TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Didem Mente/Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

🍓 More models: Today OpenAI released a new project called Strawberry, OpenAI o1, which is a group of language models. OpenAI said what makes these models different is their ability to "think" before responding to queries. Read more

⚡️ Game over: Online sports retailer Fanatics agreed to settle and drop a lawsuit it brought against troubled one-click checkout startup Bolt earlier this year. Hopefully Fanatics uses its newfound free time to make its jerseys worth buying. Read more

🛒 Anti-competition: After a four-year probe, today the Competition Commission of India, an antitrust regulator, announced that both Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart were in violation of competition laws and hurt other merchants. Read more

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Darrell Etherington

🎧 FDA says OK: Today the FDA approved an AirPod Pro 2 software update that allows the earbuds to be used as over-the-counter hearing aids. Read more

✈️ Digital passport: Digital IDs might not be that far off. Google announced today that it is beta testing the ability to create a digital ID using someone's passport. These passes will work with select TSA checkpoints for domestic travelers. Read more

🙋 Hand raising: The White House said several major AI vendors, including Cohere, Anthropic, and OpenAI, have committed to responsibly source the data they train their models on in a quest to combat nonconsensual deepfakes and child abuse materials. Their commitment is self-policed. Read more

👑 The money is at the top: EV company Faraday Future is giving its executives some big payouts despite very little production. An SEC filing revealed that the company's CEO is getting his salary nearly doubled despite Faraday delivering just 13 cars in 10 years. Read more

A Message from Front

Receive up to $7.2k in free customer service software

Collaborating in Front enables your team to deliver next-level service that turns customers into raving fans. Qualifying startups can use Front free for six months with up to 15 users on its Growth plan.

Apply Today

Money, money, money

Image Credits: Reverion

💩 Money for manure: Reverion builds micro power plants that generate power from biogas, the waste from agriculture or manure. The company just raised $62 million and has more than $100 million in a backlog of orders. Read more

🖥️ Another HR tech: Every just raised $22.5 million for its platform that offers solutions for things like payroll, onboarding, and spend management. Sound familiar? The company is entering a very crowded market. Read more

🎵 Streaming solution: Spotify and Apple Music have nearly 50% of the music streaming market share despite being costly to users and paying artists a penny or less per stream. Tune.FM, a decentralized streaming platform, wants to offer a different way and just raised new funds. Read more

Around the web

🐥 It's back! Flappy Bird is making a comeback. The highly addictive mobile game will be rereleased in 2025 after a group of superfans worked with the game's original developer to secure the proper legal rights. Read more

🚀 To the moon: OpenAI made headlines recently for a rumored fundraising round that valued the AI startup at $100 billion. Now The Information reports it may be $7 billion on a valuation closer to $150 billion. Read more