Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re diving into Openi’s recently released AI agent, called Operator. We also look at where Tiktok is after being revived, whether it’s time to return to Tumblr, and more! Let’s get into it.
Openai has launched a search preview of operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can independently perform certain actions such as book travel accommodations, make restaurant reservations, and make online purchases. When users activate the operator, a small window will appear showing a dedicated web browser that the agent uses to complete tasks, along with text explaining what the agent is doing. The feature will first roll out to US users on CHATGPT’s $200 per month Pro subscription plan.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting about X on Stargate. The huge infrastructure project would funnel up to $500 billion from investors such as Softbank and Middle East AI Fund MGX into data centers supporting Openi’s AI workloads. But Musk says Stargate doesn’t make the money he says it does. It is important to note, however, that it is not a neutral party and appears to be involved in a lawsuit with Openi.
Hackers have found a way to unlock remotelyIt starts and tracks millions of Subarus, according to a report from Wired. Two security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in a Subaru web portal that allowed them to hijack car controls and track driver location data. Subaru has since patched the vulnerabilities after researchers reported their findings to the Japanese automaker.
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Unpack Samsung unpacked: Samsung’s annual Unpacked event was this week, featuring the reveal of its Galaxy S25 line, new features for Gemini Live, advances in smart home technology, and more. We’ve put together a helpful summary of any revelations you may have missed. Read more
Perplexity launches an artificial intelligence agent: The AI-powered search engine startup has launched Perplexity Assistant, which the company uses reasoning, search and apps to help with daily tasks. The assistant is available for Android devices and can take “multi-app actions.” Read more
Will Mrbeast buy tiktok? YouTube celebrity Mrbeast is in talks to join a number of bids for Tiktok’s US operations, although he hasn’t chosen one yet. While Mrbeast is certainly wealthy, it is his celebrity that has attracted the most bidders. Read more
Fitbit gets burned: Fitbit settled with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission over a long-standing defect that caused people to suffer burns. Fitbit will pay a $12.25 million penalty over issues related to the Ionic smartwatch. Read more
Time to dust off your Tumblr blog: Tumblr has finally launched Tumblr TV, a GIF discovery feature for a decade that has evolved to also host short-form videos to compete with Tiktok. I wonder if the fandom gifs I made in 2012 are still there… Read more
Now, that’s what I call Smol 🤏: A team at AI Dev Platform Hugging Face has released SMOLVLM-256M and SMOLVLM-500M, which are claiming to be the smallest AI models that can analyze images, short videos, and text. Read more
This is one way to get a charge: Carnegie Mellon researchers debuted the skin, whose technology allows electrical currents to travel through human skin to power things like blood sugar monitors, pacemakers, and even consumer wearables. Read more
Stripe Axes 300 employees: The FinTech giant is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported by Business Insider. However, Stripe plans to continue hiring into 2025 to grow its total headcount by 17%. Read more
Capcut Meta CopyCats: Meta announced a new video editing app called EDITS shortly after Bytedance’s video editing app Capcut was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as part of the USA Tiktok Ban. Read more
In case Tiktok gets really dark: While Tiktok is back online in the United States, its future remains uncertain. Dewey bookmarking backup service has a solution that saves your favorite tiktoks and lets you access them at any time, even if Tiktok disappears again. Read more
