Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have some more clarity into what the billionaires who backed Trump are getting in return; details of a long-awaited IPO in the making; and the beginning of ads on AI chatbots. We've also got notes on real-time AI translators, what could be Apple's new smart home product, 23andMe's hard restructuring, and more. Let's get going! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post / Getty Images

1. Absolute power: Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk will co-lead the "Department of Government Efficiency," which, in typical Elon fashion, shortens to DOGE. He's doing it alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who has called climate change a hoax, but it seems this "department" won't be an official government agency. Read More

2. Buy now, IPO later: Klarna is getting ready for its public debut on the U.S. stock market. Is this a sign that the IPO market is ready to come back to life? Investors will be thrilled. Read More

3. AI chatbot ads are here: Perplexity will start experimenting with bringing ads to its platform this week. Ads from brands like Indeed and Whole Foods will show up as sponsored follow-up questions to user queries. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: DeepL under a license.

🗣️ Real-time translations are getting better: DeepL, the German startup with a $2 billion valuation, has upped its AI translation game. Now, users can use DeepL Voice to listen to someone speaking in one language and have it translated to another in real time. Read More

🥡 You lose some, you lose some: Just Eat Takeaway.com is offloading its U.S. business Grubhub to NY-based Wonder Group. The deal is valued at just $650 million – a huge yikes considering the $7.3 billion the Netherlands-based company paid for Grubhub four years ago. Read More

🍎 We're an Apple house: Apple is gearing up to announce a new smart home hub, which is reportedly centered around a wall-mounted tablet, in 2025. And yes, it will feature Apple Intelligence. Read More

⚔️ Disinformation siloes: Generative AI-produced disinformation is shaping up to be a different kind of threat than most initially thought. But at least there are some, like TrueMedia, taking up the sword to fight against the onslaught. Read More

🧬 Have you deleted your data yet? 23andMe is cutting 40% of its staff, or more than 200 employees, in the wake of a massive cyberattack and a board upheaval following CEO Anne Wojcicki's attempt to take the company private. Read More

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Around the web

👀 So big brother is watching! 404 Media has obtained hundreds of internal Secret Service emails which detail debate among officials whether they need a warrant to use location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on smartphones. Because apparently, you signed away your rights by accepting those T&Cs that nobody reads. Read More

💊 New drugs: Google DeepMind has released the source code and model weights of AlphaFold3 for academics to use, which could accelerate scientific discoveries and drug development, reports VentureBeat. Read More

🔮 Will the U.S. soon be the crypto capital of the world? I'll let the New York Times say it – "A cryptocurrency enthusiast as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. A presidential committee stacked with industry loyalists. And legislation to let crypto companies operate freely in the United States." Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: YouTube

🎵 Stop! It's the AI remix: YouTube is testing a feature that will let creators remix tracks by describing how they want to change the style of the song, which will then produce a 30-second snippet to be used in Shorts. 'My Heart Will Go On,' but make it dance pop. Read More