Friday, August 9, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have a look at ChatGPT Voice Mode's tendency to randomly shout at you; the huge opportunity Amazon missed in India; a startup that wants to save us from humidity; and the biggest public debut by an Indian company in 2 years. We also have notes on a cybersecurity researcher who saved companies from paying ransom; an upcoming an air taxi network in LA; and YouTube getting a sleep timer. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: OpenAI

1. GPT-4o is going through its drunk toddler phase: The model powering ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode is OpenAI's first model trained on voice, text and image data. That means sometimes it does weird stuff, like mimicking the voice of the person speaking to it or randomly shouting in the middle of a conversation. I mean, mood — I do that, too, sometimes. I guess it's part of the process of learning how to hold a conversation. Read More

2. Amazon fumbled the ball in India: India is the world's most populous nation and its economy is set to reach $10 trillion by 2030, per Morgan Stanley. Despite tens of billions of dollars invested in the past 15 years, the country's e-commerce market only grew 12% last year. The quick-commerce market, on the other hand, has soared in the country. And it's a space that Amazon has ignored, much to the benefit of local startups. Read More

3. Say no to humidity: Not only does humidity make you less comfortable and turn your hair into a frizzy mess, it also strains air conditioning units. Transaera is developing a unique air conditioner for homes and apartments that uses a special material to diminish humidity before cooling the air, which should result in a more energy efficient cooling system. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Manjunath Kiran / AFP / Getty Images

Ola Electric gets a warm welcome on the public markets: India's largest maker of electric two-wheelers saw its stock surge 20% on its IPO, making it the biggest listing from an Indian firm in two years. The Softbank and Temasek-backed company is also one of the only micromobility companies to go public in recent years. Could this be the start of the second wave for micromobility? Read More

Rocket Lab's going places: The New Zealand-based space company has surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from last year. It's a good omen for Rocket Lab as it moves to become an "end-to-end space company" like SpaceX. Read More

From the dot-com era to AI: CloudPay started as a joint venture in 1996 to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients, but the company's not letting its age hold it back. It now has plans to add AI to its workflow automation suite, and just landed a $120 million round to build that out. Read More

Malicious hackers get pwned: A security researcher's efforts have resulted in six companies getting saved from having to pay hefty ransoms. Vangelis Stykas, a security researcher and CTO of Atropos.ai, unearthed rookie security flaws in the ransomware gangs' web infrastructure as part of a research project. Read More

Los Angeles is getting air taxis: Angelenos who routinely suffer multi-hour traffic delays must regularly daydream of hopping on an air taxi and getting across town in 10 minutes. That dream may just come true, thanks to Archer Aviation. The eVTOL startup said its LA air taxi network will likely be ready by 2026, and will include a vertiport at SoFi Stadium. Read More

Around the Web

FTX, Alameda are finally gonna shell out: The defunct crypto exchange and its sister trading firm have been ordered to pay $12.7 billion to creditors, ending a 20-month-long lawsuit from the U.S.' Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reports CoinDesk. FTX has committed to liquidation via bankruptcy to repay customers whose deposits were lost when it collapsed in 2022. Read More

Amazon teams up with TikTok, Pinterest: Social media has become ever more important for e-commerce, and Amazon doesn't want to miss out on that opportunity. The e-commerce giant has struck deals with TikTok and Pinterest to let users buy items featured on Amazon ads without leaving the social media apps, reports The Information. Read More

China's WeRide seeks $400M IPO in the U.S.: The autonomous vehicle company is gearing up for its long-awaited IPO after Chinese security regulators gave it the go-ahead last year. Bloomberg reports WeRide is seeking as much as $400 million, and a share sale may happen as early as next week. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Olly Curtis/Future / Getty Images

YouTube gets a sleep timer: One of YouTube's latest experiments is a sleep timer that pauses the video after a set period of time. It's not earth-shattering, and while I'm sure we all wish people would turn off the blue light before going to bed, this feature is certainly going to be handy for those who like to put on a long podcast or white noise to fall asleep. It's only available to Premium users, though. Read More