OpenAI this week unveiled a preview of OpenAI o1, also called Strawberry. The corporate claims that o1 can extra successfully cause by math and science, in addition to fact-check itself by spending extra time contemplating all components of a question. The household of fashions is offered in ChatGPT and through OpenAI’s API, although OpenAI says it plans to deliver o1-mini entry to all free customers of ChatGPT in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” occasion was this week, that includes the reveal of its iPhone 16 lineup. The telephones have a brand new devoted digicam management function, an A18 chip, and, in fact, AI integration with Apple Intelligence. Apple additionally highlighted new options in its AirPods Professional 2, together with the power to make use of them as clinical-grade listening to aids. If you happen to missed the occasion reside, we put collectively a rundown of all the pieces you could know.
Oprah Winfrey hosted an AI particular that includes interviews with Invoice Gates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and FBI director Christopher Wray. Whereas Altman could have overpromised what AI is able to or the way it can influence the world, the dominant tone of the conversations was certainly one of skepticism — and wariness.
That is TechCrunch’s Week in Assessment, the place we recap the week’s greatest information. Need this delivered as a e-newsletter to your inbox each Saturday? Enroll right here.
Information
Face-to-face with Determine 02: TechCrunch’s Brian Heater received some one-on-one time with Determine’s newest humanoid robotic. It’s come a good distance in a brief period of time, with a brand new look and the power to stroll. Learn extra
Pour one out for Cohost: Cohost is shutting down after working out of cash. The tried X competitor differentiated itself by specializing in a chronological feed and pursuing a enterprise mannequin that didn’t depend on promoting. Learn extra
It’s too late to choose out of Meta’s AI coaching: Meta has acknowledged that it makes use of public posts to coach its AI fashions, nevertheless it grew to become clear this week simply how a lot it makes use of. So in case your Fb or Instagram profiles have been ever public, your posts have probably been scraped. Learn extra
Hail a robotaxi with Uber: Uber customers in Austin and Atlanta will have the ability to hail Waymo robotaxis by the app in early 2025 as a part of an expanded partnership between the 2 firms. Learn extra
Bluesky pivots to video: Bluesky will now let customers share movies of as much as 60 seconds in size on its platform, permitting the social community to higher compete with rivals X and Instagram’s Threads. Learn extra
Seattle’s hottest vacationer vacation spot is a broken Cybertruck: A broken Cybertruck on a busy Seattle avenue grew to become an unlikely vacation spot, and even had a makeshift memorial in entrance of its entrance bumper. The truck has since been eliminated, nevertheless. Learn extra
Robots can discover ways to tie shoelaces, too: In a brand new paper, Google DeepMind researchers showcase a way for educating robots to carry out a spread of dexterous duties, together with tying a shoe, hanging a shirt, and even fixing fellow robots. Learn extra
Is OpenAI price $150B? OpenAI is reportedly in talks with buyers to lift $6.5 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation. It’s considerably increased than OpenAI’s beforehand reported valuation of $86 billion and much increased than some other AI startup at the moment. Learn extra
Extra bother for Adam Neumann: The previous WeWork CEO’s local weather/crypto/carbon-credit startup Flowcarbon seems to be within the strategy of curling as much as die because it reportedly refunds buyers. Learn extra
AI hits the VMAs crimson carpet: Need to gown like Chappell Roan’s tackle Joan of Arc? Because of a partnership between MTV and Shopsense AI, customers can discover and buy dupes of their favourite outfits from this yr’s VMAs with only a photograph. Learn extra
Evaluation
Apple punts on AI: Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” occasion featured a variety of AI speak, which is to be anticipated. However as Devin Coldewey writes, not one of the Apple Intelligence options the corporate highlighted really feel new or fascinating — nor do they seem to incorporate any significant adjustments since they have been launched in beta after WWDC. It raises the query, Is it a failure of creativeness or of expertise? Learn extra
Possibly it is best to cease selecting up the telephone: For so long as we’ve had telephones, there have been individuals making an attempt to trick somebody into considering they’re another person — and voice AI instruments are making it even simpler for scammers to trick individuals on the telephone. Zack Whittaker means that one of the best ways to maintain your self protected from phone-related scams is likely to be to only let an unknown name go to voicemail. Learn extra
