Welcome again to Week in Overview. This week we’re wanting on the inside chaos surrounding HP’s $116 million acquisition of AI Pin maker Humane; Mira Murati’s new AI enterprise popping out of stealth; Duolingo killing its iconic owl mascot with a Cybertruck; and extra! Let’s get into it.
Humane’s AI pin is useless. The {hardware} startup introduced that almost all of its belongings have been acquired by HP for $116 million, lower than half of the $240 million it raised in VC funding. The startup will instantly discontinue gross sales of its $499 AI Pins, and after February 28, the wearable will not hook up with Humane’s servers. After that, the gadgets gained’t be able to calling, messaging, AI queries/responses, or cloud entry. Clients who purchased an AI Pin within the final 90 days are eligible for a refund, however anybody who purchased a tool earlier than then will not be.
Hours after the HP acquisition was introduced, a number of Humane staff acquired job provides from HP with pay increases between 30% and 70%, plus HP inventory and bonus plans, in line with inside paperwork seen by TechCrunch and two sources who requested anonymity. In the meantime, different Humane staff — particularly those that labored nearer to the AI Pin gadgets — had been notified they had been out of a job.
Apple’s long-awaited iPhone SE refresh has been revealed, three years after the final main replace to the budget-minded smartphone. The 16e is a part of an unique group of handsets able to working Apple Intelligence as a result of addition of an A18 processor. The iPhone 16e additionally ditched the Contact ID residence button in favor of Face ID and swapped out the Lightning port in favor of USB-C. The iPhone 6e begins at $599 and will begin shipping February 28.
That is TechCrunch’s Week in Overview, the place we recap the week’s greatest information. Need this delivered as a publication to your inbox each Saturday? Sign up here.
Information
RIP, Duo: Duolingo “killed” its iconic owl mascot with a Cybertruck, and the advertising and marketing stunt goes surprisingly properly. The corporate launched a marketing campaign to avoid wasting Duo — and encourage customers to do extra classes — as the corporate says it’s “Duo or die.” Read more
OpenAI “uncensors” ChatGPT: OpenAI not desires ChatGPT to take an editorial stance, even when some customers discover it “morally mistaken or offensive.” Meaning ChatGPT will now supply a number of views on controversial topics in an effort to be impartial. Read more
Uber vs. DoorDash: Uber is suing DoorDash, accusing its supply rival of stifling competitors by intimidating restaurant homeowners into unique offers. Uber alleges that DoorDash bullied eating places into solely working with them. Read more
Mira Murati’s subsequent transfer: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new AI startup, Pondering Machines Lab, has come out of stealth. The startup, which incorporates OpenAI co-founder John Schulman and former OpenAI chief analysis officer Barret Zoph, will deal with constructing collaborative “multimodal” techniques. Read more
Introducing Grok 3: Elon Musk’s xAI launched its newest flagship AI mannequin, Grok 3, and unveiled new capabilities for the Grok iOS and internet apps. Musk claims that the brand new household of fashions is a “maximally truth-seeking AI” that’s generally “at odds with what’s politically right.” Read more
Hackers on Steam: Valve eliminated a online game from Steam that was primarily designed to unfold malware. Safety researchers discovered that whoever planted it modified an current online game in an try and trick avid gamers into putting in an info-stealer referred to as Vidar. Read more
One other DEI U-turn: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s charity will finish inside DEI packages and cease offering “social advocacy funding” for racial fairness and immigration reforms. The swap comes simply weeks after the group assured employees it could proceed to assist DEI efforts. Read more
Amazon shuts down its Android app retailer: Amazon will discontinue its app retailer for Android in August in an effort to place extra deal with the corporate’s personal gadgets. The corporate instructed builders that they may not have the ability to submit new apps to the shop. Read more
Mark Zuckerberg’s rebrand didn’t repay: A research by the Pew Analysis Heart discovered that Individuals’ views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are extra unfavorable than constructive. About 54% of U.S. adults say they’ve an unfavorable view of Musk whereas a whopping 67% really feel negatively towards Zuckerberg. Read more
Noise-canceling headphones might damage your mind: A brand new BBC report considers whether or not noise-canceling tech may be rewiring the brains of people that use it to tune out pesky background noise — and will result in the mind forgetting how you can filter sounds itself. Read more
Evaluation
An exhaustive have a look at the DOGE universe: The handfuls of people who work beneath, or advise, Elon Musk and DOGE are a real-life illustration of Musk’s weblike attain within the tech trade. TechCrunch has unveiled the main gamers within the DOGE universe, from Musk’s inside circle to senior figures, employee bees, and aides — a few of whom are advising and recruiting for DOGE. We spotlight each the connections between them and the way they entered Musk’s orbit. Read more