TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

1. From Russia with love: Google has found evidence that Russian state hackers are using exploits that are similar to those developed by other spyware makers, Intellexa and NSO Group. In this case, the hackers used flaws in iPhone's Safari and Android's Google Chrome browsers to target Mongolian government workers. Read More

2. Bluesky limits ability to dunk on others: Decentralized social networking startup Bluesky wants to break the cycle of toxic and combative social media posting. The company has now introduced a handful of anti-abuse features and ways to detach your original post from someone's quote post. Read More

3. Pavel formally charged: Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, has been formally charged by French authorities for running a company that's been complicit in sharing child porn, facilitating drug trafficking and facilitating organized fraud. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

🤐 What's up with OpenAI's accelerator program? The ChatGPT maker last December said it was taking applications for the second cohort of its accelerator program, as part of the OpenAI Startup Fund. It's only been crickets since then. Did the Converge 2 program even happen? Why wasn't OpenAI sharing news about it? TechCrunch took a look. Read More

🔎 London Lies? The London Fund is supposedly going to provide contentious fintech Bolt with up to $250 million in "marketing credits." But something fishy is going on at that firm. Namely, it's claiming investments that it didn't actually make. Read More

🥈 A second chance: Investing in secondary funds is hot right now, with 2024 already on track to surpass last year's $1.1 billion trading volume total. The latest example? Silicon Valley-based VC NEA has quietly raised more than $468 million from more than 60 LPs for a secondary fund. Read More

📸 Apple is coming for Photoshop: More AI features from Apple are coming in hot, with the latest being the ability to remove objects from photos without affecting the rest of the image. Apple uses AI to generate the background when you remove an object. Welcome to the era of Not Trusting Anything You See. Read More

🚗 Uber invests in Wayve: Uber is very bullish on autonomous vehicles. It just struck a partnership with U.K.-based Wayve, and the two will work together to find OEMs for Wayve's self-driving AI, with the end goal of putting those cars on Uber's app one day. Read More

💸 OpenAI needs cash: The ChatGPT creator is reportedly in talks to raise a big chunk of change from an existing investor. The company definitely needs the money, as it's on track to lose nearly $5 billion by the year's end. That's on top of the $8.5 billion OpenAI has already burned. Read More

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Around the Web

🧿 Why Signal could be the antidote to Surveillance Capitalism: This deep dive and interview with Signal's CEO Meredith Whittaker by Wired details how the startup is much more than an encrypted messaging app. It's a nonprofit that's never taken any investment, offers a free product with no ads, and collects no info on users. Read More

📉 Nvidia shares fall on diminished outlook: The chipmaker's revenue more than doubled in the last quarter, but that didn't appear to assuage investors who wanted to see more ambitious forecasts, per The Financial Times. Read More

🇨🇳 If the FDI doesn't come to you, go to the FDI: Chinese tech companies and VCs are finding it more difficult to secure foreign investment amid geopolitical tensions. So they're heading to Silicon Valley to chase capital. However, they're finding that their Chinese ties are getting in the way, reports The New York Times. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

⚠️ Protecting against STDs, but not data theft: Durex India has exposed customer data, including full names, order details, phone numbers, shipping addresses and more. "For a brand dealing with intimate products, ensuring privacy is crucial," Sourajeet Majumder, the security researcher who found the leak, said. Read More