Bytes: Week in Review — SpaceX vs. California, and AI crawlers and VC dollars

Web crawlers scan and catalog sites all over the internet and, in the AI era, use that data to train chatbots. We’ll talk about why The New York Times is trying to put a stop to crawlers from the AI company Perplexity. We’ll also discuss the record share of venture capital dollars flowing into the AI sector and the difficulty of attracting investment for startups without those two magic letters.

Plus, the ups and downs of SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk. On Sunday, the aerospace company soared to new heights with its test launch of the powerful Starship rocket system and the historic landing of the Super Heavy booster. Meanwhile, in more terrestrial matters, SpaceX sued the California Coastal Commission Tuesday for what Musk said is a biased decision to deny 50 SpaceX rocket launches in the state because of objections to his political statements. He said it’s a violation of the First Amendment.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, for her take on all this for our weekly segment “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

More on everything we talked about

“Watch SpaceX Starship takeoff and land in ambitious test” from CNN

“Musk’s SpaceX sues California panel, alleges political bias over rocket launches” from Reuters

“Column: Elon Musk’s courtship with MAGA has driven X into misinformation abyss” from the Los Angeles Times

“New York Times to Bezos-Backed AI Startup: Stop Using Our Stuff” from The Wall Street Journal

“The Race to Block OpenAI’s Scraping Bots Is Slowing Down” from Wired

“Pro Take: AI Is Hogging the Venture Pie” from The Wall Street Journal