Skip to main content

ChatGPT goes pro, layoffs at Alphabet, and Dungeons & Dragons flirts with restrictive new licensing

Image Credits: Paula Dani (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
 

Hope you’re sitting comfortably with a warm beverage on this wintery Saturday afternoon. Expecting Greg’s byline? Not to worry — he’s still enjoying parental leave, as I mentioned in the January 7 edition. All’s well.

Before we get into it, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note, once again, that TC Early Stage in Boston is on the horizon. With tickets starting at $99, it’ll be a worthwhile stop along the Eastern conference circuit, packed with expert-led workshops, case studies and deep dives with technical founders. Some members of the TechCrunch editorial staff will be in attendance — don’t be a stranger if you spot us on the show floor.
most read

ChatGPT goes pro: OpenAI this week signaled it’ll soon begin charging for ChatGPT, its viral AI-powered chatbot that can write essays, emails, poems and even computer code. A “pro” version of the tool called ChatGPT Professional will throw in no unavailability windows, no throttling and an unlimited number of messages with ChatGPT — “at least 2x the regular daily limit.” Pricing remains up in the air.

Microsoft 365 goes Basic: Microsoft will introduce a lower-cost tier of Microsoft 365, its family of productivity software and cloud-based document editing services, starting on January 30, the company announced Wednesday. Called Microsoft 365 Basic and priced at $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year, the plan will initially include 100 GB of storage, Outlook email and access to support experts for help with Microsoft 365 and Windows 11.

Layoffs hit a news aggregator: SmartNews, the Tokyo-based news aggregation website and app, let go of 40% of its U.S. and China workforce, or around 120 people, my colleagues Sarah and Kirsten report. The company was impacted by the same macroeconomic factors that have led to a number of tech industry layoffs in recent months, in addition to complications that arose from Apple’s implementation of App Tracking Transparency, or ATT.

Robotics, too: Brian reports that this week, Alphabet joined the growing list of tech giants making staff cuts amid ongoing economic struggles. The company’s robot software firm, Intrinsic, laid off 40 employees, a move that comes less than a year after Intrinsic acquired both Vicarious and Open Robotics — the latter having been announced less than a month ago.

Licensed fun: Dungeons & Dragons content creators are fighting to protect their livelihoods, Amanda writes in a sobering deep dive. Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the Hasbro-owned publisher of the game, plans to update the game’s license for the first time in over 22 years, releasing a new licensing system that would require any D&D content creator who makes over $750,000 in revenue to pay a 25% royalty to the company on every dollar above that threshold. In a sliver of good news, WotC has delayed the rollout of the licensing scheme, following a widespread backlash.


Colors, but E Ink: One of the cooler gizmos to emerge from the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show is E Ink’s color displays, Harri writes. They can spit out 50,000 colors at 300 DPI — way, way up from the last-gen model’s max of 4,000 colors. E Ink says it aims to use them to build a magazine reading experience that’s good enough to win over even the most demanding publishers.

Keys for days: My colleague (and boss!) Frederic reviewed the Keychron Q10 this week, a keyboard akin to Keychron’s other — but smaller — Alice-style board. He approved of the gasket mount and silicon gaskets, which provide a bit of flex while reducing ping and other noise. As for the Alice layout (the keys aren’t in a straight line, but the left and right half are slightly angled), it was easy to get used to, he said — and he appreciated that the five macro buttons under the knob could be mapped to anything you’d like. Read the full review for more.

Welcome home, Welcome Homes: In a profile, Mary Ann peels back the curtains on Welcome Homes, a proptech startup launched by the co-founders of cloud service provider DigitalOcean. The New York City–based firm — which recently raised $29 million — offers people a way to design and build new homes online, similar to other venture-backed companies (e.g., Atmos, Homebound) attempting to address the housing shortage.

I hear deepfaked voices: Microsoft’s new VALL-E AI model can replicate a voice using just three seconds of audio from the target speaker. But as my colleague Devin writes, it’s not necessarily cause for alarm — or rather, cause for more alarm than was already warranted by voice-duplicating tech. Voice replication has been a subject of intense research for years, and the results have been good enough to power plenty of startups, like WellSaid, Papercup and Respeecher. VALL-E is simply the latest illustration of its potential — and dangers.

Medium joins Mastodon: Online publishing startup Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, is embracing the open source social platform Mastodon. Sarah reports that Medium has created its own instance — me.dm — to support authors and their publications with reliable infrastructure, moderation and a short domain name to make it easier for authors to share their usernames, among other things.
audio roundup

As always, TechCrunch had a winning lineup of audio content this week for your listening pleasure — although I might be a little biased. On startup-focused Found, TechCrunch startup battlefield editor Neesha Tambe spoke with Sheeba Dawood, the co-founder of clean energy tech provider Minerva Lithium, about the struggles she’s faced as a woman of color trying to innovate in the mineral manufacturing industry and what’s next for the company. TC’s dedicated crypto show, Chain Reaction, featured an interview with Polygon Labs, one of the biggest market shakers and layer-2 blockchains in the crypto space that’s building on top of the Ethereum ecosystem. Meanwhile, over at Equity, Natasha, Mary Ann, and Becca chatted about incoming deals from Inflow, Deel and Fidelity; layoffs and lawsuits at Carta; Microsoft’s much-rumored investment in ChatGPT and OpenAI; and SBF’s Substack debut.
TechCrunch+

Here’s your regular reminder to subscribe to TC+ if you haven’t yet. It’s where TC takes exhaustive, exclusive looks at trends, industries and emerging technologies. Here’s some of the most popular content on TC+ this week:

Crypto rollercoaster: While some crypto-focused venture capitalists are bullish for 2023, others see it as a hazardous time, Jacquelyn reports. Internal sentiment among VCs is a “wait and see” game, according to one source quoted in the piece; competition in the market is likely to heat up as investors write fewer checks and become more selective.

ChatGPT, meet VC: Some investors are (cautiously) incorporating ChatGPT into their workflows, as it turns out. ChatGPT being a specifically text-based support tool, automation could be making its way to rejection letters, market maps or even bits of due diligence, TC found — all in order to stay afloat in a changing venture landscape. Natasha M, Christine, and I have more.

Pivot when ready: Pivots aren’t necessarily bad news. Brian Casey writes about how he pivoted his deep tech startup to become a software-as-a-service company — albeit not without major challenges. In his words: “Pivoting from hardware to SaaS was the right move for our electric motor design startup, but the process wasn’t precisely linear.”

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Early Black Friday iPhone Deals

We've begun tracking early Black Friday deals for major Apple products like AirPods , and now we're focusing on iPhone. Specifically, in this guide we'll share the best early Black Friday deals on iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. Of course, there is a chance that we could see better deals on iPhone arrive as Black Friday gets closer. This is a risk anyone has to take while shopping during the holidays, so with that in mind, many of the deals shared below are currently their best prices ever seen. More information on these sales can be found in our Black Friday Roundup . Best iPhone and Accessory Deals iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max for up to $1,000 off at AT&T iPhone 15 Pro with free Apple TV 4K and Apple One six month subscription at Verizon AirTag

iPhone 13 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro Buyer's Guide: 50+ Differences Compared

The iPhone 15 Pro brings over 50 new features and improvements to Apple's high-end smartphones compared to the iPhone 13 Pro, which was released two years prior. This buyer's guide breaks down every major difference you should be aware of between the two generations and helps you to decide whether it's worth upgrading. The ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro debuted in 2021, introducing a brighter display with ProMotion technology for refresh rates up to 120Hz, the A15 Bionic chip, a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, Macro photography and photographic styles, Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field, ProRes video recording, a 1TB storage option, and five hours of additional battery life. The ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro was discontinued upon the announcement of the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, but it is still possible to get hold of it second-hand. Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two iPhone models is best for you and serves as a way to c

GiliSoft File Lock 3.4

A new program to encrypt and hide to protect files and folders and disks and make it safer. download : http://www.gilisoft.com/download/FileLockPro42.exe

Best Cyber Monday Apple Accessory Deals Available Today

Yesterday we shared a huge list of deals on Apple products for Cyber Monday , and now we're shifting our focus to accessory sales from popular third-party retailers. This includes discounts from Sonos, Twelve South, Nomad, Satechi, and many more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. Many Cyber Monday deals are known to sell out fast, so keep that in mind when browsing our posts and shopping online today. If you see something you're interested in, be sure to snag it quickly. You can also check out Cyber Monday deals on Apple products in our individual posts listed below. The Best Cyber Monday Apple Deals The Best Cyber Monday AirPods Deals The Best Cyber Monday iPhone Deals The Best Cyber Monday iPad Deals The Best Cyber Monday HomePod Deals The Best Cyber Monday Apple Watch Deals The Best Cyber Monday MacBook Deals