Welcome again to Week in Assessment. This week, we’re OpenAI’s reported plans for its subsequent AI mannequin; a buzzy new messaging app that’s successful with Gen Z; and Tim Cook dinner discovering that you would be able to title a bunch chat in iMessage. Let’s get into it.
The Verge famous this week that OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch its subsequent frontier AI mannequin, code-named Orion, by December. An OpenAI spokesperson denied the declare to TechCrunch, saying, “We don’t have plans to launch a mannequin code-named Orion this yr.” However what which means is anyone’s guess and leaves OpenAI substantial wiggle room.
Character.AI is being focused in a lawsuit after the suicide of a 14-year-old boy whose mom says he turned obsessive about a chatbot on the platform. The corporate mentioned it’s rolling out new security options, together with “improved detection, response, and intervention” associated to chats that violate its phrases of service and a notification when a person has spent an hour in a chat.
Greater than 100 million people had their personal well being data stolen through the February ransomware assault on Change Healthcare. It’s the primary time that UnitedHealth Group, the medical health insurance supplier that owns the corporate, has put a quantity on the quantity of people affected by the information breach; beforehand the corporate mentioned it anticipated the breach included information on a “substantial proportion of individuals in America.”
That is TechCrunch’s Week in Assessment, the place we recap the week’s largest information. Need this delivered as a e-newsletter to your inbox each Saturday? Enroll right here.
Information
Mira Murati’s subsequent transfer: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly elevating greater than $100 million for a brand new AI startup, which can reportedly deal with constructing AI merchandise based mostly on proprietary fashions. Learn extra
What’s in a (group chat) title? A latest profile of Tim Cook dinner revealed that he didn’t know you may title your group chats in iMessage. Cook dinner has since named a bunch chat along with his former school roommates as merely “Roommates.” Learn extra
Elon Musk’s chats with Putin: Elon Musk has reportedly been in common contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The Wall Avenue Journal experiences that the conversations have raised nationwide safety considerations amongst some intelligence officers. Learn extra
Let Anthropic management your PC: Anthropic launched an upgraded model of Claude 3.5 Sonnet that may perceive and work together with any desktop app. The mannequin can imitate keystrokes, button clicks, and mouse gestures, basically emulating an individual sitting at a pc. Learn extra
Good glasses success: The Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses are proving to be a bigger success than Meta initially anticipated. The glasses are the highest promoting product in 60% of all Ray-Ban shops all through Europe, the Center East, and Africa — even earlier than its AI options roll out. Learn extra
Synthetic (intestine) intelligence: Throne is an Austin-based well being startup promoting a digital camera that clips onto the aspect of a bathroom bowl and takes footage of your poop. Presently in beta, the system makes use of AI to look at your stool and decide issues like intestine well being and hydration. Learn extra
Flip your cellphone into an e-reader: Bookcase, the newest little bit of tech novelty from Astropad, is a case with a MagSafe mount and an NFC chip that permits you to maintain a smartphone like a Kindle for a extra snug cellular e-reading expertise. Learn extra
Midjourney comes for the net: Midjourney is releasing an upgraded instrument that lets customers edit any uploaded photos from the net utilizing its generative AI. The upgraded instrument can even permit customers to retexture objects in photos to “repaint” their colours and particulars based on captions. Learn extra
A less expensive approach to get fuel: Amazon is providing Prime members a ten cents per gallon low cost at round 7,000 Amoco, AM/PM, and BP fuel stations throughout the U.S. to fight excessive fuel costs — and problem rival service Walmart+. Learn extra
A message app for the subsequent technology: Daze is a inventive, AI-powered messaging app that’s blowing up amongst Gen Z customers, with a waitlist of roughly 156,000 signups earlier than its launch on November 4. Learn extra
A more in-depth take a look at Apple’s listening to support function: TechCrunch’s Brian Heater acquired to check out Apple’s upcoming accessibility options for the AirPods Professional 2 that permit the earbuds to behave as a listening to support and supply listening to checks. Learn extra
Evaluation
23andMe and also you: 23andMe is dealing with an unsure future amid efforts to take the corporate personal, intensifying considerations about what would possibly occur to the genetic information of the corporate’s some 15 million prospects. When you’ve shipped your saliva to 23andMe, you will have assumed that this information will stay personal beneath legislation. However as Carly Web page writes, 23andMe is just not coated beneath HIPAA and is essentially sure solely by its personal privateness insurance policies, which it might probably change at any time. However there’s a simple approach to request the deletion of your information. Learn extra
