New Point-E AI allows users to generate 3D objects from detailed text prompts

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Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Weâve been working on a series of gift guides over the past month or so. Today, Devinâs guide to gaming headphones is up! If you missed any of our gift guides, hereâs our full set of themÂ so far!

Our favorite gift would be “more hours in the day” and “a week of sleep,” but failing that, perhaps some hot chocolate and a three-hour uninterrupted block of time to read books would be magnificent. â Christine and Haje

Image Credits: OpenAI

The TechCrunch Top 3

Making 3D out of text: Thatâs OpenAIâs new thing as it releases Point-E, an AI that generates 3D models. And not just any models, Kyle writes â it âgenerates point clouds, or discrete sets of data points in space that represent a 3D shape â hence the cheeky abbreviation.â Somebody call 911: Thereâs a Porsche 911 running with synthetic fuel from the carmakerâs Chilean pilot plant. The move comes after years of just talking about it, Tim Stevens writes. More AI: Kyle had another top-read story on artificial intelligence, this time about Petals creating a free, distributed network for running text-generating AI.

Startups and VC

Itâs been a year, yâall. Brian, Kyle, Mary Ann, and Natasha M reflect that this year’s roundup was not a particularly fun one to write. No one wants to see startups fail, but weâre all keenly aware that most ultimately do. A commonly cited figure suggests that 90% of these companies will ultimately fail. But even with that in mind, 2022 just hit differentâ¦Hereâs “Remembering the startups we lost in 2022.”

Apropos year in review, Miranda collected the top takes from the TechCrunch+ team, including Amazon buying One Medical, interesting startup theses, and whether or not the TC team would be sad if Twitter vanished from our very screens.

And, of course, we lift our gaze to the future, with Connieâs reporting on Bradley Tusk from Tusk Ventures and the three counterintuitive 2023 predictions about Musk, SFB, and even Kraft.

Okay, thatâs enough about the past and the future. Here are five stories from the right here, right now.

Hey, you look opinionated: Kyle reports that User Interviews, which helps companies recruit survey participants, raises $27.5 million. Tossing another $0.4 billion on the pile: Kate reports on the South Korean financial super app Toss, as it closes a $405 million (!) Series G, with a 7% valuation bump. TuSimple lifts off the gas: Rebecca takes a look at reports that layoffs may be around the corner for self-driving truck company TuSimple. Itâll give a wine return, Iâm sure: Anna explores how Fintech Vint hopes to turn wine and spirits into a mainstream asset class. Hello? Is that the bank?: Early-stage Mexico fintech Aviva is making loans as easy as a video call, reports Christine.

Banish vanity metrics from your startupâs pitch deck

It’s legitimately nice to give your hardworking team targets they can work toward, but vanity metrics (e.g., X email signups in Y days, 20% more retweets) are like a Little League awards dinner. Everyone goes home a winner!

“The truth is, investors know what traction looks like,” writes Haje Jan Kamps, which means feel-good stats have no place in a pitch deck.

“Donât confuse fluffy numbers and vanity metrics with your go-to-market strategy.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

Retrofuturism in NFT land: Magic Eden exec sees NFT gaming like the âearly days of mobile gaming,â by Jacquelyn. Simpler debugging, simpler development:Â Simplify debugging to reduce the complexity of embedded system development, advises Nicolas Rabault. With friends like these, you donât need enemies: Dominic-Madori reports on the continued #MyTechBestfriend fallout.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code âDCâ for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Image Credits: We Are / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

Youâve seen the video in your feed, but now TikTok is going to tell you why its algorithm chose it for you, Aisha writes. âThis feature is one of many ways weâre working to bring meaningful transparency to the people who use our platform, and builds on a number of steps weâve taken towards that goal,â the company said.

And we have four more for you:

Bird, bird, bird is the word: Scooter company Bird said it is merging with Bird America in an effort to keep it rolling. Harri and Rebecca have more. This channelâs on fire: Amazon unveiled some new content to Fire TV, including free music videos, viral videos and more ad-supported content, Aisha reports. Tell them how you really feel: Vercelâs new commenting feature makes it easier to collaborate on preview deployments, Frederic writes. Get your game on: Amazonâs subscription-based gaming service Prime Gaming is now live in India, Manish reports.