Hey, of us, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s e-newsletter that highlights key developments within the tech trade over the previous few days. If you missed the information this week, no biggie. That’s what WiR is for. We’ll fill you in.
In this version, we cowl Reed Jobs, the son of Steve Jobs, who’s launching a new enterprise fund to again most cancers therapies; China’s cutthroat e-commerce techniques; and fan-fiction writers rallying towards a proposed U.S. law that would result in larger surveillance on-line. Elsewhere, we pull again the curtains on Google Assistant reportedly pivoting to generative AI; NASA launching its personal streaming service, referred to as NASA+; and Walmart shopping for VC agency Tiger Global’s remaining Flipkart stake.
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Jobs fights cancer: Reed Jobs, the 31-year-old son of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, is moving into the highlight with a new enterprise capital agency to put money into rising most cancers therapies. Called Yosemite — after the nationwide park the place Reed’s dad and mom have been wed — the agency has already closed its debut fund with $200 million from distinguished people and establishments, together with MIT, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and John Doerr.
Fight of the Chinese e-commerce giants: The battle between two of China’s largest e-commerce companies, Temu and Shein, is heating up. Temu not too long ago filed a courtroom doc within the U.S. accusing fast-fashion large Shein of anticompetitive practices, which was a response to Shein’s accusations in March that Temu “willfully and flagrantly infringed Shein’s exclusive and valuable trademark and copyright rights.”
Fan-fiction writers protest online safety law:This week, fan-fiction writers penned letters to their senators, expressing their issues that the U.S. Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) may change the web eternally. KOSA has been met with a flood of opposition from a number of web communities; detractors fear that the invoice may limit queer youngsters’ entry to affirming on-line sources or make it simpler for native governments to surveil abortion seekers.
Google Assistant embraces generative AI: Google is reportedly planning a main revamp of Google Assistant, its AI-powered assistant, because the generative AI race heats up. An inside electronic mail means that the brand new and improved Google Assistant might be “powered by the latest LLM [large language model] technology” — tech related, presumably, to that underpinning AI programs like OpenAI’s GPT-4.
NASA gets into streaming: NASA introduced this week that it’s going to launch a new streaming service later this yr referred to as NASA+. The ad-free, no-cost streaming portal will embrace dwell protection of future launches, documentaries and new authentic collection that might be completely obtainable on the platform.
Walmart fully acquires Flipkart: Walmart has paid $1.4 billion to purchase out VC agency Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares because the retail large additional expands its stake within the Indian e-commerce startup. Walmart, which spent $16 billion on a 77% stake in Flipkart in 2018, held 72% share within the agency as of final yr, in accordance with an evaluation by market intelligence agency Tracxn.
Apple gives X a pass: After weeks of modifications to its social handles, branding on its interface, a redirect on the internet and a lot of chatter from its proprietor, Twitter the app has lastly modified its identify on the App Store to X. The single-letter identify might have an exception: Apple sometimes doesn’t permit builders to call their apps as a single character.
SpaceX tests a “pancake”: SpaceX carried out a full-pressure check of a new water deluge system — which CEO Elon Musk described as “a mega-steel pancake” — for its Starship launch car, as the corporate seems to resolve one of many greatest issues that cropped up in the course of the orbital flight test in April.
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Looking for podcasts to cross the time? You’re in luck. TechCrunch has a wealth of content material to your listening pleasure.
On Equity, the crew hosted Sara Mauskopf, the CEO and co-founder of the childcare market Winnie, to debate the state of care as a venture-backable class, the place startups can discover probably the most impression and enterprise outcomes and the pressures of fundraising-driven development in care-oriented markets.
This week’s episode of Found, in the meantime, targeted on ReBokeh, a startup that created an app that applies filters to permit folks with low imaginative and prescient to see higher. The founder and CEO, Rebecca Rosenberg, talked about how her personal expertise with having low imaginative and prescient impressed the product and what it was like constructing ReBokeh as an undergrad when every thing went distant in 2020.
And over on Chain Reaction, Jesse Pollak, head of protocols at Coinbase, chatted concerning the launch of Base, a new Ethereum-based blockchain that’s set to launch on Coinbase in simply a few days. Pollak dove into what’s occurring and why it issues, in addition to the place he sees Base going within the distant future.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which in case you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
The future of AI is video: Haje writes about how generative AI video tech is advancing shortly — and the way it’s opening up a world filled with potentialities which might be each good and horrible.
Crypto’s not dead yet: The crypto world is likely to be shaky — however the blockchain developer area is exhibiting indicators of promise. Responding to a survey for TC+, builders confirmed most curiosity in good contract safety and account abstraction.
Room-temperature superconductors: Last week, a staff from South Korea claimed to have created a materials that superconducts at ambient temperature. It’s too early to inform whether or not their work will maintain as much as scientific scrutiny. But Tim writes that, if it does, many industries can be ripe for upheaval.
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