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Hey , kinfolk , welcome to Week in Review ( WiR ) , TechCrunch ’s regular recap of the past few days in tech . The headline have been dominated — nay , overwhelmed — by the play unfolding at AI startup OpenAI , but plenty else happened in the half - workweek guide up to Thanksgiving . So much for a sleepy pre - vacation !
In this version of WiR , besides the OpenAI saga , we cover Apple finally bringing RCS to iPhones , a former Silicon Valley VC darling being convicted of investor pseudo , Cruise carbon monoxide gas - beginner Kyle Vogt step down and Amazon selling railroad car online . Also on the agenda is Elon Musk ’s lawsuit over claims of hateful ads on Twitter , Google ’s undercover deal with Spotify , Binance ’s chief operating officer pleading guilty to federal charges , and Signal detailing the cost of keeping its private electronic messaging service online .
It ’s a lot to get to — so we sha n’t delay . But first , a reminder tosign up hereto meet WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you have n’t already done so .
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Sam Altman take back to OpenAI : After a roller coaster of a weekend and variety , Sam Altman , who was CEO of OpenAI as of Friday morning , is chief operating officer once again . The display board of directors who fired him came to realize , eventually , that end him perhaps was n’t the best course of action — after immense pressure from the OpenAI social rank - and - data file , VCs , close collaborator Microsoft and one of their own . For a play - by - play of how it all plump down , check out ourtimeline of events .
Apple ( eventually ) embraces RCS : Apple plan to add living for the RCS criterion on iOS next year , the iPhone Creator said last Thursday in a turnaround that ’d dissolve the widespread payoff of text messaging compatibility between iPhones and Android smartphones . But , as Manish report , the company stop short of eliminating what ’s recognise conversationally as “ green house of cards ” apprehension ; messages from Android sound will still be displayed as green bubble on iOS .
Fraud sentence : Mike Rothenberg , an ex-husband - VC known for hosting lavish parties , was convict late last Friday on 21 counts for defrauding investor . The finding of fact , delivered by a panel in Northern California , bookends a 10 - year journey for Rothenberg , who break open onto the Bay Area scene in 2013 at eld 27 with a $ 5 million fund and enough magic spell to carry TechCrunch that his one - humankind house was particular enough tomerit coverage .
Vogt quits Cruise : Kyle Vogt , the serial enterpriser who co - found and leave Cruise from a inauguration in a garage through itsacquisitionand possession by General Motors , resigned over the preceding hebdomad — as did Cruise executive and co - founder Dan Kan. The shakeup comes less than a month after the California Department of Motor Vehiclessuspended Cruise ’s permitsto engage self - driving vehicles on public road follow anaccidentthat saw a pedestrian ladder over and dragged 20 feet by the AV .
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Lawsuit over X advertizement : Media Matters last Thursdaypublished an articlewith screenshots showing advert from IBM , Apple , Oracle and others appear next to hateful content on Elon Musk ’s X , formerly Twitter . Musk has file a lawsuit allege calumny by the news organization . But the suit appears to substantiate the very thing it lay claim is defamatory , reports Devin .
Google ’s secret Spotify softwood : A Google executive director read during testimony in theEpic versus Googletrial that a deal with Spotify countenance the audio company to bypass bet memory fees , as first reported byThe Verge . Don Harrison , Google ’s caput of partnership , said that Spotify pay no fee when it processes its own payments and pays a measly 4 % fee when Google serve them — and that both caller have committed to put $ 50 million each in a “ winner monetary fund . ”
Binance chief executive officer face federal charge : Changpeng Zhao , also known as “ CZ , ” the father and CEO of Binance , is ill-use down and has pleaded guilty to a numeral of charge work on through the Department of Justice and other U.S. agencies . The world ’s bombastic crypto exchange , Binance has agreed to pay about $ 4.3 billion to break up the DOJ ’s investigations , the agency said in a press release late on Tuesday .
The price of privateness : End - to - end encrypted message app Signal has put out an interesting overview of the costs required to explicate and maintain its pro - privacy system that harbour user data from tracking by default . Theblog post , penned by Signal president Meredith Whittaker and developer Joshua Lund , reveal that the business firm currently spends around $ 14 million per year on infrastructure to flow the secret electronic messaging servicing and a further $ 19 million per class on faculty costs . That totals $ 33 million to keep the light on .
Audio
With Thanksgiving happen this week , mayhaps you ’re in need of podcasts to stifle the sound of inter - family kerfuffles and sportsball games . ( I have intercourse I am . ) Fortunately , TechCrunch has plenty in its stable to choose from .
Equitypublished two — number ’em , two — episodes this week . The first recaps OpenAI ’s wild weekend , from the firing of Sam Altman through the late activity ( as of November 20 ) . The second — feature former Equity host Matthew Lynley , Alex and yours truly — considers what the latest OpenAI twists and turns may land for inauguration founders .
Meanwhile , Foundhad Studs co - founders and practiced friends Lisa Bubbers and Anna Harman talk about their ear - thrust clientele , which aim to facilitate Gen Zers and millennials create their “ dream earscapes ” with pierce studios opening across the res publica .
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TC+ ratifier get access to in - deepness comment , depth psychology and view — which you jazz if you ’re already a indorser . If you ’re not , study signing up . Here are a few highlight from this hebdomad :
give attention to what happened with OpenAI ’s dining table : Dominic - Madori takes a critical look at the strange structure of OpenAI ’s board , which was technically part of a nonprofit organization with control over the for - profit division of OpenAI . In her countersign : “ If this caller complex body part give you the ick , you ’re not alone . ”
Who would ’ve pretend the powerful folk would win the AI fight?One way to think about the OpenAI shakeup of the last few days is that a non-profit-making plug-in with a specific mission felt like one of the company ’s leaders was not crop toward those goals . So they terminate him . Another way to think about it , Alex colorfully writes , is that “ a bunch of yahoos who had no idea what they were doing execute a business leader bid against the real engine of economic value at their company , and were canned in reception . ”
OpenAI and the dangers of vendor ringlet - in : The companies that take a elastic coming over depending on a single AI model marketer must be feel pretty good after all the OpenAI dramatic event , Ron writes . If there ’s any objective object lesson to be learned from all this , he says , it ’s that it ’s never , ever a good estimate to go with a unmarried vendor .
