Hello, hey! Greg right here once more with Week in Review, the publication the place we rapidly recap probably the most learn TechCrunch tales from the previous seven days. Been too busy to learn tech information? WiR ought to depart you with a reasonably good concept of what folks have been studying/speaking/tweeting about.
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Twitter vs. ElonJet: Another wild one at Twitter this week. First got here the information that @ElonJet, an account that tracked the whereabouts of Elon’s non-public jet, had been suspended. Then the official account of Twitter-competitor Mastodon obtained suspended (with hyperlinks to Mastodon flagged as “potentially harmful”) shortly after posting about stated jet trackers. Then a bunch of tech reporters all obtained suspended, at the least a few of whom had been tweeting in regards to the jet tracker ordeal. And then — sure, there’s extra! — Elon joined a Twitter Space that featured a handful of stated suspended reporters (with Twitter Spaces seemingly not recognizing/respecting the suspensions); after a couple of minutes of questions, Elon left the session and the total Twitter Spaces characteristic was taken offline.
SBF arrested: Sam Bankman-Fried, founding father of the FTX cryptocurrency alternate/Gordian knot that exploded oh-so-dramatically over the previous few months, was arrested within the Bahamas this week. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced that it was formally charging SBF with defrauding traders, with investigations on different expenses underway.
OpenAI needs to watermark the stuff its AI writes: “Did a human write that, or ChatGPT?” Kyle Wiggers asks. “It can be hard to tell — perhaps too hard, its creator OpenAI thinks, which is why it is working on a way to ‘watermark’ AI-generated content.”
NSA warns of exploits in fashionable networking gear: “The U.S. National Security Agency is warning that Chinese government-backed hackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in two widely used Citrix networking products,” writes Carly Page. The flaw, which Citrix confirms is being actively exploited, permits hackers to run malicious code on gadgets typically present in enterprise networks.
iOS 16.2: This week Apple shipped out the newest model of iOS, and Ivan Mehta took a have a look at a few of its finest options, from end-to-end encryption of extra iCloud information, a karaoke mode for Apple Music, and the general public rollout of the “infinite whiteboard” collaboration app, Freeform.
Instagram will get text-only posts: Ever wished you would put up to Instagram with out having to take an image? No? Me neither. But Instagram added a text-centric choice this week, and it’s at the least proving fashionable sufficient to crack our high posts listing — or, extra possible, individuals are googling what the heck this new Instagram “Notes” factor is and touchdown on our web site. Whatever the case, they kinda remind me of old-school AIM standing messages — they’re quick, ephemeral updates that reside in your DMs somewhat than the principle feed (see picture under.)
Image Credits: Instagram
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The Equity crew might not be clairvoyant, however they’re very, very sensible — and this week, after a number of absurdly unpredictable years, they dared to make some predictions about 2023. The Found podcast, in the meantime, chatted with Tiny Health founder Cheryl Sew Hoy in regards to the significance of the intestine microbiome — notably in how having a very good intestine microbiome as an toddler will help forestall power well being points down the street.
TechCrunch+
TC+ is the premium, members-only part of the location the place we get to step away from the information cycle and go a bit deeper on a number of the stuff our readers inform us they like most. Here’s what TC+ members have been studying most this week:
The one slide 99% of founders get incorrect: Between his time as a reporter, a VC, and a startup pitch coach, Haje has checked out extra pitch decks than simply about anybody I do know. The most typical mistake he sees? It’s all about “the ask.”
How a lot cash must you increase to your startup?: It’s a Haje double characteristic this week, together with his second hottest put up concerning an all-too-common query: When it’s time to lift cash for a startup, how a lot is the correct quantity?