Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we bring you notes on Mark Zuckerberg's plan to automate advertising; a big L for spyware makers; and Reddit's efforts to fend off bots. We've also got notes on: a Trump tariff casualty; Greece's tech boom; Fiverr scary AI warning; Netflix trying to become TikTok; and some funding rounds. Let's go! – Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Slop machine: Mark Zuckerberg has a plan to automate the entire ad industry with a black-box, end-to-end AI ad tool that would put thousands of AI-generated "test" ads in front of Meta users. As TC's Max Zeff writes, "If it wasn't clear before that users are the product on Meta's platforms and advertisers are the customers, it's about to become crystal." Read More

2. Punishment well deserved: Spyware maker NSO has to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for conducting a hacking campaign against over 1,400 users in 2019. Read More

3. Are you a human? The problem of AI bots impersonating humans on Reddit has only just begun, and it's going to damage the company's credibility, not to mention its bottom line. So, Reddit is going to start verifying its human users via third-party companies. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

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🪫 Another casualty of Trump's tariffs: Rivian said in its first-quarter financial report that it would likely deliver fewer vehicles this year than previously forecasted as a result of the trade war and other regulatory changes. Read More

🔍 The problem with vibe coding is that AI actually does not know what it's doing, which leads to vulnerabilities. A few startups have stepped up to address this, and the latest is Ox Security, which just raised $60 million in a round led by DTCP. Read More

🇬🇷 The Greek tech boom is here: Athens-based Marathon Venture Capital closed its newest fund with about $85 million in commitments. TC's EIC Connie Loizos sat down with the firm's partner to discuss Greece's embrace of tech, how the VC is leveraging secondaries, and the result of American investor pullback in Europe. Read More

🎮 AI dev support: Sett has emerged from stealth with $27 million in funding and a mission to build AI agents for game publisher marketing, with a focus on "playable" in-game ads. Read More

⚡ It's electric: Breathe Battery Technologies just raised $21 million to help Western battery makers speed up time to market. Its CEO Ian Campbell said the goal is for Breathe's predictive software tools to do for batteries what simulation has done for semiconductor design. Read More

Around the Web

😰 Beware the AI job crisis: That was the warning from Fiverr's CEO Micha Kaufman to employees and freelancers on the platform. "If you do not become an exceptional talent at what you do, a master, you will face the need for a career change in a matter of months," he wrote. Read More

🦄 Doing more with less: The rise of AI may mean that layoffs are more common, but could it also mean that more startups are able to form with smaller teams? Business Insider has a look at 10 AI startup unicorns that are doing a lot with 50 employees or fewer. Read More

Before You Go

📽️ Exactly what we need: Netflix is testing a short-form video feature to hook attention-challenged mobile users who otherwise spend hours lost in videos on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. The clips are tailored to each user based on Netflix's recommendation engine. Read More