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Howdy, folks, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch\u2019s newsletter that recaps the major tech industry happenings over the past week (or so). Microsoft\u2019s Ignite conference, where the tech giant pitched its vision of a \u201ccopilot\u201d-powered future, flooded the channels midweek. But there was plenty of note besides.<\/p>\n
In this edition of WiR, we take a look at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman\u2019s unexpected firing, Humane\u2019s strange \u2014 and perhaps overambitious \u2014 Ai Pin, the shutdown of the popular video chat service Omegle, Airbnb acquiring the secret firm of a Siri co-founder, and Amazon launching a discounted health plan. We also cover the watermelon emoji being used as a symbol of political unity on social media, electric air taxi testing in New York City, the ongoing Epic-Google antitrust case and driverless car company Cruise\u2019s worsening woes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot to get to \u2014 so let\u2019s hop to it.\u00a0But first, a reminder to\u00a0sign up here<\/a> to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven\u2019t already done so.<\/p>\n OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired:<\/a><\/strong> In a surprising turn of events,\u00a0Sam Altman has been fired from OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT<\/a>,\u00a0DALL-E 3<\/a>,\u00a0GPT-4<\/a> and other highly capable generative AI systems. In a\u00a0post<\/a> on OpenAI\u2019s official blog, the company wrote that Altman\u2019s departure followed a \u201cdeliberative review process by the board\u201d that concluded that Altman \u201cwasn\u2019t consistently candid in his communications\u201d with other board members, \u201chindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.\u201d OpenAI CTO Mira Murati will take over as interim CEO.<\/p>\n The Ai Pin in person:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Brian checked out the Ai Pin, a curious new product from Apple-veteran-backed, well-funded<\/a> startup Humane. He writes that the matchbook-sized device, which features a laser system for projecting UI elements onto surfaces and a mic and speaker array for responding to voice commands, feels \u201cvery early days\u201d \u2014 and that the price ($699) and mandatory subscription ($24 per month) doesn\u2019t help. Still, it\u2019s clear that a lot of care went into the product, he adds.<\/p>\n Bose\u2019s QuietComfort Ultra earn their name:<\/strong><\/a> In other hardware news, Brian test-drove Bose\u2019s new QuietComfort Ultra headphones, which start at $429. In his estimation, Bose has created some of the most comfortable and best-sounding headphones on the market \u2014 coupled with best-in-class noise cancelation. That\u2019s high praise for Bluetooth headphones.<\/p>\n Omegle shuts down:<\/a> <\/strong>Omegle, the popular online chat service that let people connect and talk with strangers (and that was all the rage in this writer\u2019s high school days), has shut down after more than 14 years. Founder and CEO Leif K-Brooks cited growing misuse of the platform, including people committing \u201cunspeakably heinous crimes.\u201d But a subsequent Wired report<\/a> suggests Omegle was forced to shut down by a lawsuit from a sexual abuse survivor.<\/p>\n Airbnb buys Siri co-founder\u2019s firm:<\/a> <\/strong>This week Airbnb acquired a secretive AI startup, GamePlanner.AI for around $200 million, CNBC says. GamePlanner was co-founded by Adam Cheyer, who famously helped co-launch the startup Siri, which Apple acquired and whose technology became the basis for Apple\u2019s AI-powered Siri assistant. In announcing the acquisition, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky hinted that the 12-person startup combines expertise in AI and design toward crafting AI-driven experiences \u2014 sort of like an AI-focused consultancy.<\/p>\n Amazon launches new health plan: <\/strong><\/a>Amazon\u00a0announced this week a One Medical membership benefit for Prime members, giving them access to healthcare services for $9 per month or $99 annually. (Recall that Amazon snatched up<\/a> One Medical, a primary care tech provider, in February for around $3.9 billion.) Originally $199 a year, members are saving $100 on One Medical\u2019s 24\/7 virtual care services with the new plan, Lauren writes, as well as benefiting from in-person visits at locations across the U.S.