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Elon Musk Just convinced Tesla Shareholders approve his $56 billion pay package Which makes him the highest paid CEO in history – Assuming he can avoid a Delaware judge’s disapproval. And what better place to hold this circus than Texas, home of everything big, including vanity? Shareholders burst into applause at Tesla’s giant factory in Texas when the voting results were announced. Meanwhile, Musk manipulates more companies than a clown with a chainsaw and faces two new lawsuits (a lawsuit is filed only once a week for the benefit of the weak). Oh, and forget any cool ESG initiatives; Those were dropped faster than you can say “corporate responsibility.” Who needs sustainability when Elon is dancing with him on stage 0.7 Twitter cash value In a bag?
The most interesting startup stories of the week
It seems Henrik Fisker His talent for designing cars is matched only by his talent for driving companies into bankruptcy. Despite its goal to be Apple Electric vehicles (With Magna playing Foxconn’s role), the much-hyped Ocean SUV sank faster than the Titanic due to software glitches, recalls, and lawsuits galore. Now Fisker is filing for Chapter 11 in Delaware, and has gone from dreams of revolutionizing the auto industry to simply trying not to get stuck in a $500 million bill. This represents Fisker The second step is to bankrupt a company with the same name. Can he reach all three? Stay tuned.
- Yes, I saw that coming: Have you ever felt like your subscription services are conspiring against you? Good, Adobe was just subpoenaed by the Department of Justice Allegedly to facilitate an escape from Alcatraz rather than cancel one of their subscriptions.
- You will View our ads: YouTube is at it again, people. This time they’re pushing their anti-ad-blocking campaign to new heights Server-side ad injectionMake sure you get these annoying ads before the video reaches your device. Oh and I’ve summed up this story In the TechCrunch Minute series, if you’re more of an observer than a reader.
- They go around in circles: Loop, the insurance startup with the noble mission of overthrowing biased pricing models, appears to have hit a massive fundraising wall. After 20 months of trying (and failing) to make some money, co-founder John Henry had the unenviable task of: Announcing layoffs via Instagram.
Trend of the week: All eyes on artificial intelligence
Apple has finally thrown its hat into the circus of AI icons, joining the likes of Google and OpenAI in a desperate attempt to portray AI with a logo that makes any sense at all. Spoiler alert: They are as ignorant as everyone else. Apple’s new visual for “intelligence” is basically a psychedelic circle and — wait, no — an lopsided infinity symbol? In fact, it’s the new Siri. Or maybe it’s when the edges of your phone glow like a spacecraft landing. The real takeaway here? No one knows what AI should look like, but let’s add some nice pastel colors and call it innovation.
Meanwhile, Ilya Sutskever, the owner of A.I Who decided last month that OpenAI wasn’t sexy enough anymorehe have He started his own dance party called Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) with two former OpenAI friends. After a dramatic exit from OpenAI (presumably over how to avoid Skynet taking over), Sutskever is doubling down on its efforts to make sure super-intelligent AI doesn’t become our overlord anytime soon. SSI mission? Balancing the amazing advances in AI with safety measures so we don’t end up appearing in our own “Black Mirror” episode.
Most interesting fundraiser this week
Meet the dynamic duo who seem to have gotten past their quarter-life crisis and headed straight for a cash swim. Edward Tian and Alex Cui, founders of GPTZero, are living proof that high school friendships can lead to multi-million dollar projects. In just a year and a half, they’ve turned their AI detection startup into a money-making machine that outperforms your favorite viral app. With a newly raised $10 million from enthusiastic venture capital funds Who couldn’t wait for an official raise, these guys are on track to create an internet where we can still tell if your article was written by you or by ChatGPT’s wordless cousin called Cheech.
Other unmissable TechCrunch stories…
Each week, there are always a few stories I want to share with you that somehow don’t fall into the above categories. It would be a shame to miss out on these, so here’s a random bag of goodies for you:
- So what happened with Fisker?: Once again, Fisker proves that it’s the small engine that can’t. Despite outsourcing its manufacturing to auto giant Magna and aiming for a quick launch, the electric vehicle startup has ignored one glaring problem: It wasn’t ready to become an actual car company.
- Hard times to be an Apple developer: Prepare yourself for Pour one for your favorite third-party apps Because iOS 18 is on the way, and it’s bringing the wrecking ball. Apple’s notorious habit of “sherlocking” — also known as pulling ideas from third-party developers and incorporating them into its own operating system — could amount to nearly $400 million in app revenue.
- Life is imperfect: Well, it looks like personal vitamin subscription company Care/of has officially gone out of business. The company announced that all subscriptions will expire by June 17. Despite being backed by $46 million from investors and Bayer’s massive $225 million acquisition in 2020, He couldn’t keep the lights on.
- This is not how privacy works: In a dazzling display of cybersecurity ignorance, EU lawmakers are once again trying to achieve the legislative equivalent of blindfolded saber-toothed tigers. Meredith Whitaker, CEO of Signal and bearer of common sense, She criticized the latest EU plan Scanning private messages for CSAM is a surefire way to drop web security under the bus.