THE BIG STORY

Interactive AI Is on the Horizon

DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman wants to build a chatbot that does a whole lot more than chat. In a recent conversation with the MIT Technology Review, he said generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI."

Conversation is the future interface. You know, instead of just clicking on buttons and typing, you’re going to talk to your AI. And these AIs (will) talk to other people, talk to other AIs," says Suleyman, who has a new billion-dollar company, Inflection, with a roster of top-tier talent plucked from DeepMind, Meta, and OpenAI.

Interactive AI is the third phase of artificial intelligence, according to Techopedia, following classification and generative AI. It emphasizes dynamic agent interaction and enables bots to coordinate with software and humans for various tasks.

"This is) a huge shift in what technology can do," says Suleyman. "It’s a very, very profound moment in the history of technology that I think many people underestimate."

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BUSINESS

WeWork Files Bankruptcy Papers

WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, marking a stunning fall for the office-sharing company that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world, AP reports. The company went public in October 2021 and at one point its market value reached $47 billion.

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STARTUPS

A Former Google CEO’s Troubled New Venture

Former Google chief Eric Schmidt in the last few years has committed at least $100 million to a startup accelerator called Steel Perlot, which he leads as executive chairman with CEO Michelle Ritter, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who he has been dating. Forbes reports that things have not been going well with the venture.

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DESIGN

Figma Unveils a Native AI Product

Figma, the collaborative design software company, this week announced FigJam, its first native AI product, Fast Company reports. The AI-assisted digital whiteboard runs on technology from OpenAI and can be used to make everything from meeting agendas to org charts to flow charts, based on simple prompts.

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SPONSORED

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QUICK HITS

• Founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is stepping down as CEO of dating app Bumble, and will be succeeded by Lidiane Jones, who has been CEO of Slack since January.
• Shares of cloud monitoring software firm Datadog surged nearly 30 percent in Tuesday trading after the company reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and full-year guidance.
• IBM is dedicating $500 million to invest in generative AI startups focused on business customers.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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"Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!"

—The team at Elon Musk's xAI, announcing the beta version of its AI chatbot "modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy"