Technology

For the love of God, stop calling your AI a co-worker

Generative AI comes in many forms. Increasingly, though, it’s marketed the same way: with human names and personas that make it feel less like code and more like a co-worker. A growing number of startups are anthropomorphizing AI to build trust fast — and soften its threat to human jobs. It’s dehumanizing, and it’s accelerating.

I get why this framing took off. In today’s upside-down economy, where every hire feels like a risk, enterprise startups — many emerging from the famed accelerator Y Combinator — are pitching AI not as software but as staff. They’re selling replacements. AI assistants. AI coders. AI employees. The language is deliberately designed to appeal to overwhelmed hiring managers.

Some don’t even bother with subtlety. Atlog, for instance, recently introduced an “AI employee for furniture stores” that handles everything from payments to marketing. One good manager, it gloats, can now run 20 stores at once. The implication: you don’t need to hire more people — just let the system scale for you. (What happens to the 19 managers it replaces is left unsaid.)

Consumer-facing startups are leaning into similar tactics. Anthropic named its platform “Claude” because it’s a warm, trustworthy-sounding companion for a faceless, disembodied neural net. It’s a tactic straight out of the fintech playbook where apps like Dave, Albert, and Charlie masked their transactional motives with approachable names. When handling money, it feels better to trust a “friend.”

The same logic has crept into AI. Would you rather share sensitive data with a machine learning model or your bestie Claude, who remembers you, greets you warmly, and almost never threatens you? (To OpenAI’s credit, it still tells you you’re chatting with a “generative pre-trained transformer.”)

But we’re reaching a tipping point. I’m genuinely excited about generative AI. Still, every new “AI employee” has begun to feel more dehumanizing. Every new “Devin” makes me wonder when the actual Devins of the world will push back on being abstracted into job-displacing bots.

Generative AI is no longer just a curiosity. Its reach is expanding, even if the impacts remain unclear. In mid-May, 1.9 million unemployed Americans were receiving continued jobless benefits — the highest since 2021. Many of those were laid-off tech workers. The signals are piling up.

Some of us still remember 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL, the onboard computer, begins as a calm, helpful assistant before turning completely homicidal and cutting off the crew’s life support. It’s science fiction, but it hit a nerve for a reason.

Last week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years, pushing unemployment as high as 20%. “Most [of these workers are] unaware that this is about to happen,” he told Axios. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it.”

You could argue that’s not comparable to cutting off someone’s oxygen, but the metaphor isn’t that far off. Automating more people out of paychecks will have consequences, and when the layoffs increase, the branding of AI as a “colleague” is going to look less clever and more callous.

The shift toward generative AI is happening regardless of how it’s packaged. But companies have a choice in how they describe these tools. IBM never called its mainframes “digital co-workers.” PCs weren’t “software assistants”; they were workstations and productivity tools.

Language still matters. Tools should empower. But more and more companies are marketing something else entirely, and that feels like a mistake.

We don’t need more AI “employees.” We need software that extends the potential of actual humans, making them more productive, creative, and competitive. So please stop talking about fake workers. Just show us the tools that help great managers run complex businesses, and that help individuals make more impact. That’s all anyone is really asking for.

Intellectual Insider

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Technology

Week in Review: Meta reveals its Oakley smart glasses

Welcome back to Week in Review! Lots in store for you today, including Wix’s latest acquisition, Meta’s new smart glasses, a look at the new Digg, and much more. Have a great weekend!

Smart specs: Meta and Oakley have teamed up on a new pair of smart glasses that can record 3K video, play music, handle calls, and respond to Meta AI prompts. They start at $399 and have double the battery life of Meta’s Ray-Bans. A $499 limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTN model will be available starting July 11.

Unicorn watch: Wix bought 6-month-old solo startup Base44 for $80 million in cash after it quickly gained traction as a no-code AI tool for building web apps. Created by a single founder and already profitable, Base44’s rapid rise made scooping it up irresistible.

Sand to the rescue: Finland just turned on the world’s largest sand battery — yes, actual sand — which stores heat to help power the small town of Pornainen’s heating system and cut its carbon emissions. The low-tech, low-cost system is built from discarded fireplace soapstone, is housed in a giant silo, and can store heat for weeks, proving you don’t need fancy lithium to fight climate change. You just need a pile of hot rocks.

This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, where we recap the week’s biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

News

two VanMoof S6 e-bikes — **Image Credits:**Rebecca Bellan

We’re back, baby: VanMoof is back from the brink with the S6, its first e-bike since bankruptcy — and it’s sticking to its signature custom design, despite that being what nearly killed the company. Backed by McLaren tech and a beefed-up repair network, the new VanMoof promises smoother rides, smarter features, and (hopefully) fewer stranded cyclists.

Space lasers: Baiju Bhatt, best known for co-founding Robinhood, is now building lasers in space. His new startup, Aetherflux, has raised $60 million to prove that beaming solar power from orbit isn’t a fantasy, with a demo satellite set to launch next year and early backing from the Department of Defense.

Oh no: One of SpaceX’s Starship rockets exploded during a test in Texas, likely pushing back the vehicle’s next launch, which had been tentatively set for June 29. SpaceX says the blast, caused by a pressurized tank failure, didn’t injure anyone, but it’s yet another setback in a rocky year for the company’s ambitious mega-rocket program.

That lossless feeling: Spotify’s long-awaited lossless audio tier still hasn’t launched, but fresh hints buried in the latest app code suggest that it’s under active development and could be closer than ever. But with years of delays and no official timeline, fans might want to temper their excitement until Spotify confirms the rollout.

I can Digg it: Digg’s reboot has entered alpha testing with a fresh iOS app aimed at becoming an AI-era Reddit alternative. The app offers a clean, simple design with curated communities, AI-powered article summaries, and gamified features like “Gems” and daily leaderboards.

We want you: The U.S. Navy is speeding up how it works with startups, cutting red tape and zeroing in on real wins like saved time and better morale. Department of the Navy CTO Justin Fanelli says it’s leading with problems, hunting for game-changing tech in AI, GPS, and system upgrades. And with Silicon Valley finally paying attention, the Navy’s becoming a go-to partner for innovators ready to shake things up.

Cash ain’t king: Mark Zuckerberg is throwing out massive cash — up to $100 million — to lure top AI talent from OpenAI and DeepMind. But OpenAI’s Sam Altman says none of his key people have bitten, praising his team’s mission over money. Meanwhile, OpenAI keeps pushing ahead with new AI models and even hints at launching an AI-powered social app that could outpace Meta’s own shaky attempts.

Before you go

Cluely founder Roy Lee party invitation video — **Image Credits:**Cluely

San Francisco’s latest startup saga? Cluely’s after-party for YC’s AI Startup School blew up on Twitter, drawing 2,000 party crashers, but it became the “most legendary party that never happened” after getting shut down by cops before a single drink was spilled. Founder Roy Lee’s viral marketing may have promised chaos, but the real party’s waiting. Maybe once the weather warms up?

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Technology

2 days left to save up to $210 on your TC All Stage pass

16x9 GeneralArticleImageHeader TCAllStage 2 Day Countdown

Time is almost up! Regular bird pricing for TechCrunch All Stage ends this Sunday, June 22, at 11:59 p.m. PT. That means you have just 2 days left to lock in savings of up to $210 on your ticket to one of the ultimate founder events of the summer.

TC All Stage lands in Boston at SoWa Power Station on July 15 for one action-packed day built for founders, investors, and startup operators who want more than surface-level inspiration. Expect tactical sessions, real conversations, and curated connections — all under one roof.

If you’re a founder, investor, or startup operator, this is your moment to get in the room. Secure your pass now and save up to $210.

Here’s what makes TC All Stage a can’t-miss event

At TC All Stage, we’re not interested in vague predictions or padded panels. We’re focused on what’s actually working right now — and who’s making it happen.

Visit the TC All Stage agenda page to see the full lineup of roundtables and sessions, but in the meantime, you can expect sessions like these:

“How to Actually Raise Right Now” — insights into navigating the current investment landscape
“Brand vs. Growth: What Early Startups Should Prioritize” — smart takes on strategic focus
“AI Isn’t the Strategy: It’s the Tool” — a realistic look at integrating emerging tech into your roadmap
“Scaling with Soul” — how to grow fast without losing your team, your culture, or your mission

Hear from the people who get it

We’re bringing in the founders, investors, and operators with firsthand insight on what it takes to build and scale today. Some of the speakers you’ll hear from include:

But it’s more than what happens on stage

Throughout the day, you’ll dive into expert-led roundtables, founder-focused breakouts, and high-energy networking. Test your pitch in front of investors during networking meetings, or see how yours stacks up while watching startups compete in the “So You Think You Can Pitch” showdown. Then, close out the day with curated Side Events across Boston — from happy hours to VIP meetups.

Don’t miss your chance to connect, grow, and scale at TC All Stage. Prices jump in just 2 days — Sunday, June 22, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Save up to $210 and get your ticket now.

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Technology

Rippling spy says men have been following him, and his wife is afraid

If becoming a spy sounds like an exciting way to live like a le Carré character, let this newest affidavit from confessed Rippling spy Keith O’Brien serve as a warning.

On Friday, an Irish judge granted O’Brien a restraining order against several men who have not yet been identified, according to the court order seen by TechCrunch. O’Brien testified that multiple men — two in a gray Skoda Superb on one occasion, and more often, a short-haired, heavy-set man in a black SUV, sometimes accompanied by a large dog — had repeatedly followed his car and watched his home.

O’Brien’s story has captured the imagination of the tech industry after his colorful confession in April, in which he alleged that he was a spy for Deel. He said he was paid €5,000 a month to steal Rippling’s internal data on everything from products to customers. Rippling caught him by setting up a honeypot Slack channel. On the day he was caught, O’Brien pretended to flush his phone down the corporate toilet and later smashed it, dropping pieces down the drain at his mother-in-law’s house, according to his affidavit.

Now he’s the star witness for Rippling in its lawsuit against Deel. Rippling is even picking up the tab for his legal and related expenses, its lawyers testified. Deel is also countersuing Rippling, claiming it was spied on too, by a Rippling employee impersonating a customer. The two HR tech companies have been bitter rivals for years after Deel — once a Rippling customer — began offering competing products.

In the latest part of the saga, O’Brien testified that he tried to lose the black SUV following his car by making sudden turns and taking roundabout ways to get home, only to see it reappear in his rearview mirror. He hired a security consulting company and feared that someone was placing tracking devices on his car.

O’Brien claims all of these incidents have created “emotional and psychological” damage for himself and his wife. “We have been experiencing anxiety at home and in public. It has affected our sleep and our concentration,” O’Brien said in his latest affidavit. They are fearful for the safety of their four children.

He and his lawyer speculated that this was intended as harassment related to his role as star witness. However, O’Brien’s lawyer also admitted in court that they had no evidence tying the men to Deel. Deel also denied knowing anything about the man in the black SUV.

According to the Irish publication Business Post, when granting the injunction, the judge apparently said, “As if they are in a 1970s cops and robbers” TV show.

Whatever happens in the dueling court cases, O’Brien has made himself the rope in a bitter tug of war between these two well-funded HR startups. And from what he says in his testimony, it sounds painful.