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

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…

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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

5 Comments

  1. @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.

  2. @أحمدعلي-ط5ه3ش

    January 7, 2026 at 2:45 pm

    ❤❤❤

  3. @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.

  4. @shivakhatri3271

    January 8, 2026 at 12:43 pm

    When did Sam Altman start Podcast?

  5. @TUNC2-k1e

    January 16, 2026 at 11:24 am

    Hmmm 🤔

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Science & Technology

Building beyond LLMs with Luma AI’s Amit Jain (Live at Web Summit Qatar) | Equity Podcast

LLMs may have kicked off this AI boom, but the ceiling is closer than the hype suggests. As models run out of text data to train on, the companies and investors paying attention are already moving on. The next wave isn’t better chatbots; it’s machines that can understand the physical world. Luma AI, the Bay…

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LLMs may have kicked off this AI boom, but the ceiling is closer than the hype suggests. As models run out of text data to train on, the companies and investors paying attention are already moving on. The next wave isn’t better chatbots; it’s machines that can understand the physical world. Luma AI, the Bay Area lab that raised over $1.4 billion from a16z, Nvidia, and Amazon, is betting on exactly that.

On episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, we’re bringing you a conversation Rebecca Bellan sat down with Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Luma AI, at Web Summit Qatar. Together, the pair dug into where the next trillion-dollar AI opportunity actually gets built, and whether the companies chasing it even know what they’re building yet.

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

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:13 Why LLMs are hitting a ceiling

02:43 The data problem & what comes after LLMs

04:30 What actually makes a world model a world model

06:05 Why 3D data is a dead end

07:39 What Luma is building next

09:08 How much humans stay in the loop

10:00 Near-term use cases for agentic video

11:22 Will AI kill jobs in film & production?

13:30 Why the entertainment industry is already dying

15:27 Why we actually need more content, not less

17:46 Luma’s roadmap: generation, understanding, and robotics

19:54 Outro

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CNET

iPhone in Space! Plus 5 MORE Apple Products That Went to Space | One More Thing

The iPhone has been to space a few times now — in fact, Apple products have a long history of space travel. CNET’s Bridget Carey looks back at notable moments, including the Macintosh Portable sending the first email in space. Read more about it on CNET.com Artemis II Astronauts Are Using iPhones to Capture Stunning…

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The iPhone has been to space a few times now — in fact, Apple products have a long history of space travel. CNET’s Bridget Carey looks back at notable moments, including the Macintosh Portable sending the first email in space.

Read more about it on CNET.com
Artemis II Astronauts Are Using iPhones to Capture Stunning Space Images

You can find the products mentioned in this video linked below
iPhone 17 Pro 512GB
Apple 2026 MacBook Neo 13-inch Laptop with A18 Pro chip 512 GB
Nikon Z 9 mirrorless camera
Nikon D5 DSLR 20.8 MP Point & Shoot Digital Camera
*Cnet may get commission on this offer.

0:44 Getting an iPhone 17 Pro Max into space with the NASA Artemis II crew
1:57 Nikon and GoPro Cameras also used in space by NASA Artemis crew
2:48 History of Apple products going to space
2:53 iPhone goes to space in 2021 with SpaceX Inspiration4 crew
3:02 iPhone 4s goes to space in 2011 on space shuttle Atlantis mission
3:26 Fist iPhone in space in 2010 travels by weather balloon
3:45 iPads on the International Space Station
3:47 iPods on the ISS in space
4:00 iPod on space shuttle Discovery in 2006
4:15 Astro Jessica uses AirPods in space on ISS
4:37 Apple Watch in space
4:51 The mac goes interstellar
4:57 Macintosh Portable computer goes to space in 1990
5:26 First email sent in space in 1991 from a Macintosh Portable
5:31 ThinkPads used in NASA missions
5:45 Microsoft Outlook glitches in space for Artemis II crew
6:02 How NASA made cell phone cameras possible
6:20 What Apple tech will go to space next?

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Popular Science

Americans loved drinking radioactive ‘miracle water’ in 1920s

Radithor promised to cure everything from wrinkles to leukemia, but its unintended results were deadly. Watch the full video:

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Radithor promised to cure everything from wrinkles to leukemia, but its unintended results were deadly.

Watch the full video:

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