Hey folks. You made it to the end of the week — congratulations, by the way — and to Week in Review (WiR), toptecheasy.com’s regular newsletter about the week that was in tech. Here, in this humble little column of ours, we do our best to collect the most important stories that have emerged over the past five days. I hope you find it useful.

Just a few more PSAs before we move on to the news. On May 24, toptecheasy.com Live, TC’s podcast about founder stories, will host Romi Gubes, the co-founder of Sensi.AI, in a discussion about how the company is using audio-based software to monitor patients and help medical staff and family members with care . (Register for this – it is free.)

Meanwhile, toptecheasy.com City Spotlight goes virtual on June 7 with a focus on Atlanta, where speakers will present about building businesses in the exploding metro and startups will sign up to participate in TC’s famed Battlefield 200.

Last but not least, Disrupt, TC’s flagship conference, returns this September (September 19–21) in San Francisco. Expect six stages from presenters, including a new AI-focused stage, and plenty of surprises. Read more here.

Now, without further ado, on to the news.

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Young billionaire buys Forbes: Austin Russell, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of luminarwhich develops vision-based lidar and machine sensing technologies primarily for self-driving cars The Wall Street Journal this week he buys an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values ​​the company at nearly $800 million.

New Teslas on the way: Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased two new electric vehicles Tuesday at the automaker’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting. Tesla previously hinted at new models during its Investor Day in March, showing a photo featuring the company’s full lineup and several revealed car contours. One of the vehicles appeared to be about the size of a van, and the other resembled a sedan or hatchback in appearance. Both are expected to be more affordable vehicles that are sold at much higher volumes.

Free TV, but with a catch: Televisiona hardware startup led by Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin, announced Monday that it is giving away 500,000 of its new smart TVs for free. (Yes, we said free.) There’s a catch, though. Users have to watch ads 24/7 while simultaneously streaming TV shows and movies.

ChatGPT goes mobile: Open AI this week announced launching one official iOS app which allows users to access the popular AI chatbot on the go – months after the App Store was filled with questionable, unofficial services. The new ChatGPT app will be free to use, ad-free and allow voice input, the company says, but will initially be limited to US users at launch.

Holmes on his way to prison: After years of high-profile court proceedings, Elizabeth Holmes could actually be going to prison – this time for real. The former founder and CEO of Theranos was found guilty of defrauding investors last January, but has consistently postponed her sentencing and appealed to stay out of jail. While the infamous biotech entrepreneur is still appealing her 11-year sentence, a panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit ruled that Holmes’ legal team did not ask enough “substantial question” to keep her out of jail.

Kustomer leaves Meta, raises money: Meta’s great experiment in building an enterprise-ready customer service platform has come to an end. The parent of Facebook has officially broken up Kustomer, the CRM startup that bought it last year for about $1 billion. The new entity is kicking off life with a $60 million infusion from backers Battery, Redpoint, and boldstart, plus a major hitch in its previous valuation — it’s now reportedly at $250 million.

Lock and Hide: WhatsApp announced today it’s introducing a new “Chat Lock” feature designed to give users an extra layer of security for their most intimate conversations. As the name suggests, this feature allows you to “lock” a chat, which pulls that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, such as a fingerprint.

Humanoid robots FTW: Vancouver, British Columbia-based Sanctuary AI this week unveiled Phoenix, its attempt to create the form factor of a humanoid robot. The bipedal bot stands 5’7″ and weighs 155 pounds – not unlike the people he plans to augment (or replace, depending on who you ask). The system can lift loads up to 55 pounds and travel up to three miles per hour. No word yet on pricing.

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Need listening material for the weekend? Not to worry – toptecheasy.com has you covered (and then some). Continue this week Equitythe crew covered Vice’s bankruptcy, Twitter’s first acquisition with Elon Musk at the helm, and what the future of Venture Capital might look like. Found it featured Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, the co-founder and CEO of Samooha, a startup creating the key infrastructure needed for data collaboration. About Chain reactionSergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, spoke about the Chainlink protocol that provides an oracle network to enable smart contracts. The toptecheasy.com Podcast took a deep dive into Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. And toptecheasy.com Live profiled Richard Song, one of the co-founders of Persona, who built and offers a large suite of identity verification solutions, alongside Persona investor and Index Ventures leader Mark Goldberg.

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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys – which you’ll know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:

The new venture capital rules: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did not spell the end of venture capital, but probably the end of companies taking on debt with the same ease many were accustomed to. Rebecca writes about the state of venture capital in the aftermath of the SVB and then the collapse of First Republic Bank and how this could change in the future.

Alibaba, in the clouds: Chinese tech giant Alibaba is shaking up its corporate structure in a series of moves that will enable large parts of its company to raise capital and possibly even go public. That may not be a bad idea, considering that the conglomerate’s sales grew an average of 2% in the first quarter of 2023 and its profitability is on a downward trend (operating income fell 9%) from a year earlier .

AI in retail, coming of age: As the retail sector becomes increasingly reliant and focused on data and AI, it is essential that retailers understand exactly how to turn first-party data analytics into insights into customer behavior – and in turn a tangible competitive advantage. Hugh Cameron, head of data for Zitcha, looks at the three key milestones on the road to predictive analytics in the retail media context.

Calling all budding startups! Apply to join the Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at toptecheasy.com Disrupt 2023. All finalists will receive expert training, VC networking, a booth at Disrupt, and the chance to compete for $100,000 in stock-free funds. Applications close on May 31. Apply today.