ChatGPT gets 1.4B visits in August, 7x its nearest competitors
Bay Area Times
September 08, 2023
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Top stories today:
- ChatGPT gets 1.4B visits in August, 7x its nearest competitors
- U.S. investigating Huawei’s powerful Mate 60 Pro
- Elon turned off Starlink near Crimea to avoid nuclear war
- Claude launches $20/mo Pro version, competing with ChatGPT
- Imbue raises $200M to build “AI agents” that can reason
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
1. ChatGPT gets 1.4B visits in August, 7x its nearest competitors
ChatGPT slightly down to 1.4B visits in August, from 1.5B in July and the record 1.8B in May.
Character AI and Bard tied in 2nd place at 0.2B visits.
Character AI skews youngest, ChatGPT and Bard are about the same
2. U.S. investigating Huawei’s powerful Mate 60 Pro, which signaled China’s ability to avert U.S. sanctions
Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro was found to have Chinese 7nm chips and a speed comparable to Western 5G.
Evidence of China’s speed in copying U.S./Western technology — in a matter of months.
Huawei also has HarmonyOS, a fork of Android, in case it is prohibited from using Android.
The U.S. Commerce Department has begun an official probe, working on getting more info.
It has enacted sanctions on China over the past 2 years. - Bloomberg
This threatens Apple’s lead in premium smartphones, especially in China where it has a 67% market share
Apple stock fell 3% on the news
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4. Elon turned off Starlink near Crimea to reduce risk of nuclear war
Another excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk was published:
“[Elon] secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.”
Elon spoke directly to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister: “Russia will stop at nothing, nothing, to hold Crimea. This poses catastrophic risk to the world. . . . Seek peace while you have the upper hand. . . . Let’s discuss this. [Musk included his new private cell phone number.] I will support any pragmatic path to peace that serves the greater good for all of humanity.” - WaPo
5. Claude launches $20/mo Pro version, competing with ChatGPT Plus
It is hard to see Claude beating first-mover ChatGPT until it has a better product
So far, GPT-4 has a significant lead in performance:
6. Imbue raises $200M at $1B valuation to build “AI agents” that can reason
Imbue is now the 15th unicorn in our Generative AI Unicorns Database
7. TikTok Shop goes live for some U.S. users
Focus on cheap products from China, similar to Shein.
Goal to sell $20B of merchandise in 1st year. - Bloomberg
8. Interesting tweets, memes, and videos
9. Other headlines
AI
Microsoft will protect customers from AI copyright lawsuits.
Eric Schmidt using $27B fortune to influence AI policy.
Ant launches AI models for finance.
China using AI for viral online propaganda: Microsoft.
Brand Engagement Network to go public via SPAC at $358M valuation.
Tech
Cruise “days away” from mass production approval of wheel-less vehicles.
Apple updates software to address zero-day exploits from NSO Group.
Twitter loses 2nd head of brand safety in months.
SoftBank to invest $1B+ in self-driving startup Stack AV.
Chrome expands cookie-replacing Privacy Sandbox to all browsers.
Spotify to test offering audiobook trials to paying subscribers.
Flexport returning CEO tells employees to expect job cuts.
Range, backed by Google's AI Fund, has revolutionized wealth management.*
*Sponsored.
Biotech
Rejuvenation Technologies launches with $11M from Khosla Ventures.
Covid: Europe warns of Pirola variant, no evidence of it being more harmful.
Novo Nordisk (Ozempic maker) CEO: a profile.
Business
Yellen reiterates Ukraine aid, optimistic on global growth.
SEC investigating Ryan Cohen’s BBB $56M-profit trade.
Local news gets $500M donation from 20 nonprofits.
Mattel to get 5% of Barbie box office (already at $1.4B).
Crypto
SBF to get movie from Apple, who paid $5M for book rights.
FTX’s Salame agrees to forfeit $11M, car as part of guilty plea.
Genesis sues parent DCG over $620M loan.
North Korea group responsible for $41M Stake theft: FBI.
Texas paid BTC miner Riot $32M to shut down during heat wave in Aug.
CFTC fines 3 DeFi operators for accepting U.S. customers.
U.S. politics
Navarro convicted of contempt of Congress, will appeal.
Alaska senators criticize Biden’s oil lease ban.
Jim Jordan seeks docs from Jack Smith, as Willis criticizes him.
Disney narrows suit against DeSantis to focus on 1st Amendment.
Kavanaugh “hopeful” SCOTUS will take “concrete steps” on ethics “soon.”
Gov. Kristi Noem may endorse Trump on Fri, could be VP pick.
Trump notifies judge he may seek to move Georgia charges to federal court.
Giuliani, Trump host $100K-per-person fundraiser for legal bills.
Haley has largest lead (+6) vs. Biden: CNN poll.
World
North Korea launches 1st nuclear-armed sub.
India studies responses to potential China invasion of Taiwan.
Biden not planning to meet Chinese Premier at G-20 this weekend.
Xi welcomes Zambian, Venezuelan leaders as he skips G-20.
U.S. rejects China’s bid to hold climate hostage over chips: Sullivan.
U.S., India, Saudi Arabia, UAE to announce joint infrastructure deal.
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