Welcome again to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into OpenAI’s shock 12 days of reveals, an underwhelming Spotify Wrapped, and an app that tells you whenever you’ll die. 😰 Let’s get into it.
OpenAI is stepping into the vacation spirit. In a shock “12 Days of OpenAI” occasion, the corporate will livestream updates and new options each weekday by December 23. The largest reveals to date embody a $200 per thirty days subscription tier for energy customers of ChatGPT and the discharge of the total model of its “reasoning” o1 mannequin. You can comply with together with the entire product bulletins over the subsequent few weeks by staying updated with our reside weblog.
Spotify Wrapped was this week, however many customers are feeling underwhelmed by the music streamer’s personalised year-in-review function. The largest complaints stem from the inclusion of an AI podcast over different, intelligent and inventive information tales that it sometimes presents (bear in mind Burlington, Vermont?). Users are additionally upset over the shortage of extra detailed stats and the exclusion of knowledge they’ve come to count on, like prime music genres.
A Delaware Chancery courtroom decide denied Tesla’s request to revise her determination to strike down CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay bundle — regardless of shareholders voting on the firm’s annual assembly this 12 months to “re-ratify” the deal. Her determination, specified by a 103-page opinion piece, says that Tesla’s authorized crew has “no procedural floor for flipping the result” and that the try to vary her thoughts contained a number of deadly flaws.
This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, the place we recap the week’s largest information. Want this delivered as a publication to your inbox each Saturday? Sign up right here.
News
Google loses three key leaders: Three members of Google’s NotebookLM crew are leaving for a brand new stealth startup. It’s unclear if the startup will deal with issues that NotebookLM went viral for, corresponding to AI-generated podcasts or if it’ll do one thing completely totally different. Read extra
SpaceX mulls an enormous tender provide: SpaceX’s valuation continues to rise at an eye-popping tempo, with the corporate reportedly in talks to promote insider shares at a worth that might worth it at round $350 billion. Read extra
Electric popemobile: Mercedes-Benz has delivered the primary all-electric popemobile to the Vatican. The modified model of the G-Class SUV includes a devoted height-adjustable swiveling seat so the pope can deal with extra of his viewers. Read extra
Intel’s CEO retires: Intel introduced that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired and stepped down from the corporate’s board of administrators. Per a submitting with the SEC, Gelsinger may very well be strolling away with simply over $10 million in severance pay. Read extra
Hello, Dia: The Browser Company teased its subsequent product to comply with its standard Arc Browser — a brand new internet browser known as Dia. According to an advert from the corporate, Dia will focus closely on AI instruments and is ready to launch in early 2025. Read extra
Could advertisements come to Bluesky? At our StrictlyVC occasion, we requested Bluesky CEO Jay Graber if advertisements have been off the desk for the social community. Graber informed us that Bluesky could ultimately experiment with advertisements — however in a means that doesn’t compromise the core consumer expertise. Read extra
All eyes on David Mayer: ChatGPT customers found asking questions on a “David Mayer” induced the chatbot to freeze. While the unusual habits spawned conspiracy theories, a way more strange purpose is on the coronary heart of it — digital privateness requests. Read extra
Get your Mac into the vacation spirit: A cute new macOS app known as Festivitas will help you beautify your Mac laptop display with twinkling, vacation lights which are strung up out of your menu bar and illuminate your dock. Read extra
Tesla will get into the fart prank market: Tesla revealed plans for an Apple Watch app that may do a lot of what the smartphone app does, however maybe the silliest replace is the flexibility to prank your buddy within the passenger seat with a whoopie cushion sound impact. Read extra
Khloé Kardashian, VC: Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner wish to elevate $10 million for a brand new enterprise known as Khloud, in accordance with an SEC submitting. Trademarks affiliated with Khloud have been filed to cowl popcorn, granola, and different kinds of snacks. Read extra
Do you need to know when you’ll die? A brand new app known as Death Clock claims to foretell the date of its customers’ deaths and presents recommendations on easy methods to push that date again. My colleague Anthony Ha, who is much braver than I, tried it out for himself. Read extra
Analysis
The abject weirdness of AI advertisements.
“Intelligence so huge, you’d swear it was from Texas.”
“Adapt your workforce on the velocity of AI.”
“AI that talks to vehicles and talks to wildlife.”
These are examples of current advertisements for AI merchandise and firms, however what do they even imply? As Maxwell Zeff writes, most advertisements for AI imply nothing in any respect. Companies are resorting to portray AI as this amorphous, magical youngsters’s e book character with no particular use case, whereas additionally implying that it will possibly do nearly something. We’re in a bizarre place with AI, and the banal tapestry of ads speaks to a bigger rut we’re in. Most firms don’t actually know what AI is sweet for, and perhaps that’s the purpose. Read extra
