Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we look at GM’s decision to get out of the robotaxi business, Google hinting at the existence of multiple universes, and how you could make a ton of money by making AI bots fall in love with you. Let’s get into it.
General Motors no longer provides funding. Instead, it will eventually develop fully autonomous vehicles by absorbing its self-driving car subsidiary, Cruise, and combining it with the automaker’s own efforts to develop driver assistance features. Several Cruise employees told TechCrunch they were “blindsided” by the decision. GM acquired Cruze for $1 billion in 2016 and has since spent more than $10 billion on the company’s efforts.
OpenAI has finally been released. This is ChatGPT’s real-time video feature that we demoed almost seven months ago. ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers can use the app to point their phone at an object and have ChatGPT respond in near real time. This feature can also understand what’s on your device’s screen through screen sharing. We still have a few more releases planned for “12 Days of OpenAI,” so check out our live blog for the latest news.
Google reveals this week The first AI agent capable of performing tasks on the web. The Gemini-based agent, called Project Mariner, controls the Chrome browser and lets you use and navigate websites like a human by moving the cursor around the screen, clicking buttons, and filling out forms. Although it’s still a prototype for its DeepMind division, it represents a shift at Google to move users away from interacting directly with websites.
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tidings
Duolingo joins “Squid Game”: Ahead of the release of the next season of ‘Squid Game’, Netflix has joined hands with Duolingo to help viewers learn Korean. The companies also launched exclusive TikTok filters inspired by the show’s Red Light, Green Light game. read more
Google Soft launches Multiverse. Google announced its latest quantum computing chip, Willow. However, a blog post about the chip claims that it is so incredibly fast that it must have borrowed its computing power from the rest of the world. read more
What have you searched on Google this year? Google has released its annual list of the top search terms for 2024, including the end of CrowdStrike, late One Direction member Liam Payne and Dubai chocolate bars. read more
RIP, car stuff: Spotify has officially discontinued its in-car streaming device, Car Thing. If you made a purchase, you have just over a month to provide proof of purchase and receive a refund. read more
Bluesky Teases Paid Subscriptions Bluesky posted a mockup on GitHub teasing future subscription tiers. Bluesky appears to be considering paid features for the tier, such as custom app icons, post analytics, and bookmark folders. read more
Does Sora have video game training? In tests for OpenAI’s video generator Sora, it appears that at least some of the data it was trained on came from Twitch streams and game walkthroughs. Legal experts say this could be problematic. read more
Grok has a new image generator. Grok has released a state-of-the-art image generator, codenamed Aurora, that is highly unrestricted when it comes to authorized cloning. This definitely represents my timeline, as I’m looking at tons of AI images of the “Real Housewives” cast. read more
Krispy Kreme suffers cyber attack Donut chain Krispy Kreme has disclosed a security incident that resulted in “some operational disruption.” The company said its stores are open and deliveries to its retail and restaurant partners are uninterrupted. read more
Can you make an AI bot fall in love with you? Freysa.ai is creating challenges designed to influence the way humans think about AI safety. The first person to successfully trick AI character Freisa into saying “I love you” could win tens of thousands of dollars. read more
Firefox removes useless features: Mozilla’s Firefox browser has removed its “Do Not Track” feature. The setting is virtually useless (and misleading) because the website has no real reason to respect the signal. read more
You can now buy the car on Amazon. Amazon is expanding into online car sales with the launch of Amazon Autos, an e-commerce company that lets customers find, order, and buy new cars, trucks, and SUVs from dealerships. read more
