NFT fantasy sport startup Sorare lays off 13%, as web3 gaming sputters

Sorare is not completely shuttering its New York office but is shifting more employees to Paris Web3-enabled fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees based in its New York office in February. The move comes as the startup wants certain teams to be concentrated at the company’s Paris headquarters to improve communication and efficiency, … Read more

Google releases new open LLMs, Rivian lays off staff and Signal rolls out usernames

Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry. This week, Google launched two new open large language models, Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, in its continued bid for generative AI dominance. The company, which describes the LLMs as “inspired by Gemini,” its flagship family of GenAI … Read more

Google Lays Off Thousands More Employees Despite Record Profits One Year After Laying off 12,000 Employees As Workers Begin Worrying AI is Slowly Replacing Them

Google has initiated significant layoffs across its various teams, including the Voice Assistant, hardware, engineering and ad sales teams, marking a continuation of the tech industry’s trend towards reducing workforce expenses. The layoffs have affected hundreds of employees within the Voice Assistant unit; hardware teams responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit products; and a considerable … Read more

South Africa’s main opposition party lays out plans to unseat the African National Congress

PRETORIA, South Africa — Thousands of South Africans gathered in the capital Saturday to show support for the country’s biggest opposition party as it prepares for a much-anticipated national election in which it hopes to wrest control of the government from the ruling African National Congress. Many of the Democratic Alliance backers assembled in the … Read more

NASA’s JPL Lays Off Hundreds Amid Mars Budget Uncertainties

Hundreds of employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will be affected by budget constraints looming over the space agency for the current year, with Congress still behind on issuing the final budget for 2024 and its final decision regarding Mars Sample Return (MSR). ‘More People Need to Know About This History’: A Black Astronaut … Read more

TikTok lays off 60 employees

TikTok is the latest tech company to mount another round of layoffs in an increasingly bleak January. According to NPR, which broke the news, TikTok cut about 60 jobs, mostly in sales and advertising. TikTok did not respond to our request comment before publication. Despite controversy in Congress over its Chinese parent company, TikTok — … Read more

Amazon’s Audible unit lays off about 5% of staff

Amazon’s Audible division is cutting approximately 5% of its staff in an effort to position the unit “for continued success,” the executive overseeing the division told employees Thursday. “We did not take this route without considerable thought,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan wrote in a memo to staffers that was viewed by CNBC. “But getting leaner … Read more

Humane lays off 4 percent of employees before releasing its AI Pin

Humane laid off 4 percent of employees this week in a move that was described as a cost cutting measure to those who were impacted, according to sources familiar with the matter. Employees were recently told by leadership that budgets would be lowered this year, said one of the people, who requested anonymity to speak … Read more

Carrefour pulls Pepsi, Lays, Lipton from shelves because of high prices

Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave France-based Carrefour, one of the world’s largest grocery chains, told customers Thursday it is pulling Lay’s, Doritos, Lipton teas and other PepsiCo products in protest of increased prices. Stores in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain will be affected, multiple news outlets reported. Carrefour, which has more than … Read more

Bruce Willis’ Daughter Scout Lays Her Head On His Chest In Sweet Photo

Bruce Willis‘ daughter, Scout Willis, is showing the world how much she is supporting her father amid his health issues. The singer started the year on social media by sharing a photo slide of memories, which featured an intimate photo with her father, who is currently suffering from dementia. In the past, she has also … Read more