Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have the details on Perplexity's much-hyped AI web browser; we learn that Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as CEO of X; and we dig into Samsung's three new foldable phones. Dial in!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

☄️ Blast off: Perplexity launched its much-hyped AI-powered web browser, Comet, today. Right now it's only available for Perplexity Max subscribers and a small group of invitees. This is Perplexity's latest effort to challenge Google Search's online supremacy.

👋 See ya: Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as X's CEO after two years on the job. She didn't share why she was leaving or where she was going next. Her departure comes as the company is gearing up to release Grok 4 and as Grok has been drumming up controversy.

⌚️ Watch AI: Google announced that it is rolling out Gemini to watches that run Wear OS 4+. Google is also adding in Circle to Search capabilities. The company originally teased this back in May.

A Message from Persona

Verify more users without sacrificing security

Verify users during onboarding to fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, build trust, and protect your business and customers. Persona's low-code identity verification platform adapts to risk signals in real time — increasing friction for potential fraudsters while fast-tracking good users so you can maximize conversion and minimize risk.

Learn More

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: iMerit

💎 Quality over quantity: AI data startup iMerit believes better-quality data is the key to integrating AI tools at the enterprise level. It's now bringing its Scholars program out of beta, which encompasses a network of experts meant to help fine-tune generative AI models.

😣 Not again: Elon Musk's Grok continues to spew antisemitic narratives. X took down Grok's automated account yesterday to try to fix the issue. The company said it made a change to Grok's instructions to prevent it from happening again, but we'll see about that.

🎯 Taking aim at AI slop: YouTube says it's preparing to update its policies to crack down on the ability for creators to generate revenue off of "inauthentic" content. This includes mass-produced videos and other kinds of stuff easily created by generative AI.

📞 New phone, who dis? Samsung announced three new foldable phones at its Unpacked event today. While the company usually releases two new phones at a time, this year it introduced a third model, a cheaper option costing less than $1,000.

🎙️ Goodbye, SaaS: Dave Park, the co-founder and CEO of Narada AI, said on today's Equity podcast that he thinks SaaS will be going away as AI agents become the future of enterprise software. That's a pretty bold claim.

A Message from Head

Head AI replaces your entire marketing team

The arrival of Head, the world's first true AI marketer, isn't just sparking debate—it's signaling a reckoning. As AI like Head takes over your influencer, affiliate marketing, and more, it is rapidly outpacing human capabilities. Is this the end of marketing careers as we know them? The FOMO is real, the urgency undeniable.

Face the AI Future

Around the web

👶 An AI baby: People are turning to ChatGPT for seemingly everything these days — including conception. People struggling to conceive have started turning to ChatGPT for advice on how they can increase their chances.

⛏️ The data divide: For years, Big Tech companies have mined user data from developing nations and stored it in their headquarters — even if they're located in other countries. Not anymore. Governments in Nigeria, Vietnam, and others are now demanding that these companies store their civilians' data in the origin country.