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Welcome to the Week in Review. This week we look at OpenAI’s latest and biggest announcement from the 12 Days of OpenAI; Apple’s potential entry into the foldable market; and why Databricks is choosing to wait to go public. Let’s enter.
PS We’re going on vacation! The review will return to your inbox next week in the new year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said successors to his o1 family of reasoning models: o3 and o3-mini. Although the models are not yet widely available, security researchers can sign up for a preview. The announcement marks the end of the company’s 12 Days of OpenAI event. real-time visibility, ChatGPT Search, and even Santa’s voice for ChatGPT. You can catch everything you missed here.
Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses got a big update this week. Members of Meta’s early access program now you can download firmware v11, adds “living AI”. This feature allows users to continuously chat with Meta AI to refer back to what they discussed earlier in the conversation – and it works with real-time video. Live translation between English and Spanish, French or Italian, as well as functionality with Shazam, are also included in v11.
UnitedHealth’s Optum AI chatbot left, used by employees to ask questions about claims, exposed to the Internet – and anyone could access it through a web browser. While the chatbot does not contain sensitive personal or protected health information, its accidental exposure comes as its parent company faces scrutiny over its use of artificial intelligence tools and algorithms to overturn doctors’ medical decisions and deny patient claims.
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News
Oura earned $200 million: The smart ring maker closed a $200 million Series D funding round, valuing the company at $5.2 billion. Oura says the cash will help the company expand its product offerings and invest in products, science, artificial intelligence and more. Read more
You can now call ChatGPT from a landline: To make ChatGPT accessible to as many people as possible, OpenAI announced a 1-800 number to call the chatbot – even from a landline or flip phone. Users can call 1-800-CHATGPT and an AI assistant will answer the phone. Read more
Tesla is trying to boost Model S sales: After ditching the free Lifetime SuperCharge offer in 2018, Tesla is bringing it back for select Tesla Model S vehicles later in the year. But it’s worth noting that Tesla also raised the price of the Model S by $5,000. Read more
Google wants to fight Sora: Google DeepMind announced Veo 2, a next-generation video-generating artificial intelligence. The Veo 2 can create additional two-minute clips at resolutions up to 4k. That’s 4x the resolution and 6x the duration of what OpenAI’s Sora can achieve. Read more
Apple is eyeing the foldable market: According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple plans to introduce two foldable devices in the next few years. Another report from Bloomberg claims that the company is focusing on a giant, foldable iPad. Read more
Bob Lee’s Verdict: A San Francisco jury has found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the 2023 fatal stabbing of Cash App founder and former Block CTO Bob Lee. Jurors ruled that Lee’s murder was not premeditated and found Momen not guilty of first-degree murder. Read more
Confusion Gets Carbon: Perplexity has acquired Carbon, a small startup that specializes in connecting artificial intelligence systems to external data sources. The company says Perplexity will soon be able to search through your files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs or Slack in early 2025. Read more
Temu is still on top: According to Apple’s list of top apps and games in the App Store, Temu was once again the most downloaded free app in the US. The shopping app moved into the No. 1 slot last year, stealing the position from TikTok. Read more
GitHub provides a free version of Copilot: GitHub now has a free version of the popular code completion/AI pair programming tool Kopilot. Until now, developers had to pay a monthly fee, while only approved students, teachers, and open source owners got free access. Read more
Google releases its “trial” model: Google has released its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, which it calls a new “puzzling” artificial intelligence model. It’s currently in an experimental phase, and based on our brief testing, there’s certainly room for improvement. Read more
Analysis
To IPO or not: Databricks has closed one of its largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion. Naturally, tech investors were quick to ask what this meant for the company’s long-awaited IPO. In an interview at the Axios AI Summit, CEO Ali Ghodsi said “it’s stupid to do an IPO this year” and is instead waiting until at least 2025. Databricks is using this “Series J” to cash out its early employees and continue to grow. While 2024 is uncertain in many ways, the IPOs of ServiceTitan, Reddit and others have been largely successful. But, as Maxwell Zeff writes, why risk it when you can raise as much money as Databricks? Read more
