# Platform Metrics, Drone Logistics, And AI Trust

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-08-18

## Transcript

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Anthropics CEO says that all the AI backlash happening at the moment is fundamentally a crisis of trust.
I'm Imran Jake and your Daily Crunch for Tuesday featuring three big tech headlines starts right now.
On Monday, YouTube announced that it's changing how views are counted on its platform, with a view now counting as soon as a video starts playing or someone enters a live broadcast.
Now, although the Google-owned platform never disclosed how it previously counted views, it was generally understood that a view was counted after a user watched at least 30 seconds of a video.
The change comes a year after YouTube applied the same approach to counting views on shorts videos.
It's worth noting here that rivals TikTok and Instagram also count views as soon as a video starts playing.
The shift could lead to significantly increased YouTube view counts, especially for videos that only briefly capture viewers' attention.
That means public view counts may no longer be a useful tool for creators and advertisers to determine how popular a video may be.
You see, YouTube says it will keep the original view metric, now called engaged views, accessible to creators through its analytics tool to allow them to see how many viewers chose to continue watching their videos.
The company notes that the change won't impact creators' earnings or how they become eligible for monetization through the YouTube Partner Program.
Now, the update, which goes into effect on August 24th, comes just a week after YouTube made another creator-focused change, which was announcing that new creators, they're going to have to meet higher thresholds to begin earning money from ads and subscriptions starting next year.
The decision has drawn, well, you guessed it, backlash from users, as it'll make it harder for creators to enter and remain in YouTube's monetization program.
Uber's investing in and partnering with drone delivery company Zipline with the goal of making 1 million deliveries per day using the startup's drones by the end of 2029.
Zipline drones will make the first deliveries on the Uber Eats platform by the end of this year, the company said on Monday.
Now, these deliveries will start in Zipline's existing markets, and the companies want to expand into...
quote, dozens of U.S.
cities, unquote.
The companies didn't disclose the investment amount.
Uber's been taking on multiple drone delivery partners as it looks for ways to keep growing Uber Eats.
The ride-hail giant is replicating the early business model it's adopted for robo-taxis and other services built around autonomous vehicles, which is to, essentially, bring as many companies onto its platform as possible.
Now, this approach has helped Uber stay at the forefront of these new technologies despite selling off its own programs like the aerial ride-sharing service Uber Elevate and Uber Autonomous Technologies Group, which was working on autonomous vehicles.
Investments have been a huge part of the strategy, with Uber committing more than $10 billion to dozens of autonomous vehicle providers.
The ride-hail giant had tested the waters of drone delivery when it still had its Elevate division.
The company dipped back into the idea late last year when it announced a partnership with Israeli startup Flytrex, which also came with a minor investment.
Uber thinks Zipline's drones can fulfill orders on Uber Eats within 5 to 10 minutes.
Zipline, based in San Francisco, recently closed an extended Series H funding round of $800 million, pushing its valuation to $7.6 billion.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei recently pushed back against the idea that he's been painting an overly pessimistic picture of artificial intelligence and how it might shape the future.
Now, Amadei's comments came in response to investor Gavin Baker, who argued, both on the All In podcast and on X, that Amadei's warnings about the dangers of AI have helped to fuel a backlash in the United States, particularly against data centers.
Claiming that Amadei has lost the argument when it comes to AI regulation, Anthropic has advocated for some regulations, including a California bill that imposes transparency requirements on large AI companies.
and given that he is about to be the CEO of one of the most important companies in the world, Baker wrote, continuing, I respectfully think he should make an effort to be a more positive advocate for his own industry.
Baker is far from the only one arguing that AI skepticism and even government crackdowns are a natural response to the dire warnings of some AI executives.
But in a series of posts, Amode disagreed with the idea that his messaging has been disproportionately negative.
Instead, he said that his writing has been about equally balanced between risks and benefits.
and that he wrote his essay, Machines of Loving Grace, because he didn't feel the AI industry was painting an inspiring enough picture of how the technology could radically transform the world for the better.
Nonetheless, Amode acknowledged that the public has a negative view of AI, and he agreed that this is a big problem.
Where he disagreed was with the idea that this negativity is primarily caused by Amode or any other AI leader warning about AI's risks.
I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust, Amode said, continuing, I think that ordinary people don't trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over.
Indeed, trust is a word that often comes up in headlines about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and is apparently an issue for other AI CEOs like Amode too.
Now to the latest in startup business news, all in about one minute with our friend, producer Dennis.
Thanks, Emron.
And African defense tech company Terra Industries on Monday announced an additional $18 million in funding, bringing its seed round to $52 million.
Since its launch back in 2024, Terra has become one of the hottest names in the African defense tech space, with plans to build autonomous systems.
and other infrastructure like drones and mine-detecting combat vehicles.
The company says it's on track to book $100 million in contracts, including at least one federal contract, and generate revenue in the tens of millions of dollars by year's end.
And Stripe has finalized a deal to acquire Open Router.
This is according to a new report in Bloomberg.
Open Router helps customers select different AI models to perform different tasks depending on their specific needs and budget.
The company announced in May that it had raised a $113 million Series B at a reported $1.3 billion valuation.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Stripe and Open Router were in acquisition talks.
Now, Bloomberg said those discussions have led to a deal price of more than $7 billion.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Aisha Malik, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same tech time, same Crunch channel.
And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.