TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Redpoint

1. Rise and shine: San Francisco veteran VC firm Redpoint Ventures raised a $650 million early-stage fund — its 10th — that matches the size of its previous fund three years ago. That's quite a feat in a world where most VCs are decreasing their capital hauls from the ZIRP-era. Read More

2. Guac costs extra: Veteran Chipotle executive Jack Hartung is joining Tesla's board of directors. He brings four decades of food and beverage experience to the board just as Tesla is getting ready to launch its first 1950s retro-futuristic diner in Los Angeles. Read More

3. Wasn't me: XAI is blaming an "unauthorized modification" for a bug in Grok for why the chatbot suddenly became obsessed with talking about 'white genocide' in South Africa. The company said someone directed the bot to provide a "specific response" on a "political topic." Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: TechCrunch

🧠 Mini Me: Sam Altman wants ChatGPT to eventually be able to document and remember everything about a person's life – every book you've ever read to "everything you've ever looked at." Sounds…holistic? But what if you don't want the chatbot to know everything about you? Read More

🧑‍💻 Bring it in-house: Vibe-coding startup Windsurf launched its first family of AI software engineering models, or SWE-1 for short. The models were trained to handle the "entire software engineering process," not just coding. Read More

💰 People are angry at Apple after discovering a warning message it displays next to apps that don't use its own "private and secure payment system." The warning wasn't actually new, but that didn't stop social media posters from accusing Apple of 'maliciously complying' with a new rule that forces the company to link to external payment options. Read More

🍎 Don't keep the doctor away: Sprinter Health, founded by a couple of Google and Facebook alumni, offers at-home preventative services for blood draws, diabetes, eye checks, and more. It's been growing fast and just raised $55 million led by General Catalyst. Read More

🪦 RIP: Programmers were hit hardest in Microsoft's 2,000-person layoff in Washington, with over 40% of the jobs cut in the software engineering category. Whether that's due to the rise of AI coding, we're not sure. Microsoft declined to comment. Read More

Around the web

🧐 Silicon Valley takeover: The Wall Street Journal has an analysis of the more than three dozen employees and associates of Elon Musk and fellow tech titans Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Palmer Luckey who now have roles at federal agencies critical to their businesses. Read More

🦾 AI-or-Bust: Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman told Business Insider that using AI is now a baseline expectation at Fiverr. If people can't use AI, they'll be displaced by those who can. He also noted that freelancers on the platform have adopted AI tools faster than employees. Read More

Before you go

🤡 Do it for the bants: Rahul Sonwalkar (prank name Rahul Ligma), the guy who pretended to be a laid-off Twitter engineer after Elon Musk took over, also has a more serious endeavor: Julius, an AI data analyst startup used by Harvard to make data science more accessible. Read More