To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.
Hello, and welcome to Wednesday Crunch!
On everyone’s mind today is the power of AI and whether we’re all doomed. Connie reports that 1,100+ notable signatories just signed an open letter asking “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months.” Meanwhile, Amanda explores how everything is “Goncharov” as the meme-makers are going mainstream with a huge assist from AI tech.
— Christine and Haje
With a drier than normal investment scene, founders are looking for more effective ways to reach the right VCs. Thousands of founders have applied to land capital through a common app, Natasha M reports. The platform they’ve been using is Seed Checks. Founders are invited to apply using a one-minute form that asks for a deck, memo and region. The app is then blasted to 16 investors.
Autio, a location-based audio entertainment app co-founded by actor Kevin Costner and formerly known as HearHere, has raised $5.9 million. The funding round was led by iHeartMedia, Aisha reports. Autio uses GPS to narrate stories of landmarks, cities and towns nearby with the aim of fostering deep connections and understandings of the places users are traveling through.
And we have five more for you:
Dear Sophie,
After three tries, I was finally selected this year in the H-1B lottery! What do we do next?
— Wondering Winner
Dear Sophie,
I’m on STEM OPT. My employer put me in this year’s H-1B lottery for the third time, but I wasn’t selected again! What do I do?
— Lottery Loser
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Lots of Google-related news today, so let’s summarize, shall we? The TechCrunch audience was particularly enamored with Aisha’s story about a new feature on extreme heat alerts. Why? Perhaps it’s because our weather is not cooperating with the current month. Meanwhile, Frederic reports on Google Cloud launching AlloyDB Omni; Ivan has your look at Google’s new ad transparency center; Manish reports on an Android antitrust case in India; Aisha writes about new Google Search features; and Lorenzo and Carly round it out with a story on hackers using spyware to target users in the UAE.
And with that, we hope you have a Google day!
Now here’s five more for you:
Source @TechCrunch
