Science & Technology

The consumer AI products OpenAI “won’t want to kill” | Equity Podcast

Published

5 months ago

January 7, 2026

Vanessa Larco⁠, partner at ⁠Premise⁠ and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI.
Larco, who’s been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we’re about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, will legacy consumer products like WebMD and TripAdvisor continue to exist as standalone apps, or will they just get absorbed into ChatGPT or Meta AI? And where can startups carve out an AI-powered niche for themselves?
Today on TechCrunch’s ⁠Equity⁠ podcast, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Larco to talk about why consumer is back, what OpenAI won’t kill, and where the real opportunities are hiding.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
00:53 – Why founders are excited about consumer again
04:40 – The moat against OpenAI: Managing real humans
09:22 – Apps as disposable as Word docs
12:48 – Social media in the AI era
18:48 – Meta Ray-Bans and why wearables are actually good
23:35 – Stablecoins and consumer fintech opportunities
26:54 – M&A predictions for 2026

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

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5 Comments

@KLBL-dp8mc

January 7, 2026 at 1:08 pm

OpenAI will be bankrupt by EOY. Burning obscene amounts of cash with no ideas how they’re going to create enough revenue to even pay the interest on the spending commitments they’ve made.

Reply
@أحمدعلي-ط5ه3ش

January 7, 2026 at 2:45 pm

❤❤❤

Reply
@SoyYoErick

January 8, 2026 at 2:09 am

It does seem like the B2C market is wide open for Agentic disruption but more so from a workflow perspective. What do you do on the daily, “which apps do you reference before choosing a place to eat and then navigate with directions”? It feels like we may see the 2.0 version form of smart assistants coming around.

Reply
@shivakhatri3271

January 8, 2026 at 12:43 pm

When did Sam Altman start Podcast?

Reply
@TUNC2-k1e

January 16, 2026 at 11:24 am

Hmmm 🤔

Reply

CNET

Visiting the World’s Largest Artificial Sun Gave Me Hope

Take a look inside ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor, to see how scientists from around the world are working tirelessly to re-create the sun’s superpower on Earth and fuel a clean energy revolution. Read more about the Fusion Reactor on CNET.com Inside the World’s Biggest Bet on Fusion Energy 0:00 Welcome to ITER 1:21…

Published

1 day ago

May 24, 2026

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Read more about the Fusion Reactor on CNET.com
Inside the World’s Biggest Bet on Fusion Energy

0:00 Welcome to ITER
1:21 Meet Plasma
1:38 ITER’s Magnets
2:28 ITER’s Goals
3:31 Hotter than the sun
3:57 Setbacks
4:46 International collaboration
5:18 ITER’s Tokamak Hall
5:38 The heart of ITER
6:08 ITER’s fuel
6:38 The walls of the tokamak
7:00 Tritium breeding
7:20 “The knowledge of the world”

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Science & Technology

Why Humans Should Merge with AI | D. Scott Phoenix | TED

Deep tech entrepreneur D. Scott Phoenix spent years building AI — now, he believes we’re on the cusp of a profound merger between humans and machines. Reframing the AI debate through the lens of evolutionary biology, he shifts the question from whether we should fear or embrace AI to whether we understand what’s at stake…

Published

2 days ago

May 23, 2026

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2 days ago

May 23, 2026

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