Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This is Ram, and I'll be writing this newsletter for the rest of the week while Rebecca's over at TechCrunch Sessions: AI in SF. Today, we're reading about AI models getting their own blogs; Apple's Design Award winners; cameras for road safety; AI as a mentor; the money in embedded insurance; petty fights in vibe-coding land, and more. Let's get to work! | | | 1. AI companies want us to forget that their tools can't really "think". Case in point: Anthropic has given its AI model family Claude a blog of its own. It's called "Claude Explains," and at first sight the blog seems to be generated by AI. However, Anthropic told us there's a team of humans who oversee the writing and edit it with examples, context, insights and such. Read More 2. And the winners are: Apple's named the winners of its 2025 Design Awards, and refreshingly, this year's slate is mostly apps by indie devs! The company this year again ignored the dozens of apps by big AI names, preferring to highlight those innovating with Apple's own tools. Read More 3. Fear as a deterrent: Californian startup Obvio thinks it has a cure for rash driving: cameras. The company's getting ahead of the obvious criticism that this approach could be misused by building in systems to limit surveillance and data sharing. Investors are believing it'll work out, as the startup just raised a $22 million Series A. Read More | | | 👬 How deep does this rabbit hole go? Journaling app Rosebud thinks AI can play a role as a personal mentor, and it's just raised $6 million to make that a reality. The company says its AI analyzes users' journal entries to identify patterns and provide insights, questions and guidance, and can become the most personalized mentor one can have. Read More 💸 Embedded cash generating machine: Few things make companies happier than cross-selling opportunities, and Singapore-based Bolttech is proving that with its embedded insurance product that's now used by 700 distributors and over 230 insurers. The company just closed a $147 million Series C round at a $2.1 billion valuation. Read More 🤼 Anything to get ahead: Vibe-coding startup Windsurf, which is reportedly being bought by OpenAI, says Anthropic has limited its first-party access to Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI models with little notice. Developers are not happy, as they now have to take a more roundabout, and potentially more expensive, route to access Anthropic's newest models on the platform. Read More 🎯 Success can be addictive, and for African entrepreneurs Karim Joiuni and Jihed Othmani, a nine-digit exit from their previous startup Expensya apparently wasn't enough. The two founders are back with a new, AI-powered software testing platform called Thunder Code, and they've already raised a cool $9 million seed round. Read More | | | 🤝 Lending a hand: Microsoft is trying to help European governments deal with the onslaught of cyberattacks lately. The company has launched a free cybersecurity program to help defend against AI-powered threats and disinformation, Reuters reports. Read More ⛈️ Cloudy with a chance of tariffs: Counterpoint Research is pessimistic about the impact of the Trump admin's tariffs on Apple and Samsung. The research firm cut its growth forecast for Apple shipments to 2.5% from 4%, and for Samsung, revised its outlook to nada from 1.7% growth, reports CNBC. Read More | | | 🚕 Giving seniors some freedom: After launching dedicated accounts for teenagers, Uber is now releasing accounts meant for older adults. These accounts sport a simpler UI, bigger text, and features like ride-tracking for family members, easily accessible list of saved destinations, and some other nifty features. Read More | | | Featured jobs from CrunchBoard | | | Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. | | | Update your preferences here at any time | | Copyright © 2025 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. Yahoo Inc.. 680 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA | | | | |
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