Friday, November 15, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at Bluesky's rise, the potential end of EV tax credits, and Cruise getting caught lying to regulators. We've also got notes on Thrive AI Health, Silicon Valley's attempt to get into government, crypto folks seeking revenge on the SEC, and more. Let's dive in! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Nothing but Bluesky: Decentralized social network Bluesky said last night that over 1 million people signed up for the platform in the last 24 hours, helping it crest over 16 million users and beat out Meta's Threads. I was one of them! Time to see what the fuss is about. Read More

Giddy up: Pony AI is one of several Chinese autonomous vehicle makers planning to IPO in the U.S., and now we have a clearer picture of what its debut will look like. The robotaxi firm hopes to raise $165 million to $224 million from the listing, at a peak valuation of $4.48 billion. Read More

Not quite thriving yet: Thrive AI Health, the aspiring AI-powered health assistant from Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has released a bare bones demo that is largely unfunctional. TechCrunch took it for a spin. Read More

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Morning must-reads

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🪫 Goodbye EV tax credits? President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is reportedly prioritizing the dismantling of the Inflation Reduction Act's $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles, per Reuters. It won't be easy, though, as the credit is part of the tax code and the plan must be approved by Congress. Read More

💸 A new investor in the making: Angel investor and wellness content creator Hannah Bronfman has invested in more than 70 companies, including beauty brands Topicals and Sienna Naturals. She's now planning to launch a fund that will target startups that VCs often overlook. Read More

🚹 Silicon Valley now wants to rule the U.S.: Tech execs are working to appoint their own people to Trump's cabinet, emboldened by the positions given to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Names like Joe Lonsdale, Emil Michael, and Jim O'Neill are being proposed to head major government departments. Read More

🧐 Musk cries 'no fair': Elon Musk is doubling down on his complaint that OpenAI is engaging in uncompetitive practices. His lawyers have submitted an amended lawsuit against OpenAI that names new defendants, most notably Microsoft. Read More

📰 Google wants to avoid paying news companies: Google is trying to find out how much it'll have to pay news publishers in the EU for reusing their content in Search. It's trying an experiment that includes removing news for 1% users in nine countries. But the plan is already backfiring: France threatened a €900,000 per day penalty for breaching a contract with the French Competition Authority. Read More

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Around the web

🔮 Controversy at the SEC: Trump has vowed to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and Republicans are now preparing to strike. On Thursday, 18 states sued Gensler, accusing him of regulatory overreach with regard to crypto, reports Decrypt. Crypto super PACs spent over $133 million to elect pro-crypto candidates. Read More

📹 More ads, more fun: TikTok is giving advertisers the option to pull photos and videos from Getty Images to make AI-generated ads, per The Verge. The integration is part of TikTok's tools that let advertisers create videos based on product descriptions and even add a realistic-looking avatar to "speak" about it. AI slop + ads?! How blessed we are. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ Who watches the Watchmen? Reporters Without Borders has filed a lawsuit against X that brings into question whether social media platforms can be held accountable for failing to combat disinformation, Voice of America reports. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Getty Images

🚙 Lying to regulators is bad: The U.S. Justice Department is fining General Motors' autonomous vehicle unit, Cruise, $500,000 for submitting a false report with the goal of influencing a federal investigation into a safety incident last year. Read More