Apple introduces Apple Intelligence, John Schulman departs OpenAI

Top News

• Apple is pivoting towards AI integration to mitigate the impact of recent antitrust challenges with Google. As the Justice Department scrutinizes its lucrative search deal, Apple is advancing its own AI suite, Apple Intelligence. This includes enhancements like "Type to Siri," enabling users to interact with AI without speaking (finally!). What does this mean? A reduction of Apple’s dependence on Google amidst legal and market pressures.

• OpenAI Co-Founder John Schulman joins Rival Anthropic. Schulman's departure feels akin to a Jedi leaving the Order to join the Sith, a great disturbance in the force. Schulman expressed his desire to focus more on AI alignment and return to hands-on technical work as his reasons for the move. This shift comes amid notable personnel changes at OpenAI, with co-founder Greg Brockman also taking a sabbatical. The balance of power in the AI universe has been altered.

• Figure 02, Figure’s latest humanoid robot, features OpenAI's ChatGPT for natural speech capabilities. This peaceful robot is designed for factory labor, using advanced communication tools and human-like hands. Figure 02's advanced AI is like Skynet but with a friendlier face, enhancing collaboration rather than domination.

Hey TWiST fans, Alex is off this week so you are hearing from Bianca and Lukas from the LAUNCH team! Questions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

TWiST500

As Alex promised, the TWiST crew brought you our very first TWiST500 dedicated episode.

In TWiST E1989, Alex interviews Kyle Hanslovan of Huntress about growth milestones and cybersecurity services for SMBs. Olivia Joslin and Toshit Panigrahi of TollBit discuss their development journey and media readiness. Lastly, Tamar Bar-Ilan of Cyera shares insights on data security, AI adoption, and future IPO plans. Watch the full episode here.

This Week in Startups won’t be able to interview every company on the TWiST500 list, but we’ll bring you as many founders as we can as quickly as possible.

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This Week in Startups

E1988: Josh Reeves and Alex discuss Gusto's growth, marketing strategies, and product development. A key theme is that serving small businesses presents both challenges and successes. Josh also touches on the competitive landscape, potential fintech ventures, and future expansion plans for Gusto.

E1987: On the latest episode of Liquidity Pod, Dana Johns (Head of Private Equity at New Jersey Division of Investment) and Tom Loverro (General Partner at IVP) joined David Weisburd (10X Capital) and Jason Calacanis (LAUNCH) to chat through the secondary markets, venture leverage in dealmaking today, and the IPO window.

E1986: Jason sat down with WEKA CEO Liran Zvibel and Valor’s Antonio Gracias to dig into what the data platform startup is up to and why Gracias joined its board after its latest funding round. The conversation is a must-listen if you want to learn more about modern data management techniques. To close, the latest JCal winner Ramsey Schaffer, CEO of Uptrends AI came on to share what his startup is building.

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The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker.