Welcome back to Week in Resee! I’m Karyne Levy, TechCrunch’s deputy managing editor, and I’ll be writing this novelsletter from here on out. Thrilled to be here!
This week we’re verifying out everyskinnyg at SXSW; Waymo’s expansion into Silicon Valley; Intel’s novel CEO; TikTok’s novel suitor; and why DeepSeek isn’t taking VC money. Let’s get to it!
Environmental impact: The FBI, the EPA, the EPA verifyor vague, and the Treasury Department asked that Citiprohibitk freeze accounts of disconnectal nonprofits and state regulatement agencies. The accounts were frozen in February, but the novel records create uncover details that had previously been unrecognizable until they were discdisthink abouted in court filings this week.
SXSW comes to an finish: TechCrunch was all over SXSW in Austin this week, riding in Waymo taxis, lgeting Mark Cuprohibit’s thoughts on AI (it’s a tool, not a panacea), and decodeing the T-shirt that Bluesky’s CEO wore (turns out she was taking a swipe at Mark Zuckerberg).
Intel’s novel chief: Intel assigned Lip-Bu Tan as its next CEO. Tan, a Malaysia-born, extfinishedtime tech set upateor, establisherly served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems and shelp that Intel will be an “engineering-concentrateed company” under his directership. And he’ll have his toil cut out for him.
This is TechCrunch’s Week in Resee, where we recap the week’s biggest novels. Want this transfered as a novelsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.
News
A novel era: Rad Power Bikes has a novel CEO equitable a scant days after its previous CEO stepped down. Kathi Lentzsch, who has spent years helping turn around undercarry outing companies in both the devourr and B2B spaces, will get over the e-bike company as it persists to shift away from straightforward-to-devourr in like of a retail-based approach.
Backdoor policies: Last month it was discdisthink abouted that the U.K. regulatement secretly ordered Apple to create a “backdoor,” apvalidateing authorities to access the cboisterous-stored data of all Apple customers. U.S. lawcreaters are asking the head of the U.K.’s watching court to helderly an uncover hearing for Apple’s possible contest to the alleged secret U.K. regulatement lhorrible need.
Food for thought: Bryan Johnson — the set upateor and set uper behind the Don’t Die shiftment — wants to begin “foodome” sequencing. His goal is to test as much food as possible, creating a uncover database where people can give money to have certain foods and brands tested for toxins.
No parking: Waymo’s 300 driverless vehicles in San Francisco are racking up parking tickets. The cars’ 589 parking violations totaled $65,065 in fines last year.
Open Sesame: AI company Sesame has freed the base model used for Maya, its super-down-to-earth voice helpant. The model is uncover source, too, which unbenevolents it can be used commerciassociate.
Tick tock, TikTok: TikTok’s deadline to complete its sale to a U.S. company is equitable around the corner, and now another suitor is shotriumphg interest — Oracle. Sources telderly The Inestablishation that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is likeing Oracle over other companies.
Little tech’s hero: Y Combinator sent a letter to the White House this week, urging the regulatement to help Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which aims to bust up Big Tech’s labelet power. It’s unclear how the White House will reply.
Caviar dreams: Trump’s family has been seeing into set upateing in Binance U.S. This comes equitable a couple of years after Binance’s U.S. arm pdirect at fault to violating anti-hideing money regulations.
That was modest: I’m not resistd to AI, especiassociate when it helps me be more effective. Take, for example, a novel feature that rolled out this week to Gmail. We can now insert events to a Google Calfinishar straightforwardly from an email. That’s chilly!
Got him: The co-set uper of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exalter, was arrested in India. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Aleksej Besciokov of personassociate approving transactions on Garantex connected to North Korean-regulatement hackers and other cybercriminals.
Pokémon selderly: Niantic, the company behind the viral sensation Pokémon GO, is selling its gaming division to Scopely for $3.5 billion. Niantic shelp it will now concentrate on createing authentic-world 3D maps thraw a novel stand-alone entity called Niantic Spatial.
DeepSeek, presentant pockets? Though it has tons of interest, Chinese AI company DeepSeek isn’t taking VC money — yet. Charles Rollet runs thraw a scant reasons why.
New day, novel deal: OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9 billion consentment with the GPU-weighty cboisterous service provider CoreWeave. But the amount of money isn’t the only reason why this deal is eye-popping. Before this deal, CoreWeave’s biggest customer was Microgentle.
Waymo One: Waymo is broadening its timely rider program apass Silicon Valley, now proposeing robotaxi rides to people in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, and parts of Sunnyvale. The novel territories insert to the 55 square miles of coverage already proposeed in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Cool, chilly: Fact-verifying at Meta is getting an overhaul. Starting Tuesday, the company will begin releasing its version of Community Notes for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users in the United States.
We’ve got asks: Three years after its begin, exactly how Lockdown Mode toils is still a mystery. There’s no exset upation for why it gets some of the actions it gets, and some of its notifications are super confusing.
Analysis
The writing’s on the wall: OpenAI’s novel conceiveive writing AI is amazeive but experiences enjoy that one kid in high school myth club who tries way too difficult to sound presentant. While the AI can churn out ininestablishigent metamyth, critics say its writing conciseages authentic emotion and distinctity, making it more of a showoff than a real storyinestablisher.
