Carta is a hit, Samsung launches an upgraded version of Ballie, and Volkswagen introduces ChatGPT into cars

Hello, friends, and welcome to Weekly in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular look back at the biggest stories in tech from the past few days. Our team on-site at CES 2024 has a lot to report at the show, and more to come. (Here’s a comprehensive summary of all the announcements.) But the world doesn’t stop paying attention to CES.

In this issue of WiR, we cover Carta’s allegedly unethical tactics, Samsung’s Ballie home robot, Volkswagen bringing ChatGPT to its cars, and Amazon’s embrace of more innate AI. Also on the agenda are the launch of OpenAI’s GPT Store, Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo debacle, Harvard University’s robotic exoskeleton, and a major Fidelity Financial hack.

There’s a lot to do, so we won’t procrastinate. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday (if you haven’t already).

Most read

Kata’s ethics were questioned: Karri Saarinen, CEO of start-up Linear, accuses share structure management agency Carta of unethical tactics. Saarinen claimed in a LinkedIn post that Carta misused sensitive information entrusted to the company by startups to further its own goals. After taking a hit to its credibility, Carta decided to exit secondary trading.

Samsung’s Ballie returns: Remember the spherical home robot Ballie launched by Samsung at CES 2020? Samsung brought it back during this year’s keynote with some popular AI upgrades. The new and improved Ballie is about the size of a bowling ball and features a 1080p projector and spatial lidar sensor to help it navigate rooms and obstacles.

Volkswagen gets ChatGPT: Volkswagen is getting into the ChatGPT game. On Monday, the German automaker announced plans to add an artificial intelligence chatbot to all Volkswagen models equipped with the IDA voice assistant. Why? Of course, for motorists who want an AI-based chatbot to read the research aloud to them.

Amazon, GenAI, and Clothing: After recently turning to generating artificial intelligence to enhance its product reviews, Amazon shared this week how it is now using artificial intelligence to help customers buy clothing online. The company uses personalized sizing recommendations, a “fit insights” tool for sellers, AI-driven highlights from fit reviews left by other customers, and a redesigned sizing chart to enable customers to find better-fitting garments on Amazon’s marketplace .

OpenAI’s GPT store: OpenAI has launched the GPT Store, custom chatbot applications powered by its text and image-generating artificial intelligence models such as GPT-4 and DALL-E 3. As the name suggests, the GPT store is located in a new tab of the ChatGPT client on the web and contains a range of GPTs developed by OpenAI partners and the wider development community.

CryptoZoo refunds. . . perhaps: Logan Paul is offering refunds for CryptoZoo, a failed and allegedly fraudulent Pokémon-inspired NFT game he launched in 2021. Any questions? If you get a refund, you can’t sue him. Morgan has the full story.

New day, new exoskeleton: A joint team from Harvard University and Boston University has developed a soft robotic exoskeleton that can detect motion and use algorithms to estimate a walker’s gait. Cable-driven actuators activate to assist mid-walking. If the promising early results are any indication, the new technology may one day be commercialized, Bryan writes.

Fidelity was hacked: Real estate services giant Fidelity National Financial confirmed that hackers stole the data of 1.3 million customers in a cyber attack in November that paralyzed the company for a week. In its filing with federal regulators, Fidelity did not say which specific customer data was stolen, but as Zack wrote, all signs point to the data being personal or sensitive in nature.

KYC and GenAI: KYC, or “Know Your Customer,” is a process designed to help financial institutions, fintech startups, and banks verify the identity of their customers. It’s not uncommon for KYC identity verification to involve “ID images” or cross-check selfies used to confirm someone’s identity. But GenAI may cast doubt on these checks.

Twitch layoffs: Twitch is facing another round of layoffs. The Amazon-owned live-streaming platform will lay off 35% of its workforce, or about 500 employees, the latest blow to an already troubled company that laid off hundreds last year amid leadership changes, rising operating costs and community discontent. .

vocal

Need to listen to podcasts while washing dishes, going to work, or doing other daily chores? Good news – TechCrunch is working on a series that does just that.

On Wednesday’s newly revamped episode of Equity , the cast dug deep into the news: PhotoRoom is raising more money, Treasure Financial is laying off employees and two micro-action companies are tying up to try to take advantage of scale. They also look at what’s happening in the AI ​​hardware space, why Keith Rabois is returning to Khosla Ventures, and Seedstars Africa Ventures adding $30 million to its upcoming fund.

Meanwhile, the folks at Found spoke with Markus Witte, co-founder of Babbel, a language learning app that’s been running since 2007. Markus talks about why he decided to step down as CEO and become chairman, and how the four co-founders, nearly 20 years later, work together to stay true to Babbel’s original mission.

On Chain Reaction, Jacqueline interviews Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments. Grayscale is a digital asset investment company that provides products and services to institutional and individual investors; it is best known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and now its new Bitcoin Spot ETF product.

TechCrunch+

TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis, and investigations—if you’re already a subscriber, you know this. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are some highlights from the week:

Siri’s Dilemma: Haje writes that Apple’s Siri needs to get smarter quickly to avoid being left far behind by its competitors (assuming it isn’t already).

Companies skeptical of GenAI: From Midjourney to image generation tools such as Runway to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, generative AI has received widespread attention. But companies don’t believe the technology has the potential to have a positive impact on their bottom lines; at least, that’s what surveys show.

$1 trillion liquidity gap: How supportive is the venture capital market today? Alex reports that by the third quarter of 2023, the value of America’s most mature startups looking for an exit will approach the $1 trillion mark, which is a huge (and growing) problem.