Welcome to the Week in Review. I miss you! This week, we dive into all the gadgets and announcements coming out of this year’s CES, Meta’s decision to bring back its fact-checking program, TikTok’s response to employees affected by the California wildfires, and more! Let’s do this. CES 2025 came and went this week. The event features keynotes from big players in technology like Nvidia, Samsung, Toyota, and more. Plus, there will always be interesting gadgets, gizmos, and AI to look forward to on the show floor. Our team of journalists are on the ground, and you can find out everything that caught our attention at this year’s event here. A meta-review of content moderation policies created in response to criticism that they help spread political and health misinformation. The company ditched its third-party fact-checking program in favor of an X-like Community Notes model, which critics say is an attempt to pander to the incoming Trump administration. Backlash has been swift, with interest in searches related to deleting Meta accounts soaring. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company was losing money on its $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people were using it more than the company expected. Launched late last year, ChatGPT Pro gives users access to an updated version of OpenAI’s “reasoning” AI model and lifts rate limits on some of the company’s other tools, such as the Sora video generator. This is TechCrunch’s Review of the Week, where we list the biggest news of the week. Want it delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Log in here. News Image Credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg (opens in new window) / Getty Images Wildfires vs the horrors of capitalism: TikTok tells LA staff members affected by wildfires to use personal/sick hours if they can’t work. from home. The company’s LA office remains closed as wildfires ravage the greater Los Angeles area. Read more Hello, Project Digits: At CES 2025, Nvidia announced Project Digits, a “personal AI supercomputer” designed for AI researchers, data scientists, and students that provides access to the company’s Grace Blackwell hardware platform in a compact form factor. Read more Another copyright issue for Meta: A new filing claims that Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light to the team behind the Meta Llama AI model to use data sets from pirated e-books and articles for training, including works by authors like Sarah Silverman and Ta. – Nehisi Coates. Read more Robot cat that sips your tea: The latest gadget from Yukai Engineering is Nékojita FuFu, a small robot cat that can be attached to a cup or bowl and will blow air to sip coffee or soup. Read more X clarifies stance on parody accounts: X says it will start labeling parody accounts on its platform. Users mistakenly post from parody accounts as genuine statements since X rolled back traditional verification badges for payment verification. Read more AI that simulates the real world: Google forms a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. The team will be led by Tim Brooks, who is one of the leaders at OpenAI’s Sora. He left for Google DeepMind in October. Read more Weed brand hit by cyber attack: Popular Los Angeles weed brand Stiiiizy confirmed that hackers accessed sensitive customer data, including government-issued documents and medical weed cards, during a cyber attack in November. Read more This electric spoon can make food taste better: Why add salt to your food when a $127 spoon can do it for you? Kirin Holdings showed off an electronic spoon that uses a weak electric current to concentrate sodium ion molecules in your food. Read more That’s a lot of cash: A Delaware judge has approved a settlement that will see Tesla directors return up to $919 million to the automaker, officially resolving allegations that they overpaid themselves. Read more Weirdest gadgets at CES 2025: It wouldn’t be CES without some major products, claims and moments. We rounded up the most stunning examples from the show floor. Read more
