Monday, June 30, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! It's Ram again taking over for Rebecca. This morning, we're reading about a long overdue update to Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist, a VC investor's thoughts on AI and consulting, and why not all jobs are threatened by AI just yet. We've also got a bunch more stories lined up from the weekend, so let's dive in!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Spotify

1. More post-metal, please: After 10 years, Spotify has finally updated its Discover Weekly playlist, which now features new controls that let you push the playlist's recommendations in a certain direction. Read More

2. They say if you chant "software-like margins" 13 times on a moonless night, you'll summon a horde of venture capitalists. I joke, but Navin Chaddha, managing director of Mayfield, thinks AI is set to make such margins a reality for people-heavy industries like consulting, law, and accounting. That is why, he says, startups should focus on neglected markets instead of fighting with consulting firms. Read More

3. No, AI's not taking over just yet, and the proof is in the pudding. A bunch of researchers recently put Anthropic's Claude to the test, putting it in charge of a vending machine. The poor bot tried its best, but got fooled into filling its fridge with tungsten cubes, was easily fooled, and even got talked into giving "Anthropic employees" discounts. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Apple

👍 Entering the big leagues: Apple's finally got a box office hit with 'F1', which is currently topping the charts. The film may not earn back its $200 million budget, but the win comes after a long string of releases that have often fallen short of success at the box office. Read More

🎉 A huge win: Commonwealth Fusion Systems has potentially landed a major customer. Google just promised to buy 50% of the startup's first fusion reactor's output, and has also invested in a major funding round. Read More

👀 Finally: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that Sam Altman-backed World, which aims to scan everyone's eyeballs to verify that they're human, presents significant risks to user privacy in how it's going about the process. Read More

📚 Change is not always good: A slate of authors have penned an open letter to publishers, urging them to limit how much AI they use, and preserve some jobs for people, like audiobook narration. The letter also argues that AI companies have stolen authors' work. Read More

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Around the Web

🛑 Not everything's supposed to go viral: The U.K.'s Ofcom is considering holding social network companies accountable for what goes viral on their platforms, particularly illegal content, the BBC reports. The regulator also wants platforms to use tech to proactively detect content that could be harmful to children. Read More

🎮 Mama mia! Nintendo has pulled its Switch 2 console from Amazon's U.S. store after it found that third-party merchants were selling games for cheap on the site, Bloomberg reports. Amazon tried to assuage Nintendo with labels of authenticity, but Nintendo wasn't satisfied. Read More

Before You Go

🤝 A deal in the making? U.S. President Donald Trump has apparently found buyers for TikTok. It's a "group of very wealthy people," Trump said, adding that he'll say who they are in a couple of weeks. Read More