Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review.
There were two big events this week from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI’s Spring Update event saw the unveiling of its new model, the GPT-4o, which has voice and visual capabilities that can turn ChatGPT into a virtual assistant that seems to aspire to be “Her.” Hot off the tail of OpenAI, Google’s I/O conference included several announcements and integrations for its flagship, Gemini.
This week also saw some big shakeups in AWS and OpenAI. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down and will be replaced by AWS Chief Commercial Officer Matt Garman. And OpenAI co-founder and longtime chief scientist Ilya Sutzkever left the company along with Jan Leicke. Sutskever will be replaced by Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s Director of Research.
There was also a significant change in the Meta. TechCrunch exclusively reported that the company is shutting down its enterprise communications business, Workplace. It makes us wonder if Meta was ever really serious about its corporate ambitions.
News
120+ AI mentions: How much AI is too much AI? For Google, none. They mentioned it constantly throughout their I/O keynote, and we have the tapes to prove it. Read more
Talk to me, ChatGPT: OpenAI’s latest “omni” model GPT-4o can talk to you, change its tone to sarcastic, and even do language translation in real time. She also sounds suspiciously like Scarlett Johansson. Read more
Microsoft’s Cobalt 100 chips: TechCrunch has learned that the company will release its custom Cobalt 100 chips to customers as a public preview at its Build conference next week. We also found some other scoops 👀 Read more
Sony Music smashes AI: Sony Music Group has sent letters to more than 700 tech companies and music streaming services to warn them not to use their music to train AI without permission. Sony Music says it has “reason to believe” that these companies “may have already made unauthorized use” of its content. Read more
SIM swap attacks: Since mid-2023, an interception operation called Estate allowed hundreds of members to make thousands of automated phone calls to trick victims into entering one-time passwords, giving attackers access to their bank accounts. Read more
Project IDX is now in open beta: Announced at Google I/O, the company’s next-generation AI-driven browser-based development environment is now in open beta. Google says more than 100,000 developers have already tried the service. Read more
AI to save the birds: Wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the US, but wind turbines can wreak havoc on bird populations. Spoor is a startup using AI to help wind farms reduce this risk. Read more
Apple expands accessibility: Apple is introducing new accessibility features to iPad and iPhone — including the ability to control your device with eye tracking, create custom shortcuts using your voice, and experience music with a haptic engine. Read more
ThreadsDeck?: Instagram Threads is testing fixed columns on the web that could be a good replacement for TweetDeck. In 2023, X turned TweetDeck into X Pro and put it behind a paywall. Read more
Analysis
Did Meta give the enterprise a fair chance?: On Tuesday, Meta shut down its Workday enterprise product, bringing down the curtain on the enterprise experiment nine years after its launch. Ron Miller writes that it’s fair to wonder if Metta was ever serious about it. Read more
Mark Zuckerberg, style icon: Recent photos of the Meta CEO have gone viral as users have noticed a sudden change in his personal style. Gone are the gray shirts and jeans, replaced by gold chains and graphic tees. Amanda Silberling examines whether its newfound makeover is a carefully crafted rebrand. Read more
Tesla’s Supercharger is missing: Despite being the undisputed king of EV fast charging — and profitable — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has cut the entire Supercharger division. Tim De Chant explores how the web came to be and what’s next now that it’s in limbo. Read more
