TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Get your paper: The FTC is sending out $72 million to Fortnite users who were tricked into making unwanted purchases due to the game's "counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration." The FTC has been zeroing in on companies using "dark patterns" to confuse people into making unwanted purchases. Read More

2. Setting the tone: OpenAI isn't letting most Sora users upload photos or videos of real people just yet, saying it could be a "vector of potential misuse." Here's hoping the other AI companies follow suit and don't use this as a way to undercut the competition. Read More

3. Prepare for take-off: Blue Origin says it's getting close to launching its gigantic New Glenn rocket after it completes a final key test. Hinging on the results of the test is whether the rocket can meet founder Jeff Bezos's vision of lowering the cost of launch enough to move all polluting industries into orbit. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Spotify

👋🏽 Goodbye, Car Thing: Spotify has officially disabled its in-car streaming device, so it will no longer work. Buyers have until January 14 — so a little more than a month — to get refunded the $90 they shelled out for their Car Things. Read More

💧 Waste not, want not: AI companies are turning to liquid cooling for their data centers, and one startup has thought up a way to make use of the waste heat produced by the process. Nexalus's hot-water approach to liquid cooling promises to increase data center density and reduce water use. Read More

🏁 Race to the top: Amazon is establishing a new lab dedicated to building "foundational" capabilities for AI agents. David Luan, the co-founder of AI startup Adept will lead it. Recall that the startup was the subject of a license-hire deal, wherein Amazon licensed Adept's tech and secured Luan and most of its team. Read More

💵 Show me the money: The OpenAI Startup Fund has raised more than $44 million for its fifth Special Purpose Vehicle. The fund has been quiet about where the money is going, despite raising close to $115 million in SPVs since 2021, but we do know that early-stage startups are at the top of the list. Read More

🧐 To be or not to be: A test for determining if an AI model has achieved artifical general intelligence is getting close to being solved, but that might have more to do with flaws in the test's design than the arrival of actual artificial general intelligence. Read More

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Around the web

🚙 Ads done right: We've all seen the weird Jaguar rebranding and accompanying ad, right? The one where models wearing Telletubby Chic pose in avant-garde style and there's not a car in sight? Well, Volvo's latest ad for the EX90 should be a breath of fresh air, and a bit of a tear jerker, as it focuses on the importance of safety in a vehicle. Watch Now

🍪 How the chips fall: The U.S. Department of Commerce has finalized one of the largest CHIPS Act subsidies. Memory chip maker Micron Technology is getting $6.1 billion to build several domestic semiconductor facilities in New York and Idaho, reports Reuters. Read More

👗 From surviving to thriving: Vinted, a European app selling secondhand clothes, was growing fast in 2016 but struggling to reach profitability. Then the company's current CEO advised it to fire most of its staff, rebuild the app, and rip up the business model. Today, Vinted is worth $5 billion. The Wall Street Journal has the profile. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

🍊 From CrowdStrike to Dubai chocolate bars: Google has released its top search trends of 2024, and interestingly, many of the top searches about random things — like orange peels and Nancy Meyers — are the result of TikTok trends. Not sure if that's a good thing for Google. Read More