Welcome to Week in Review, folks, ukbusinessupdates.com’s regular recap of the week in technology. GPT-4, OpenAI’s text and image understanding AI, may have dominated the headlines in recent days. But there was also a new drama surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
We cover all that and more in this issue, so grab a coffee and settle in.
Quick Note, ukbusinessupdates.com Early Stage 2023 is fast approaching. It will be in Boston on April 20 and will feature three concurrent tracks of founder-forward workshops, case studies, and deep dives with tech entrepreneurship experts. Further down the line, mark your calendar for ukbusinessupdates.com Disrupt 2023, which will take place September 19-21 in San Francisco. As always, it’s packed with roundtables, firesides, Q&As and celebrity showcases in their fields. You won’t want to miss it.
Now, on to the news.
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OpenAI introduces GPT-4: After a long wait, OpenAI, the AI startup backed by Microsoft, has done just that issued a powerful new AI model called GPT-4. GPT-4 can generate text and accept image and text input – an improvement over its predecessor, which only accepted text – and performs at “human level” on several benchmarks. But GPT-4 is not perfect. Like most other generative text AI, the model “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors – sometimes with great confidence.
Microsoft goes all in on AI: Leveraging the latest technology from OpenAI, including GPT-4, Microsoft has launched new AI-powered features in its suite of productivity tools under the Copilot brand. Copilot performs different tasks depending on the app it is used in. For example, in Word, Copilot writes, edits, summarizes, and generates text; in PowerPoint and Excel, Copilot converts natural language commands into designed presentations and data visualizations; and in Power Apps, Copilot helps refine ideas for low-code software.
SVB files for bankruptcy: A week after SVB Financial was suspended from trading and after regulators seized control of Silicon Valley Bank’s holding company and other subsidiaries, SVB Financial has taken the next inevitable step. Friday the couch announced that it has formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. This means that SVB Financial can apply – and intends to file – with the courts to resume operations while finding buyers for its assets, including proceeding with its plan to sell SVB Securities and SVB Capital .
YouTube TV is getting pricey: In a move sure to annoy cord cutters, YouTube announced that it will increase the price of its YouTube TV subscription to $72.99 per month – an increase of $8 from the current $64.99 per month. The Google-owned company blames an increase in “content costs” for the change. (Perhaps not coincidentally, YouTube TV recently announced a streaming deal with NFL Sunday ticketreportedly worth $2 billion per season.)
Via acquires Citymapper: Start transportation Throughwhich recently raised $110 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion has been snatched city map, the London start-up that produces the popular city map app of the same name. Originally, Citymapper made a name for itself as an alternative to apps like Google Maps for consumers planning trips in metropolitan areas using public transit, but Citymapper arguably never quite managed to capitalize on its momentum and early promise.
Baidu’s ChatGPT Rival Battle: In other AI news this week, Ernie Bot, Chinese search giant Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT, was disappointing. ukbusinessupdates.com couldn’t try, but industry observers inside and outside China pointed out that instead of showing Ernie via a live demo, Baidu opted for a lengthy presentation with pre-recorded Ernie’s answers. Shares of the company fell as much as 10% in Hong Kong after Li’s presentation.
Pornhub Meets Private Equity: MindGeek — owner of several adult entertainment sites including Pornhub, Brazzers, and Redtube — was purchased by a Canadian private equity firm, Ethical Capital Partners (ECP). The acquisition follows a difficult few years for the porn giant. MindGeek’s CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo both left the company in June 2022. MindGeek is also currently in the middle of one multiple lawsuits who allege that it knowingly profited from child sexual abuse material.
Dish customers in the dark: Dish customers are still looking for answers two weeks after the US satellite television giant was hit by a ransomware attack. In a public document published Feb. 28, Dish confirmed that ransomware was the cause of an ongoing outage and warned that hackers had been plucking data from its systems, which may include personal information belonging to customers. But Dish hasn’t provided a substantive update since then, despite customers continuing to experience issues and not knowing if their personal data is at risk.
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ukbusinessupdates.com’s stable quality podcasts are growing by the hour. (Rejoice, those with long commutes.) Onward this week Equity, Alex And Natasha discussed the M&A that swept Qualtrics, Cvent, and Mint Mobile, as well as what followed the collapse of the SVB, GPT-4, and why Y Combinator is scaling back from a late stage. In order to Found itIn the meantime, Amanda And Darrell spoke to Teddy Solomon, the co-founder of Fizz, a social media app aimed at students who focus on building community on campus. The interview touched on what Gen Z is looking for in their social media, how a platform like Fizz can be thoroughly moderated, and how this kind of community building can extend far beyond colleges.
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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:
Rethink points of failure: Natasha M writes about how, in light of the collapse of the SVB, founders may need to rethink entrusting one person to lead their company to success. She surveyed some early-stage founders who build companies that have established a Series A or less to understand how they feel about succession. The consensus is that it’s not top of mind, or even top of the list, in a world where founders are more focused on catwalk, product-market fit, and growth.
Strange things are going on at Unearthly Materials: Tim reports on Unearthly Materials, a startup that claimed to have major investors behind its technology that could lead to a breakthrough in superconductors. But it turns out those investors weren’t all on board, especially given Unearthly Materials’ questionable track record.
Good news for software companies: Depressed this week in the news? Alex writes that it is not all doom and gloom. Some software companies are performing quite well during the crash of the broader technology industry, at least judging by their earnings reports.
