You Won’t Believe What AI Did to Create a Hilarious ‘South Park’ Episode! Plus, Shocking Revelations about Microsoft’s Security Issues and Mind-Blowing Secrets Behind Tesla’s First Cybertruck Unveiling!

Hello friends, welcome to Summary of the week (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular roundup from last week on tech. Too busy to check the headlines this week? Don’t worry. That’s why WiR exists: we’ll bring it up to date.

This edition of WiR features pieces about a fake AI-generated “South Park” episode; the increasing downloads of Threads, an app that shares the same name as Twitter’s Meta competitor; and Tesla’s first Cybertruck build. We also recap the resignation of the CEO of OnlyFans; Wix’s new tool that can create websites on the fly, using generative AI; and Plex’s Winamp-inspired free music player.

That’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started. Oh, and if you haven’t already, sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday.

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Bad timing for AI-generated TV: AI startup Fable Studios demoed its platform this week, using it to create a completely fake “South Park” episode in which Cartman tries to apply deepfake technology to the media industry. The technology was impressive, Devin writes, but compared to the ongoing strike by creatives in TV and film, the stunt seemed a bit clever.

Not a good look for Microsoft security: Microsoft still doesn’t know, or won’t share, how Chinese-backed hackers stole a key that allowed them to sneak into dozens of email inboxes, including those belonging to various government agencies. The company first disclosed the incident last Tuesday, attributing the month-long activity to a newly discovered spy group it calls Storm-0558, which it believes has a strong link to China.

He other Threads rises to new heights: from instagram Twitter clone threads enjoyed a rather fruitful first week of existence, sailing beyond 30 million users in the first 24 hours. But it had the unintended effect of pushing Threads, an unrelated app that was first released as a Slack alternative, into the spotlight. Threads (the Slack alternative) reportedly racked up over 880,000 downloads on iOS between July 6 and 12, after the release of Meta’s Threads, having had few downloads prior to this point.

Telsa presents the first version of Cybertruck: Tesla said over the weekend that its first and highly anticipated Cybertruck rolled off the production line in Texas. The debut of the long-delayed, futuristic-looking pickup comes in the run-up to Tesla’s second-quarter 2023 earnings call.

OnlyFans CEO retires: After about two and a half years in command, friend win leaving OnlyFans. Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Keily Blair will take over as CEO. As Amanda writes, OnlyFans is perhaps the most well-known creator platform that supports adult content; According to Gan, the company paid $10 billion to creators while she was CEO.

New sites, generated by AI: Wix, a longtime fixture in the web creation space, is betting that today’s customers don’t particularly mind spending time customizing every aspect of their site’s appearance. The company’s new AI Site Generator tool, announced this week, will allow Wix users to describe their intent and generate a complete website with a home page, internal pages, and text and images, as well as business-specific sections for events, bookings, and more.

Plex makes its Winamp-inspired player free: Plexamp, the music player originally developed by the Labs division of media company Plex, is now free. The project was first thrown out in 2017 as a subscription-based version of the classic Winamp media player app, offering visualizations to accompany your songs, tools for scheduling mixes, and most recently a ChatGPT-powered “Sonic Sage” feature that creates unique playlists from users’ music libraries.

VanMoof E-Bikes, Stored: since he fights e-bike startup VanMoof confirmed that it has applied for a deferment of payment in the Netherlands, there has been an open question about VanMoof bikes in the wild. Riding to the rescue, an unlikely thing, is Cowboy, VanMoof’s e-bike competitor on the Belgian border. Cowboys “Bicycle” The app allows VanMoof passengers to generate their unique digital key and continue traveling, Mike writes.

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TechCrunch’s podcast list is, as the kids say, donation. Tune in for some great new content this week.

In EquityPitchBook’s business guru Kyle Stanford spoke to the team about venture capital in Q2 2023: the good, the bad, and the late stage.

The last episode of FoundMeanwhile, he singled out Catherine Tabor, founder and CEO of Sparkfly, a company that helps brands with marketing and customer engagement. Tabor spoke about building a company fluid enough to adapt to changing technology trends over the past decade and how she was written off by venture capitalists despite landing notable clients.

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TC+ subscribers get access to detailed feedback, analysis and surveys, which you know about if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not here consider signing up. Here are some highlights from this week:

Electric utility companies drive customers to new businesses: Of all the companies that should be eager to embrace the electric transition, utilities seem to be at the top of the list. However, they also seem to be some of the most hesitant. Startups are taking advantage of the situation, Tim writes.

Co-ed founding teams raise over $1 billion: US startups with mixed-gender founding teams, meaning they have at least one female founder, raised $24.1 billion in the first half of 2023, breaking down to $17.2 billion in the first quarter and $6.9 billion in the second quarter, according to the most recent data from PitchBook. That’s a big problem, but it’s important to note that start-ups with All the women the founding teams are still struggling to raise money this year.

Ripple’s XRP case and lack of regulatory clarity: Last week, the crypto community held a US federal court case which ruled that Ripple’s XRP token does not constitute illegal sales of securities, but only in some cases. Although the ruling was celebrated by many, it is not a true victory for cryptocurrencies – Jacquelyn explains why.

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