Tech
Google’s revised ad targeting plan triggers fresh competition concerns in UK
What is going on with Google’s long-touted migration to an alternative adtech stack (aka its Privacy Sandbox proposal)? What indeed. The entire multi-year endeavour to reshape the commercial web looks dangerously close to being killed off after the latest intervention by the U.K.’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
This comes on top of the u-turn that Google made around third-party tracking cookies. Originally they were going to be depreciated; as of July, cookies look like they are here to stay.
The CMA has been probing Google’s Privacy Sandbox plan since January 2021, following a November 2020 complaint by a coalition of digital marketing companies — which is one reason the project has been so tortuously slow. But slow is starting to look like a flat out ‘no’ from the U.K. regulator.
In a case update Tuesday, the CMA’s tossed yet another spanner in Google’s works, writing that it has “competition concerns” about its most recent revisions. Earlier commitments the tech giant had given it would also need to be updated to reflect “the evolution in Google’s planned Privacy Sandbox browser changes”, it said.
Meaning — at the very least — further delays to a project that’s already years over its original schedule.
The CMA said it’s discussing changes with Google, and Google would be required to address its competition concerns — but it has yet to specifying exactly which elements of the revised proposal are not yet meeting the mark. But one thing is clear: Google’s proposed shift to a user-choice architecture is on ice while the regulator weighs impacts.
“If the CMA is not able to agree changes to the commitments with Google which address the competition concerns, then the CMA will consider what further action may be necessary,” the regulator also wrote, again without stipulating what options might be on the table at that point (note: Google already agreed not to end support for tracking cookies without the CMA’s agreement), adding that it will “publicly consult before taking any decision on whether to accept changes to the commitments, and is aiming to do this in Q4 2024”.
The regulator plans to provide an update on what it couches as its “views relating to the Privacy Sandbox tools and its assessment of testing and trialling results” in the last quarter of the year. So that tinkling noise you can hear is the sound of a very battered can being kicked down the road yet again.
Ad targeting: Who gets to choose?
This latest CMA intervention pertains to a revised approach Google announced this summer when the tech giant suggested it might not to kill off third party tracking cookies after all.
Instead, Google suggested it could provide users of its dominant Chrome browser with a choice over whether they want to see ads based on third party surveillance of their web activity (i.e. tracking cookies); or opt for ads targeted using Privacy Sandbox, Google’s alternative tech for personalized ad targeting, which does not rely on cookies to track and profile users.
The implication of Google’s offer was also that its proposed choice architecture for Chrome could let users opt out of tracking-based or personalized ads entirely — i.e. by offering a free choice to say no to any such tracking (and, presumably, be served contextual ads instead). Which would be great news for people’s privacy.
However, the digital marketing companies that have set their sights on derailing Chrome’s deprecation of tracking cookies aren’t likely to be fans of letting web users get that much agency over online ads.
The CMA’s assessment of Privacy Sandbox is also obviously being conducted through a pure-play competition lens — so its jobs is to pay close attention to such complaints.
The competition regulator declined to respond to questions about its approach. But we understand the CMA is concerned Google’s revised plan to present users with a choice could lead to a significant reduction in availability of third party cookies for ad targeting — leading to an increased reliance on alternatives like Google’s Privacy Sandbox tools.
If the concern is that Google could use the Privacy Sandbox project to further entrench its dominance in the adtech stack — including as a result of giving web users more agency to protect their privacy from advertisers — then that’s a competition-shaped problem.
On privacy, the CMA has previously said it’s working with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the regulator responsible for enforcing national data protection laws, to consider relevant privacy and user choice design concerns. However, as we’ve pointed out before, the ICO has a long history of under-enforcing the adtech industry — despite recognizing its lawfulness problem.
More recently, the ICO’s actions in this area — going after certain types of non-compliant cookie consent pop-ups — have fuelled the rise of another problematic ad-industry dodge: Consent or pay mechanisms. This controversial approach, which is under legal challenge in the European Union, sees web users presented with a consent pop-up that gates content until they either accept tracking or else pay a subscription to access content. So it’s the literal opposite of a free choice.
And what has the ICO been doing about consent or pay? It ran a consultation earlier this year but has yet to adopt a public position on the legality of the controversial business model — letting a privacy-hostile mechanism mushroom unchecked in the meanwhile.
