Thursday, November 21, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! Today we are looking at an update to Threads' algorithm; new oversight for digital financial service companies; and WhatsApp's new transcriptions. It's go time!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty Images

🧵 An algorithm update we can all get behind: Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's Threads, posted that the social media site will be tweaking its algorithm to show users more content from the people they follow. Wow! It's almost like people follow other people for a reason. Read more

🧐 If it looks like a bank, it's a bank: The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just ruled that any digital service that handles a significant number of transactions should be subject to bank-like oversight. Read more

📝 Transcript time: WhatsApp announced today that it will be rolling out transcripts for its voice messages. WhatsApp claims these transcripts are generated on your device and can't be viewed by anyone else. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: MANDEL NGAN/AFP / Getty Images

👀 FCC changes: Jessica Rosenworcel agreed to step down from her role as chair of the Federal Communications Commission when Donald Trump takes office in January. She joined the agency in 2012 and was the first woman to hold the role. Read more

💵 Cash for Crusoe Energy: Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers that will supposedly be leased to customers like Microsoft and Oracle, has raised $686 million toward an $818 million funding round, according to an SEC filing. Read more

🪫 Battery bankruptcy: Swedish lithium ion battery startup Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This comes after the company, which has raised an eye-watering $14.26 billion, was allegedly burning $100 million a month. Read more

🌝 SpaceX signs another deal: SpaceX's Starship test program just signed its second commercial deal as the program gains momentum. The deal has SpaceX depositing a rover for Lunar Outpost on the moon by 2029. Read more

📚 Additional audiobook features: Spotify is rolling out new audiobook features that include the author pages, video clips, and the ability to have visuals appear while a user listens. This is all cool and fun, but isn't the point of an audiobook to just listen? Read more

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Around the web

🙄 Wow I'm shocked AI reporters didn't work: It doesn't look like AI will take too many reporter jobs anytime soon. A local paper in Hawaii fired its AI reporters just a few months after it hired them. Wired has more

🇨🇦 Clinical trials in Canada: Elon Musk's brain implant company, Neuralink, is heading north. The company announced today that it has been approved to run clinical trials up in Canada; it's already implanted its tech into one patient here in the U.S. Read more