The Obamas are leaving Spotify for Audible

Barack and Michelle Obama are heading to Audible. On Tuesday, the Amazon-owned company announced an exclusive multiyear first-look production deal with the former first couple’s media company.

Obama says social media is ‘well designed’ to destroy democracies

After an era of open affection for Silicon Valley followed by an era of relative quiet, former President Barack Obama is tearing into tech. The former president spoke Thursday at an event co-hosted by

Caretakers, ageism and other topics venture needs to stop overlooking

Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single pe

The Obamas’ Higher Ground will not renew its Spotify partnership, report says

Barack and Michelle Obama’s podcasting deal with Spotify for their company Higher Ground is ending, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Higher Ground will not be renewing the deal and is i

The Browser Company raises $50M at a $550M valuation

The Browser Company, which makes the Arc browser, has raised $50 million in a round led by Pace Capital at a $550 million valuation, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. The company’s head of sto

OpenAI’s initial new board counts Larry Summers among its ranks

Meet OpenAI’s new board of directors: Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo. Or, more precisely, the board for the time being. We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman t

I read comics on Apple’s Vision Pro . . . It was fine

Few joys in this cold world can match cracking open a new comic on a lazy Sunday morning. Nothing to do, nowhere to be — just you, a mug of coffee and some sequential art. Not much has fundamentally

Apple’s Lisa Jackson will discuss sustainability at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

It’s an ambitious and necessary goal. We’re talking about Apple’s commitment to be 100% carbon neutral by 2030. How do you make a nearly $3 trillion company green? We’re going to hear a lot ab

This site tells you if photos of you were used to train the AI

Deepfakes, AI-generated porn and a thousand more innocent uses — there’s been a lot of news about neural network-generated images. It makes sense that people started getting curious; were

US Supreme Court says EPA can’t regulate carbon pollution under Clean Air Act

The 6-3 decision makes it increasingly likely that an act of Congress will be required to rein in planet-warming emissions.

What’s up with Qi2 and why should you care?

If you’ve been following the onslaught of gadget news out of Berlin this week, you’ve no doubt heard Qi2 pop up more than once. Notably, Anker and Mophie have both announced products that adopt th

Twitter is considering selling usernames through online auctions, new report claims

Twitter is considering selling usernames as a way to boost revenue, according to a new report from The New York Times. The report comes as the social network’s owner, Elon Musk, has been looking

Klarna founder to launch new ‘Nobel Prize for Impact’

According to BCG global assets under management are around $100 trillion, but only $715 billion, or less than 1%, goes on what you might term “impact” companies or projects to tackle the w

News app Artifact adds AI text-to-speech voices, including Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow

Personalized news app Artifact, developed by Instagram’s founders, is adding another new AI-powered feature today. The company is launching an AI-powered text-to-speech feature in partnership wi

GM’s Cruise pursuing permit to test its custom-built ‘Origin’ robotaxi in San Francisco

Cruise, GM’s self-driving technology subsidiary, has started the long and winding regulatory process to test its next-generation “Origin” robotaxi on public roads in San Francisco. T

Font furore as State Department retires Times New Roman for retired Calibri

In a heartwarming callback to the absurdly low-stakes controversies of the Obama era, the State Department is making extremely small waves by officially retiring the old workhorse Times New Roman font

Lime CEO Wayne Ting and former EPA administrator Carol Browner will be speaking at TC Sessions: Climate on June 14

A recent report suggests that moving fully to zero emissions could save California as much as $169 billion in public health benefits, not to mention the positive impact it would have on the environmen

Federal gig worker proposal tanks Uber, Lyft and DoorDash stocks

The stock prices of Uber, Lyft and DoorDash slid on Tuesday after the Department of Labor announced proposed changes to how workers should be classified. The prospective guidance is intended to &#8220

Twitter’s first comms exec is building a comms network for execs

The communications world is an enigma, and at times, feels counter to the job of a journalist. So to hear that there’s an effort to help more comms people trade notes, share stories and prepare cura

Actually, it’s good for Spotify that Joe Rogan’s podcast is no longer exclusive

Spotify renewed its contract with podcaster Joe Rogan this weekend, but with a twist. After almost four years, “The Joe Rogan Experience” is no longer a Spotify-exclusive podcast. This mig
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