TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Meme references in the White House: One of Donald Trump's first acts as President of the United States of America was to sign an executive order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to slash government spending and lay off masses of federal workers. Read More

2. Which AI startups stand out? TechCrunch surveyed 20 VCs to learn more about what enterprises are looking for when they back AI startups. One theme we found was that they seem to expect that foundational models have been established, so where startups can shine is by demonstrating AI that can do well at specific tasks. Read More

3. Another day, another breach: HPE is investigating a data breach now that a well-known hacker, "IntelBroker," claims to have stolen a trove of data from the tech giant. Data like product source code, access keys to HPE services, and more. Read More

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Morning must-reads

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📞 AI safety be damned! OpenAI may be close to releasing an AI tool that can take control of your PC and perform actions on your behalf, despite numerous reports from insiders and whistleblowers that the company is moving too fast. The tool is called Operator, so be on the lookout. Read More

🏄 Surf the decentralized web: Despite TikTok's uncertain future, the decentralized web is getting in on video feeds. First Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos, and now Flipboard has come out with a new app called Surf with a video feed. Read More

🍳 MoneyHash and eggs: The growth of online transactions means that as companies scale, they have to onboard more payment partners to meet different customer and regulatory needs. Enter Egyptian startup MoneyHash, which helps merchants across the Middle East and Africa manage complex payment stacks more easily. Read More

🚣 A rising tide doesn't lift all boats: TC has confirmed that Metropolis, an AI-powered parking platform, has acquired computer vision company Oosto, formerly known as AnyVision. The all-stock deal is valued at $125 million, which is much less than the total capital the startup had raised. Read More

🇬🇧 U.K.'s got its own government efficiency plans: The U.K. has revealed Humphrey, a new set of AI tools designed to speed up the work of civil servants. The government currently spends £23 billion annually on technology, but much of it is outdated and in need of a reboot. Read More

🥊 The AI arms race heats up: Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released an open version of its reasoning model, which it claims can go toe-to-toe with OpenAI's o1. You can test it for yourself on HuggingFace under an MIT license. Read More

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Around the web

🏍️ A coalition of more than 100,000 gig workers in the U.K. have launched a campaign to demand greater openness from Uber Eats, Just Eat, and Deliveroo about the logic underpinning the algorithms that control their jobs, reports The Guardian. Why, for example, does someone who has just logged on get a gig, while others who have been waiting longer are overlooked? Read More

🔮 Trump's memecoin slush fund: Trump and his wife Melania's memecoins, which are cresting market caps of $7 billion and $800 million, respectively, and writer Noah Smith thinks that the coins could be a way for people to buy favors from the new administration without actually paying the President. Read More

💸 Where the money is going in 2025: We're still in January, but we're already seeing some large deals in two particular sectors, per Crunchbase Daily: biotech and space. More than a dozen companies have raised $100 million or more, including Truveta, a medical data research company, and Stoke Space, a reusable rocket startup. Read More

Before you go

🌼 I hope you got to touch some grass: TikTok was down for a day, but per Trump's executive order, the app's ban in the U.S. has been delayed for 75 days so ByteDance can find a buyer for its U.S. operations. His action comes after the Supreme Court voted to uphold the ban. Read More