<\/p>\n The watermelon emoji, a symbol of protest:<\/strong><\/a> Morgan writes about how the watermelon emoji has a complicated history in Palestinian protests online. The watermelon motif as a political statement became commonplace after the Second Intifada<\/a> in the early 2000s, but watermelon imagery is especially prevalent this year as Israeli officials enforce bans on the Palestinian flag \u2014 and amid worldwide calls for a ceasefire in wake of Israel\u2019s response to the Hamas attack.<\/p>\n Air taxis hover above NYC:<\/strong><\/a> Joby Aviation and Volocopter gave the public a vivid glimpse of what the future of aviation might look like this past weekend, with both companies performing brief demonstration flights of their electric aircraft in New York City. The demonstration flights were conducted during a press conference last Sunday, during which New York City mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would electrify two of the three heliports located in Manhattan.<\/p>\n Epic and Google duke it out:<\/a> <\/strong>Though Match settled its antitrust case with Google over Play Store fees for north of $300 million, Fortnite maker Epic Games proceeded\u00a0to take its case to trial this week<\/a>, Sarah reports. The game maker argues that Google\u2019s commissions on in-app purchases are anticompetitive and that Google has exerted its power in the marketplace to unfairly compete by negotiating special deals with developers and manufacturers running their own app stores.<\/p>\n Cruise takes a detour:<\/a><\/strong> Cruise, the GM self-driving car subsidiary, this week started laying off contingent workers after pausing all of its driverless operations. This comes after it lost key commercial permits that allowed it to operate a robotaxi service in San Francisco and halted production<\/a> on its purpose-built Origin autonomous car. Cruise also suspended its employee stock program as GM takes a more active role in shaping the safety culture at the company, inserting one of its execs to head up Cruise\u2019s legal and policy, communications and finance teams.<\/p>\n Uber combats unfair deactivations:<\/strong><\/a> Uber has introduced a feature geared toward addressing the issue of unfair deactivations that ride-hail and delivery drivers often face. Starting Monday across the U.S., the company has been rolling out a technology that identifies riders or Uber Eats customers who consistently give bad ratings or feedback with the intent of getting a refund.<\/p>\n Need a podcast to pass the hours, perhaps during Thanksgiving prep? (This writer shall be baking \u2014 possibly an ube babka<\/a>, inspired by his loving Filipino partner.) Well, you\u2019re in luck. TechCrunch\u2019s got you covered \u2014 there\u2019s plenty to add to the playlist from TC\u2019s library.<\/p>\n This week on Equity<\/a><\/strong>, the crew talked about the Google search-related antitrust case that\u2019s currently ongoing and what it could mean for startups.<\/p>\n Found<\/a><\/strong> featured two conversations all about sustainability in fashion from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. In the first, three guests \u2014 Jim Ajioka from Colorifix, Beth Esponnette from unspun and Julie Willoughby from Circ \u2014 spoke with Harri about recent trends. In the second, Morgan interviewed Jemima Bunbury from Blend, a curated fashion app that\u2019s changing the way people shop online.<\/p>\n And over on Chain Reaction<\/strong><\/a>, Stani Kulechov, the founder of Avara, spoke about the Aave protocol, Avara\u2019s platform-focused stablecoin GHO and its social network protocol Lens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys \u2014 which you know if you\u2019re already a subscriber. If you\u2019re not,\u00a0consider signing up<\/a>. Here are a few highlights from this week:<\/em><\/p>\n Compliance, a moneymaker:<\/strong><\/a> German software company EQS Group is being taken private by Thoma Bravo for about \u20ac400 million ($435.1 million) in a deal that represents a massive 53% premium over its pre-announcement value. Alex explores what it could mean for quite a number of startups operating in the regulatory tech market.<\/p>\n What it means to be human in a world of AI:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Haje reflects on the meaning of art \u2014 and why we\u2019re upset that robots are making it now \u2014 in light of pushback against generative AI, particularly art-generating AI like OpenAI\u2019s DALL-E 3<\/a> and Midjourney<\/a>.<\/p>\nMost read<\/h2>\n
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