Every year, it seems like there's at least one big YC controversy

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff and Anthony Ha are breaking down the week’s biggest stories, including the Optifye.ai controversy, the wider concerns about AI in labor, and why this demo could be a glimpse of what's coming next. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Amazon’s Alexa unveiling this week in NYC, and why an AI-enabeled Alexa+ could make the competition sweat Why the departure of Lucid Motors' CEO Peter Rawlinson is raising concerns about the company's future Bridgetown Research’s $19 million raise to automate due diligence Figure AI’s new funds and Helix plans. When asked if they’d want the humanoid assistants in their home, Kirsten was skeptical, but Max prefers the softer side of robotics. Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned! Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode is presented by Invest Puerto Rico.
0:03.4	If you believe your business can go anywhere, Puerto Rico is the place.
0:18.9	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:25.1	Today is Friday, February 28th.
0:28.4	I'm Kirsten Koresak, transportation editor at TechCrunch.
0:31.9	I'm Max Zeph, a senior reporter at TechCrunch.
0:34.4	And I'm Anthony Ha, TechCrunch's weekend editor, which means that I do my
0:38.4	best to check out from Tech News during the beginning of the week. But it seems like I actually
0:42.5	missed something pretty big this time, a major Alexa event. Max, can you tell me more about it?
0:47.7	Sure. So Amazon had a very big Alexa unveiling this week in New York City, our AI reporter Kyle Wiggers went. So
0:57.3	Amazon is really kind of trying to make a play to, you know, really deliver an AI-enabled
1:03.6	version of Alexa. And, you know, Alexa and Siri and all these assistants already have
1:08.7	AI in them, but Amazon really wants to deliver
1:11.1	on with generative AI that you can talk to and say, hey, book me a reservation at that restaurant
1:16.5	I went to last week, and it'll just know.
1:18.8	It'll be smarter.
1:19.9	It'll remember things about you.
1:21.5	But that's easier said than done.
1:24.1	Would be a big deal if they can get it done.
1:25.9	They've set up, you know, a launch date for when
1:27.9	this is coming in a couple months, but they would be first to market if they can ship this.
1:34.3	Okay, I have a question. And it's a dumb question, admittedly, but I feel like other people
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 14 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TechCrunch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TechCrunch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.