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I know I usually lead Startups Weekly with my own column (and I wrote one this week, so if you’re a fan of anything I write, go ham), but Devin’s piece taking a stand against the pseudo-humanity of AI is a must-read. It proposes a new set of rules for AIs to follow to preserve our humanity:
- AI must rhyme.
- AI may not present a face or identity.
- AI cannot “feel” or “think”.
- Numbers, decisions and answers derived from artificial intelligence must be marked with “⸫”.
- AI should not make life or death decisions.
- AI images must have a corner cut.
Yes, these suggestions cannot realistically be implemented, but read the article anyway. delves into some of the interesting challenges we face as AIs become more mature and ubiquitous.
Okay, with today’s philosophy lesson out of the way, let’s dive in and see what else is in the Right Honorable Royal Kingdom of Startups.
Flying high, sinking deep
Image Credits: Bird
The tumultuous journey of startups continues.
Bird, the once high-flying electric scooter company, has gone bankrupt. After a wild ride from a $2 billion valuation to a financial powerhouse, this former micromobility poster child is now restructuring his finances faster than one of his scooters racing downhill with a tailwind. Now they’re relying on Chapter 11 to keep their wheels turning, but only after they shed some feathers and hope someone finds enough value in their assets to buy them out. The irony? Their operations in Canada and Europe are still going ahead as if nothing happened.
I won’t say “I told you so,” but it was certainly no accident that I chose Bird as an example for the “Understanding the Levers in Your Business” post I wrote in 2018. . .
Anyway. Here are some more stories that got you clicking:
Back to startups: Eric Wu, the co-founder of Opendoor, is giving up his executive chair for a bean bag in the startup world again. After a decade playing real estate Tetris, Wu is ready to get back to building things from the ground up amid the toughest real estate market in more than 40 years.
Feeling even safer?: In a less surprising move than learning your password yet “password123”, Okta acquired security company Spera for $100 million. The latter is like a cyber security Sherlock Holmes, sniffing out digital weaknesses before they become full-blown disasters.
I bet this newsletter triggers their algorithms: Meltwater, the maestro of media monitoring that dances around print and digital news like a tech-savvy ballerina, just got a $65 million back from Verdane, valuing the company at $592 million.
When artificial intelligence is more prevalent than real
Image Credits: Getty Images
Devin opens the crystal ball for artificial intelligence in 2024 and predicts a rollercoaster ride from hype to a reality check. He suggests that OpenAI, after the leadership redistribution, could turn into a powerhouse of Apple’s “mission” products with its own AI app store. Meanwhile, specialized AI applications like agent-based models and generative multimedia could go from “meh” to “hmm, interesting,” especially in monotonous tasks like insurance claims. In the political arena, AI may become a tool of disinformation and manipulation in the 2024 election, with bot accounts and fake news adding to the chaos.
I can’t say I disagree. When media literacy hits rock bottom and artificial intelligence is on the rise, we have a perfect storm.
Cool cool cool. What else has been cooking in the AI kitchen?
Composers, composers, composers: Microsoft Copilot, the AI chatbot, is now dipping its digital toes into the world of music composition through an integration with GenAI music app Suno. Users can ask Copilot to create full songs, including lyrics and instrumentals, with requests such as “Make a pop song for adventures with your family.”
Hey Spotify, make me a playlist where every song starts with the letters W, T and F: Spotify is testing an “AI Playlists” feature that lets users create playlists using AI prompts. Users can type prompts into an AI chatbot-style box, or choose from suggested prompts such as “Focus on work with instrumental electronica” or “Songs most likely to drive my parents up the wall.”
Sorry, Charles Ponzi, you can’t shop here: Rite Aid has been banned from using facial recognition software for five years after it was found that its “reckless use of facial tracking systems” resulted in customers being humiliated and sensitive information being compromised.
There’s an app for that
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
Apple has been ordered to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit over its Family Sharing feature. The Cupertino-based software giant was pushing a “share-all-the-things” feature for apps that were . . . not shared. Despite the “Who, us?” Apple’s? attitude, they decided to throw money at the problem rather than endure endless courtroom drama. Now, some lucky Family Sharing users from the good old days (2015–2019) might get a whopping $30 payout. That’s three months of Apple TV+ subscription after the price increase. Yes.
Apple got off lightly compared to Google’s recent day in court. In a “Dammit, here’s some cash” move, Google is digging into its couch cushions for an extra $700 million to settle a lawsuit over its Play Store monopoly shenanigans. Of that, $630 million goes to US consumers and $70 million to US states. The search giant, once known for its “Do No Evil” slogan, apparently hasn’t extended that to app distribution on Android. As part of the deal, Google is also revamping its billing plan for user options in the US, allowing developers more freedom in billing methods. They even make sideloading (ie, installing apps without Google’s blessing) less of a digital obstacle course. But let’s not get too excited—as Epic Games’ VP of public policy points out, consumers are still likely to be overpaying for digital goods thanks to Google’s high fees. So while Google’s wallet is getting lighter, our wallets might not be too different.
Legal irregularities aside. . .
Sharing is caring: Claim, the new social media kid on the block, is trying to make sharing rewards with friends the next big thing. They’ve raised $4 million from Sequoia Capital to turn item shopping into a multiplayer game.
Oh hi, I didn’t see you there: Jagat, a location-based social network all about real connections, has crossed 10 million users. Launched in March, this app, which is like a social map for friends and activities, aims to create a social network, social again.
Link in bio: Australian link-in-bio platform Linktree has acquired competitor Koji from GoMeta. In this digital Monopoly game, Linktree not only expands its empire, but also sends Koji’s product into retirement until January 2024.
Top reads on TechCrunch this week
I went into our analytics software to see what else might be worth highlighting from the past week or so. Here are some additional reads:
Stripping the oxygen out of Apple’s Christmas sails: Apple has halted sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 due to a patent dispute with Masimo, a medical technology company. The controversy is over the blood oxygen sensor in Apple’s smartwatches.
Xfinity and beyond: Comcast’s Xfinity service fell victim to a cyberattack, affecting nearly 36 million customers. The breach potentially exposed customer usernames, hashed passwords, contact information, dates of birth, portions of social security numbers and secret questions and answers.
Where have you been? Google, in a move that could make Big Brother a little less noisy, has announced plans to store users’ location data on their devices instead of on its servers. This change aims to end the use of “geo-infringement orders”, where police demand that Google hand over data from devices in a specific area at a specific time. These warrants have been criticized as overly broad and possibly unconstitutional.
