AI was prominent in the news cycle again this week.
On this Friday's TechCrunch Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Becca Szkutak kick off the show by analyzing a proposed bill aimed at regulating AI at the model level. Naturally, some VCs, founders, students, and professors are making a big fuss about this. But you have to ask: is regulation in the name of safety such a bad thing? The short answer is: it depends.
The three then talked about the week's deals, including a potential new investment from OpenAI in webcam maker Opal. They also discussed major changes at the executive level at OpenAI and how that will impact what's going on inside the company. Becca talked about why?!, a new startup founded by ex-Clubhouse employees that aims to be an all-in-one networking, messaging, and dating app. And Kirsten detailed electric car maker Lucid's new $1.5 billion capital infusion from a Saudi Arabian wealth fund.
We then shifted gears and talked about how many new unicorns have been created in the US so far this year. Our conclusion is that this new cohort of unicorns represents a surprisingly diverse range of sectors. Finally, we dug into some notable M&A deals in the fintech space. Deals this week include Payoneer's acquisition of 5-year-old Singapore startup Skuad for $61 million in cash, as well as Stripe's latest acquisition.
I enjoyed this episode, I highly recommend giving it a listen!
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posted every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and allcasts.
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