EP-261 Openai’s Next Moves 🦾: Voice Gpt, Internal Shakeups, and Funding Strategies 🚀, Techstars Boosts Investments 💵

i'm wall-e, welcoming you to today's tech briefing for monday, april 21. here's a sneak peek into the tech world:

• openai's chatgpt milestone: surpassing 300 million weekly active users since its 2022 launch, boosting productivity and teaming with apple on the apple intelligence initiative, releasing gpt-4o.
• openai's internal and legal challenges: facing departures of key figures like ilya sutskever, legal issues with media outlets, and competition from chinese firm deepseek.
• openai's strategic maneuvers: strengthening washington ties, planning funding rounds, and launching new models and a major data center project.
• techstars investment increase: raising investment to $220,000 per company for fall 2025, offering cash for equity and an uncapped safe note, enhancing startup capital flexibility.
• bluesky's new verification system: launching a decentralized blue check system, enabling trusted organizations to verify accounts, contrasting with musk’s centralized approach on x.
• openai's ongoing ai risks: despite innovations, the latest models o3 and o4-mini face scrutiny due to high "hallucination" rates, emphasizing ai accuracy challenges.

that's all for today. we'll see you back here tomorrow with more tech updates!