TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Imii

1. When the founder is the customer: Jane Fisher was born and raised in Japan in a family of Soviet Union immigrants, and when she moved to the U.K. later on, she got scammed and exploited. Armed with ample first-hand experience of how hard immigrants can find it to integrate, she has now built an AI assistant called imii to help migrants figure out the ins-and-outs of their new country. Read More

2. Google flexes its AI might in India: Google is seeing an opportunity to plant its AI flag in India, where its chief competitors are lagging behind. The company is adding support for multiple languages for Gemini in the country, enhancing search, visual recognition, and language processing. Read More

3. The Oura Ring 4 review: Oura has unveiled the much-anticipated fourth generation of its smart ring. It's got a slimmer profile and recessed interior sensors for a smoother and more comfortable experience, and it retails starting at $349. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: TechCrunch

🥊 The gloves are off: Web hosting provider WP Engine has sued Automattic, and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg after the latter started talking smack about WP Engine. The company is accusing Mullenweg of extortion and abuse of power. Read More

🥵 Time to cool down: Cooling methods like air and water are not keeping up with the white hot demand for data center capacity and AI chips. One Barcelone-based startup, Submer, is capitalizing on the hot demand, and just raised $55.5 million for its "amniotic fluid"-like cooling solution. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ Let them have deepfakes: So says a California judge who blocked an AI bill passed by Governor Gavin Newsom that targets distributors of AI deepfakes on social media. The judge found that election deepfakes, in particular, are protected as critique, parody and satire by the First Amendment. Read More

❌ Elon moves xAI into old OpenAI HQ: After threatening to move all his companies from California to Texas, Elon Musk has decided to move xAI into OpenAI's former HQ in San Francisco's Mission district. Maybe all the AI energy and burritos will help xAI compete better in the AI race. Read More

👓 Meta wants all your data: Meta's Orion glasses are cool and all, but prospective customers might quickly nope out once they learn that Meta has confirmed that it may train its AI on any image you ask the glasses to analyze. Read More

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Around the Web

😵‍💫 No wonder we're all getting weirder: A Stanford article has outlined what happens to the adult brain during excessive screen time, and folks, it ain't pretty. Too much staring at your laptop or phone can lead to a dip in your brain's gray matter volume, which helps with decision-making and problem-solving. Read More

🤦 Not to harp on about Meta's AR glasses, but someone put PimEyes' facial recognition tech onto them, and they could instantly dox strangers, reports 404 Media. Meta's got its work cut out if it wants to make sure these glasses aren't abused too much. Read More

🤗 PayPal embraces crypto: PayPal has made its first business payment using its proprietary stablecoin to demonstrate how cryptocurrencies can make the whole money transfer thing a lot less clunky. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits:Spotify

🎶 There goes my smartphone storage: Spotify's new feature for premium users automatically backs up a list of the songs you recently listened to so you can listen to them offline as well. That's excellent for when you're stuck in a deadzone on the NYC subway, or flying on an airline with no Wi-Fi. Please do it for podcasts, too? Read More