Is OpenAI worth $100 billion?

OpenAI could reportedly increase its valuation to $100 billion. Nvidia and Apple are apparently in talks to contribute to the corporate’s next round of funding, with Thrive Capital leading the deal if it goes through, based on The New York Times. OpenAI’s annual revenue reportedly topped $3.4 billion earlier this 12 months, but the corporate is alleged to be heading in the right direction to lose $5 billion by the top of the 12 months because it expands its AI training and hiring efforts.

X means Some links to NPR’s website have been deemed “unsafe.” When users click to read the most recent story a few spat between a Trump campaign official and an Arlington National Cemetery worker, they get a warning that sometimes applies to malicious links. It’s unclear why the NPR site would trigger that warning, though it does raise questions on whether X is actively attempting to stop the news from spreading.

Lyft’s recent pilot program goals to to assist drivers confirm the identity of passengers in a brand new effort to enhance safety measures. Riders will now see a verification badge next to their profile, indicating that Lyft has confirmed they’re using their legal name. The recent program is rolling out in markets in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Phoenix and Seattle.

This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, where we round up the most important stories of the week. Want them delivered to your inbox as a newsletter every Saturday? Sign up here.

News

ChatGPT won’t be winning a spelling bee anytime soon: Users have noticed that when asked how persistently the letter “r” appears within the word “strawberry,” ChatGPT answers twice. The reason? The LLMs that power AI chatbots don’t actually read the knowledge they’re absorbing. Read more

More layoffs at Apple: Apple is reportedly planning to put off around 100 employees in its digital services division, particularly the teams working on the Apple Books app and Apple News. Read more

Just added a brand new AI pin: Plaud’s AI-powered NotePin focuses on only one task—taking notes. Users can wear it as a necklace or wristband, allowing them to record meetings and dictate notes, after which transcribe those recordings using OpenAI’s GPT-4o. Read more

Spotify accuses Apple: Spotify says Apple may again be in breach of the Digital Markets Act after the corporate withdrew technology that allowed Spotify users to regulate the quantity of connected devices using physical buttons on an iPhone. Read more

Tesla goes digital detox: Tesla deleted all of its blog posts from before 2019, effectively erasing the corporate’s digital history. While archive.org still has the record, neither the corporate nor Musk have explained why the posts were removed. Read more

Watch the iPhone 16 presentation with us: It could have been a spoiled summer, but Apple says it’s “shining time” for its iPhone 16 event. The company will hold an event to unveil the brand new devices on September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Here’s watch it live. Read more

Tumblr officially moves to WordPress: Following its 2019 acquisition by WordPress parent company Automattic, the brand new owner can be moving Tumblr’s backend to WordPress. But don’t worry, bloggers, Tumblr won’t be turning into WordPress; it’ll just run on WordPress. Read more

AI Doctor is in: Google has trained its Gemini AI model using 300 million sound snippets, including the sounds of coughing, sneezing and labored respiration, to discover health issues and predict early signs of disease, sources said. Read more

Analysis

What it’s prefer to fly through hacked Seattle airport: Days after the Port of Seattle announced a “possible” cyberattack on its systems, Seattle-Tacoma Airport remains to be largely offline, causing chaos for travelers and acting as a continuing warning against neglecting cybersecurity. TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey knows this because he’s experienced it himself. As he writes, the response to the cyberattack is a lesson in why we now have rules about where we lay our eggs. Read more