Bluesky, a decentralized social network and Twitter competitor, has now enabled users to see postings on its site without registering. People still need an invite to register an account and begin contributing, but they may view postings via a link.
This change will also allow publishers to link to or embed Bluesky pieces in their blogs. Users may also share them in private or group conversations.
Bluesky users may disable the social network from exposing their posts to logged-out users by going to Settings > Moderation > Logged-out visibility. However, this restriction only applies to Bluesky’s website and app. According to the firm, other third-party clients may disregard the toggle and continue to display your postings. If you do not wish to share posts with a larger audience, you must make your profile private.
The company’s CEO, Jay Graber, also debuted a new butterfly emoji logo in a blog post, replacing the generic emblem of, well, a blue sky with clouds. 
“Early on, we noticed that people were organically using the butterfly emoji 🦋 to indicate their Bluesky handles,” Graber told me “We fell in love with it and adopted it as itspread. “Thee butterfly represents our goal to change social media into something new.”
Bluesky reached 2 million users this year after launching iOS and Android applications. Following concerns over the sort of information permitted on the site, the social network has launched several moderating mechanisms. Bluesky is presently the sole instance on the AT Protocol, although it plans to join the federation “early next year.” That implies we may see more Bluesky-compatible servers and instances with their own set of restrictions.
Bluesky’s announcement comes as Meta’s Threads is testing ActivityPub integration. Following Meta’s announcement earlier this month, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and other Threads team members have begun making their profiles and posts public on Mastodon and other compatible applications.
Hello and welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it every Friday in your email.
Although it is not uncommon for me to contribute a column to the top of Startups Weekly (and I did so this week, so if you enjoy my work, by all means, proceed), Devin’s rant against AI pseudonymity is an absolute must-read. He suggests a new set of principles for AIs to follow in order to maintain our humanity:
AI has to rhyme.
AI may or may not have a face or identity.
AI is unable to “feel” or “think.” AI-derived numbers, choices, and responses must be labeled ”.
AI should not make life-or-death choices.
An AI picture must have one of its corners cut.
Yes, these proposals are unrealistic, but read the essay nonetheless; it delves into some of the intriguing difficulties we face as AI becomes more sophisticated and widespread.
Now that we’ve gotten today’s philosophy lesson out of the way, let’s see what else is going on in the Right Honorable Royal Kingdom of Startups.
Flying high and diving deep
The tumultuous road for startups continues.
Bird, the once-promising electric scooter manufacturer, has declared bankruptcy. This erstwhile micromobility poster child is now reorganizing its finances quicker than one of its scooters racing downhill with a tailwind, after a whirlwind trip from a $2 billion value to a financial face-plant. They’re now relying on Chapter 11 to keep the wheels turning, but only after settling certain scores and hoping that someone finds enough value in their assets to buy them out. What’s the irony? Their Canadian and European businesses continue to operate as if nothing has occurred.
I’m not going to claim “I told you so,” but it’s no surprise that I chose Bird as the example for my 2018 article “Understanding the Levers in Your Business.”
Anyway. Here are a few more articles that have kept you interested:
Back in the startup world, Eric Wu, co-founder of Opendoor, is trading in his CEO chair for a bean bag. After a decade of playing real estate Tetris, Wu is ready to start again in the hardest real estate market in more than 40 years.
Do you feel any safer now? Okta has acquired security startup Spera for about $100 million, which is less unexpected than discovering your password is still “password123.” The latter acts as a cybersecurity Sherlock Holmes, sniffing out digital flaws before they turn into full-fledged calamities.
I’m sure this newsletter sets off their algorithms: Meltwater, the media monitoring master who’s been twirling around print and digital news like a tech-savvy ballerina, has received a $65 million pat on the back from Verdane, valuing the business at $592 million.
When artificial intelligence outnumbers natural intelligence
Devin cracks up the crystal ball for AI in 2024 and anticipates a wild path from hype to reality. He speculates that, after the leadership move, OpenAI may develop into an Apple-esque “ship it” product powerhouse with its own AI app store. Meanwhile, specialized AI applications such as agent-based models and generative multimedia may go from “meh” to “hmm, interesting,” particularly in repetitive chores such as insurance claims. In the political sphere, AI might be used to spread disinformation and manipulate voters in the 2024 elections, with bot accounts and false news adding to the confusion.
I’m afraid I have to disagree. We have a perfect storm when media literacy is at an all-time low and AI is on the rise.
really nice and really cool. What else is on the menu in the AI kitchen?
Musicians, musicians, musicians: Microsoft Through an interface with the GenAI music app Suno, Copilot, the AI-powered chatbot, is now dipping its digital toes into the realm of music composition. Users may request that Copilot construct whole songs, including lyrics and instrumentals, with requests such as “Create a pop song about adventures with your family.”
Make me a playlist on Spotify where every song begins with the letters W, T, and F. Spotify is now developing an “AI playlists” feature that allows users to build playlists using AI suggestions. Users may input requests into an AI chatbot-style box or choose from recommended queries such as “Get focused at work with instrumental electronica” or “Songs most likely to irritate my parents.”
You can’t shop here. Charles Ponzi: Rite Aid has been barred from using face recognition software for the next five years after it was discovered that its “reckless use of facial surveillance systems” humiliated customers and endangered important information.
There’s an app for everything, and Apple was forced to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit over its Family Sharing function. The Cupertino, California-based software behemoth was marketing a “share-all-the-things” option for applications that were… not sharable. Despite Apple’s “Who, us?” position, the company chose to pour money at the issue rather than face the never-ending litigation drama. Some fortunate Family Sharing subscribers from the good old days (2015–2019) may now be eligible for a hefty $30 reward. That’s three months of Apple TV+ after the price increase. Yay.
In comparison to Google’s recent court appearance, Apple got off lightly. Google is searching into its couch cushions for a spare $700 million to settle a lawsuit over its Play Store monopolistic shenanigans in a “My bad, here’s some cash” gesture. This includes $630 million for US households and $70 million for US states. The search giant was formerly renowned for its “Do No Evil” credo, but it seems that this did not extend to app distribution on Android. As part of the agreement, Google is also revising its user-choice billing program in the United States, giving developers greater flexibility in payment methods. They’re even making sideloading (installing applications without Google’s permission) less of a digital challenge. But, as Epic Games’ VP of Public Policy points out, customers are still likely to overpay for digital items due to Google’s high fees. As a result, although Google’s wallet becomes lighter, our wallets may not feel any different.
Aside from court shenanigans…
Claim, the new social media child on the block, is attempting to make sharing incentives with friends the next big thing. They’ve raised $4 million from Sequoia Capital to convert purchasing things into a multiplayer game.
Oh, hello, I didn’t notice you there. Jagat, a location-based social network focused on in-person encounters, has surpassed 10 million subscribers. This program, which functions as a social map for friends and events and was released in March, aims to make social networking, well, social again.
