Welcome back to Week in Review. I missed you! This week, we’re diving into all the gadgets and announcements out of this year’s CES, Meta’s decision to roll back its fact-checking program, TikTok’s response to employees affected by the California wildfires, and more! Let’s do this.
CES 2025 came and went this week. The event featured keynotes from the big players in tech like Nvidia, Samsung, Toyota, and more. In addition to that, there were, of course, the expected gadgets, gizmos, and interesting AI claims out on the show floor. Our team of reporters were on the ground, and you can catch up on everything that caught our eye at this year’s show right here.
Meta is overhauling its content moderation policies that it created in response to criticism that it had helped spread political and health misinformation. The company is getting rid of its third-party fact-checking program in favor of an X-like Community Notes model, which critics see as an attempt to cater to the incoming Trump administration. The backlash has been swift, with interest in searches related to deleting Meta accounts soaring.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people are using it more than the company expected. Launched late last year, ChatGPT Pro grants users access to an upgraded version of OpenAI’s o1 “reasoning” AI model and lifts rate limits on several of the company’s other tools, like its Sora video generator.
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News
Wildfires vs. the horrors of capitalism: TikTok told members of its LA staff who were affected by wildfires to use personal/sick hours if they are unable to work from home. The company’s LA office remains closed as wildfires devastate the greater Los Angeles area. Read more
Hello, Project Digits: At CES 2025, Nvidia unveiled Project Digits, a “personal AI supercomputer” designed for AI researchers, data scientists, and students that provides access to the company’s Grace Blackwell hardware platform in a compact form factor. Read more
More copyright woes for Meta: A new filing claims that Mark Zuckerberg gave a green light to the team behind Meta’s Llama AI models to use a dataset of pirated e-books and articles for training, including works from authors like Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Read more
A robot cat that cools down your tea: The latest adorable gadget from Yukai Engineering is the Nékojita FuFu, a tiny robotic cat that can be mounted on a mug or bowl and will blow air to help cool off your coffee or soup. Read more
X clarifies its stance on parody accounts: X said it will begin to label parody accounts on the platform. Users have mistaken posts from parody accounts as authentic statements since X rolled back traditional verification badges in favor of paid verification. Read more
AI that simulates the real world: Google is forming a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. The team will be led by Tim Brooks, who was one of the co-leads on OpenAI’s Sora. He left for Google DeepMind in October. Read more
Cannabis brand hit by cyberattack: Popular Los Angeles-based cannabis brand Stiiizy confirmed that hackers accessed sensitive customer data, including government-issued documents and medical cannabis cards, during a November cyberattack. Read more
This electric spoon could make your food taste better: Why add more salt to your meal when a $127 spoon could do it for you? Kirin Holdings showed off an electronic spoon that uses a weak electric current to concentrate sodium ion molecules in your food. Read more
That’s a lot of cash: A Delaware judge has approved a settlement that will see Tesla directors return up to $919 million to the automaker, officially resolving allegations that they overpaid themselves. Read more
The weirdest gadgets at CES 2025: It wouldn’t be CES without some truly audacious products, claims, and keynote moments. We rounded up the most eyebrow-raising examples from the show floor. Read more
