Friday, May 2, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have the details on the upcoming app launch for Google's NotebookLM; we dig into an oversubscribed climate fund; and we learn that Apple and Anthropic may be teaming up. Have a great weekend!

TechCrunch Top 3

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📝 App time: Google is launching iOS and Android apps for its NotebookLM AI note-taking and research assistant. The apps will be available on May 20. Until now, the popular program has only been available on desktop since it launched in 2023.

🎶 Move over, Apple: Spotify announced today Apple approved its app update, which will allow users to access pricing information and external payment links. The company said this will allow Spotify to offer users more choice and lower prices.

💡 An amazing idea: OpenAI said it is going to change how it updates its models after some people complained that ChatGPT had become too sycophantic. One of the changes involves allowing some ChatGPT users to test models early.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Hal Bergman / Getty Images

🎙️ Chattin' Cluely: On today's episode of Equity, the hosts look at the viral AI startup Cluely that claims it can help users cheat on anything. Also on this episode: Sam Altman's World event last week, what's up with the Shein IPO, and more.

🏭 Fresh funds: Ara Partners just raised an $800 million fund to invest in companies helping reduce emissions in industries that have been hard to decarbonize. The firm originally set out to raise $500 million, so this close shows that there is absolutely still LP interest in climate funds despite current market rhetoric.

💔 Welp: Raw is a dating app that helps foster more genuine interactions, according to its website. The company claims that its app uses end-to-end encryption, but a quick vibe check from TechCrunch found that it was quite easy to access private data on its users, including their location. The company says it has now fixed that glaring security nightmare.

⚠️ Off the rails: Google reported that its Gemini 2.5 Flash Model is more likely to generate text that violates the company's safety guidelines. These results come as AI companies are looking to make their models more permissive and come a few days after OpenAI had a safety incident of its own.

🤝 Apple and Anthropic: Building an AI coding platform seems to be the new trendy thing to do in Silicon Valley. Apple and Anthropic are reportedly teaming up to build "vibe coding" software that uses generative AI to generate code.

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Around the web

🏆 A true disruptor: India's Namma Yatri offers a different business model for ride-share drivers that involves them paying a subscription to the company in exchange for keeping the entirety of ride fares. This has caused legacy players like Uber to quickly innovate their offers.

💼 Oh, good: Anthony Jancso, an early recruiter for DOGE, has a new startup called AccelerateX. The govtech company is trying to hire for a project that aims to replace the work of tens of thousands of federal employees with AI agents.