Hello, reader. Hallam Bullock here, reporting from London, and today I'm thinking about privacy.
Our very own Diamond Naga Siu made her thoughts on the Bevi water dispenser gathering employee data very clear in this newsletter earlier in the week.
Elon Musk, too, strikes me as somebody who values his privacy. Certainly, he doesn't like people following his jet around. Although, having said that, he apparently doesn't seem to mind his bodyguards following him to the restroom at Twitter HQ. So, perhaps, there are exceptions?
Now, let's take a look at the week's top stories.
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1. He raised $200 million to transform autism care. Now, he's ditching patients to sell healthcare software. Yury Yakubchyk, the cofounder and CEO of Elemy, raised more than $200 million to provide better autism therapy for kids.
- But in October, an Insider investigation found the startup struggled with the basics of care, such as hiring enough clinicians and getting covered by insurance — all while kids languished on wait lists.
- Now, Elemy is pivoting. Instead of delivering care itself, instead of delivering care itself, the company wants to sell software to clinicians running their own businesses.
- Startups of all stripes are known to pivot and change strategy. But the stakes are higher in healthcare. One former Elemy manager said: "It's literally darts being thrown at a dart board, and he somehow convinced a lot of rich people to give him lots of money."
Top tech stories of the week:
2. Silicon Valley is on a knife edge after the implosion of two banks at the heart of its financial system. Following the collapse of crypto lender Silvergate and meltdown at Silicon Valley Bank, questions are being asked about potentially catastrophic ramifications — and experts are answering them.
3. What happens when you charge a non-Tesla EV at a Supercharger? Chaos. After Tesla opened some of its Superchargers to other EVs, YouTubers took their non-Tesla cars to test them out. "If you're a Tesla owner, it's not a good day," one said. Here's what happened.
4. Police are prosecuting abortion seekers using their digital data — and Meta and Google help them do it. As abortion bans are implemented across the US, social media companies are providing law enforcement with chat logs and search history to build cases to prosecute abortion seekers. Read more.
5. Laid-off Twitter staff are struggling to find new work in a "hot garbage" job market. Instead of staying in tech, many are now considering dramatically different career options. One software engineer is even contemplating becoming a firefighter. The full story.
6. Is your email inbox brimming with unread messages? Well, I have a story for you. Our reporter used a new AI tool to summarize emails and improve productivity — and it convinced them that the AI revolution is just getting started. Here's how the tool works. (Aren't you glad you opened this email?)
7. We got a new picture of a Tesla Cybertruck — but it appears to show a problem. A large windshield wiper had to be added to the EV last year to follow US road safety rules. But now, the latest wiper design appears to have a dirty secret. Read more.
8. A simple trick can cure your addiction to social media. Constantly scrolling on social media? A new app uses a simple, science-backed trick to break the bad habit: breathing. Here's how it works.
From our tech analysis team:
9. Thousands of workers at Meta and Google do "fake work." That's according to Keith Rabois, once a member of the PayPal Mafia. "There's nothing for these people to do ... It's all fake work," Rabois said. Read more.
10. Elon Musk's dream of producing 20 million Teslas per year hangs on battery tech. Record-high lithium prices and a sprawling supply chain has made battery cost controls a headache for Tesla. If Musk fails to bring the costs of batteries down, he risks ceding the market to competitors. The full story.
Today's team: Hallam Bullock in London, Lisa Ryan and Diamond Naga Siu in New York, and Dave Smith in Toronto.