All of which is to say that if the U.K. regulator is the best hope web users have to champion their privacy rights in a high stakes battle for the future of the commercial web — that pits Google against digital marketers plus the CMA sitting in their corner — it doesn’t look like a very fair fight. It’s more like competition is being allowed to dominate a hierarchy of interests.
Reached for a response to the CMA’s latest intervention, Google spokeswomen Jo Ogunleye said the company is engaging with regulators and believes its revised proposal supports competition.
She also emailed a statement in which the company wrote: “We are engaging with the CMA on Privacy Sandbox following the updated approach we’ve proposed, which lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing. As we finalize this approach, we’ll continue to consult with the CMA, ICO and other regulators globally and look forward to ongoing collaboration with the ecosystem to build for a private, ad-supported internet.”
We also sought a response from Lukasz Olejnik, an independent consultant who has been tracking the Privacy Sandbox proposal from the start. “Keeping third party cookies is harmful for user welfare,” he warned, highlighting an apparent change of direction by the CMA.
“I was extremely satisfied with how professionally the CMA approached the migration to a privacy-improved web in ways to respect competition,” he also told TechCrunch. “However, since the last few months I see a significant shift in priorities of enforcement.”
Speculating on what might be behind a shift, Olejnik noted there has been a change of government in the U.K. — but said it’s difficult to explain why the regulator may have reconfigured its priorities in this area.
“Until now the CMA had a full understanding that third-party cookies are problematic for privacy, data protection and trust in digital advertising sector,” he said, adding: “While I believe that a business case for Privacy Sandbox would still exist, such a stance could jeopardise the privacy qualities, and trust in businesses, of UK users.”
Tech
Volkswagen’s cheapest EV ever is the first to use Rivian software
Volkswagen’s ultra-cheap EV called the ID EVERY1 — a small four-door hatchback revealed Wednesday — will be the first to roll out with software and architecture from Rivian, according to a source familiar with the new model.
The EV is expected to go into production in 2027 with a starting price of 20,000 euros ($21,500). A second EV called the ID.2all, which will be priced in the 25,000 euro price category, will be available in 2026. Both vehicles are part of the automaker’s new of category electric urban front-wheel drive cars that are being developing under the so-called “Brand Group Core” that makes up the volume brands in the VW Group. And both vehicles are for the European market.
The EVERY1 will be the first to ship with Rivian’s vehicle architecture and software as part of a $5.8 billion joint venture struck last year between the German automaker and U.S. EV maker. The ID.2all is based on the E3 1.1 architecture and software developed by VW’s software unit Cariad.
VW didn’t name Rivian in its reveal Wednesday, although there were numerous nods to next-generation software. Kai Grünitz, member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for Technical Development, noted it would be the first model in the entire VW Group to use a “fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture.”
“This means the future entry-level Volkswagen can be equipped with new functions throughout its entire life cycle,” he said. “Even after purchase of a new car, the small Volkswagen can still be individually adapted to customer needs.”
Sources who didn’t want to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to TechCrunch that Rivian’s software will be in the ID EVERY1 EV. TechCrunch has reached out to Rivian and VW and will update the article if the companies respond.
The new joint venture provides Rivian with a needed influx of cash and the opportunity to diversify its business. Meanwhile, VW Group gains a next-generation electrical architecture and software for EVs that will help it better compete. Both companies have said that the joint venture, called Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, will reduce development costs and help scale new technologies more quickly.
The joint venture is a 50-50 partnership with co-CEOs. Rivian’s head of software, Wassym Bensaid, and Volkswagen Group’s chief technical engineer, Carsten Helbing, will lead the joint venture. The team will be based initially in Palo Alto, California. Three other sites are in development in North America and Europe, the companies have previously said.
“The ID. EVERY1 represents the last piece of the puzzle on our way to the widest model selection in the volume segment,” Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand and Head of the Brand Group Core, said in a statement. “We will then offer every customer the right car with the right drive system–including affordable all-electric entry-level mobility. Our goal is to be the world’s technologically leading high-volume manufacturer by 2030. And as a brand for everyone–just as you would expect from Volkswagen.”
