TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Dystopia incoming: Sam Altman's new essay on his blog acknowledges that the benefits of AI may not be widely distributed, and that "the balance of power between capital and labor could easily get messed up." He says he's open to "a compute budget" and other "strange-sounding ideas" to ensure equitable access to AI. Read More

2. Advising restraint: In her speech at the Paris AI Action Summit, AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li managed to sound both pro-business and anti-Big Tech/Big AI labs at the same time. She encouraged development from open-source communities so innovation isn't concentrated in the hands of a few companies, and warned against sensationalism. Read More

3. More money into the pot: French President Emmanuel Macron announced a $112 billion AI investment package from the private sector into the country's AI ecosystem. The hope is that this will be France's answer to the U.S.' Stargate. Read More

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Morning must-reads

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🤫 Apple on the move: The iPhone maker might quietly launch a new iPhone SE and PowerBeats Pro tomorrow. A 4th-generation SE would be the first budget Apple phone to be released since 2022, and the Beats headphones would come nearly six years after the first iteration. Read More

🚕 Playing catchup: Lyft says it plans to launch Mobileye-powered robotaxis in Dallas by 2026. The company is trying to catch up to rival Uber, which is gearing up to launch a service with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta this year, and Tesla (I guess) also plans to launch in Texas. Read More

📰 Cyberattacks galore: Lee Enterprises, which owns dozens of newspapers across the U.S., has confirmed that a cyberattack on its systems is behind the disruption at several of its media outlets. Read More

😬 Jailbreak: DeepSeek's R1 model is reportedly "more vulnerable" to getting jailbroken than other models. It can be more easily manipulated to produce harmful content, like planning a bioweapon attack or promoting self-harm among teens. Read More

🪫 EV charging takes a hit: Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation paused funding for a $5 billion EV charging infrastructure program. The move is being considered illegal, and it's also more evidence that Elon Musk's politics are increasingly at odds with Tesla's goal of advancing the transition to clean energy — especially since Tesla got a cool $31 million from the program. Read More

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Around the web

👏 Three cheers for Steam: PC gaming platform Steam is reinforcing its ban on paid advertising within games, per blog GamingOnLinux. Steam's rules state that developers "should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game" or give "players a reward for watching…advertising in their game." Read More

🏭 Chips for one and all: OpenAI is finalizing the design of its first in-house chip, reports Reuters. The company plans to have them fabricated at TSMC, in a step to reduce reliance on Nvidia for its chip supply. Read More

🎣 Phishing tests don't work, according to researchers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Phishing tests have become a standard part of work life to protect against ransomware and other forms of online attack, but their success rates are languishing at around 2%. Read More

Before you go

🏈 The AI Super Bowl: The ads have always been one of the best parts of the Super Bowl, in part because they hold a mirror up to society. So it's fitting that this year, several of the multi-million dollar ad spots were taken by AI companies. Read More