In terms of funding, Orange Charger raised $6.5 million for its smart outlets for EVs, Squarespace was taken private by Permira in a $6.9 billion deal, and Layer raised $2.3 million to compete with QuickBooks. Other notable fundraises include Pepper's $30 million round for B2B food e-commerce, and PayHOA's $27.5 million Series A funding for its cloud-based financial services. The article also mentions controversial actions by Elon Musk, including Twitter flagging "cis" and "cisgender" as slurs and the disarray of Tesla's Supercharger network after Musk fired the entire team.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI has released a new AI model, GPT-4o, and is considering generating AI-generated explicit content. Co-founder Ilya Sutskever has also left the company.
- Anthropic is allowing teens to access third-party apps using its AI, provided they include safety features and comply with COPPA.
- Bumble's Whitney Wolfe Herd is exploring the idea of AI bots dating other bots to foster healthy relationships.
- Several startups have made notable moves this week, including Oura's new smart ring features, Alora Baby's remanufactured baby gear, and the Bot Company's $150 million funding for chore-doing robots.