Monday, June 9, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got LA protestors burning Waymo cars; an argument for why investors shouldn't be too prudish; and how one company is getting creative with vibe coding. We've also got notes on WWDC, Trump's cybersecurity rollbacks, commercial space flight, secure messaging for journalists, and more. Let's dive in!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Mario Tama / Getty Images

1. Catching strays: Waymos and Lime e-scooters were some of the casualties in the LA protests against ICE immigration raids. Several Waymo vehicles were vandalized and set on fire in the protests, and a few Lime scooters were thrown into their burning shells. Read More

2. Sex, drugs, and venture capital: Impact investor and advisor Christian Tooley thinks hedonism should be allowed to sell. Investors are missing out on innovation if they cut themselves off from products dealing with taboo topics like sex and psychedelics. Read More

3. Vibes only: Superblocks CEO Brad Menezes says the next billion-dollar AI startups might be built by studying the "system prompts" – or behind-the-scenes instructions – used by today's AI unicorns. To prove the point, Superblocks offered to share 19 system prompts from top AI coding tools alongside the launch of a new AI agent, Clark. It also announced a $23 million Series A extension. Read More

A Message from SAP

Balance hyper-growth with efficiency

Join this free webinar on June 10 to discover how one fast growing company leveraged a business systems platform to maintain success while harmonizing revenue growth and operational efficiency.

Morning Must-Reads

Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

🤓 It's WWDC week: Apple's annual developer conference starts today at 10 a.m. PT, and we'll be covering it all. If you're OOTL, here's our list of expectations for this year (like AI-light news), rumored iOS19 changes, and how to watch the livestream. Read More

🤔 Making amends: TC's Ivan Mehta writes that Apple needs to own up for its lackluster AI rollout, particularly as it relates to Siri and Apple's failed/delayed promises for developers who lost "an opportunity to build more interactive, intelligent app experiences." Read More

🔐 Trump has rolled back cybersecurity policies put in place by Obama and Biden. For example, he struck down Biden's order to let public benefit programs accept digital identity documents, and repealed an Obama policy around sanctions for cybersecurity attacks on the U.S. Read More

🚀 To infinity! Axiom Space will launch its fourth mission to the International Space Station on June 10, marking its first break-even mission and a symbolic milestone for CEO Tejpaul Bhatia. The mission helps lay the groundwork for Axiom's future commercial space station. Read More

Around the Web

🤳 Et tu, YouTube? YouTube has historically been okay with removing videos featuring derogatory slurs or Holocaust denial. Since Trump's return to power, though, the platform is apparently telling content moderators to ignore videos with content that may go against the platform's rules, prioritizing "freedom of speech," reports The New York Times. Read More

💬 Prioritizing safe speech: The Guardian has worked with the University of Cambridge to launch Secure Messaging in its app, which will allow its journalists to protect sources by making messages indistinguishable from other data. The Guardian also published the source code for the tech so other organizations can do the same. Read More

Before You Go

🏨 Trying to be an everything app? PayPal is working with hotel payment provider Selfbook to let users search for and book hotels within the PayPal app itself. Users will get access to special discounts and can use PayPal's buy-now, pay-later service for certain hotels. Read More