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Hey, of us, and welcome to Week in Evaluate (WiR), TechCrunch’s e-newsletter that highlights key developments within the tech trade over the previous few days. If you happen to missed the information this week, no biggie. That’s what WiR is for. We’ll fill you in.
On this version, we cowl Reed Jobs, the son of Steve Jobs, who’s launching a brand new enterprise fund to again most cancers remedies; China’s cutthroat e-commerce techniques; and fan-fiction writers rallying in opposition to a proposed U.S. legislation 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 International’s remaining Flipkart stake.
If you happen to haven’t already, sign up here to get WiR in your inbox each Saturday. Now, on with the recap.
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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 getting into the highlight with a brand new enterprise capital agency to put money into rising most cancers remedies. Referred to as 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 outstanding people and establishments, together with MIT, Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle 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 lately filed a court docket 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 unique and precious 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. Youngsters On-line Security Act (KOSA) may change the web ceaselessly. KOSA has been met with a flood of opposition from a wide range of web communities; detractors fear that the invoice may limit queer youngsters’ entry to affirming on-line assets or make it simpler for native governments to surveil abortion seekers.
Google Assistant embraces generative AI: Google is reportedly planning a significant revamp of Google Assistant, its AI-powered assistant, because the generative AI race heats up. An inside e mail means that the brand new and improved Google Assistant shall be “powered by the newest LLM [large language model] know-how” — tech comparable, 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 brand new streaming service later this 12 months referred to as NASA+. The ad-free, no-cost streaming portal will embody dwell protection of future launches, documentaries and new unique sequence that shall be completely obtainable on the platform.
Walmart fully acquires Flipkart: Walmart has paid $1.4 billion to purchase out VC agency Tiger International’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 12 months, in response to 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 plenty of chatter from its proprietor, Twitter the app has lastly modified its identify on the App Retailer to X. The one-letter identify could have an exception: Apple sometimes doesn’t permit builders to call their apps as a single character.
SpaceX tests a “pancake”: SpaceX performed a full-pressure take a look at of a brand new water deluge system — which CEO Elon Musk described as “a mega-steel pancake” — for its Starship launch car, as the corporate appears to be like to resolve one of many greatest issues that cropped up throughout the orbital flight test in April.
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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 influence and enterprise outcomes and the pressures of fundraising-driven progress in care-oriented markets.
This week’s episode of Found, in the meantime, centered 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 the whole lot went distant in 2020.
And over on Chain Reaction, Jesse Pollak, head of protocols at Coinbase, chatted concerning the launch of Base, a brand new Ethereum-based blockchain that’s set to launch on Coinbase in only 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 you recognize in case you’re already a subscriber. If you happen to’re not, consider signing up. Listed below are just a few highlights from this week:
The future of AI is video: Haje writes about how generative AI video tech is advancing rapidly — and the way it’s opening up a world stuffed with potentialities which are each sensible and horrible.
Crypto’s not dead yet: The crypto world is likely to be shaky — however the blockchain developer house is displaying indicators of promise. Responding to a survey for TC+, builders confirmed most curiosity in good contract safety and account abstraction.
Room-temperature superconductors: Final week, a group from South Korea claimed to have created a cloth that superconducts at ambient temperature. It’s too early to inform whether or not their work will maintain as much as scientific scrutiny. However Tim writes that, if it does, many industries could be ripe for upheaval.
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