Friday, November 1, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have details of Amazon's plans for a smarter Alexa, smartphone maker Nothing possibly building an OS, and OpenAI getting slowed down by reality. We also have notes on Oura's latest acquisition, AI-generated video games, Meta's aim to increase AI slop on the internet, and the very real problems of the people building Saudi Arabia's NEOM urban area. — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

1. OpenAI cannot compute: The AI company's CEO Sam Altman says it can't ship products as often as it would like to because it simply doesn't have enough compute capacity. Astounding, given how much the company has spent on AI infrastructure, but maybe it's a sign that going a tad slower with this revolutionary technology would be better, and more realistic, for everyone. Read More

2. Will Alexa get smarter? Amazon CEO Andy Jassy hinted that it's working on a smarter, better version of Alexa that could take actions on a user's behalf. It's interesting the company is doubling down on Alexa despite losing billions on both the assistant and related devices. Read More

3. Time to disrupt the mobile OS market: Carl Pei, founder and CEO of Nothing, confirmed that the company is exploring building its own mobile operating system. The OS, he says, could bring in a new revenue stream for the company while making an impact. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Anu Duggal, founding partner, Female Founders Fund. Image Credits: Noam Galai / Getty Images

✊ Return of the mack: The Female Founders Fund has returned its $5.85 million Fund I after ten years. It might not seem like a lot, but it's great news that will boost the optics of investing in women founders across Silicon Valley. That is, for those who aren't blinded by the backlash against all things DEI. Read More

💍 One ring maker to bind them: Oura has acquired Sparta Science, a health tracking startup, marking the smart ring maker's third acquisition in two years. Sparta's health platform Trinsic tracks health vitals for enterprise clients, and will be integrated into Oura Business. Read More

⛴️ Lift all the boats: BBG Ventures has raised a new $60 million fund to support founders from "diverse backgrounds" — and that covers gender, race, age, and class. The fund usually supports only women, but is opening it up as funding to underprivileged and underrepresented founders continues to decline. Read More

🎮 AI's coming for games, too: Decart has emerged from stealth with $21 million in funding and what it's claiming is the first playable "open-world" AI model that generates a Minecraft-like game on the fly. But TC's Kyle Wiggers says it's not really there yet. Read More

🇨🇳 Sanctions go both ways: Dronemaker Skydio is having a hard time securing its battery supply after it was sanctioned by China. The company supplies drones to Ukraine and Taiwan, but still relies on Chinese batteries. Skydio's CEO Adam Bry said the sanctions are an attempt to "eliminate the leading American drone company." Read More

Around the web

🚗 Mud-slinging in EV Land: At TechCrunch Disrupt this week, Zoox's CTO Jesse Levinson fired shots at Tesla's non-full-self-driving software, saying it was nowhere near ready yet. Elon fired back, reports Benzinga, saying on X that Zoox would be dead if Amazon hadn't bought it. Read More

🤖 Bring on the AI slop: 404 Media has a deep dive into Meta's new goal to flood the web with AI slop after Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook and Instagram would get "a whole new category of content, which is AI generated or AI summarized…or existing content pulled together by AI in some way." Hats off to 404 for the headline, a nod to Ilya Sutskever's since-deleted post on X upon leaving OpenAI. Read More

👀 Vision 2030? A new documentary has revealed that 21,000 laborers have died trying to bring to life Saudi Vision 2030, which includes the NEOM urban area and the Line, per The Architect's Newspaper. Workers say they are "trapped slaves," and there are countless reports of human rights abuses. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: da-kuk / Getty Images

🎰 Who are you betting for? In today's review of Late Stage Capitalism Hellscape, investors are literally throwing money at Kalshi, an exchange that lets people bet on cultural events. And they're betting hard on the U.S. presidential election. Read More