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Welcome back to Week in Review . This week we ’re looking at the interior bedlam besiege HP ’s $ 116 million acquisition of AI Pin maker Humane ; Mira Murati ’s Modern AI venture coming out of stealth ; Duolingo killing its iconic hooter mascot with a Cybertruck ; and more ! allow ’s get into it .
Humane ’s AI pin is drained . The hardware inauguration announced that most of its assetshave been acquired by HP for $ 116 million , less than half of the $ 240 million it elicit in VC funding . The startup will immediately discontinue sale of its $ 499 AI Pins , and after February 28 , the wearable will no longer tie in to Humane ’s servers . After that , the gadget wo n’t be equal to of call , message , AI question / response , or cloud memory access . Customers who grease one’s palms an AI Pin in the last 90 days are eligible for a refund , but anyone who bought a equipment before then is not .
Hours after the HP acquisitionwas announced , several Humane employee received job offers from HP withpay increases between 30 % and 70%,plus HP stock and bonus plans , harmonize to internal documents seen by TechCrunch and two source who requested anonymity . Meanwhile , other Humane employees — especially those who work closer to the AI Pin devices — were notified they were out of a job .
Apple ’s long - awaited iPhone SE refreshhas been revealed , three years after the last major update to the budget - given smartphone . The 16e is part of an exclusive group of French telephone open of run Apple Intelligence due to the addition of an A18 processor . The iPhone 16e also ditched the Touch ID dwelling house button in favor of Face ID and trade out the Lightning port in favour of USB - C. The iPhone 6e starts at $ 599and will begin ship February 28 .
News
RIP , Duo : Duolingo “ killed ” its iconic owl mascot with a Cybertruck , and the marketing stunt is going surprisingly well . The fellowship launch a run to make unnecessary Duo — and encourage user to do more lessons — as the company suppose it ’s “ yoke or die . ”Read more
OpenAI “ uncensors ” ChatGPT : OpenAI no longer wants ChatGPT to take an editorial posture , even if some users happen it “ morally improper or offensive . ” That mean ChatGPT will now provide multiple perspective on controversial subject in an attempt to be neutral . Read more
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Uber vs. DoorDash : Uber is suing DoorDash , charge its manner of speaking challenger of strangle competition by restrain restaurant owners into exclusive quite a little . Uber alleges that DoorDash bullied eating house into only working with them . Read more
Mira Murati ’s next move : Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati ’s new AI inauguration , Thinking Machines Lab , has come out of stealth . The startup , which includes OpenAI Centennial State - founder John Schulman and former OpenAI chief research police officer Barret Zoph , will focalize on building collaborative “ multimodal ” systems . Read more
innovate Grok 3 : Elon Musk ’s xAI released its latest flagship AI model , Grok 3 , and unveiled new capabilities for the Grok Io and web apps . Musk claim that the new kin of manakin is a “ maximally true statement - seeking AI ” that is sometimes “ at betting odds with what is politically correct . ”Read more
hacker on Steam : Valve removed a video game from Steam that was essentially designed to spread malware . Security researchers found that whoever planted it modified an existing video game in an endeavour to pull a fast one on gamers into installing an information - thief called Vidar . Read more
Another DEI U - go : Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan ’s charity will end internal DEI syllabus and stop providing “ social advocacy funding ” for racial equity and immigration reforms . The shift come just weeks after the organization assured staff it would go on to plump for DEI movement . Read more
Amazon shuts down its Android app store : Amazon will stop its app depot for Android in August in an effort to put more focus on the company ’s own devices . The company order developer that they will no longer be able to reconcile new apps to the store . register more
Mark Zuckerberg ’s rebrand did n’t pay off : A study by the Pew Research Center come up that Americans ’ views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are more negatively charged than positive . About 54 % of U.S. grownup say they have an unfavorable view of Musk while a whopping 67 % feel negatively toward Zuckerberg . Read more
disturbance - set off headphones could hurt your brain : A new BBC report turn over whether noise - scrub tech might be rewiring the mental capacity of citizenry who utilize it to tune up out annoying background randomness — and could lead to the brain leave how to filter sounds itself . say more
Analysis
An thoroughgoing aspect at the DOGE universe : The dozens of individuals who form under , or advise , Elon Musk and DOGE are a real - life illustration of Musk ’s weblike reach in the tech industry . TechCrunch has unveiled the major players in the DOGE universe , from Musk ’s inner rope to senior figures , proletarian bee , and aides — some of whom are notify and raise for DOGE . We highlight both the connections between them and how they get into Musk ’s orbit . take more
