Tech
Airbnb co-founder taps Peter Arnell as first US chief brand architect
Airbnb billionaire co-founder Joe Gebbia is growing his team at the U.S. National Design Studio, the Trump initiative focused on improving the government’s online presence. On Monday, Gebbia announced that American designer Peter Arnell joined the team to become the first U.S. chief brand architect.
Gebbia shared the news of Arnell’s hire during the The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” conference on Monday. Arnell will be joining a group of people that includes Silicon Valley design and software engineering talent, who are singularly focused on reshaping the usability of the U.S. government’s online platforms.
In his four-decade career as a brander and marketer, Arnell has worked with major brands like Donna Karan New York, Samsung, Unilever, Pepsi, Reebok, Chrysler, The Home Depot, and others. Now, his focus will be to rebrand this digital slice of the United States of America, which he calls “the greatest brand in the world.”
“This is a very special and different perspective on the word ‘brand’ in the sense that we’re not rebranding this country, of course,” Arnell explained at the WSJ event. “What we’re trying to do is, very specifically, have a consistency, [a] unified look-and-feel and experience, so that we start to build trust in the way that the American citizen daily interacts with the government.”
He said the move presents an “interesting challenge” ahead, as the team is tasked with redesigning 27,000 government websites. To do so, the team relies on many of the same design sensibilities that they previously used to build best-in-class consumer apps, like Airbnb.
There’s a spirit of Airbnb here,” Gebbia pointed out, saying that much like bringing the complicated process of finding a room to rent or an online vacation rental, the government work is also about taking a complex process and making it easier, safer, and trustworthy.
He also mentioned some of the work the team has already completed to improve the design and the functionality of the government’s online operations and websites so far. For instance, the team revamped the government’s retirement process, which had been complex and paper-based, to a streamlined web-based version that employees can complete within minutes, in some cases, instead of months. Another process being prototyped has brought a common government workflow down from 87 clicks to 12, and the plan is to get it to 10, he said.
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The design initiative will also work to address other frustrations of using government websites, like getting lost navigating sites or pages timing out, causing users to lose their data.
Gebbia slyly referred to the poor consumer experience of using government sites as “one of the darkest UX patterns that you could think of” — a reference to the deceptive design or user interface tricks sites use to manipulate their users.
“Just the perception of [a government website] being hard precludes you from even engaging in it,” he suggested. “I think we’re moving beyond this…this is over. People should feel empowered to get the thing done with the government that they need to get done,” he said.
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Tech
ElevenLabs lists BlackRock, Jamie Foxx, and Eva Longoria as new investors
Voice AI company ElevenLabs revealed new investors that are part of its $500 million Series D fundraise, which was first announced in February. The additions include institutions such as BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders; enterprises like Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Santander, KPN, and Deutsche Telekom; and individual investors such as Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.
The startup also noted that it surpassed $500 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue), after ending last year with nearly $350 million in ARR. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Mati Staniszewski, said last month that ElevenLabs added $100 million in net new ARR in Q1 2026, ending the quarter at roughly $450 million in ARR.
The company has also accelerated its valuation rapidly, growing from $6.6 billion last September to $11 billion this February.
“Voice is the highest-stakes channel for any customer interaction, and the bar for quality, latency, and security is extremely high. ElevenLabs is not just a category leader – it is becoming a foundational enabler of Deutsche Telekom’s broader Industrial AI vision. From voice-as-a-service to multilingual automation and in-network AI agents, we believe the company is uniquely positioned to reshape how businesses interact with customers across all channels,” Karine Peters, managing director at Deutsche Telekom’s venture arm T.Capital, said in a statement.
In the past quarter, the voice AI company has signed enterprise contracts with the likes of Deutsche Telekom, Revolut, and Klarna.
ElevenLabs said that, besides the fundraising, it also closed a $100 million tender, a second in roughly six months after the company issued one last September. Staniszewski said in a blog post that the company will give an opportunity to retail investors to invest in ElevenLabs through Robinhood Ventures, but didn’t provide details about the program.
Staniszewski noted that consumers won’t trust systems that sound robotic or “interact strangely” and emphasized the importance of building “human-level AI voice models.” Last month, the company acquired the team from Polish voice AI startup Papla to bolster its research team.
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Tech
Kaspersky suspects Chinese hackers planted a backdoor into Daemon Tools in ‘widespread’ attack
Security researchers at Kaspersky say they have identified a malicious backdoor planted in the popular and long-running Windows disc imaging software, Daemon Tools.
