Also: Sometimes, a tweet is better than any pitch deck
Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we bring you notes on how a tweet changed the lives of three founders; a new VC fund for AI safety; and why Americans can't stop buying Chinese goods. We've also got: tools to manage geopolitical risk; details of OpenAI's talks with Windsurf; Netflix's AI dreams; Discord's troubles, and more. Let's go! — Rebecca | | | 1. Tweetin' to success: Defense tech startup Theseus came about after its three young founders built a cheap, but impressive, drone at a hackathon, and then one of them tweeted about it. Next minute, the tweet went viral, landing them in Y Combinator and a testing deal with the U.S. Special Forces. Read More 2. Tiering up: OpenAI is launching Flex, an API option that offers lower AI model usage prices in exchange for slower response times and occasional resource unavailability. It's a bid to be more competitive with rivals like Google. Read More 3. Can't stop consumerism: Americans really don't want to give up on their cheap Chinese-made goods. Chinese shopping app Taobao has joined DHgate in the Top 5 of the U.S. App Store as customers flock to buy amid Trump's tariffs. Read More | | | Image Credits: Web Summit | 🦺 Being careful is in again: Geoff Ralston, who spent years at Y Combinator, has launched a new fund called Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund dedicated to funding startups that "enhance AI safety, security, and responsible deployment." That means not backing startups that build things like autonomous weapons. Read More 🌊 Dealing with an unruly world: Trump's tariffs have put the spotlight on the growing geopolitical risk that all businesses face. A startup called Hence AI wants to help with an AI business advisor that scans thousands of sources to provide you with a tailored daily briefing to manage that risk. Read More 💴 Buy > build: Talk of OpenAI buying Windsurf has raised some eyebrows. After all, if the ChatGPT maker wanted to buy an AI coding company, why not just buy out Anysphere, one of its portfolio companies? Apparently, OpenAI did approach Anysphere at least twice, but the talks failed. Read More 🌏 Not for the planet: Petrochemical giant Occidental has bought its second direct air capture startup in two years, Holocene. But Occidental's interest in carbon capture is less about the environment and more about using the captured CO2 to get more oil out of wells. Read More ➕ Taking advantage of DOGE: Expense management startup Ramp hopes to take advantage of DOGE's promise to update the government's tech. The company told TC that it's being considered for a charge card pilot program by the General Services Administration. Read More | | | 🔒 Using AI for security: Exaforce just landed $75 million from Khosla, Mayfield Fund, and Thomvest to bring its AI agents to security operations centers, per Crunchbase News. As one investor Umesh Padval said, agentic AI can "make cybersecurity professionals more effective." Read More 👊 Discord at Discord: New Jersey is suing Discord for allegedly "deceptive and unconscionable business practices" that put kids in danger, and weakly enforced policies to protect children, Wired reports. Read More | | | 👀 Anything to keep you watching: Netflix is adding generative AI to its search in order to "improve" the discovery and recommendation experience so that viewers can more easily increase their screen time. Read More | | | Featured jobs from CrunchBoard | | | Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. | | | Update your preferences here at any time | | Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 680 Folsom Street,San Francisco,CA | | | | |
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