Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have an inside look at the folks in Elon Musk's inner circle; we dig into the details on former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new startup; and we learn of a cyberattack at a VC firm. Onward!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch

DOGE directory: Elon Musk has developed quite the tech team through both businesses and his new role with the federal government. But who actually makes up this growing network? We take a closer look. Read more

Llama Convention: Meta announced that it will be hosting its first generative AI-focused developer conference, LlamaCon, later this year. While the event is named for Meta's generative AI model family, Llama, we'd better see some real llamas at the event. Read more

Collaborative AI: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has unveiled her much-anticipated next move. Murati is launching Thinking Machines Lab, a startup building "multimodal" systems that "work with people collaboratively." Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Patrick George / Getty Images

A hack!: Storied venture firm Insight Partners confirmed that hackers gained access to its internal systems. While the incident occurred back on January 16, the firm hasn't disclosed what social engineering hack the attackers used, nor what information was accessed. Read more

Freelancer features: Gig marketplace Fiverr announced a slew of new features for its gig worker users. One of these is a program that gives freelancers the ability to train AI on their content and charge customers for access. Interesting. Read more

Inspire no more: Amazon is shutting down its TikTok-style short-form video and photo platform, Inspire. Launched in 2022, the service was designed to help users discover products and brands. Read more

Well, well, well: Last week Elon Musk made an unsolicited offer to buy OpenAI. This week there are rumors that OpenAI is considering giving its nonprofit board special voting rights, to better equip it against future hostile takeover attempts. Read more

Vansharing: Fetii is a ridesharing company that offers on-demand transportation for groups of seven to 14 people. The company is trying to offer a better option for groups that don't want to book multiple ridesharing cars or schedule a charter bus in advance. Read more

Around the web

Transparent tech: Everybody wants transparent tech – both figuratively and literally. The Verge looks into the recent rise of companies producing see-through technology again. This is one early-2000s trend I'd actually be happy to see come back. Read more

Milestone reached: Meta's WhatsApp reached a new user milestone of averaging 46.8 million monthly users in the second half of 2024. While this is good news for Meta regarding customer traction, it now opens the platform up to more regulation under the EU Digital Services Act. Read more