Thursday, May 23, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! Today, we have a spicy look into the lack of diversity in Meta's new AI advisory council; hot tips for getting into Y Combinator; regulation on AI content in political ads, and notes on updates to your favorite social media platforms. Let's get to it! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Alex Wong / Staff / Getty Images

1. The white men on Meta's AI advisory council: Meta has set up an AI advisory council to guide its technology and product roadmap, and (surprise, surprise) it's composed entirely of white men. AI is scary stuff fueled by data that can be discriminatory, and there's already a well-established track record of AI amplifying racial and sexual discrimination. This isn't about tokenistic representation – it's a necessity when AI products affect all of us. Read More

2. No one escapes the fundraising doldrums: Valar Ventures, one of the VC firms founded by Peter Thiel, has raised a $300 million fund — half the amount the firm raised for its last fund. To be fair, it's unclear how much Thiel is involved in Valar today, but the downsize is notable when compared to other venture firms. Maybe it's the result of low ROIs for LPs? Read More

3. This political ad was brought to you by AI: The FCC has proposed that political ads should disclose if they use AI-generated content, but it hasn't banned AI from being used in such ads. If passed, the bill could deter campaigners from relying on AI for ads — or it won't. It also assumes that the general public can override their cognitive biases and not take deepfakes too seriously. I, for one, am skeptical. Read More

A MESSAGE FROM DELINEA

Rising Challenges in Cyber Insurance: What Companies Must Know

A comprehensive survey sheds light on the critical aspects of cyber insurance, revealing more than just a 'check-the-box' necessity for organizations.

Learn More

Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: The Economic Club of Washington, D.C

The 'secret sauce' for getting into Y Combinator: Y Combinator accepts less than 1% of the applications it receives. Gary Tan, CEO and president of the accelerator, at a recent event handed out some useful tips for startups that want to stand out from the pack. Read More

Bluesky gets DMs: Social networking startup Bluesky has finally launched DMs. The company plans to support end-to-end encrypted messaging down the line, and group messages aren't there yet, either. Still, this is an important step for the social network, as it aims to compete against incumbents like X, Instagram and Facebook. Read More

Kia brings genAI to its new EV: Kia's new electric compact SUV, the Kia EV3, will feature a new voice assistant powered by ChatGPT. Carmakers seem intent to turn vehicles into smartphones on wheels and added more trendy features, many of which no one actually wants or needs. Still, a well-functioning voice assistant might actually prove to be useful. Read More

Vintage meat substitute gets a comeback: Finnish biotech startup Enifer is working on making a meat alternative that's based on something called Pekilo, a single-cell fungus-based protein that was originally developed in the '60s and '70s by the local paper industry. That's a cool confluence of tech from wildly different worlds if I've ever seen one. Read More

Under the sea: Google is building the first subsea fiber optic cable connecting Africa and Australia. Africa has been dealing with widespread outages due to faulty undersea cables, and Google is having none of that – it relies on resilient connectivity to deliver its services to customers and businesses after all, and advertisers have zero chill. Read More

Taming the power-hungry AI infrastructure: Swedish startup ZeroPoint, armed with €5 million in funding, thinks it has found a way to reduce how much power high-performance computing consumes. The startup has developed a novel memory compression technique that compresses and decompresses data within nanoseconds without losing anything. That's one way to make things greener. Read More

Remark pairs shoppers with product experts: Shopping is such a mission these days — there's too many products out there and so many fake reviews. Remark wants to simplify the process by pairing shoppers with high-quality product experts via live chats. Remark then uses those chats to train AI and create personas that can answer questions. Read More

Around the Web

Amazon investors vote against morally responsible resolutions: Amazon.com investors voted against all 14 resolutions that demanded the retailer have a soul, reports Reuters. Things like disclosing carbon emissions and directors' donations, and forming a committee to oversee AI development. Read More

OpenAI's image keeps getting worse: As if the recent Sky voice fiasco with Scarlett Johansson wasn't enough, Vox reported that employees looking to leave OpenAI needed to sign some serious NDAs, and if they refused, they were reportedly threatened with the loss of their vested equity. Sam Altman said he didn't know such provisions existed, and that OpenAI wouldn't do that anymore. But some leaked documents reveal that, actually, he very likely did know. Read More

X might hide likes: A director of engineering at X said that platform will make likes private, since public likes could discourage people from engaging with content that might be considered "edgy," reports Gizmodo. X Premium users have been able to hide likes for months, so this feature would likely roll out to the unpaid populace. Read More

A MESSAGE FROM ESPER

Overcoming Challenges with Operationalizing AI
at the Edge

Bridging the gap from an AI pilot to real-world impact is challenging, but not if you have the right tools to optimize deployment, reduce costs, and update with fluidity. It's not impossible — it's reality. Let's break it down.

Image Credits: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Biden wants to hire a seasoned meme lord: President Joe Biden's reelection campaign is looking for someone to manage its memes, and they're willing to pay up to $85,000 for it. Memes have become essential for swaying public opinion — the bastardization of Pepe the Frog into a right-wing hate symbol has taught us just how well that can work. Candidates need to meet voters where they are, and today, that's mostly online, and through memes. Read More