The Russian cybersecurity company said on Tuesday that data collected from computers around the world running the Kaspersky antivirus software shows a “widespread” attack is under way, targeting thousands of Windows computers running Daemon Tools.
The hackers, whom Kaspersky has linked to a Chinese-language speaking group based on an analysis of the malware, used the backdoor in Daemon Tools to plant additional malware on a dozen computers across the retail, scientific and manufacturing sectors, as well as government systems. Kaspersky said the hacking of these specific computers implied a “targeted” effort.
The company said the targeted organizations are located in Russia, Belarus, and Thailand.
Kaspersky said the backdoor was first detected on April 8.
Kaspersky said it had contacted Disc Soft, the company that maintains Daemon Tools, but did not say if the developer responded or took action. Kaspersky said the supply chain attack is “still active,” suggesting that the hackers can still plant malware on thousands of computers running the disc imaging software.
This is the latest in a string of so-called “supply chain” attacks that have targeted developers of popular software in recent months. Hackers are increasingly taking aim at the accounts of developers who work on widely used code and software, and abusing that access to push malicious code to anyone who relies on the software. This approach lets the hackers break into a large number of computers at once when their malicious code is delivered as a software update.
Earlier this year, hackers associated with the Chinese government hijacked the popular text editing software Notepad++ to deliver malware to a number of organizations with interests in East Asia. Security researchers also warned of another attack last month targeting users who visited the website of CPUID, which makes the popular HWMonitor and CPU-Z tools.
TechCrunch downloaded the Windows installer from Daemon Tools’ website, and the file appeared to contain the backdoor when we checked it with the online malware scanner service VirusTotal.
It’s not known if the macOS version of Daemon Tools was compromised, or if other apps made by Disc Soft are affected.
When contacted for comment, a Disc Soft representative said they are “aware of the report and are currently investigating the situation.”
“Our team is treating this matter with the highest priority and is actively working to assess and address the issue. At this stage, we are not in a position to confirm specific details referenced in the report. However, we are taking all necessary steps to remediate any potential risks and to ensure the security of our users,” the representative said.
Do you know more about the cyberattack targeting Daemon Tools users? Did you receive an antivirus alert saying you were affected? We want to hear from you. To contact this reporter securely, reach out via Signal username zackwhittaker.1337.
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Tech
Etsy launches its app within ChatGPT as it continues its AI push
Etsy announced Tuesday the launch of its native app within ChatGPT, opening up a new way for shoppers to explore its catalog of over 100 million listings.
The new experience is designed to move beyond the limitations of traditional keyword queries. Instead of typing something like “wooden coffee table,” then scrolling and adjusting filters, users can now express what they’re looking for in natural language. For instance, “Help me find a Mother’s Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening.”
Now live in beta, the feature allows users to tag @Etsy directly within a prompt. From there, the Etsy app in ChatGPT surfaces relevant product listings that users can browse, compare, and click through to Etsy for additional details or purchase.
This isn’t Etsy’s first experiment inside ChatGPT. Back in September, Etsy became an early partner in ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout integration, which let users buy products directly inside the chat interface. However, the initiative ended in March, suggesting it didn’t perform as OpenAI had hoped. It was reported that Etsy didn’t see a large volume of sales from the integration, leading Etsy to start building a native app within ChatGPT instead.
Alongside this launch, Etsy also revealed it’s testing a beta conversational search experience within its platform, specifically geared toward helping users find gifts. The gift assistant acts as a personal shopper, offering a guided, conversational way to discover ideas, narrow down preferences, and surface relevant products.
This builds on Etsy’s broader AI push, which includes an AI-powered discovery experience featuring curated collections and a suite of seller tools, including a tool that helps generate product titles and descriptions, as well as a writing assistant to help draft messages to buyers. In 2024, Etsy introduced a new “Designed” label to identify AI content, part of an effort to increase transparency as AI-generated artwork becomes more prevalent on the platform.
The news of a ChatGPT integration comes a week after Etsy reported its Q1 2026 earnings, surpassing revenue expectations with $631 million, and marketplace gross merchandise sales were up 6% year over year. Notably, active buyers increased for the first time in two years to 86.6 million. Etsy also touted 5.6 million active sellers on the platform.
In February, the company announced it was selling Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion in cash, a move aimed at doubling down on its core marketplace.
Etsy joins a growing list of companies building native apps within ChatGPT, including Angi, SeatGeek, Tubi, and Wix. Developers have been able to build apps within the chatbot since October.
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