\nGoogle bets the farm on AI, Twitter gets a new CEO, and Meta contractors protest<\/br>
\n2023-05-15 22:11:11<\/br><\/p>\n
Hey, friends \u2014 you\u2019ve made it to the end of the week. Congrats! That\u2019s an achievement worth celebrating, I\u2019d say. And what better way to ring in the weekend than by recapping the week in tech? This is Week in Review<\/a> (WiR), TechCrunch\u2019s weekly news roundup, where we highlight the most important, impactful and otherwise eye-popping stories over the past days. We get it \u2014 you\u2019re busy. Hence, a digest that highlights all the key happenings.<\/p>\n Before we get on to the good stuff, a reminder that on May 17, TechCrunch Live<\/a>, TC\u2019s virtual speaker series, will feature Intel Capital\u2019s Mark Rostick and Garima Kapoor \u2014 the founder of MinIO, a startup building an enterprise-grade, but open source, object storage solution. On the further horizon, there\u2019s TC City Spotlight: Atlanta<\/a> on June 7, which will host a pitch competition, a panel discussion on investing in the Atlanta ecosystem and more. Last but not least is Disrupt<\/a> in San Francisco (from September 19\u201321), a conference jam-packed with expert-led sessions and interviews with movers and shakers in the tech space. Mark the dates!<\/p>\n Now, with that out of the way, here\u2019s the top headlines.<\/p>\n Google I\/O, recapped:<\/strong><\/a> On Google I\/O keynote day, the search and internet advertising giant put forth a rapid-fire stream of announcements during its developer conference \u2014 including many unveilings of recent AI-related things it\u2019s been working on. If you didn\u2019t have time to watch a two-hour presentation, the TechCrunch team took that on and delivered story after story on new products and features \u2014 plus quick hits of the biggest news in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-skim list.<\/p>\n The purge continues:<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Twitter is purging inactive accounts on its platform, which may free up a number of long-coveted usernames, according to recent tweets by\u00a0owner Elon Musk<\/a>. Though Twitter\u00a0for years has promised<\/a>\u00a0to put more usernames back into rotation, it hadn\u2019t yet made any large-scale effort to do so, despite having\u00a0an inactive account policy<\/a>\u00a0in place that suggests Twitter\u2019s users should log in at least every 30 days to keep accounts from being permanently removed.<\/p>\n New Twitter CEO<\/a>:<\/strong> In other Twitter news, Elon Musk says that he\u2019s found a new CEO for Twitter<\/a>. Musk didn\u2019t initially specify who\u2019s going to take on the role, though The Wall Street Journal is now reporting<\/a> that NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino is actively \u201cin talks\u201d for the position. In a tweet<\/a>, Musk announced that he\u2019ll transition from his role as CEO of the company to serving as its executive chair and chief technology officer. The new CEO is expected to start in six weeks, according to Musk.<\/p>\n Health records leaked:<\/strong><\/a> NextGen Healthcare, a U.S.-based provider of\u00a0electronic health record<\/a>\u00a0software,\u00a0admitted that hackers breached its systems and stole the personal data of more than 1 million patients.\u00a0<\/span>In a\u00a0data breach notification<\/a> filed with the Maine attorney general\u2019s office, NextGen Healthcare confirmed that hackers accessed the personal data of 1.05 million patients, including approximately 4,000 Maine residents.<\/p>\n Rapid lays off workers:<\/strong><\/a> Rapid, previously known as RapidAPI, a startup that built out an API marketplace valued at $1 billion<\/a>\u00a0last year, has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after\u00a0letting go of 50% of its staff<\/a>, TechCrunch has learned. An affected employee who wished to remain anonymous told TC that just 42 people remain at the company \u2014 down from 230 in April \u2014 reflecting an 82% drop in headcount.