TechCrunch Daily Crunch

The sameness problem behind those unappetizing AI-generated menus

Generative AI menus have hit the restaurant business courtesy of models trained on a narrow, “pleasing” aesthetic that feels wrong even when you can’t articulate why. Lea

Google’s latest AI weather model gives you no excuse to forget your umbrella

Plus - Nvidia confirms it will buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion; Amazon’s Zoox expands its robotaxi service to Las Vegas airport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Adobe is making its tools available in Slack

Plus - Apple follows Google in adopting Trump’s ‘Lake America’ name; Amazon’s shopping AI can now tell you if that message is a scam Learn more about your ad choices. Vis

Alexa can now alert you when something new might tempt you to shop

Plus - GoPro to be acquired for $285M; Instagram puts new limits on undisclosed AI profiles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1

Plus - Tim Cook’s parting message; Caterpillar is bringing to AI deployment what it learned from automating mining Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.

Anthropic gets its first court win over the Pentagon’s supply chain risk label

Plus - Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open source duck robot; YouTube now lets creators tag Amazon products and earn commissions from purchases Learn more about your

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and 100 other companies call for action to defend against rogue AI

Plus - Google’s AI Mode can now track flight prices, help book hotels, and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Gates wants to see a robot tax

Plus - Apple is holding its iPhone launch event on September 9th Bill Gates Ring introduces a new encryption standard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic

Apple debuts its ‘most powerful chip ever’ in M5 Ultra and M6

Plus - Uber launches live video streaming for teen accounts; Amazon hikes hardware prices by 60% Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face reportedly in talks to be acquired for $13B

Plus - Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash; Two years after launch, Walmart’s Flipkart is closing in on India’s quick-commerce

OpenAI is gaining on Anthropic

Plus - Walmart to finally start accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay; Oura faces lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers about sleep-tracking accuracy Learn more about

Meta’s experimental vibe-coding gaming app

Plus - Patreon launches 30 new creator features; Senators demand answers from TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon’s Prime Air is taking off in nearly 500 US cities

Plus - You can Venmo your college tuition, for some reason; TikTok explores peer-to-peer payments via DMs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho

Why Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods may not be the ‘pervert pods’ consumers fear

Plus - Peacock is raising prices across all of its streaming plans; OpenAI launches a safer ChatGPT for teens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a

Anthropic CEO says AI backlash is ‘fundamentally a crisis of trust’

Plus - Uber adds Zipline drones to its Eats delivery network; YouTube will now count a view as soon as a video starts playing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc

Flock says its new tool will help identify police abuse, but hasn’t explained how it works

Plus - Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations; Apple proposes to take a 15% cut of purchases made outside the App Store Learn mo

Facebook officially rolls out its stand-alone Creator Studio app

Plus - Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features while merging its separate Copilot apps; Apple in talks to pay publishers to provide Siri with current news Learn more

Everything announced at Made by Google ’26

Plus - The latest in startup business news Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Bezos might finally get his hands on a sports team

Plus - OpenAI reportedly completed a $7 billion employee tender offer; Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models Learn more about your ad choices.

Meta gets a new AI model

Plus - Planned Amazon data center could become the biggest climate polluter in the US; Anthropic is turning Claude Code’s auto mode on by default Learn more about your ad