Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we look at Duolingo's recent embrace of AI; we learn of Wikipedia's new AI strategy — which is very different from Duolingo's approach; and we get an update on the secondaries market.

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Getty Images

😐 Do people want this? Language learning company Duolingo announced that it's releasing 148 new language courses that were developed by AI. This comes just days after the company said it would replace its contractors with AI. Many users don't seem happy with either announcement.

👋 Moving on: Intel's EVP and chief commercial officer, Christoph Schell, will be leaving the semiconductor giant on June 30 after three years at the company. This comes as Intel continues to shake up its personnel, adding a new CEO in March and a new AI chief this month.

🇺🇸 USA, USA! Anthropic doubled down on its support for the U.S. increasing export controls on AI chips in a blog post today. The company also offered some possible revisions to the "Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" that include lowering the number of chips countries can buy without restriction.

A Message from HSBC Innovation Banking

HSBC helps evolectric transition vehicles to 100% electric

Evolectric makes it easy for owners to give their fleets a new lease on life. Discover how HSBC helps connect them to the right investors, resulting in an extended runway and growth plans for both domestic and international markets.

Watch Now

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Nuvo

🗣️ B2B social networking: Nuvo is a startup that built a social-media-like platform to help facilitate purchases of physical goods, like lumber or building materials, between two businesses. Nuvo is taking on an $11 trillion industry and just raised $34 million.

🧍Human first: Wikipedia announced a new AI strategy today, but never fear — Wiki is not getting rid of its community of human editors and volunteers. Instead the AI will be used to build new features that "remove technical barriers," which sounds like an AI strategy that makes everyone happy.

🎙️ Secondaries' second act: Today's episode of Equity looks at the changing nature of the secondaries market with Jared Carmel, the founder and managing partner of Manhattan Venture Partners. Carmel talked about the rise of retail investors, how the lack of IPOs is fueling the secondaries market, and more.

✈️ More models: App development tool company JetBrains released an "open" AI model for coding called Mellum. The company said this model took about 20 days to train and was trained on licensed code from GitHub and Wikipedia articles.

🤫 Privacy policy: Meta updated the privacy policy for its AI glasses, Ray-Ban Meta, to give Meta more power over what data it can store and use to train AI. I have a hard time believing that anyone who'd put an AI model-training device on their face cares too much about privacy.

A Message from TechCrunch Events

Last days — buy one, get second 50% off to TC Sessions: AI

Last chance for Early Bird pricing to TechCrunch Sessions: AI! Buy one ticket, get the second 50% off — or go solo and save up to $210. Join us June 5 in Berkeley, California, for AI deep dives with leaders from DeepMind, Anthropic, Odyssey, OpenAI, TwelveLabs, and more. Connect with other AI leaders in unmatched networking. Offer ends May 4 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Around the web

🛒 The hidden cost: It's hard to fathom the logistics that go into the fast delivery required for e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu to operate. The Information takes a look at one of their venture-backed delivery partners, UniUni, and it isn't pretty.

😒 Big sigh: 404Media found that when asked, AI chatbots on Instagram will lie and say that they are licensed therapists and even make up fake credentials and license numbers. Wow, I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Featured jobs from CrunchBoard

Software Engineer, Revive Health (Boston, MA)

IT Finance Assistant, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA)

Technical Business Systems Analyst, Air Line Pilots Association (Tysons, VA)

Partnerships Manager, Clearscope (Remote)

Sr. IT Security Engineer - Computing Services, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, 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 Events
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

View this email online in your browser

By Rebecca Bellan

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at the drastic decrease in apps on the Google Play Store; Figure AI's cease-and-desists; and OpenAI toning down ChatGPT's sycophancy. We've also got notes on: pro-cheating AI vs. anti-cheating AI; sales tax compliance in the age of tariffs; fresh funds for AI that solves real pain points; a creepy new wearable, and more. Let's go! – Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP / Getty Images

It looks worse than it is: Since the start of 2024, the Google Play Store has seen a 47% decline in apps hosted on the marketplace. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering the sheer number of scammy, spammy, poor-quality apps that were on the app store. Read More

Curiouser and curiouser: Robotics startup Figure AI's CEO Brett Adcock has been trumpeting how hot his company's private stock is on the secondary markets. Yet, Figure sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two brokers who run secondary marketplaces, saying they weren't authorized to sell its shares. Read More

No one likes a people pleaser: OpenAI says it has rolled back the latest update to GPT-4o after people complained that ChatGPT was being too much of a Yes Man. The company explained what happened and how it would steer the chatbot away from being too "sycophantic." Read More

A Message from RemoFirst

Grow your international team affordably

Ready to expand your team globally? Don't gamble with compliance or take risky employment shortcuts. RemoFirst enables you to employ international talent in 185+ countries while meeting all global compliance requirements (including AML and KYC). See why startups & Fortune 500 companies choose RemoFirst for their global HR management.

Employ International Talent

Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Cluely

🛡️ The modern cheatbook argument: AI cheating startup Cluely went viral recently for its bold claims that it can help users "cheat on anything." But some startups are claiming they can detect Cluely's "undetectable" in-browser window, Meanwhile, Cluely says it wants to come up with brain chips to bypass anti-cheating software altogether. Read More

☀️ Making hay: Against a backdrop of increasingly complex cross-border tax regulations, sales tax compliance startup Kintsugi has raised $18 million and doubled its valuation in six months. The startup says it wants to be the Uber for tax compliance. Read More

⛏️ Selling shovels: Cast AI wants to ease the resource headache that comes with all the work that goes into training and running AI workloads. It just raised a $108 million Series C at a close to $900 million valuation off the back of strong growth and some big name partnerships. "We are partnering with the entire ecosystem," said its CEO Yuri Frayman. Read More

💼 Par-AI-legal: Supio has raised $60 million to further scale its AI tool that automates data collection and analysis for legal teams. It aims to help attorneys and paralegals avoid spending hours and hours reviewing medical records, police reports, and expert opinions. Read More

🖼️ A contender: Online graphic design platform Freepik has released a new "open" AI image model that it says was trained exclusively on licensed, "safe-for-work" images. While Freepik is late to the game, relying on licensed work could be a boon for the company as incumbents face a slew of copyright infringement lawsuits. Read More

A Message from TechCrunch Events

Greece's Prime Minister joins StrictlyVC on May 8

For the first time ever, StrictlyVC is coming to Greece! Join us May 8 in Athens with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Europe's top tech leaders Simon Schaefer (Factory & EU Inc. Petition), John Tsioris (Revotech), Panos Papadopoulos (Marathon Venture Capital), and more to dive into Greece's booming innovation scene.

Around the Web

💔Couples counseling is cheaper: The Verge has a story about a smart ring concept that could let you know when your romantic partner is cheating on you. This dystopian loyalty tracker is from the folks behind dating app RAW, and I truly hope it's a publicity stunt, because the implied risk to privacy here is astounding. Read More

👬 Can AI make a good wingman? Grindr is using AI tools from Amazon and Anthropic to develop features for its "Wingman" product, per Bloomberg. Included in the product roadmap is "A-List," which curates "meaningful past connections, high-potential matches" and chat summaries so users can pick up where they left off with someone who might have unintentionally ghosted them. Read More

🚸 Smart move: The Finnish Parliament has voted to ban mobile devices used by kids during class time, per local news outlet Yle. Fingers crossed other countries follow suit. Read More

Before You Go

🤳 Keeping it not simple: Snapchat is dropping plans for a simplified version of its app. It had been testing making the Snap Map and Stories tabs a little less readily available, but found that "power users" don't want to search for their favorite stalking-adjacent features. Read More