The Volkswagen ID EVERY1 is just a concept for now — and with only a few details attached to the unveiling. The concept vehicle reaches a top speed of 130 km/h (80 miles per hour) and is powered by a newly developed electric drive motor with 70 kW, according to Volkswagen. The German automaker said the range on the EVERY1 will be at least 250 kilometers (150 miles). The vehicle is small but larger than VW’s former UP! vehicle. The company said it will have enough space for four people and a luggage compartment volume of 305 liters.
Tech
The hottest AI models, what they do, and how to use them
AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming.
Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them.
To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what they’re best for. We’ll keep this list updated with the latest launches, too.
There are literally over a million AI models out there: Hugging Face, for example, hosts over 1.4 million. So this list might miss some models that perform better, in one way or another.
AI models released in 2025
Cohere’s Aya Vision
Cohere released a multimodal model called Aya Vision that it claims is best in class at doing things like captioning images and answering questions about photos. It also excels in languages other than English, unlike other models, Cohere claims. It is available for free on WhatsApp.
OpenAI’s GPT 4.5 ‘Orion’
OpenAI calls Orion their largest model to date, touting its strong “world knowledge” and “emotional intelligence.” However, it underperforms on certain benchmarks compared to newer reasoning models. Orion is available to subscribers of OpenAI’s $200 a month plan.
Claude Sonnet 3.7
Anthropic says this is the industry’s first ‘hybrid’ reasoning model, because it can both fire off quick answers and really think things through when needed. It also gives users control over how long the model can think for, per Anthropic. Sonnet 3.7 is available to all Claude users, but heavier users will need a $20 a month Pro plan.
xAI’s Grok 3
Grok 3 is the latest flagship model from Elon Musk-founded startup xAI. It’s claimed to outperform other leading models on math, science, and coding. The model requires X Premium (which is $50 a month.) After one study found Grok 2 leaned left, Musk pledged to shift Grok more “politically neutral” but it’s not yet clear if that’s been achieved.
OpenAI o3-mini
This is OpenAI’s latest reasoning model and is optimized for STEM-related tasks like coding, math, and science. It’s not OpenAI’s most powerful model but because it’s smaller, the company says it’s significantly lower cost. It is available for free but requires a subscription for heavy users.
OpenAI Deep Research
OpenAI’s Deep Research is designed for doing in-depth research on a topic with clear citations. This service is only available with ChatGPT’s $200 per month Pro subscription. OpenAI recommends it for everything from science to shopping research, but beware that hallucinations remain a problem for AI.
Mistral Le Chat
Mistral has launched app versions of Le Chat, a multimodal AI personal assistant. Mistral claims Le Chat responds faster than any other chatbot. It also has a paid version with up-to-date journalism from the AFP. Tests from Le Monde found Le Chat’s performance impressive, although it made more errors than ChatGPT.
OpenAI Operator
OpenAI’s Operator is meant to be a personal intern that can do things independently, like help you buy groceries. It requires a $200 a month ChatGPT Pro subscription. AI agents hold a lot of promise, but they’re still experimental: a Washington Post reviewer says Operator decided on its own to order a dozen eggs for $31, paid with the reviewer’s credit card.
Google Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental
Google Gemini’s much-awaited flagship model says it excels at coding and understanding general knowledge. It also has a super-long context window of 2 million tokens, helping users who need to quickly process massive chunks of text. The service requires (at minimum) a Google One AI Premium subscription of $19.99 a month.
AI models released in 2024
DeepSeek R1
This Chinese AI model took Silicon Valley by storm. DeepSeek’s R1 performs well on coding and math, while its open source nature means anyone can run it locally. Plus, it’s free. However, R1 integrates Chinese government censorship and faces rising bans for potentially sending user data back to China.
Gemini Deep Research
Deep Research summarizes Google’s search results in a simple and well-cited document. The service is helpful for students and anyone else who needs a quick research summary. However, its quality isn’t nearly as good as an actual peer-reviewed paper. Deep Research requires a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription.
Meta Llama 3.3 70B
This is the newest and most advanced version of Meta’s open source Llama AI models. Meta has touted this version as its cheapest and most efficient yet, especially for math, general knowledge, and instruction following. It is free and open source.
OpenAI Sora
Sora is a model that creates realistic videos based on text. While it can generate entire scenes rather than just clips, OpenAI admits that it often generates “unrealistic physics.” It’s currently only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus, which is $20 a month.
