BasePower's $1B raise and leasing battery model

AI companies are making their much-anticipated enterprise plays, but the results are wildly inconsistent. Just this week, Deloitte announced it's rolling out Anthropic's Claude to all 500,000 employees. On the very same day, the Australian government forced Deloitte to refund a contract because their AI-generated report was riddled with fake citations. It's a perfect snapshot of where we are: companies racing to adopt AI tools before they've figured out how to use them responsibly. 

On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the messy reality of AI in the workplace, plus funding news and regulatory drama across tech and transportation. 

Listen to the full episode to hear more news from the week, including: 

• AltStore's $6 million raise and its plan to integrate with the Fediverse, making app updates part of your social feed 

• Base Power's massive $1 billion Series C to deploy home batteries across Texas and beyond 

• NHTSA's investigation into Tesla FSD after 50+ traffic violations, plus the new "cheaper" models that strip out Autopilot and basic features 

• Zendesk's claim that its new AI agents can handle 80% of customer service tickets autonomously, and what happens in the other 20% 

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

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