2 former SBF associates plead guilty to fraud and cooperate with US federal prosecutors • TechCrunch

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Well, the weather outside depends…entirely on where you are, we guess. For the purposes of this newsletter, let’s imagine sunshine, pristine beaches, a nice cool cool breeze and some piña coladas, because if we have to invent a fictional weather, we might as well make it nice, right? — Christina and haje

TechCrunch’s top 3

• Surprised, but not surprised either: FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Alameda’s Caroline Ellison plead guilty to criminal charges, Darrell written.
• $see I$ believe: Twitter now sources stock and cryptocurrency prices from TradingView and automatically displays them in search results. Ivan shows you how to make them appear in your next tweet.
• Another Okta Breach: Okta has confirmed it is responding to another major security incident after a hacker accessed its source code following a breach in its GitHub repositories, Carly reports.

Startups and VCs

Text-to-image AI exploded this year as technical advancements dramatically improved the fidelity of art that AI systems could create. As controversial as systems like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 are, platforms like DeviantArt and Canva have adopted them to power creative tools, personalize branding, and even dream up new products. written Kyle as it takes you on a tour through a brief history of broadcasting, the technology at the heart of modern image-generating AI.

Speaking of AI, Amanda reports that Unstable Diffusion, a group trying to monetize AI porn generation, raised over $56,000 on Kickstarter from 867 backers. Then, as Kickstarter changed its thinking about what kind of AI-based projects it would allow, the crowdfunding platform ended Unstable Diffusion’s campaign.

And in the partially AI news:

Avoid 3 Common Selling Mistakes Startups Make During Downturns

Analysts believe IT spending will rise in 2023, but tell that to SaaS sales teams trying to close deals with customers who have been instructed to cut spending.

“What every business needs now is effective sales,” says Anand Shah, CEO and co-founder of Databook.

In a TC+ guest post, he explains why reactive measures such as increasing sales quotas or raising prices are misguided measures that won’t move the needle.

“Make real changes to meet the needs of your buyers. Use the macroeconomic context to make necessary improvements in sales productivity. »

Three others from the TC+ team:

Tech Crunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get a head start. You can register here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!

Big Tech inc.

Having that ad blocker box pop up when you try to open a new website is annoying, but Zack says we should find good there — heck, even the FBI says you should use an ad blocker, he writes. Why? Apparently “cybercriminals buy ads to impersonate legitimate brands, like cryptocurrency exchanges” and they’re so good it’s hard to tell they’re not the real thing. Stay safe, everyone!

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