Alibaba Qwen QwQ-32B-Preview
This model is one of the few to rival OpenAI’s o1 on certain industry benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. Ironically for a “reasoning model,” it has “room for improvement in common sense reasoning,” Alibaba says. It also incorporates Chinese government censorship, TechCrunch testing shows. It’s free and open source.
Anthropic’s Computer Use
Claude’s Computer Use is meant to take control of your computer to complete tasks like coding or booking a plane ticket, making it a predecessor of OpenAI’s Operator. Computer use, however, remains in beta. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input and $4 per million tokens of output.
x.AI’s Grok 2
Elon Musk’s AI company, x.AI, has launched an enhanced version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot it claims is “three times faster.” Free users are limited to 10 questions every two hours on Grok, while subscribers to X’s Premium and Premium+ plans enjoy higher usage limits. x.AI also launched an image generator, Aurora, that produces highly photorealistic images, including some graphic or violent content.
OpenAI o1
OpenAI’s o1 family is meant to produce better answers by “thinking” through responses through a hidden reasoning feature. The model excels at coding, math, and safety, OpenAI claims, but has issues deceiving humans, too. Using o1 requires subscribing to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 a month.
Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5
Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a model Anthropic claims as being best in class. It’s become known for its coding capabilities and is considered a tech insider’s chatbot of choice. The model can be accessed for free on Claude although heavy users will need a $20 monthly Pro subscription. While it can understand images, it can’t generate them.
OpenAI GPT 4o-mini
OpenAI has touted GPT 4o-mini as its most affordable and fastest model yet thanks to its small size. It’s meant to enable a broad range of tasks like powering customer service chatbots. The model is available on ChatGPT’s free tier. It’s better suited for high-volume simple tasks compared to more complex ones.
Cohere Command R+
Cohere’s Command R+ model excels at complex Retrieval-Augmented Generation (or RAG) applications for enterprises. That means it can find and cite specific pieces of information really well. (The inventor of RAG actually works at Cohere.) Still, RAG doesn’t fully solve AI’s hallucination problem.
Tech
Not all cancer patients need chemo. Ataraxis AI raised $20M to fix that.
Artificial intelligence is a big trend in cancer care, and it’s mostly focused detecting cancer at the earliest possible stage. That makes a lot of sense, given that cancer is less deadly the earlier it’s detected.
But fewer are asking another fundamental question: if someone does have cancer, is an aggressive treatment like chemotherapy necessary? That’s the problem Ataraxis AI is trying to solve.
The New York-based startup is focused on using AI to accurately predict not only if a patient has cancer, but also what their cancer outcome looks like in 5 to 10 years. If there’s only a small chance of the cancer coming back, chemo can be avoided altogether – saving a lot of money, while avoiding the treatment’s notorious side effects.
Ataraxis AI now plans to launch their first commercial test, for breast cancer, to U.S. oncologists in the coming months, its co-founder Jan Witowski tells TechCrunch. To bolster the launch and expand into other types of cancer, the startup has raised a $20.4 million Series A, it told TechCrunch exclusively.
The round was led by AIX Ventures with participation from Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Floating Point, Bertelsmann, and existing investors Giant Ventures and Obvious Ventures. Ataraxis emerged from stealth last year with a $4 million seed round.
Ataraxis was co-founded by Witowski and Krzysztof Geras, an assistant professor at NYU’s medical school who focuses on AI.
Ataraxis’ tech is powered by an AI model that extracts information from high-resolution images of cancer cells. The model is trained on hundreds of millions of real images from thousands of patients, Witowski said. A recent study showed Ataraxis’ tech was 30% more accurate than the current standard of care for breast cancer, per Ataraxis.
Long term, Ataraxis has big ambitions. It wants its tests to impact at least half of new cancer cases by 2030. It also views itself as a frontier AI company that builds its own models, touting Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun as an AI advisor.
“I think at Ataraxis we are trying to build what is essentially an AI frontier lab, but for healthcare applications,” Witowski said. “Because so many of those problems require a very novel technology.”
The AI boom has led to a rush of fundraises for cancer care startups. Valar Labs raised $22 million to help patients figure out their treatment plan in May 2024, for example. There’s also a bevvy of AI-powered drug discovery firms in the cancer space, like Manas AI which raised $24.6 million in January 2025 and was co-founded by Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder.
