📚 🐦 🗞️ 📱 💻 📈 🎥 👾
Kuration brings you the latest on tech and media happenings from across the internet. Join a growing commodity of founders, creators and engineers by subscribing and never miss an update.
We are moving to a new format for the newsletter and focusing more on news and products. Let us know how you feel.
Top Story ⭐
A comprehensive list of 2023 tech layoffs
The article from TechCrunch, written by Alyssa Stringer, provides a comprehensive list of layoffs in the tech industry throughout 2023. The tech sector has witnessed over 240,000 job losses in 2023, a 50% increase compared to the previous year. Major tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta, and Zoom initiated mass workforce reductions earlier in the year, with startups across various sectors following suit. Despite a slowdown in layoffs during summer and fall, recent trends indicate an increase in job cuts.
Economists have downplayed fears of a recession, but the tech sector's recovery has been sluggish, leading to continued workforce reductions and a shift from growth to efficiency due to challenging market conditions. The article emphasizes the importance of tracking these layoffs to understand their impact on innovation, identify companies under pressure, and recognize opportunities for hiring in growing businesses. It also highlights the human aspect of layoffs and potential changes in risk profiles.
The article includes a month-by-month breakdown of layoffs in 2023, with a running total of 224,503 layoffs based on full months to date, according to Layoffs.fyi. This figure surpasses the total number of tech layoffs in 2022. The article details layoffs by various companies, including Pico, Cruise, Snap, Amazon, Google, Virgin Galactic, Ubisoft Montreal, Nextdoor, Beyond Meat, Ava Labs, OpenSea, Starz, Faire, Niu, 100 Thieves, OpenSpace, Informatica, Splunk, and many others.
Top News 🗞️
Humane's Ai Pin promises an 'ambient computing' future for $699 (plus $24 a month) Humane has officially launched the Ai Pin, a small device that attaches magnetically to the wearer's lapel and collects data using an on-board camera. Powered by a Qualcomm chip and leveraging AI, the Ai Pin aims to eventually replace smartphones.
Meta and Amazon team up on new in-app shopping feature on Facebook & Instagram Meta and Amazon are collaborating to integrate in-app shopping features on Facebook and Instagram, allowing users to link their social media accounts with Amazon for seamless shopping experiences. This partnership enables customers to shop Amazon's product ads on these platforms, using their Amazon payment information and addresses for checkout.
OpenAI wants to work with organizations to build new AI training data sets OpenAI is launching the Data Partnerships program to collaborate with third-party organizations in creating new AI training data sets. This initiative aims to build public and private data sets that better reflect human society and are not easily accessible online, focusing on diverse modalities like images, audio, and video.
GitLab expands its AI lineup with Duo Chat GitLab has introduced Duo Chat, a ChatGPT-like feature, to its AI lineup, enhancing developer productivity through interactive access to existing Duo capabilities like issue summarization, code suggestions, and vulnerability explanations. Now in beta, Duo Chat is powered by Anthropic’s Claude, moving away from GitLab's previous partnership with Google for AI features.
OpenAI blames DDoS attack for ongoing ChatGPT outage OpenAI has attributed the recent outages of ChatGPT and its developer tools to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT experienced sporadic outages, with users unable to access the service or log in.
Omegle shuts down after 14 years Omegle, a popular online chat service that connected strangers, has shut down after 14 years due to growing misuse and involvement in serious crimes. Founded in 2009, Omegle faced criticism for becoming a hub for questionable activities, especially during the pandemic.
How to bootstrap an AI startup The article discusses the advantages of bootstrapping an AI startup, emphasizing the importance of solving a specific problem, involving clients in product development, and building a user feedback loop.
Top Products 📱💻
AITable: Custom ChatGPT & AI Agents with Table in 1-Click AITable.ai offers a platform to customize AI agents, ChatGPT, and apps using online editing datasets. Users can turn tables into AI chatbots with just one click and embed AI Copilot widgets on websites. The platform is designed for ease of use, allowing users to upload sources, start training, and deploy their own chatbots.
Customers.ai: Sales Automation & Prospecting Data Platform Customers.ai is a B2C marketing platform that enhances full-funnel marketing performance using prospecting data and AI-powered sales outreach automation. It helps businesses grow their email lists, engage customers with AI-generated personalized marketing, and convert leads through data integration and lead scoring.
PostgresML: AI-Enabled Database for Machine Learning PostgresML is a GPU-powered Postgres database designed to simplify building AI applications. It integrates machine learning directly into the database, allowing users to train, deploy, and predict using SQL commands. The platform supports a wide range of machine learning algorithms and models, including those from Hugging Face, SciKit-Learn, and TensorFlow.
Lunar | Ground Control for 3rd Party APIs Lunar is a platform designed to manage and optimize the use of third-party APIs in production environments. It helps engineering teams reduce costs, enhance performance, and build resilience by providing real-time insights, controls, and actionable recommendations.
Chptr: A Community for Memorializing Loved Ones Chptr is a mobile-first memorialization platform designed to gather, share, and preserve memories of lost loved ones. It enables users to create a collective life story through shared memories, spanning across generations and geographies.
Dinosave – Wishlists and Discounts Dinosave is a Chrome extension designed to help users track price drops, build wishlists, and share them easily. It offers features like price alerts, convenient wishlists, and easy sharing options, making it ideal for occasions like Black Friday, Christmas, or birthdays.
Speechki: Copilot Creator Tool Speechki is a tool designed to transform text into lifelike voice and dynamic audio. It offers features like voices, audiograms, music generator, and voice cloning, catering to educators, content creators, podcasters, and the curious.
Top 3️⃣ HackerNews
Cursorless is alien magic from the future
Apollo astronaut Frank Borman has died
GPU advancements in M3 and A17 Pro [video]
Top 🥉 IndieHackers
Hitting 1k registered user with Engineering as Marketing
From Layoff to $3K MRR: A 10-Day Challenge Success Story
Even early-stage founders need to think about SEO
🗳️ A Poll for our readers. Please vote and help us deliver more value. Would you like to see more text and focus on news ? or would you like to keep the old format which focuses on a wider variety of things like books, videos and podcasts.
Thank you for reading ❤️.