\nMeta\u2019s Threads goes live, OpenAI launches GPT-4 and Pornhub blocks access<\/br>
\n2023-07-09 21:39:07<\/br><\/p>\n
Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR)<\/a>, TechCrunch\u2019s regular roundup of the week in tech. Been too slammed to follow the news cycle as closely as you\u2019d like? Not to worry. That\u2019s why WiR exists. We\u2019ll get you up to speed in no time.<\/p>\n Thanks to the July 4th holiday, the workweek was somewhat disrupted. But plenty still happened. Meta released Threads, its Twitter competitor, which quickly grew to tens of millions of users. Meanwhile, Twitter quietly removed the login requirement for viewing tweets that it\u2019d imposed only days before. Somewhere in the midst of it all, secretive hardware startup Humane revealed the details of its first product. And OpenAI made its GPT-4 generative AI model generally available.<\/p>\n Read on for more of the top stories from the week \u2014 and if you haven\u2019t already, sign up here<\/a> to get WiR in your inbox every Saturday.<\/p>\n Threads goes live:<\/strong><\/a> This week, Instagram announced the highly anticipated launch of its text-based social networking app, Threads, which allows Instagram users to authenticate with their existing credentials in order to post short tweet-like updates. Within 24 hours, the app, which is available for iOS and Android in around 100 countries (but not the EU, reportedly due to local data privacy regulations<\/a>), passed 30 million sign-ups.<\/p>\n Twitter takes the gloves off:<\/strong><\/a> With the success of Threads, Twitter is threatening to sue Meta, which it accuses of poaching former Twitter employees to create the new platform. Shortly after Threads launched, a lawyer for Twitter, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing the social media giant of engaging in unlawful misappropriation of Twitter\u2019s trade secrets and other intellectual property.<\/p>\n A tough thread to delete:<\/strong><\/a> In more Threads news, turns out that deleting a Threads account requires deleting the linked Instagram account as well. The rationale, Meta elaborates on the policy page, is that a Threads profile is part of the user\u2019s Instagram account. The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users, unsurprisingly.<\/p>\n OpenAI launches GPT-4:<\/strong><\/a> OpenAI this week announced the general availability of GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, through its paid API. GPT-4 can generate text (including code) and accept image and text inputs \u2014 an improvement over its predecessor GPT-3.5<\/a>, which only accepted text \u2014 and performs at \u201chuman level\u201d on various professional and academic benchmarks. But it\u2019s not perfect, as we note in our previous coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Humane unveils the Ai Pin:<\/strong><\/a> Humane, the startup launched by ex-Apple design and engineering duo Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, this week revealed details about its first product: the Ai Pin. Humane\u2019s product is a wearable gadget with a projected display and AI-powered features \u2014 like a futuristic smartphone, but in a vastly different form factor.<\/p>\n Pornhub blocks access:<\/strong><\/a> Pornhub is blocking access to users in Mississippi, Virginia and Utah, which have recently passed laws that require age verification to access adult websites. Internet privacy advocates have long been critical of these age checks, which require users to share personal information like their government ID in order to use the internet.<\/p>\n Reddit\u2019s valuation gets cut, again:<\/strong><\/a> Fidelity has further slashed the estimated worth of its holding in the social media giant Reddit. Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund valued its holdings in Reddit at $15.4 million as of May 31, according to the fund\u2019s monthly disclosure released last Friday. That\u2019s down 7.36% from the $16.6 million mark at April\u2019s closure<\/a>\u00a0and altogether a slide of 45.4% since its\u00a0investment in August 2021<\/a>. The updated share value suggests a $5.5 billion valuation for Reddit.<\/p>\n Goldman looks to ditch Apple:<\/strong><\/a> Four years after partnering with Apple on the\u00a0launch of the Apple Card<\/a>, Goldman Sachs may be eyeing the exits. The\u00a0Wall Street Journal reports that Goldman is \u201clooking for a way out\u201d of its high-profile deal with Apple, which recently expanded to include savings accounts<\/a> for Apple Card holders. The investment banking firm is apparently in talks to offload the partnership to American Express, the WSJ report added, but so far nothing seems to be set in stone, nor is it clear whether Apple would support the handoff.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Need a podcast to pass the time? You\u2019ve come to the right place. TechCrunch offers a growing roster of quality shows, and this week, there\u2019s lots in the way of new material.<\/p>\n Equity<\/a> featured Immad Akhund, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury, which made headlines earlier this year for how it stepped in to help fill the business banking void left in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n And the Found<\/a> crew interviewed\u00a0Charles Baron, the co-founder and CMO at Farmers Business Network, a startup that offers a suite of online services to farmers.<\/p>\n TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys \u2014 which you know if you\u2019re already a subscriber. If you\u2019re not,\u00a0consider signing up<\/a>. Here are a few highlights from this week:<\/em><\/p>\n Europe, the fuzzy tech cloud:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Haje writes about the differences between the U.S. and European startup environments. The latter, he writes, has an appetite for experimentation that fails to fully settle into a coherent whole \u2014 in contrast to the handful of major hubs in the U.S. attracting the bulk of the talent and investment.<\/p>\n Moving to save cash:<\/strong><\/a> For company founders and shareholders with an exit on the horizon, a move for tax reasons can make a lot of financial sense. However, many times it\u2019s not that simple. Peyton Carr, managing director of Keystone Global Partners, expands on this.<\/p>\n Being a Black founder in France:<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0The French startup ecosystem for Black founders is shrouded in mystery, but Dom attempts to pull back the curtains. She finds that deep-seated racial stereotypes and prejudices still fester in the country, manifesting in the form of economic discrimination against Black entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n Get your TechCrunch fix IRL. Join us at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse yourself in all things startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo floor, there\u2019s something for everyone at Disrupt. Save up to $600 when you buy your pass now through August 11, and save 15% on top of that with promo code WIR. Learn more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\nMost read<\/h2>\n
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