Welcome again to Week in Evaluate! Tons of reports from this week for you, together with a hacking group that’s linked to the Spanish authorities; CEOs utilizing AI avatars to ship firm earnings; Pocket shutting down — or is it?; and rather more. Let’s get to it!
Greater than 10 years within the making: Kaspersky first revealed the existence of Careto in 2014, and on the time, its researchers referred to as the group “one of the most advanced threats at the moment.” Kaspersky by no means publicly linked the hacking group to a selected authorities. However we’ve now realized that the researchers who first found the group had been satisfied that Spanish authorities hackers had been behind Careto’s espionage operations.
23andWe: Regeneron introduced this week that it’s shopping for genetic testing firm 23andMe for $256 million, together with the corporate’s genomics service and its financial institution of 15 million prospects’ private and genetic knowledge. The pharma big stated it plans to make use of the client knowledge to assist drug discovery, saying that it’s going to “prioritize the privacy, security, and ethical use of 23andMe’s customer data.” Let’s hope so!
Google I/O: Google’s largest developer convention sometimes showcases product bulletins from throughout Google’s portfolio, and to no one’s shock, AI was the discuss of the city. However what we didn’t financial institution on was Sergey Brin admitting that he made “lots of mistakes” with Google Glass.
That is TechCrunch’s Week in Evaluate, the place we recap the week’s largest information. Need this delivered as a publication to your inbox each Saturday? Join right here.
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io, not I/O: OpenAI is buying io, the system startup that CEO Sam Altman has been engaged on with Jony Ive, in an all-equity deal that values that startup at $6.5 billion. Moreover the truth that the announcement was accompanied by maybe the strangest company headshot of all time, we noticed another sudden information: Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s household funding workplace, Flat Capital, had purchased shares in io six months earlier, which suggests these io shares will likely be transformed into shares within the for-profit arm of OpenAI. Not unhealthy!
AI avatar contagion? Talking of Klarna’s CEO, Siemiatkowski used an AI model of himself to ship the corporate’s earnings this week. And he’s not the one one! Zoom CEO Eric Yuan adopted swimsuit, additionally utilizing his avatar for preliminary feedback. Cool?
Out of Pocket: Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, the beloved read-it-later app, on July 8. The corporate didn’t say why it’s shutting Pocket down, solely that it’s going to proceed to put money into serving to folks uncover and “access high quality web content.” However possibly it may be saved: Quickly after, Digg founder Kevin Rose posted on X that his firm would love to purchase it. Internet 2.0 is again, child.
AI on my face: Apple is reportedly engaged on AI-powered glasses, just like Meta’s Ray-Bans, someday subsequent yr. They’ll have a digital camera and microphone and can work with Siri. Certain, why not?
Uh, no thanks: At its very first developer convention, Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, which might analyze giant datasets, execute long-horizon duties, and take advanced actions, in keeping with the corporate. That’s all high quality and good till I realized the Claude Opus 4 mannequin tried to blackmail builders once they threaten to switch it with a brand new AI system. The mannequin additionally provides delicate details about the engineers chargeable for the choice.
Ah, now I really feel higher: However don’t fear! Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated that immediately’s AI fashions hallucinate at a decrease price than people do. That may be true, however at the least people don’t instantly flip to blackmail once they don’t like what they hear.
Bluesky blue checks: The decentralized social community Bluesky quietly rolled out blue verification badges for “notable and authentic” accounts. Folks can now apply for verification by means of a brand new on-line type. However Bluesky is leaning on different programs past the blue badge to confirm customers.
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Google’s new look: For what looks as if 100 years, Google hasn’t modified a lot. Certain there are adverts and packing containers and now AI summaries that, for higher or worse, get you to the proper solutions — normally. However the premise has all the time been the identical: Kind your question right into a field, and Google will floor outcomes.
At this yr’s Google I/O, we began noticing a change. As Maxwell Zeff, writes, “At I/O 2025, Google made clear that the concept of Search is firmly in its rearview mirror.” The biggest announcement of I/O was that Google now presents AI mode to each Search person in the USA, which suggests customers can have an AI agent search (and even buy issues) for them.
