OpenAI To Acquire Product Testing Startup Statsig, Appoints CTO of Applications (reuters.com) 3
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: OpenAI said on Tuesday it will acquire Statsig in an all-stock deal valuing the product testing startup at about $1.1 billion based on OpenAI's current valuation of $300 billion. The ChatGPT maker will also appoint Statsig's chief executive officer, Vijaye Raji, as OpenAI's tech chief of applications, in a push to build on its artificial intelligence products amid strong competition from rivals.
[...] In his role, Vijaye will head product engineering for ChatGPT and the company's coding agent, Codex, with responsibilities that span core systems and product lines including infrastructure, the company said. Statsig builds tools to help software developers test and flag new features. It raised $100 million in funding earlier this year. Once the acquisition is finalized, Statsig employees will work for OpenAI but will continue operating independently out of its Seattle office, OpenAI said. The move follows the acquisition of iPhone designer Jony Ive's startup, io Products, in a $6.5 billion deal to usher in "a new family of products" for the age of artificial general intelligence.
[...] In his role, Vijaye will head product engineering for ChatGPT and the company's coding agent, Codex, with responsibilities that span core systems and product lines including infrastructure, the company said. Statsig builds tools to help software developers test and flag new features. It raised $100 million in funding earlier this year. Once the acquisition is finalized, Statsig employees will work for OpenAI but will continue operating independently out of its Seattle office, OpenAI said. The move follows the acquisition of iPhone designer Jony Ive's startup, io Products, in a $6.5 billion deal to usher in "a new family of products" for the age of artificial general intelligence.
Didn't AOL do this too? (Score:2)
Realized that the company was over valued, then used their stock to buy up Time Warner and such, so they actually had a legitimate value to their stock.
Of course, Yahoo tried it, too, but that didn't exactly pan out for them
They are going to make a smartphone (Score:2)
At the moment they have the same problem that forced Google to develop Chrome and Android - they are beholden to someone else's platform gate keeping them from their users.
Apple's vision of AI wasn't that bad - if they had been able to do the stuff they'd promised it would be a useful product for many people. With Apple foundering, this leaves it as a massive opportunity for someone else. But to get there you need access to people's data. Apple won't give that to Open AI, and Google doesn't need Open AI. So
Re: (Score:2)
At the moment they have the same problem that forced Google to develop Chrome and Android - they are beholden to someone else's platform gate keeping them from their users.
Apple's vision of AI wasn't that bad - if they had been able to do the stuff they'd promised it would be a useful product for many people. With Apple foundering, this leaves it as a massive opportunity for someone else. But to get there you need access to people's data. Apple won't give that to Open AI, and Google doesn't need Open AI. So Open AI really have no choice.
They will pretending it isn't a smartphone, but it will just be another smartphone.
Or they will scare Apple enough that Apple is forced to buy them.
As a hardware engineer seems obvious to me, but unfortunately I don't know how one could make money from such knowledge.
You say smartphone, I say smart device. These AI companies really, REALLY seem to want an always on device, attached to the body. Maybe smartwatch, maybe smart glasses, maybe a necklace with a camera, who knows. But I'm sure whatever the "visionary forward-thinking product" is it will be a further invasion of personal details that people shouldn't be dumb enough to allow but will either do so out of "ooh shiny," or be forced to eventually by employers requiring them for login credentials like what's happene