July 30, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Synthetic-user startup Simile raises $200M at $2B valuation 5 months after $100M Series A: Add another member to the fast-and-furious AI unicorn club: Simile. Read More

LinkedIn adds a button to report AI-generated 'slop': LinkedIn is introducing new ways to reduce low-quality AI-generated posts, including a “seems like AI slop” reporting option. It's also replacing its own AI writing feature with a proofreading tool. Read More

Spotify launches 'User Notes' to let users add memories to songs: Spotify says the new feature is designed to let users add personal captions to their favorite songs, such as noting why a track was added to a playlist or when they first discovered it Read More

Afternoon Must-Reads

Zoox clears final federal hurdle to launch paid robotaxi service: Federal safety regulators have given Zoox a temporary exemption that will allow the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle technology company to charge customers for rides in its custom-built robotaxi. Read More

Forward-deployed engineers are the AI industry’s latest talent obsession: A new study estimates only 2,000 U.S. engineers have the expertise to deliver meaningful AI ROI, as enterprises race to hire forward-deployed engineers to implement AI at scale. Read More

Friend, the lonely AI wearable, returns with a new voice and a much bigger price tag: Friend, the AI wearable, can now talk to its users — for an enhanced price. Read More

In the Hugging Face breach, OpenAI's hacker was noisy and fast — but not unstoppable: Cybersecurity experts told TechCrunch that one of the biggest lessons to be taken from the OpenAI hack against Hugging Face has nothing to do with AI, but traditional cybersecurity defense. Read More

Okta buys AI security startup Permiso — source says for about $200M: The deal gives Okta identity threat detection capabilities as enterprises seek to secure AI agents and other non-human identities across cloud environments. Read More

A message from ThoughtSpot

Who’s leading analytics and BI in 2026?

Gartner evaluated every analytics platform so you don't have to. See why ThoughtSpot was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI.

Read full report

Last but Not Least

Google says it fixed more Chrome bugs in June than over the past two years, thanks to AI: As experts have warned for the last two years, some companies — like Microsoft and now Google — are finding and patching an exponential number of bugs in their products, thanks to the use of LLMs and AI tools. Read More

Check out some of our other newsletters:

StrictlyVC

TechCrunch Events

TechCrunch Mobility

Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here

Got a tip?
Get in touch securely.

Want to advertise on TechCrunch?

Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.

Unsubscribe

Member Center

501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107