TechCrunch Top 3

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🧠 Another day, another "reasoning" model: Today it is Google's turn to release a "reasoning" AI model, or a model that fact-checks itself. The new model is beautifully named Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, and as the name suggests, it's still in the experimental stage. Read more

🚕 Robotaxis, y'all: Tesla might be getting closer to having its robotaxis on the road. The company is evaluating multiple cities in the Lone Star state to test its long-awaited robotaxi service. Austin seems to be at the top of the list. Read more

💵 Non-controversial capital: More than 20 venture firms have signed a pledge, the Clean Capital Certification, that says they haven't taken money from China, Iran, Cuba, or Russia. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

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💳 What's an IPO? Digital bank Chime has filed its confidential paperwork to go public. This isn't the biggest surprise, as the company hired Morgan Stanley bankers back in September. Regardless, this will be welcome news to the venture community. Read more

💰 Cash for a coding assistant: AI coding assistant startup Anysphere raised its second round of funding in four months, securing $100 million in this latest round that values it at $2.6 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital. Read more

📈 Dollars for Decart: Decart, a startup building a fully integrated AI research lab, raised a $32 million round that values the company at more than $500 million just months after it emerged from stealth. Read more

🫵 Knock, knock, it's the GDPR: The Bavarian data protection authority, which enforces the rules of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, told Sam Altman's World (Worldcoin) company that it would have to comprehensively delete user data if they request it. Read more

🎨 AI airbrushing: Instagram teased a new set of AI tools that would allow creators to change essentially everything in a video using text prompts. While the tools look impressive in the video Instagram released, who knows how they will look in practice. Read more

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Around the web

⛔️ Well, well, well: In the U.K., the Creative Rights in AI Coalition has rejected a proposal from the Labour government to make a copyright exemption to help AI companies train their models. I can't say this is surprising. Read more

🙌 Building and transitioning: Building a startup is hard in every circumstance, but even more so when a founder is also simultaneously going through a large change in their life. Cadstrom founder Margot Blouin knows this well: She launched her AI startup while transitioning her gender to live openly as a woman. Read more