TechCrunch Top 3

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😒 Technological welfare: AI research lab Anthropic announced that it has started a research program to investigate, and prepare to navigate, AI "model welfare," or signs of stress an AI model may be feeling. OK. But let's make sure we take care of our fellow human welfare first, am I right?

📸 An accessibility win: TikTok is rolling out support for ALT text for photo posts to make the posts more accessible for users with visual and cognitive impairments. Creators can include ALT text as they are uploading a post or can add it on after it has been published.

🗑️ Less spam, please: Meta is making a concerted effort to snuff out spam content on Facebook. The platform said it's going to lower the reach of accounts that post spammy content and prevent them from monetizing. This is a step toward Mark Zuckerberg's goal of returning to "OG Facebook."

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Afternoon must-reads

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🪧 A parent protest: Parents who lost their children due to online harm, including cyberbullying and sextortion, joined together outside one of Meta's NYC offices today to hold a vigil. The event was to honor their memories while demanding the social media company do more to protect kids.

💻 Pope Francis' funeral: For those unable to make it to Vatican City for Pope Francis' funeral, it will be livestreamed on YouTube through the Vatican News' YouTube channel in six different languages.

♟️ Checkmate: Chess has been played for more than 1,500 years. Chess.com has been around for nearly 20 years and has seen strong momentum as popularity for the game continues to grow. Now Chess.com is celebrating that it has crossed 200 million members.

🎶 AI playlists: Spotify announced today that it expanded the availability of its AI playlists to more than 40 additional markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, among others. The feature rolled out in the U.S. late last year and is still in beta.

💸 Costly compute: A new report estimates that it could cost $200 billion to build an AI data center by 2030. Within this estimate, these $200 billion data centers could contain 2 million AI chips and require 9 gigawatts of power to operate, according to the report. Geez.

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Around the web

🤖 AI assistance: There has been an explosion of AI therapy tools and chatbots. But do they actually help? A health correspondent for KQED shared her story on the Close All Tabs podcast about how she found comfort through them during her return to dating after divorce.

💾 Wii website: A security engineer figured out how to turn an old Wii game console he found at a swap shop into a web host. He is now hosting his blog through the console, which includes a set of instructions for those looking to do the same. Neat!

Before you go

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

😐 Oh, Zuck: The FTC is accusing Meta of antitrust violations, with the threat of spinning out Instagram or WhatsApp looming. We've been digging through the testimony to find out what went on behind the scenes at the company, including the one bit of correspondence, in which Mark Zuckerberg wonders whether it would be worth it to wipe everyone's connections so they could start over.