WeWork is officially bankrupt. WeWork, the coworking company where your friend with a startup job bragged about getting beer on tap, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey after years of struggles that began with a failed IPO in 2019. Since it nixed the IPO after investors got a look at its finances and just how much power WeWork’s eccentric founder Adam Neumann had, WeWork (which eventually went public via SPAC) has suffered from having signed on to very expensive leases in its pre-IPO rush to grow. In 2019, the company was valued at $47 billion, but it has since fallen steadily, and this year, its stock has plunged by 98%, giving it a ~$45 million value as of last week.
ChatGPT gets customizable. OpenAI is rolling out the ability to make custom versions of its AI chatbot, called GPTs, and will create a marketplace for people to sell them, the company announced at its first-ever developer event yesterday. Think of it as AI apps, with their own app store, for specific tasks. “Eventually, you’ll just ask the computer for what you need, and it’ll do all of these tasks for you,” CEO Sam Altman said in his keynote speech. The company revealed that ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users. OpenAI also previewed an even more powerful update to ChatGPT known as GPT 4-Turbo and cut prices for its software.
Actors union says studios’ “best and final” offer is not enough. Not everyone’s as bullish on AI as Altman: SAG-AFTRA said that AI was one of the “essential items” where it did not agree with the latest offer from Hollywood studios to end the actors strike. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that a clause in the studios’ proposal regarding AI scans of highly paid actors was a major sticking point, as the studios wanted to pay for the scan but not to use it in the future.