: Haje Jan Kamps takes a closer look at RAW Dating App's $3 million angel deck. Read more Feds want a look at Zoox: U.S. federal regulators have requested more information from Zoox, Amazon's self-driving unit, as part of an investigation into rear-end crash risks posed by unexpected braking. Read more Instagram tests Reels feature: In a move to get out in front of TikTok, Instagram is testing a way for creators to experiment with Reels without having to display them on their profiles first. Read more Who's (not) IPO-ing and what's going on with BaaS?: Today on Equity's news roundup, the crew discusses what the collapse of fintech startup Synapse means for the companies and individuals that used their services. They also predict who will (and won't) be IPOing this year. Listen here. TechCrunch Minute Image Credits: Getty Images / MirageC Is meme tech the next big startup category?: Amanda Silberling wrote a fun piece about the launch of Meme Depot, where she mentioned the supposedly common practice of keeping reaction GIFs on your desktop computer or phone. Meme Depot is trying to create the biggest, best version of that folder. Hit play and let's chat! Around the web Battle of the app games: I play both Wordle and Worldle, and with the names being so similar, it's no surprise that now Wordle owner The New York Times has a problem with it … even though the games are nothing alike. The BBC has the story.  Read more Bill Ackman taking Pershing Square public: And to solidify the moment, Ackman is selling a stake in the company, The Wall Street Journal reports. The businessman made news lately after taking to X earlier this year posting comments that included a campaign to oust university presidents. Read more   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

It’s still too easy to make political deepfakes

Cloning voices of political figures has never been more accessible

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Friday, May 31, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch AM and a Happy Friday to you all! Today, we've got a concerning study about political deepfakes, SpaceX trying to recycle its ships, Temu getting the whip in the EU, Stripe going invite-only in India, and more. — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: dane_mark/DigitalVision 1. Launch your deepfakes in time for the elections: It is still way too easy to clone voices of political figures — a study has found that AI companies like Invideo AI, Veed, ElevenLabs, Speechify, Descript and PlayHT don't stop you from recreating political personalities' voices and getting them to say whatever. It's a terrifying reality that we just have to live with as we near a contentious election in the United States. Read More 2. Reduce, reuse, re-Starship: Elon Musk's SpaceX is getting ready to send its Starship rocket back into space so it can suss out whether its reusable heat shield can handle going into the atmosphere a second time. If successful, it could lead the company a step closer to the holy grail of reusable space launch vehicles. Read More 3. EU cracks down on Temu: Chinese e-commerce marketplace Temu, a simultaneous source of both temptation and ick, has come under greater scrutiny in the EU. The European Commission has designated Temu as a 'very large online platform' (VLOP), meaning it'll have to comply with much stricter rules. Read More A MESSAGE FROM TWILIO SEGMENT What can good data do for you? - Twilio Segment CDP Segment helps 25,000+ companies turn customer data into tailored experiences. With customer profiles that update real-time, and best in class privacy features - Segment's Customer Data Platform allows you to make good data available to every team. Good Data - Segment Morning Must Reads Image Credits: Cylib The EV battery recycling space is ripe for disruption, and Cylib wants to carve out a niche for itself. The German startup has raised €55 million from backers like World Fund and Porsche Ventures to bring its battery recycling capabilities to industrial scale in Europe. Read More Stripe reins in ops in India: Fintech giant Stripe said Indian businesses will no longer be able to sign up for new accounts through its website, and will instead need to request an invite. The company says this is due to an evolving regulatory landscape in the country, as India's central bank has changed up the rules for financial service providers quite a bit in the past couple years. Read More Spain tells Meta to stay out of its elections: Spain has banned Meta from launching features that would have collected data on voters in Spain ahead of next month's elections. The country's data protection authority, the AEPD, means business: It's using emergency powers from GDPR to protect its own territory. Will the U.S. do something similar to protect its own elections? LOL, no. Read More Meet your Disrupt speakers: Are you coming to TechCrunch Disrupt this October in San Francisco? You totally should, because the lineup is pretty sick, if we may say so ourselves. We're bringing together voices from across the industry to talk about cool topics like connecting startups with banks, real-world genAI applications, how to stand out in the age of AI, and so much more. Read More Around the Web Is Siri finally going to be useful?: Apple's next operating system for iPhones, iOS 18, will apparently bring an overhauled version of Siri that's powered by AI, reports Bloomberg. Honestly, it's about time, because Siri is as useful as a brick most of the time. I'm excited to see how integrations with ChatGPT and potentially, Gemini, will turn out. Read More Google says its AI Snippets aren't hallucinating: Hilarious examples of Google's AI Snippets feature getting things absolutely wrong are the rage these days, but Google contends its model isn't hallucinating when it tells you to use glue to get cheese to stick to pizza. Rather, it's just picking the top web results and misinterpreting nuance, reports 9to5Google. Read More Threads gets more features: Threads is rolling out a redesigned desktop site that gives you TweetDeck-like features, allowing you to customize your homepage, reports The Verge. That'll definitely make it easier for users to wean themselves off X. Read More Before You Go Image Credits: Westend61 / Getty Images Your Startup Ad Here: Boston-based OneScreen is bringing billboards into the current era in a bid to help more startups get noticed. The company's software helps startups find the right placement for their physical ads, like billboards and subway ads, based on demographic, historical and geographic data. Read More 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