<\/p>\n Meta contractors protest:<\/a> <\/strong>Content moderators under Sama, Meta\u2019s content review subcontractor in Africa, earlier this week picketed at the company\u2019s headquarters in Kenya demanding their April salary. The 184 moderators have sued Sama for allegedly laying them off unlawfully, <\/a>after Meta wound down its content review arm in March, and Majorel, the social media giant\u2019s new partner based in Africa, for blacklisting on instruction by Meta.<\/p>\n From Pok\u00e9mon to Peridot:<\/a><\/strong> From the makers of Pok\u00e9mon Go comes another mobile game that brings cute little creatures to our fingertips: <\/span>Peridot<\/a>. <\/span>Like a \u201990s Tamagotchi toy, Peridot is a pet simulator, but it takes place completely within<\/span> augmented reality<\/a>. You can feed, play with, walk, breed and socialize with your Peridots, but don\u2019t worry \u2014 if you take a break from the game, your creatures won\u2019t poop all over your screen and\/or die.<\/span><\/p>\n Texting, but different:<\/strong><\/a> \u201cThe medium is the message\u201d is the common phrase, but entrepreneur Alexis Traina<\/a> believes that messages themselves \u2014 text messages, to be exact \u2014 deserve attention, too. Traina is the CEO and co-founder of HiNOTE<\/a>, an app that helps people create messages, set over personalized backdrops of anything from a tipped-over wineglass to a branded letterhead notebook page. The idea, she said in an interview with TechCrunch, is that she wouldn\u2019t get up every day and dress in green, blue and gray \u2014 so why do our text messages stick to those colors?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Need listening material for your weekday commute \u2014 or shower, for that matter? TechCrunch has you covered. On Equity<\/a>, the crew dove into a brace of new Mayfield funds, as well as how Wellthy is helping caregivers feel less overwhelmed and the slowing growth of tech companies. Over at Found<\/a>, the team talked with the co-founders of Juliet, who are reimagining boxed wine. The Chain Reaction<\/a> team released a bonus episode from a fireside chat with Nadya Tolokonnikova, the creator of the protest art collective Pussy Riot, at NFT NYC in April 2023. The TechCrunch Podcast<\/a> covered Google I\/O, including the tech, attend talks and demos. To round things out, TechCrunch Live<\/a> talked about developing therapeutics for anti-aging with James Peyer, the co-founder of Cambrian BioPharma, and Maryanna Saenko, co-founder and partner at Future Ventures.<\/p>\n TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys \u2014 which you know if you\u2019re already a subscriber. If you\u2019re not, consider signing up<\/a>. Here are a few highlights from this week:<\/em><\/p>\n Visions of a colorful future:<\/a><\/strong> How far has the psychedelics medicine industry come over the past 12 months? Well, it depends on where you look. A recent survey indicates that instead of simply looking for attractive opportunities, investors and founders are increasingly putting their minds to building the foundations for an industry that can employ the power of psychedelics to change lives.<\/p>\n AI\u2019s eating search:<\/strong><\/a> News from Google\u2019s AI-soaked developer event<\/a> this week makes it plain that we\u2019re on the cusp of a new era of search. Following Microsoft\u2019s\u00a0molding of OpenAI\u2019s tech into Bing<\/a>, Google\u00a0is experimenting with its own AI tech<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0opening up new ways to use search<\/a>. It\u2019s clear we\u2019re about to see the first major overhauls in the market for finding information on the internet in a really long time.<\/p>\n Salesforce embraces generative AI:<\/a> <\/strong>Salesforce is increasingly investing in generative AI as it becomes apparent that the technology has the potential to transform how we interact with software \u2014 allowing us to describe what we want instead of clicking or tapping.<\/p>\n Get your TechCrunch fix IRL. Join us at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse yourself in all things startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo floor, there\u2019s something for everyone at Disrupt. Save up to $800 when you buy your pass now through May 15, and save 15% on top of that with promo code WIR. Learn more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nmost read<\/h2>\n
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