Hey, people, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s common e-newsletter recapping noteworthy happenings in tech over the previous few days.
This week, TechCrunch seen leaked paperwork out of SpaceX exhibiting some questionable practices associated to worker inventory choices.
X CEO Elon Musk introduced that he would open supply Grok, X’s AI-powered chatbot meant to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Grok — developed by Musk’s AI startup, xAI — was launched final 12 months, armed with options reminiscent of entry to “real-time” info on X and views undeterred by “politically correct” norms.
Elsewhere, Ron interviewed Denise Dresser, the CEO of Slack, on her effort to deliver stability to the Salesforce enterprise that’s seen three CEOs in a single 12 months.
Lots else occurred. We recap all of it on this version of WiR — however first, a reminder to join to obtain the WiR e-newsletter in your inbox each Saturday.
News
Leaked SpaceX docs: We acquired our arms on some leaked SpaceX paperwork that present some uncommon phrases to inventory awards that staff are required to comply with. Among different issues, the corporate offers itself the fitting to ban previous and current staff from collaborating in tender provides if they’re deemed to have dedicated “an act of dishonesty against the company” or to have violated written firm insurance policies.
Phantom, now a phantom: Phantom Auto, a distant driving startup that launched seven years in the past amid the thrill of autonomous automobile expertise, is shutting down after failing to safe new funding, Kirsten solely reviews.
Meme inventory: In a brand new SEC submitting, Reddit reveals that, following its IPO, it’ll permit its neighborhood members to promote their shares instantly as an alternative of being topic to the same old lock-up agreements that forestall IPO traders from promoting shares for six months.
Funding
Banking as a service: U.Okay.-based Griffin Bank, an API-driven banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, simply obtained a license to launch as a completely operational financial institution — and raised $24 million from traders, together with MassMutual Ventures, NordicNinja and Breega.
EU breaches information guidelines: An investigation into the European Union’s use of Microsoft 365 has discovered that the European Commission, the cupboard authorities of the EU, breached the bloc’s information safety guidelines by means of its use of the cloud-based productiveness software program.
Analysis
Deepfakes go royal: Amanda writes about how a photograph of Kate Middleton and her kids, presumably edited with the assistance of AI, is an omen of what’s to come back as AI deepfaking and enhancing instruments proliferate.
Relaxation gadget: Haje goes hands-on with Moonbird’s leisure gadget, which is designed to assist clients discover sleep and cut back stress by means of respiratory workouts.
Podcasts
This week on Equity, Alex checked out information from Carta on how startup compensation is altering, raises from Empathy and Bear Robotics and developments from Bluesky, Brave and Chamath Palihapitiya’s VC agency Social Capital.
On Found, Becca and Dom spoke with Rebecca Hu, the CEO and co-founder of Glacier, an AI robotics firm that’s constructing robots to precisely type recycling.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Melody Hildebrandt, CTO of Fox Corporation, and Mike Blank, COO at Polygon Labs. The episode is a part of Chain Reaction’s month-to-month sequence diving into completely different matters and themes in crypto. This month’s theme is blockchain and AI integrations.
Bonus spherical
Metaverse royale: Readyverse Studios — co-founded by blockchain tech firm Futureverse and Ernest Cline, the thoughts behind the sci-fi sequence Ready Player One — this week debuted Open, a third-person battle royale expertise. Lauren has the story.