Skip to main content

Slashdot: OpenAI Buys Remote Collaboration Platform 'Multi'

OpenAI Buys Remote Collaboration Platform 'Multi'
Published on June 25, 2024 at 02:10AM
OpenAI has purchased Multi (previously Remotion), "a five-person startup based in New York City that focuses on screenshare and collaboration technologies for workers using Mac computers," reports VentureBeat. The latest acquisition comes just days after the AI company announced it had acquired enterprise analytics startup Rockset. No details were provided on the terms of the deal. From the report: Multi's co-founder and CEO Alexander Embiricos posted on his X account today stating specifically that he (and presumably the entire Multi team) has joined OpenAI's "ChatGPT desktop team," the unit at the company responsible for building the ChatGPT for Mac desktop app that was unveiled back in May 2024. Multi broke the news first to its users and followers in a blog post, writing: "Recently, we've been increasingly asking ourselves how we should work with computers. Not on or using computers, but truly with computers. With AI. We believe it's one of the most important product questions of our time. And so, we're beyond excited to share that Multi is joining OpenAI!" The news has users on X speculating that OpenAI will use Multi to allow its AI models such as GPT-4o to "take over" a user's computer and perform actions on their behalf based on text or voice prompts. So you could say something like "ChatGPT, create a spreadsheet of my latest hours and send it to my manager" and it would try to do this. Based on what I've learned about Multi (see final section of this article below) and zero insider knowledge, I think it is at least as likely that OpenAI will seek to use the acquisition as a means of souping up and adding features to its ChatGPT Team and Enterprise subscription plans, as those are already more focused on providing tech for teams to help all the individuals on them work better together. However, Multi also broke the news that it is "sunsetting" the current version of its software and will end support for it in one month: on July 24, 2024, as well as delete all user data. Egads! Multi states in a short FAQ in its blog post that users should go ahead and export their data before that time, using the "Export Session Notes" setting under the URL: https://ift.tt/LqRuhDN. It is also opening the door to users asking for extensions to the deletion date of July 24, 2024 for their individual or company accounts, if they email Embiricos himself directly at alexander@multi.app. Multi also says its team members can help recommend alternatives through the same email address.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Slashdot: AT&T Says Leaked Data of 70 Million People Is Not From Its Systems

AT&T Says Leaked Data of 70 Million People Is Not From Its Systems Published on March 20, 2024 at 02:15AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: AT&T says a massive trove of data impacting 71 million people did not originate from its systems after a hacker leaked it on a cybercrime forum and claimed it was stolen in a 2021 breach of the company. While BleepingComputer has not been able to confirm the legitimacy of all the data in the database, we have confirmed some of the entries are accurate, including those whose data is not publicly accessible for scraping. The data is from an alleged 2021 AT&T data breach that a threat actor known as ShinyHunters attempted to sell on the RaidForums data theft forum for a starting price of $200,000 and incremental offers of $30,000. The hacker stated they would sell it immediately for $1 million. AT&T told BleepingComputer then that the data did not originate from them and that its systems were not breached. &q
Post a Comment
Read more

Slashdot: Texas A&M University Tops Nation in Engineering Research Expenditures

Texas A&M University Tops Nation in Engineering Research Expenditures Published on June 19, 2024 at 12:50AM An anonymous reader shares a report: Texas A&M University held the largest engineering research portfolio of any academic institution in the country last year, nearing half a billion dollars and surpassing Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the top spot, according to U.S. News & World Report. The state flagship's College of Engineering recorded $444.7 million in research expenditures in the 2023 fiscal year, university officials said. A mix of federal, state and private grants funds those efforts, so more expenditures means more partnerships and a larger engineering footprint than ever, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said. "An awful lot of people in Washington, a lot of people in Austin, a lot of people in the private sector now rely on Texas A&M to do their engineering research," Sharp said. "Of all the places in
Post a Comment
Read more

Slashdot: AT&T Can't Hang Up On Landline Phone Customers, California Agency Rules

AT&T Can't Hang Up On Landline Phone Customers, California Agency Rules Published on June 22, 2024 at 01:50AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) yesterday rejected AT&T's request to end its landline phone obligations. The state agency also urged AT&T to upgrade copper facilities to fiber instead of trying to shut down the outdated portions of its network. AT&T asked the state to eliminate its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligation, which requires it to provide landline telephone service to any potential customer in its service territory. A CPUC administrative law judge recommended rejection of the application last month, and the commission voted to dismiss AT&T's application with prejudice on Thursday. "Our vote to dismiss AT&T's application made clear that we will protect customer access to basic telephone service... Our rules were designed to provide that assurance,
Post a Comment
Read more