Real momentum: Buzzy app BeReal is starting to struggle

2/9/23 7:00PM

**\!/ Time To BeSafe \!/**‍

‍Damien Kieran, Twitter's ex-chief privacy officer who left the company when Musk took over, has been recruited by BeReal — last year’s official iPhone app of the year. BeReal has been challenged on privacy issues in the past, particularly over concerns about real-time location sharing, but privacy might be just one of its worries at the moment.

The pic-sharing platform, which gives users the same 2-minute window to capture whatever they are up to when the notification hits, may have already had its 15 minutes of fame, as downloads have quickly dropped off.

‍Building on the buzz

‍The Paris-based company seemingly emerged out of nowhere, one app in a buzzy new set of stripped-back social media that threatened to upheave the established powerhouses, as younger generations sought authenticity in the carefully-curated world of Instagram and Facebook.

‍BeReal, which raised $60m last year, properly took off in the summer of 2022, with global downloads peaking in Q3 when the app welcomed more than 40m simultaneous-snappers. Extrapolating from the figures in January, BeReal's downloads are set to drop to just 16m in Q1 this year, according to data from Apptopia via Sifted. And, despite the aforementioned plaudit from Apple itself, BeReal has dropped out of the top 100 on the App Store in recent weeks, per Sensor Tower data.

Like Clubhouse, Vine, Yik Yak, Periscope and many, many other social media apps that briefly caught lightning in a bottle, BeReal may be finding out just how hard it is to maintain the buzz.

Rani Molla15h

California AG launches probe into xAI and Grok over sexualized deepfakes of women and children

The California attorney general just opened an investigation into xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, over chatbot Grok’s apparent role in generating nonconsensual sexual images of women and children. The probe centers on reports that Grok has been used to facilitate the creation of sexually explicit images without consent, many of which have circulated on X.

“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a press release. “As the top law enforcement official of California tasked with protecting our residents, I am deeply concerned with this development in AI and will use all the tools at my disposal to keep California’s residents safe.”

California’s move follows growing scrutiny from US lawmakers and the UK government over AI-generated sexual content and deepfakes.

xAI and Tesla CEO Musk earlier today wrote that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

Grok is currently No. 5 on Apple’s free App Store.

Attorney General Bonta Launches Investigation into xAI, Grok Over Undressed, Sexual AI Images of Women and Children

California’s move follows growing scrutiny from US lawmakers and the UK government over AI-generated sexual content and deepfakes.

xAI and Tesla CEO Musk earlier today wrote that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

Grok is currently No. 5 on Apple’s free App Store.

Jon Keegan18h

Report: Microsoft on track to spend $500 million per year on Anthropic AI

Last fall, Microsoft and OpenAI’s $13 billion partnership seemed to finally be on solid ground.

OpenAI’s restructuring was completed on time, and the companies hammered out an updated agreement that secured OpenAI’s status as Microsoft’s AI provider of choice, but also allowed for Microsoft to work with other companies.

Now Microsoft is doing exactly that. Microsoft has been increasing its spending on Anthropic’s AI, and is on track to spend $500 million per year on the startup’s services, according to a new report from The Information.

The increasingly cozy relationship between the companies includes the rare move of Microsoft offering incentives to its salespeople that allows Anthropic sales to count toward their quotas, per to the report. Microsoft invested $5 billion in Anthropic as part of a big deal in November that included Nvidia.

Microsoft has also been using Anthropic’s AI to power more and more of its own products, such as Github Copilot and 365 Copilot.

Microsoft’s Spending on Anthropic AI Is on Pace to Hit $500 Million

Microsoft has also been using Anthropic’s AI to power more and more of its own products, such as Github Copilot and 365 Copilot.

Rani Molla19h

Report: Apple staggers Siri AI rollout, with key features pushed to summer

Thanks to Apple’s new partnership with Google, the Gemini-backed version of Siri should begin rolling out this spring, but several key features Apple previewed in 2024 may not come until summer, The Information reports.

The new Siri is soon expected to answer general questions with ChatGPT-like answers — rather than quoting directly from websites or not answering at all. But more personalized, proactive features, like, for example, remembering past conversations and information from them to suggest you leave for a planned trip earlier to beat traffic, may not be unveiled until June at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The report also clarifies that while Apple’s partnership with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, wherein users could summon ChatGPT for complex questions, isn’t changing, the Google deal might reduce the need for people to do so because Siri will likely be able to answer those questions itself. The Information notes, citing a person familiar with the deal, that the ChatGPT option hadn’t driven much traffic to OpenAI before.