# AI Hardware, EdTech, and Influencer Regulation Shifts

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-09-22

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
To quote a listener, it pays to listen.
Check us out and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Google's $899 Google Book is a bet that you'll buy a new laptop for Gemini.
I'm Imran Shaikh, and I'm betting you're waiting for your daily crunch for Tuesday, featuring three big tech headlines saying, you know what?
You just won that bet, because it starts right now.
New legislation signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom adds teeth to disclosure requirements for online influencers who are paid to post about politics.
Now, the New York Times is reporting that California already required disclosure for influencers who post about state or local races.
But when someone failed to disclose, there weren't really any fines or criminal penalties.
Texas, BTW, also requires disclosure for paid political content, and other states are considering similar regulations.
So under the new bill, AB 1130, regulators can fine influencers up to $5,000 for each violation, and they can also refer them to law enforcement for potential misdemeanors.
According to the New York Times, billionaire Tom Steyer, who unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic nomination for California governor earlier this year, paid dozens of influencers to post about his campaign online.
And many of them, well, they didn't initially disclose the payments.
Newsom signed the legislation as part of a broader package of bills that his office said will protect against potential election interference from the likes of President Donald Trump.
The bill's sponsor, Democratic Assemblyman Mark Berman, said that he introduced the bill after realizing there was a bit of ambiguity about the existing law and how it's enforced.
Society has spent a lot of time bemoaning our digitally addled minds and goldfish-like attention spans.
Pointing the finger of blame at doom scrolling is the reason we can't just sit down and read a book or study for exams.
Well, what if the solution isn't to stop scrolling altogether, but to rethink what we're scrolling through?
Yeah, that's the bet startup ScrollEd is making.
The Palo Alto-based startup is pitching in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 competition with the novel idea that if students won't open a textbook, well, the textbook should open itself up to them as a scroll.
ScrollEd has built an app that allows the user to turn any text file, including dry PDFs or textbooks, into a feed that feels a lot like Instagram Reels or TikTok.
Now, as you scroll, the content shows up as AI-generated video, audio text, or even interactive quizzes.
Swiping up surfaces a new topic, while swiping sideways lets you go deeper into the one you're already on, with a quiz waiting for you at the end.
The younger generation is increasingly going short-form vertical feed only, especially the 18-year-olds we've spoken to, and this poses challenges for any kind of media that requires depth.
Utsav Gupta, ScrollEd's co-founder, told TechCrunch in an email.
Gupta continued, We want to meet them where they are.
We just have to be deliberate about how we use it and choose not to maximize engagement on the platform.
Gupta bootstrapped ScrollEd this year alongside his co-founder and wife, Rebecca Neff, after the two both noticed feeling dissatisfied after doom-scrolling before bed.
ScrollEd is following a freemium model, combining a free consumer feed with a paid ScrollEd Pro subscription and annual institutional licenses.
Now, institutions pay to deliver educational material through the platform in exchange for reports about engagement, lesson progress, and other data.
In the coming months, ScrollEd intends to focus on its consumer launch, building its lesson library and source-checking workflow, and developing pilots for institutions.
After first unveiling its new AI-powered laptop, dubbed Google Book, in May, Google on Monday said the new device is now available for pre-order for $899.
Meant to offer a step-up from traditional Chromebooks, Google Books run on Android OS, with a desktop version of the Chrome browser and other familiar Chrome OS elements.
However, the real pull for the new devices is that they'll prominently feature Gemini's latest capabilities in a new format.
The laptop.
You see, Google's trying to offer a laptop with unique features like an AI-powered cursor, vibe-coded widgets, and support for AI-enhanced dictation.
The latter is a feature called Rambler, which cleans up messy, rambling brain dumps into readable text.
The move is to bet that AI, specifically Google's Gemini, could be enough of a draw to get people to buy a new laptop that bakes in AI instead of running them via desktop apps you install or access through the browser.
Also, the devices could eventually replace Chromebooks, bringing millions of former Chromebook customers to Gemini AI.
On the Google Book, Google is trying to reinvent the point-and-click experience of desktop computing to now include an AI element.
The cursor serves as a conduit to Gemini.
What's more interesting about the Google Book is how it's seemingly part of Google's longer-term plan to capture a large part of the K-12 market that currently relies on Chromebooks and push them towards the company's Gemini AI.
Now, there are somewhere around 50 million Chromebooks in schools used by students and educators, Google has said.
The $899 device will include 12 months of Google AI Pro, which gives you 5 terabytes of cloud storage, Gemini Advanced Tools, 3 months of YouTube Premium, Adobe Photoshop, and more.
The devices will receive regular updates for up to 10 years, Google said.
Google Book pre-orders are open now on the Google Store, Best Buy, and other retailers.
Devices will hit shelves on October 4th in the US and October 5th in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Anthony Ha, Rebecca Belan, Sarah Perez, 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.