Photo credit: Haje Kamps
Subscribe here to receive a roundup of TechCrunch’s Biggest, Most Important Stories, delivered to your inbox daily at 3pm PDT.
Happy Tuesday Crunch you beautiful, strong, and smart people. Nice to have you with us! Let us begin! — Christine and Haje
TechCrunch’s top 3 image says, “Microsoft is enabling Bing users to tap into their most creative selves — through AI, of course, through the use of OpenAI’s DALL-E image builder,” reports Frederic. Frederic also writes about two additional features, Visual Stories and Knowledge Cards. “As far as I can tell, Microsoft has been testing these quite a bit over the past few weeks as they’ve come up with some frequency in my searches.” multiple AI models that ‘work in a variety of different use cases,'” writes Kyle. More Adobe news in Big Tech. Get in line: Speaking of generative AI (because that’s really all we’ve been talking about for weeks), Google is opening early access to Bard, its AI chatbot. You can put yourself on the waiting list. Romain has more. Startups and VCs
The world of technology and medicine is strongly betting that AI will play a central role in healthcare in the future. Today, a Durham, North Carolina startup called Bionic Health — founded by two pioneers in the commercialization of AI — is throwing its hat into this ring to expand its approach, reports Ingrid. It raised $3 million for its AI health clinic.
Last week, the FBI arrested a man alleged to be “Pompompurin,” the administrator of the notorious and popular BreachForum, reports Lorenzo. Days after the arrest, the cybercrime website’s new administrator announced that the forum would be shut down permanently.
Another handful of stories worth mentioning:
SaaS is still open for business, but it will take longer to buy and sell
Photo credit: Ruslan Malysh/EyeEm (opens in new window)/Getty Images
More than 225,000 technicians were laid off in the last year, directly impacting SaaS renewal and purchase cycles.
SaaS customers who have reduced headcount are buying fewer seat licenses and sales cycles are taking a little longer than they used to, says Ryan Neu, CEO and co-founder of SaaS buying platform Vendr.
“Over the past three years, our data has shown a steady decline in multi-year deals,” he writes. “Nevertheless, we have also experienced a significant increase [average contract value] from purchase to renewal in mission critical and difficult software categories like CRM or email.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the competition. Here you can sign up. Use code “DC” for 15% off an annual subscription!
BigTech Inc.
Well, that’s an interesting twist in the credit age: DoorDash adds support for cash. Sarah writes that it will only be rolled out as a DoorDash Drive feature, but when tested, about 20% of US customers who ordered pizza paid with cash. She notes that the cash option has helped attract customers who are reluctant to share their payment information.
In the meantime, Devin wants to have a few words with Amazon, which he reports is shutting down DPReview, “the best camera review site on the web.” He writes that the company’s team was fired as part of Amazon’s recent round of layoffs and that “DPReview is hardly the first media company to get the ax in these turbulent times, but it’s certainly one of the oldest and most unique. We hope the talented and knowledgeable team bounces back and Amazon regrets their decision.”
And we have five more for you:
Control, I like to have a lot: And you should have a lot. A new WhatsApp feature gives admins an easier way to control who can join a group, Aisha reports. Over at Adobe: There’s a lot to unpack. Ivan writes about the Enterprise tier of Adobe Express while Frederic takes a look at the Experience Cloud. And Kyle writes that there are some new Generative AI tools aimed at marketers, and Ron writes about artist fees for works used to train Adobe’s Generative AI product. Car talk: Ford has unveiled its €45,000 Explorer EV for the European market, writes Matt. And Ferrari says a ransomware attack exposed customers’ personal information. Carly has more. Bracing the Adversity: Before speaking before Congress, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew revealed that the streaming giant has 150 million active users in the US, reports Ivan. Meanwhile, Aisha writes that TikTok is revising its community guidelines and adding some new guidelines on AI and climate misinformation. Priorities: Some goods and services could be more expensive in the face of inflation, but a new study by Counterpoint shows consumers are still avoiding premium smartphones. Ivan has more.
