Welcome again to Week in Assessment. This week, we’re OpenAI’s final — and largest — announcement from its “12 Days of OpenAI” occasion; Apple’s potential entrance into the foldable market; and why Databricks is selecting to attend to go public. Let’s get into it.
P.S. We’re off for the vacations! Week in Assessment will probably be again in your inbox within the new 12 months.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced the successors to its o1 reasoning mannequin household: o3 and o3-mini. Whereas the fashions should not broadly accessible but, security researchers can join a preview. The reveal marks the tip of the corporate’s “12 Days of OpenAI” occasion, which noticed bulletins for real-time vision capabilities, ChatGPT Search, and even a Santa voice for ChatGPT. You may compensate for everything you missed here.
The Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses obtained a giant improve this week. Members of Meta’s early-access program can now download firmware v11, which provides “dwell AI.” The function lets wearers constantly converse with Meta AI to reference issues they mentioned earlier within the dialog — and it really works with real-time video. Stay translation between English and Spanish, French, or Italian, in addition to performance with Shazam are additionally included in v11.
UnitedHealth’s Optum left an AI chatbot, utilized by workers to ask questions on claims, uncovered to the web — and anyone could access it with a web browser. Whereas the chatbot didn’t seem to include or produce delicate private or protected well being data, its inadvertent publicity comes at a time when its dad or mum firm faces scrutiny for its use of AI instruments and algorithms to allegedly override docs’ medical choices and deny affected person claims.
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Information
Oura nabs $200M: The sensible ring maker closed a $200 million Collection D funding spherical, bringing the corporate’s valuation to $5.2 billion. Oura says the money will assist the corporate broaden its product choices and additional put money into product, science, AI, and extra. Read more
Now you can name ChatGPT from a landline: In an effort to make ChatGPT accessible to as many individuals as potential, OpenAI introduced a 1-800 quantity to name the chatbot — even from a landline or a flip telephone. Customers can name 1-800-CHATGPT, and the AI assistant will reply by means of the telephone. Read more
Tesla tries to spice up Mannequin S gross sales: After abandoning its free Supercharging for all times provide in 2018, Tesla is bringing it again for some Tesla Mannequin S vehicles on the finish of the 12 months. Nevertheless it’s vital to notice that Tesla additionally simply elevated the worth for the Mannequin S by $5,000. Read more
Google desires to tackle Sora: Google DeepMind introduced Veo 2, a next-gen video-generating AI. Veo 2 can create two-minute-plus clips in resolutions as much as 4k. That’s 4x the decision — and over 6x the length — that OpenAI’s Sora can obtain. Read more
Apple eyes the foldable market: Apple is aiming to launch two foldable gadgets within the subsequent few years, in accordance with a report from The Wall Road Journal. One other report from Bloomberg, nevertheless, claims the corporate’s focus is on an enormous, foldable iPad. Read more
Bob Lee verdict: A San Francisco jury discovered Nima Momeni responsible of second-degree homicide within the deadly 2023 stabbing of Bob Lee, the Money App creator and former CTO of Block. The jurors determined Lee’s homicide was not premeditated and located Momeni not responsible of first-degree homicide. Read more
Perplexity acquires Carbon: Perplexity acquired Carbon, a small startup specializing in connecting AI methods to exterior information sources. The corporate says Perplexity will quickly be capable of search by means of your information and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, or Slack someday in early 2025. Read more
Temu continues to be on high: Temu was as soon as once more essentially the most downloaded free app within the U.S., in accordance with Apple’s checklist of high apps and video games throughout the App Retailer. The procuring app moved into the No. 1 slot final 12 months, stealing the place from TikTok. Read more
GitHub launches free model of Copilot: GitHub now has a free model of its well-liked Copilot code completion/AI pair programming device. Till now, builders needed to pay a month-to-month charge, with solely verified college students, lecturers, and open supply maintainers getting free entry. Read more
Google releases its personal “reasoning” mannequin: Google has launched Gemini 2.0 Flash Pondering Experimental, what it calls its new “reasoning” AI mannequin. It’s at the moment within the experimental phases, and from our temporary testing, there’s definitely room for enchancment. Read more
Evaluation
To IPO or to not IPO: Databricks simply closed one of many largest funding rounds ever, elevating a staggering $10 billion. Naturally, know-how traders had been fast to ask what this implies for the corporate’s extremely anticipated IPO. In an interview at Axios AI Summit, CEO Ali Ghodsi stated “it’s dumb to IPO this 12 months” and is as an alternative ready till at the very least 2025. Databricks is utilizing this “Collection J” to let early workers money out and proceed rising. Whereas 2024 was unsure in some ways, the IPOs of ServiceTitan, Reddit, and different corporations have largely been profitable. However, as Maxwell Zeff writes, why danger it when you possibly can simply elevate as a lot cash as Databricks? Read more
