TechCrunch Top 3

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🇫🇷 Le updates: French AI startup Mistral announced a slew of new updates for its AI chatbot, Le Chat. The company has launched a mobile app on iOS and Android in addition to a large web interface upgrade. Mistral hopes to be seen as a competitor of Anthropic and OpenAI. Read more

😐 Decision defense: Andreessen Horowitz finds itself playing defense to justify its decision to hire Daniel Penny, a man with zero investment experience, who was acquitted last year after choking a homeless subway rider, who had a history of mental illness, to death. Read more

👋 In and out: OpenAI co-founder John Schulman made headlines when he left the AI startup in August to take on a role at competitor Anthropic. Well, less than six months later, Schulman has left that company, too. Read more

Afternoon must-reads

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🧑‍💻 New features: GitHub announced a slew of new Copilot features that give a glimpse into the future of AI agent-assisted coding. One feature, Vision for Copilot, allows users to attach a photo or diagram and Copilot will generate the code needed to create it. Read more

🤖 Supply and demand: Global supply chains have gone under massive transformations over the last few years. Pendulum wants to help companies navigate the ever-changing landscape with its AI-enabled supply-and-demand predictor. Read more

🦅 Go Birds: Corporate card startup Ramp will debut its first Super Bowl ad on Sunday that features Philadelphia Eagles' star running back Saquon Barkley. Barkley is now also an investor in the fintech. Read more

💸 Tariff talk: Navigating the fluid tariff situation is top of mind for Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said on the company's earnings call that the Trump administration's approach to tariffs "doesn't make sense." Read more

📸 Flashes opens up: Flashes, a much-anticipated Instagram alternative built on top of Bluesky's social network, is now opening its door for beta testers. The app "offers people a means of exiting Meta's social networking empire for a more open alternative," writes Sarah Perez. Read more

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Around the web

🥶 Is your fridge expired? Like many devices, smart fridges will eventually hit their limit of software updates. But unlike other devices where the inability to update software leaves them useless, smart fridges will still keep food cold. The Verge argues that this doesn't mean people should keep them, though. Read more

🎭 Smol drama: Mini soap operas that include a whole drama told in 60- to 90-second video clips are a growing media trend in China. Unlike TikTok videos, these are generally produced by real film studios, which are pumping out 5,000 to 8,000 a year. This is so fun! Read more