TechCrunch Top 3

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1. UK halts major telecom merger: The UK's antitrust regulator has blocked a $19 billion merger between Three and Vodafone, arguing the lower competition could lead to higher telecom prices for consumers. Read More

2. YOU get an AI, and YOU get an AI: Oprah aired a special on AI last night featuring high-profile names like Sam Altman and Bill Gates, striking an optimistic yet cautious tone. We have the highlights of the conversation, like Altman's promises and Gates's views on AI disruption. Read More

3. Waymo 🤝 Uber: The two companies are expanding their partnership to bring Waymo's robotaxis to the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta in early 2025. People in Phoenix can already catch a Waymo with Uber. Read More

Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Polaris Dawn

🚀 One small step for private space travel: A crew of four astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission made history on Thursday when they ventured outside their SpaceX Dragon capsule to conduct the first commercial spacewalk. Read More

🌞 Mr. Worldwide: Khosla Ventures's Keith Rabois still believes he can turn Miami into the next Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, other investors, like Andreessen Horowitz, have shuttered their offices in the city. Read More

♾️ Meta makes AI labels harder to find: Meta is moving the "AI info" label in posts that have been manipulated using AI into a menu. Fully AI-generated images will still be labeled as such prominently, but making it harder to find the label in this day and age truly feels like a galaxy brain move. Read More

👓 Glasses are too expensive! Antonio Moraes, founder of XP Health, says designer frames that sell for $600 cost only $10 to produce. That's one reason why his startup, which aims to bring employees more affordable vision care, just raised $32 million. Read More

⬇️ Cohost is shutting down: Two years since its launch, would-be X rival, Cohost, is running out of money and will have to shut shop. Cohost started with an anti-capitalist and anti-Big Tech bent, but had to deal with intense competition from entrenched platforms like X, as well as Meta's newly launched Threads and new decentralized platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon. Read More

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Around the Web

🌬️ The Godmother of AI has spoken: Stanford computer scientist Fei-Fei Li's new company, World Labs, is betting on a future where generative AI constructs complete worlds with the physics, logic, and detail of our physical reality, reports Wired. She's already raised $230 million. Read More

🧐 Microsoft in bed with Big Oil: The Atlantic reports that Microsoft has pitched its AI to Chevron, ExxonMobil and others to find and develop oil and gas reserves. Publicly, Microsoft says it's committed to reducing emissions, but perhaps it's trying to secure that near-term power for its immense data centers. Read More

💸 'Thank god for secondaries': The two-year IPO drought is making venture capitalists antsy, so they're turning to new avenues like secondaries and strip sales to return capital to their backers, according to The Information. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images

👗 Runway to closet at record speed: Shopsense AI and Paramount have partnered to let fans buy outfits that are similar to their favorite celebs' red carpet looks on the VMAs. You can upload a photo of your favorite look and the software will recommend something similar. Now this is what I call fast fashion. Read More