Welcome back to Week in Review. I missed you! This week, we’re looking at all the gadgets and announcements from this year’s CES, Meta’s decision to drop 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 major tech players like Nvidia, Samsung, Toyota and more. In addition, there were, of course, the expected gadgets, gizmos and interesting AI claims on the show floor. Our team of reporters were on the ground, and you can catch everything that caught our eye at this year’s show right here.
Meta is reviewing its content moderation policies which he created in response to criticism that he had helped spread political and health misinformation. The company is ditching its third-party fact-checking program in favor of an X-like Community Notes model, which critics see as an attempt to respond to the incoming Trump administration. The response has been swift, with interest in research related to deleting Meta accounts on the rise.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is losing money on its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people are using it more than the company expected. Launched late last year, ChatGPT Pro gives users access to an improved version of OpenAI’s o1 AI “reasoning” model and removes fee caps on some of the company’s other tools, such as the chat generator her of Sora videos.
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tidings
Fires against the horrors of capitalism: TikTok told its LA staff members who were affected by the fires to use personal/sick hours if they are unable to work from home. The company’s LA office remains closed as wildfires ravage the greater Los Angeles area. Read more
Hello, Project Figures: 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 issues for Meta: A new filing claims Mark Zuckerberg gave the team behind Meta’s Llama AI models the green light to use a dataset of pirated e-books and training articles, including works by authors such as Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Read more
A robot cat that cools your tea: The latest adorable gadget from Yukai Engineering is the Nékojita FuFu, a tiny robotic cat that can be mounted on a cup or bowl and will blow air to help cool your coffee or soup. Read more
X clarifies his stance on parody accounts: X said it will start tagging parody accounts on the platform. Users have been mistaking posts from parody accounts for authentic statements since X reversed 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 at OpenAI’s Sora. He left for Google DeepMind in October. Read more
Cannabis brand hit by cyber attacks: Popular Los Angeles-based cannabis brand Stiiizy confirmed that hackers accessed sensitive customer data, including government-issued documents and cannabis medical records, during a November cyberattack. Read more
This electric spoon can make your food tastier: Why add more salt to your meal when a $127 spoon can 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 money: A Delaware judge has approved a settlement that will see Tesla executives repay up to $919 million to the automaker, formally settling allegations that they overpaid themselves. Read more
The weirdest gadgets at CES 2025: It wouldn’t be CES without some really bold products, claims and highlights. We rounded up the sharpest brow examples from the show floor. Read more
