OpenAI announces its next 'reasoning' model

Friday, December 20, 2024 Posted by bloggerdaddy

Friday, December 20, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! We got some good stuff for you today: OpenAI's o3 "reasoning" model was announced today; we learn of four previously unreported harassment suits against Rivian; and we ask ourselves, has AI gone too far?

Before we dive in, a quick housekeeping note — this newsletter will be on break after today until January 6. Have a happy holiday, and we'll see you in the new year!

TechCrunch Top 3

illustration of chat bot with chat bubbles

Image Credits: Carol Yepes / Getty Images

🧠 OpenAI o3: It's the final day of OpenAI's 12-day "shipmas" event, which the company ended with a bang. OpenAI announced its o3 family of models, which are successors to its o1 "reasoning" models. The company claims the new models approach artificial general intelligence — but with caveats. Read more

⛔️ Hit the brakes: Electric vehicle company Rivian was hit with multiple unreported harassment lawsuits this year. Multiple suits were brought against the company's chief designer, Jeff Hammoud; one suit was against the company's COO, Frank Klein; and one was against a fellow colleague. Read more

😞 A hack! Ascension, a U.S. healthcare company with 140 hospitals and dozens of senior care facilities, was hit with a ransomware attack in May. Now we know that this breach allowed the Black Basta group to steal information on 5.6 million patients. Read more

A Message from Carta

Last chance to save big on Carta

Don't miss out on Carta's biggest discount of the year. There's only a few days left to get 25% off cap table, 30% off Carta Total Compensation and QSBS, or bundle and save 35% off them all. Schedule a demo to learn more. Offer ends December 31.

Schedule a Demo

Afternoon must-reads

A pie illustration with pieces pulled out

Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images

🎙️ When did AI mean defense? This week on Equity, the gang talks about a trend they've been noticing: AI companies being described as defense tech. They also talk about a new VC fund, how Cohere isn't like its AI peers, and more. Listen here

💰 Fresh funds: Swizzle Ventures is a VC firm founded by Jessica Kamada that's focused on early-stage investments into areas that concern women, including caretaking, health and wellness, and finances. The fund has raised $5 million. Read more

🌎 Gemini goes global: Google is expanding its Gemini in-depth research mode to 40 more languages. The new languages include Arabic, Italian, and Danish. Read more

🤝 One down, one to go: Nvidia announced its intent to acquire Run:ai in April. Today, the European Union cleared the transaction, but the deal isn't out of the woods yet. The U.S. Department of Justice's probe into the deal is ongoing. Read more

👋 Hello again, Lerer Hippeau: Lerer Hippeau, known for backing consumer companies, including Allbirds, BarkBox, and Casper, is back to raise its ninth fund. The target hasn't been disclosed. Read more

A Message from Comprehensive.io

FREE real-time salary data from 5,000 startups

Want to see what other companies are paying for a given role? Comprehensive.io offers salary data from 5,000 tech companies and startups, giving you insight into how pay is trending in the job market right now.

View Free Data

Around the web

🧍Second Life forever: I'm infinitely interested in Second Life as someone who has always been a little too into The Sims. VentureBeat caught up with the virtual world's founder and discovered the company has paid out more than $1.1 billion to its creators and still has 600,000 players. Read more

🚪Who is at the door? The Verge makes the argument that 2025 will be the year of front door hardware after a lot of technical advances in 2024 with more expected next year. I'd never put a surveillance device on my door, so I'll just have to take their word for it. Read more

Before you go

illustration of robot teaching students in class

Image Credits: Malte Mueller / Getty Images

📚 Is this hell? Another day, another reason to ask myself, "Has AI gone too far?" Today's moment of panic is brought by the news that there will be an online charter school opening in Arizona where everything will be taught by AI. What are we doing here? Read more