Ahoy, everyone. Welcome back to the latest edition of Week in Review, where we highlight some of the most read businessroundups.org stories from the past seven days. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning (which was cartoon time for this Gen Xer for a reason)? Here is the link.
And now let’s continue this week in AI — I mean, this week in tech news.
Table of Contents
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Microsoft and AI: This week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at a press event that “it’s a new day to search.” He was referring to the company’s integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 into Bing, the 13-year-old search engine. The hope, say the folks in Redmond, is that the integration will help Bing better compete with Google. The app’s downloads have increased 10x after the AI news broke, as Microsoft promises priority access to the new Bing to those who installed it. Do you want more floor? Watch Frederic’s hands-on with the search engine.
Google and AI: In an effort not to be outdone, Google this week announced Bard, its counterpart to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Now in a testing phase, it will use Google’s dialogue application language model to power a conversational AI that uses information on the web. But Devin also says the company is losing control.
MUM is the word (sorry, that was too easy): Google also announced this week that its “multisearch” feature, which allows users to search using images and text, is now available worldwide on mobile. And guess what powers multisearch? AI technology called Multitask Unified Model. MOM!
GitHub Redundancies: This week, Microsoft’s GitHub announced that it will lay off 10% of its 3,000 staff. As part of the effort to “protect the short-term health” of the company, GitHub will also close all of its offices and go completely remote.
Apple leads on the M2: In an extensive interview with Apple VPs, my boss and businessroundups.org editor-in-chief Matthew Panzarino explored the company’s latest iteration in its M-chip line, taking a deep dive into the M2 MacBook Pro and Mac mini models. Spoiler alert: they’re faster.
India blocks gambling and loan apps: India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has called for 232 gambling and loan apps to be blocked, in part to keep users’ data safe.
Football!: It’s Super Bowl LVII time and there are ways you can stream it. View all details here.
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On Equity this week, Natasha spoke to Cleo’s chief business officer and former CEO SJ Sacchetti about ego, setting boundaries, stepping down and becoming a “statistic” and why a company has to succeed without you. And on Found, Darrell and Becca spoke to Keta Burke-Williams, the founder and CEO of direct-to-consumer fragrance company Ourside, about what got her interested in disrupting the hulking — and antiquated — fragrance industry.
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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys – which you’ll know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
The bias of AI: Dom reports that bias appears in most aspects of AI, from investment and hiring to data collection and production. So the question remains: Who is AI’s next frontier really for?
Africa’s startup ecosystem: Last year there were record investments in African startups. Tage spoke to eight investors and found that pre-seed and seed-stage investors were key to this. But there is still a long way to go.
Spinach.io’s Pitch Deck Teardown: Haje turns his attention to the seed deck of Spinach.io, a company developing its meeting tool for engineers.
For cybersecurity professionals: Contributor David J. Bianco writes about the defender’s dilemma: “The idea that attackers get all the benefits and that defenders should be passive and wait for something to respond is practically an axiom of cybersecurity. It’s also a lie.”
