(TechCrunch) Tech layoffs are accelerating, according to the data. The surge in staff cuts comes after reductions in human capital slowed so much in the back half of 2023 that we wrote that “tech layoffs are all but a thing of the past.” At the time, reported layoffs had been trending down for months and…

(Bloomberg) Startups typically depend on serial infusions of funding from backers to get through their early years, and a so-called down round—raising money at a lower implied valuation than before—is a big black eye. So lately, companies have gotten increasingly creative at trying to avoid being considered less valuable, particularly when investors seek to unload…

(NYT) Here at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the most revealing discussions often happen not on the main stage, but at the myriad side events that transform this Swiss ski town into a high-minded networking event. Case in point: the annual luncheon hosted by Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff, who is plowing some of…

(Verge) Climate change disinformation on YouTube has morphed into a misleading new narrative, according to a report published today. With compounding disasters making it harder to deny that climate change is happening, creators spreading disinformation have pivoted to content that targets clean energy. In the past, content that falsely claimed that climate change was either not happening or not…

(Wired) “It might be the best time for any kind of business in any industry to raise money for all of history, like since the time of the ancient Egyptians,” an excitable Stuart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, told Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times in 2015. This was no exaggeration. While interest rates remained close to…

(Washington Post) Instagram and Facebook unveiled further limits on what teens can see on the apps, a move their parent company Meta says will reduce the amount of potentially harmful content young people encounter. Already, teens could opt to have Instagram’s algorithm recommend less “sensitive content” — which includes bare bodies, violence, drugs, firearms, weight-loss…

(WSJ) What are venture fund portfolios worth now? There is little agreement on that question today, an issue that is slowing down an already sedate venture fundraising market.  Once all the data is tallied, 2023 is expected to be the worst year for venture fundraising globally since 2015, according to both research firms Preqin and…

(NYT) The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies. The Times is the first major American media organization to sue the companies, the creators of ChatGPT and other…

(TechCrunch) Should I go public with the story about the time I was told I can’t be promoted for being a white man?” Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, tweeted recently. The responses to his tweet are split between the two factions that have appeared within venture in recent years: those who support diversity, equity and inclusion…

(The Information) Last month, OpenAI fired and then rehired CEO Sam Altman. When the dust settled, Open AI emerged looking even more like a for-profit corporation than a nonprofit, with a board that is indistinguishable from those of other tech startups—right down to the lack of diversity. This is a clear departure from the company’s 2015 origins…