Google bets the farm on AI, Twitter will get a brand new CEO, and Meta contractors protest

Hey, pals — you’ve made it to the top of the week. Congrats! That’s an achievement price celebrating, I’d say. And what higher solution to ring within the weekend than by recapping the week in tech? That is Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s weekly information roundup, the place we spotlight crucial, impactful and in any other case eye-popping tales over the previous days. We get it — you’re busy. Therefore, a digest that highlights all the important thing happenings.

Earlier than we get on to the great things, a reminder that on Might 17, TechCrunch Live, TC’s digital speaker sequence, will function Intel Capital’s Mark Rostick and Garima Kapoor — the founding father of MinIO, a startup constructing an enterprise-grade, however open supply, object storage answer. On the additional horizon, there’s TC City Spotlight: Atlanta on June 7, which is able to host a pitch competitors, a panel dialogue on investing within the Atlanta ecosystem and extra. Final however not least is Disrupt in San Francisco (from September 19–21), a convention jam-packed with expert-led periods and interviews with movers and shakers within the tech area. Mark the dates!

Now, with that out of the best way, right here’s the highest headlines.

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Google I/O, recapped: On Google I/O keynote day, the search and web promoting large put forth a rapid-fire stream of bulletins throughout its developer convention — together with many unveilings of current AI-related issues it’s been engaged on. Should you didn’t have time to look at a two-hour presentation, the TechCrunch crew took that on and delivered story after story on new merchandise and options — plus fast hits of the most important information in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-skim checklist.

The purge continues: Twitter is purging inactive accounts on its platform, which can unencumber a lot of long-coveted usernames, based on current tweets by owner Elon Musk. Although Twitter for years has promised to place extra usernames again into rotation, it hadn’t but made any large-scale effort to take action, regardless of having an inactive account policy in place that implies Twitter’s customers ought to log in at the very least each 30 days to maintain accounts from being completely eliminated.

New Twitter CEO: In different Twitter information, Elon Musk says that he’s discovered a brand new CEO for Twitter. Musk didn’t initially specify who’s going to tackle the function, although The Wall Road Journal is now reporting that NBCUniversal head of promoting Linda Yaccarino is actively “in talks” for the place. In a tweet, Musk introduced that he’ll transition from his function as CEO of the corporate to serving as its government chair and chief expertise officer. The brand new CEO is predicted to begin in six weeks, based on Musk.

Health records leaked: NextGen Healthcare, a U.S.-based supplier of electronic health record software program, admitted that hackers breached its programs and stole the private knowledge of greater than 1 million sufferers. In a data breach notification filed with the Maine lawyer normal’s workplace, NextGen Healthcare confirmed that hackers accessed the private knowledge of 1.05 million sufferers, together with roughly 4,000 Maine residents.

Rapid lays off workers: Fast, beforehand generally known as RapidAPI, a startup that constructed out an API market valued at $1 billion final 12 months, has laid off one other 70 workers lower than two weeks after letting go of 50% of its staff, TechCrunch has discovered. An affected worker who wished to stay nameless advised TC that simply 42 individuals stay on the firm — down from 230 in April — reflecting an 82% drop in headcount.

Meta contractors protest: Content material moderators below Sama, Meta’s content material overview subcontractor in Africa, earlier this week picketed on the firm’s headquarters in Kenya demanding their April wage. The 184 moderators have sued Sama for allegedly laying them off unlawfully, after Meta wound down its content material overview arm in March, and Majorel, the social media large’s new accomplice primarily based in Africa, for blacklisting on instruction by Meta.

From Pokémon to Peridot: From the makers of Pokémon Go comes one other cellular sport that brings cute little creatures to our fingertips: Peridot. Like a ’90s Tamagotchi toy, Peridot is a pet simulator, however it takes place fully inside augmented reality. You possibly can feed, play with, stroll, breed and socialize along with your Peridots, however don’t fear — in the event you take a break from the sport, your creatures received’t poop throughout your display screen and/or die.

Texting, but different: “The medium is the message” is the widespread phrase, however entrepreneur Alexis Traina believes that messages themselves — textual content messages, to be precise — deserve consideration, too. Traina is the CEO and co-founder of HiNOTE, an app that helps individuals create messages, set over customized backdrops of something from a tipped-over wineglass to a branded letterhead pocket book web page. The thought, she mentioned in an interview with TechCrunch, is that she wouldn’t rise up day-after-day and gown in inexperienced, blue and grey — so why do our textual content messages follow these colours?

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Want listening materials in your weekday commute — or bathe, for that matter? TechCrunch has you coated. On Equity, the crew dove right into a brace of recent Mayfield funds, in addition to how Wellthy helps caregivers really feel much less overwhelmed and the slowing progress of tech corporations. Over at Found, the crew talked with the co-founders of Juliet, who’re reimagining boxed wine. The Chain Reaction crew launched a bonus episode from a fireplace chat with Nadya Tolokonnikova, the creator of the protest artwork collective Pussy Riot, at NFT NYC in April 2023. The TechCrunch Podcast coated Google I/O, together with the tech, attend talks and demos. To spherical issues out, TechCrunch Live talked about creating therapeutics for anti-aging with James Peyer, the co-founder of Cambrian BioPharma, and Maryanna Saenko, co-founder and accomplice at Future Ventures.

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TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which in the event you’re already a subscriber. Should you’re not, consider signing up. Listed here are just a few highlights from this week:

Visions of a colorful future: How far has the psychedelics medication business come over the previous 12 months? Effectively, it is dependent upon the place you look. A current survey signifies that as an alternative of merely searching for enticing alternatives, buyers and founders are more and more placing their minds to constructing the foundations for an business that may make use of the ability of psychedelics to vary lives.

AI’s eating search: Information from Google’s AI-soaked developer event this week makes it plain that we’re on the cusp of a brand new period of search. Following Microsoft’s molding of OpenAI’s tech into Bing, Google is experimenting with its own AI tech and opening up new ways to use search. It’s clear we’re about to see the primary main overhauls available in the market for locating info on the web in a extremely very long time.

Salesforce embraces generative AI: Salesforce is more and more investing in generative AI because it turns into obvious that the expertise has the potential to remodel how we work together with software program — permitting us to explain what we would like as an alternative of clicking or tapping.

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