The Daily Crunch – Spoken Edition

The social media giant says that end-to-end encryption would make users less safe. Plus, TikTok says that end-to-end encryption would make users less safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new Audible Standard plan is $6 cheaper than the platform's existing "Premium" plan, which costs $14.95 per month. The new X chat app promises a way to send and receive messages without being distracted by your timeline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many consumers ditched ChatGPT's app after news of its DoD deal went live, while Claude's downloads grew. Also, Stripe released a preview intended to allow AI companies to easily track, pass through, and make a profit on underlying AI model fees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech workers have signed an open letter urging the Department of War to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" and instead to settle the matter quietly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As TechCrunch's Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai writes, a hacking group called Department of Peace said they hacked a specific office within Homeland Security to protest ICE's mass deportation campaign, and the companies aiding it. Also, the new labels comply with regulations and allow creators to be more transparent with their followers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six newly-created accounts made a profit of $1 million by correctly betting that the U.S. would strike Iran by February 28. TechCrunch spoke with VCs to learn what investors aren't looking for in AI SaaS startups anymore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a one-two punch of centibillion-dollar offers, the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery is over. David Ellison-owned Paramount will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix has lost. Plus, Plaid valued at $8B in employee share sale. The new valuation is a 31% increase from $6.1 billion Plaid reached in April. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The suit said Walmart mislead drivers about their possible tips and would reduce their base pay, among other things. Also, Read AI is launching Ada, which can reply with your availability and extract answers from the company knowledge base and the web. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

IDC says phone makers will ship only 1.12 billion smartphones as compared to 1.26 billion last year Also, Mistral AI lands a partnership with Accenture, the consultant that has also recently announced partnerships with rivals OpenAI and Anthropic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recent findings also show that video podcasting -- while popular -- is not necessarily replacing audio shows. Also, general purpose tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok are not designed for this use, making mental health professionals wary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI introduced ads to ChatGPT earlier this month Also, Peter Steinberger talks about the creation of his viral AI agent OpenClaw and how being more "playful" makes for a better way to learn AI coding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify and Liquid Death launched what might be the wildest product of the year: a speaker shaped like a urn. Also, earlier this month, OpenAI launched a new platform called OpenAI Frontier for enterprises to build and manage agents, but OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said that businesses haven't yet seen AI adoption at scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta is buying billions of dollars in AMD AI chips in a multiyear deal tied to a 160 million-share warrant, deepening its push to diversify beyond Nvidia and expand data center capacity. Also, Mogul, which helps artists track royalties and value their catalogs, raised $5 million in a round led by the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic accuses DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax of using 24,000 fake accounts to distill Claude's AI capabilities, as U.S. officials debate export controls aimed at slowing China's AI progress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While some cities are moving to end their contracts with Flock over its links to ICE, others are taking matters into their own hands. Also, OpenAI is partnering with four consulting giants in an effort to see more adoption of its OpenAI Frontier AI agent platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China's brain-computer interface industry is rapidly scaling from research to commercialization, driven by strong policy support, expanding clinical trials, and growing investor interest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The technology promises to replace several parts of the grid with one device that's both controllable and updatable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Redwood Materials says its new energy storage business is the fastest growing unit within the company. Plus, Toyota's robots will be unloading totes full of auto parts from an automated warehouse tugger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI is reportedly getting close to closing a $100 billion deal, with backers including Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft. The deal would value the ChatGPT-maker at $850 billion. SoftBank's project would be among the largest and most expensive natural gas power plants. And, New York pulled a robotaxi expansion proposal that was viewed as a win for Waymo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon said Blue Jay's core tech will be used for other robotics projects and the employees who worked on it were moved to other projects. Also, Mastodon is looking to grow its open source, decentralized social network with new features aimed at creators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audible's feature will require customers to buy discounted versions of both versions of the title. Also, X's new immersive video player is designed to offer a more mobile-friendly experience, optimized especially for portrait-oriented videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An internal research study at Meta found that parental supervision may not help teens regulate their social media, and teens with trauma are more inclined to overuse social media. Also, as the AI hardware space heats up, the iPhone maker has multiple smart products in development. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When we talk about the cost of AI infrastructure, the focus is usually on Nvidia and GPUs -- but memory is an increasingly important part of the picture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to a16z, it has eyes around the world in order to spot companies as early as local funds might. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"From an AI research perspective, this is nothing novel," one expert told TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Pentagon is pushing AI companies to allow the U.S. military to use their technology for “all lawful purposes,” but Anthropic is pushing back, according to a new report in Axios. The government is reportedly making the same demand to OpenAI, Google, and xAI. Also, college students are losing some interest in computer science broadly but gaining interest in AI-specific majors and courses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $1 million, you can pay Bryan Johnson (or BryanAI?) to teach you how to live longer Also, Ring's Super Bowl commercial stoked controversy over the company's capacity for mass surveillance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CEO Chris Urmson called it a “superhuman” moment, adding that Aurora's trucks can now carry freight 1,000 miles in 15 hours — faster than what a human driver can legally accomplish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The team's leader has been given a new role as OpenAI's Chief Futurist, while the other team members have been reassigned throughout the company. Also, xAI took the rare step of publishing its full 45-minute all-hands presentation to the X platform, making it widely available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Upscrolled, a social network that surged in the wake of the U.S. TikTok deal, has seen an uptick in harmful content, including user names and hashtags that contain racial slurs. Also, Threads' new feature lets users tell Threads what they temporarily want to see more or less of in their feed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Czech ice dancers Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek are learning the hard way that LLMs sometimes spit out straight-up plagiarism. Also, an OpenAI executive denied allegations that she engaged in discrimination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The tech giant handed over the personal information of a journalist and student who attended a pro-Palestinian protest in 2024. This is the latest example of ICE using its controversial subpoena powers to target people critical of the Trump administration. Also, out of the twelve-person xAI founding team, only seven are still at the company (counting Elon). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is reportedly expected to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding" that underpins U.S. climate regulatory efforts. Also, Spotify credited a successful Wrapped campaign and new features in its free tier for its rapid user growth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Musicboard shutting down? Company says no, but users are worried. Also, Ouster is paying $35 million along with 1.8 million shares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Founded by former Google Japan leaders, InfiniMind is building enterprise AI to turn vast, unused video archives into searchable, actionable business intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Although the bill's prospects are uncertain, New York is at least the sixth state to consider pausing construction of new data centers. Also, a march supporting California's billionaires didn't exactly draw a huge crowd on Saturday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit says its search business, including AI answers, is an "enormous" opportunity. Also, AWS recorded its best quarter, in terms of revenue growth, in 13 quarters in Q4 2025 as AI drives AWS adoption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI launched Frontier, a new platform designed for enterprises to build and deploy agents while treating them like human employees. Also, the newest version of Anthropic's model is designed to broaden its appeal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI startups like Clay and ElevenLabs are using early liquidity to keep their best talent. Also, launched last September, Vibes lets you create and share short-form AI-generated videos and access a dedicated feed that displays AI videos from others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fibr AI replaces marketing agency– and engineering-heavy website personalization with autonomous systems designed for enterprise scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon opens Alexa+ to everyone in the U.S. The AI feature is free for Prime members across devices, and free for everyone on mobile and web. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The use of administrative subpoenas, which are not subject to judicial oversight, are used to demand a wealth of information from tech companies, including the owners of anonymous online accounts documenting ICE operations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices