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January 22, 2026

 

TechCrunch Top 3

Spotify brings AI-powered Prompted Playlists to the U.S. and Canada

Spotify brings AI-powered Prompted Playlists to the U.S. and Canada: Now available in the US and Canada, Spotify's AI-powered Prompted Playlists let users describe what they want to hear using natural language commands. Read More

From invisibility cloaks to AI chips: Neurophos raises $110M to build tiny optical processors for inferencing: Neurophos is taking a crack at solving the AI industry's power efficiency problem with an optical chip that uses a composite material to do the math required in AI inferencing tasks. Read More

Former Google trio is building an interactive AI-powered learning app for kids: Big tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

Tiger Global, Microsoft to fully exit Walmart-backed PhonePe via its IPO

Tiger Global, Microsoft to fully exit Walmart-backed PhonePe via its IPO: Tiger Global and Microsoft are offering up their full stakes in the company, while Walmart is choosing to retain its majority stake, and selling up to 45.9 million shares. Read More

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A message from TechCrunch Events

Disrupt 2026 tickets are live and at the lowest rates

Disrupt tickets are officially on sale at the lowest rates of the year. Lock in Super Early Bird pricing plus 50% off a second ticket of the same type, available to the first 500 registrants or until Jan 31. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators for curated networking, hear from 250+ speakers across 200+ sessions, and demo innovations for 300+ startups Oct 13–15 in San Francisco.

Register Now

You missed these chats from Disrupt:

Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens.

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