TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

1. Top picks from YC Demo Day 2: Y Combinator held its second Demo Day on Thursday, and surprise, surprise, AI is the cohort's main focus once again. But that doesn't mean the startups who aren't focusing on AI don't pack a punch. Here are our favorites of the lot. Read More

2. Meta gets another slap on the wrist: Ireland's DPC has hit Meta with a $101.5 million fine because millions of Facebook account passwords were leaked in a 2019 data breach. That may sound like a big penalty, but it's a drop in the bucket for a company that recorded a $13.5 billion profit in the second quarter of 2024 alone. Read More

3. Who needs friends when you have AI? A small bootstrapped startup, Nomi AI, has built a chatbot that can compete with OpenAI's o1. Only, Nomi's chatbot focuses more on memory and EQ to deliver more nuanced responses. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Figure

🔍 Where GPT shines: Michael Tannenbaum, the former COO of Brex and current CEO of lending startup Figure, feels GPT has already changed the mortgage lending landscape. How? He says it takes the drudgery out of manually checking lending documents for errors. Read More

🤥 No, AI can't police AI: OpenAI's VP of global affairs says the company's o1 model can self-identify biases in its answers. While there's some credence to this, the data doesn't quite back up those claims. Read More

📽️ Taking the reins: Instead of waiting for the film industry to adopt AI, Runway is starting a new AI-friendly film ecosystem with a $5 million fund. The firm says it will back 100 original films made using its generative video model. Read More

🛰️ 4 million subs and counting: SpaceX's Starlink has hit 4 million subscribers, which means more paper for SpaceX to continue its space efforts. It also means Starlink has gained a million new customers since the end of May. Read More

🎮 Loco for gaming: Redwood, a UAE-based investment firm, slapped $65 million on the table to buy a majority stake in Indian gaming platform Loco. The deal will help the latter expand into international markets. Read More

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Around the Web

❌ Free speech for me, not for thee: X is preventing users from posting links to a newsletter with a leaked document allegedly from the Trump campaign's research into JD Vance, reports The Verge. It's ironic, considering Musk had a lot to say when Twitter blocked a New York Post story with leaked content about Hunter Biden. Read More

🌪️ OpenAI is eating its own tail: Given its for-profit shift and new products, it feels like OpenAI is suffering from Icarus Syndrome. The Wall Street Journal cited current and former OpenAI employees as saying that the company apparently blitzed through safety tests, and that Sam Altman is sort of detached from the company's day-to-day functions. Read More

🍔 Swiggy goes public: The Indian IPO market is alive and well, and Swiggy is the latest example of that. The SoftBank-backed food delivery firm is aiming for a $1.25 billion public offering at a $15 billion valuation, reports Reuters. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Napkin.one

✍️ Back-of-the-napkin mindfulness: Napkin is a note-taking app that isn't about making you more productive. "We are helping people capture ideas that change their state of mind," founder David Felsmann said. Read More