Hello folks, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter covering the past week (or so) in tech industry events. This week saw the first-ever OpenAI development conference, where the Microsoft-backed AI startup announced a range of new products. But this was not the only noteworthy element.
In this issue of WiR, we highlight Brian’s review of the 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Air and the 24-inch M3 iMac; Mozilla is betting on the future of decentralized social networks; Ford shuts down company that designed app for plumbers, electricians and other trades; And Tim Cook’s ideas about generative artificial intelligence. Also on the agenda are WeWork officially filing for bankruptcy, Bumble getting a new CEO, and the fiasco of the electric car startup’s arrival.
There’s a lot to get through, as always, so we won’t be late. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already.
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OpenAI throws a dev day: OpenAI hosted its first-ever developer conference on Monday, and the company had a lot to talk about. Some of the more notable items announced were tools for creating custom “GPTs” (i.e. domain-specific chatbots), new text-to-speech models, an API for the DALL-E 3 text-to-image model, and an improved version of the main OpenAI model, GPT-4, called GPT-4 Turbo.
Mac attack: Brian reviewed the new Apple M3 Max MacBook Pro 16-inch and M3 iMac 24-inch. He finds that the iMac is lacking and not necessarily worth an upgrade from the 2021 model, with the exception of the M3 chip, which delivers “impressive” performance gains over the already powerful M1. As for the M3 Max MacBook Pro, Brian reports that at $2,500 (plus some pricey extras), it splits the difference between the Mac Studio and MacBook Air.
Mozilla is betting on a decentralized future: Sarah spoke with Caroline O’Hara, senior content director at Mozilla, who outlined Mozilla’s strategy regarding the “fediverse” — a collection of decentralized social networking applications, like Mastodon, that communicate with each other via the ActivityPub protocol. The idea is to rethink social networking from the ground up, O’Hara said.
Ford Shutters SaaS application for field work: Ford has shut down VIIZR, a software-as-a-service company that, in collaboration with Salesforce, built an app to help tradesmen such as plumbers, locksmiths and electricians schedule field appointments, send invoices and manage customers, Kirsten said. VIIZR, which was announced in December 2021, was a separate company majority owned by Ford, with Salesforce as a minority investor.
Apple is betting on generative artificial intelligence: Apple CEO Tim Cook pushed back against the idea that the company was lagging behind in AI on Apple’s fourth-quarter earnings call with investors, where he highlighted Apple’s recent technological advances that “would not be possible without AI.” Cook also said that Apple was working on generative AI techniques, which lends credibility to it Reports Which indicates that the company is on track to spend $1 billion annually on developing generative AI products.
WeWork bankruptcy: As expected, flexible office space company WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing more than $18.6 billion in debt in a remarkable collapse for the once high-flying startup co-founded by Adam Neumann and financed by SoftBank, BlackRock and Goldman. Sachs.
Slack’s loss, Bumble’s gain: Dating app Bumble announced something of a mess this week: It’s replacing founding CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd with Slack CEO Lidiane Jones. Jones started as CEO of Slack just last year, replacing another founding CEO, Stuart Butterfield. Ron and Sarah write that — while Bumble now has a clear line of succession — the move leaves Slack in a bit of a bind.
Access failed in delivery: Access was launched eight years ago to make electric vehicle production “radically more efficient.” So far, its plan to abandon the mega-factory in favor of small, local factories has proven anything but, Harry wrote — thanks to missed production targets, low cash reserves, layoffs and a pivot.
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It’s winter, the weather isn’t getting any warmer (at least here in New York City), and I think there’s no better place than sitting indoors with a company podcast. If you’re in need of materials, TechCrunch has a few that should definitely be on your radar.
This week on justice, the crew delved into the encouraging signs from the fintech startup market, starting with Klarna’s third-quarter results. From there, they looked at “buy now, pay later” consumer behavior, and 2021-flavored fintech fundraising results.
while, is found Nusrat Khalid emerged from Aseel, which started as an e-commerce company allowing local artisans in Afghanistan to sell to customers all over the world. It has evolved into a humanitarian aid business, delivering emergency food supplies to people in need in Afghanistan and Turkey.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and polls – which you know about if you’re already a subscriber. If not, consider subscribing. Here are some highlights from this week:
Another superconductor disappointment: The new material, which is supposed to be superconducting at room temperature, is not what the scientific community had hoped it would be, Tim wrote. And with a paper published in the journal Nature detailing the materials facing decline, the odds of researchers discovering a room-temperature superconductor appear longer.
Klarna is heading towards an IPO: Swedish fintech company Klarna is taking steps toward an eventual IPO, Mary Ann and Alex write. The company has begun the process of restructuring a legal entity to create a holding company in the UK as an important early step in its plans for an IPO, a Klarna spokesperson told TechCrunch+.
The legacy of the unicorn is far from over: It’s been 10 years since Cowboy Ventures founder Eileen Lee coined a very catchy moniker for startups that were very rare at the time: Unicorns. TechCrunch+ spoke with Lee about how she feels about the term 10 years later, and now that her investment firm is also a decade old.