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Hello, I hope it is a great Thursday for you so far. For me, it’s the little things that get me excited and today it is Delta Air Lines’ announcement that SkyMiles frequent flyers, including yours truly, will get Wi-Fi for free starting February 1. May you also find something that excites you today. Let’s get into the news. — Christine

The TechCrunch Top 3

Yet more layoffs: Yesterday it was Salesforce; today it is Amazon. Though these layoffs were foreshadowed in recent months, the amount of people being let go was today’s surprise. Knowing doesn’t take the sting away for employees, I imagine. Paul takes you inside the cuts.
Secret secrets hurt someone: Secret secrets are no fun. Just ask CircleCI customers, who were urged to rotate their passwords and private keys after a breach compromised the company’s system, Carly reports.
Take a bite out of this Apple: Apparently you all made a resolution to read more in 2023. Among the announcements Apple made today, the one that got a lot of clicks was the company’s new AI-powered book narrations for select titles on Apple Books, Ivan reports. If fitness is more your goal this year, Apple Fitness+ is adding new features, like kickboxing workouts and sleep meditation, Aisha writes.

Startups and VC

Continuing with what seems to be a trend in layoffs, Natasha M’s story is very important in getting perspectives from former employees laid off from startups to see how they are handling things and how their next jobs might evolve. She also asks the question, “Where do tech workers go from here?”I won’t spoil it for you, but there seems to be a cycle going on.

Now here’s four more:

That next text might be from Fido: My dog has trouble telling me when he needs to go outside, so I am eyeing FluentPet’s talking button system that has programmable buttons that, when pressed, speak voice commands and text you. Sarah has more.
VR isn’t just for the youngins: Rendever, a big startup in the virtual reality space, acquired Alcove from AARP, showing “VR comes of age,” Ingrid reports.
Neighbors don’t shake hands; neighbors gotta hug!: Okay, well maybe not hug, but if you live in an apartment complex and want to get to know the others living nearby, you might want to check out my story on OneRoof grabbing some funding to help apartment dwellers cozy up to their neighbors.
Here’s a metaverse optimist: Conversational AI startup MeetKai is expanding its offerings with new room-scanning tech and a metaverse builder with a focus on capturing objects and spaces, Kyle writes.

Teach yourself growth marketing: How to set up a landing page

In the first article of a five-part series on growth marketing fundamentals, Jonathan Martinez explains how to create an essential part of every startup’s sales funnel: a landing page.

This overview includes basic steps for writing a clear headline, offering visitors social proof that builds credibility, and crafting calls to action that drive results.

Next week, Martinez, who helped scale startups like Uber, Postmates and Chime, will share his tips for launching a paid acquisition channel.

Three more from the TC+ team:

AI think not: We’re only five days into 2023 and just getting the hang of asking ChatGPT things, but investors are already thinking generative AI is the next bubble. Becca has more.
What settlement?: Coinbase had a hiccup to the tune of $100 million, but the company is humming a new song after a post-settlement stock bump. Anna goes over what happened.
Time to charge that EV playbook: Tim reports on Toyota’s tumble from being top EV dog and which carmaker was there to pick up the pieces.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

If you couldn’t tell by your Twitter feed, CES is happening. Brian introduces CES and how you can get all.the.juicy details for the rest of the conference. Kyle also helped you out by rounding up a list of the top AI-powered products seen at the conference.

One of the stories that particularly caught our eye today was Kyle’s story on Ring bringing back its Peephole Cam. It was something ahead of its time apparently, with Ring shuttering the product in 2021. Now it’s back in all of its glory and can be yours at the starting price of $129.

Here are a few favs from today’s batch of CES stories:

Haje has your look at Trova’s stylish hiding spot for your unmentionables.
Rebecca’s CES car talk got us all excited, including Sony and Honda revealing Afeela, their joint EV brand, and BMW unveiling its Dee prototype, promising “the next level of human-machine interaction.”
Ingrid reported on John Deere and its robotics-based fertilizer system and new electric excavator.
Meanwhile, Brian has a CES success story for you about Aeo’s robot designed to patrol and disinfect hospitals.

Our team wrote 51 Big Tech stories today, so I’m gifting you an extra one over the usual five:

Back in the saddle again: Who had Stitch Fix’s former CEO taking back the helm on their 2023 BINGO card? No one? Connie fills in some details surrounding Katrina Lake coming back for an interim stint, adding to a CNBC report that included another round of layoffs, this time 20% of the company’s 1,700 employees.
You gotta fight for your right to communicate privately: And WhatsApp is behind you 100%. Aisha reports that the messaging giant launched a proxy support for users globally to be able to maintain access even if their connection is blocked or disrupted.
Art is in the eye of the AI-powered beholder: Kyle reports on Picsart’s AI-powered SketchAI app that turns images and outlines into digital art.
And the streaming crown goes to…: Lauren writes about Roku ending 2022 with a new milestone — over 70 million active accounts. The streaming company is claiming it’s still No. 1 among TV streaming platforms in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by hours streamed.
Another bytes the crypto dust: Jacquelyn reports that the New York Attorney General sued Alex Mashinsky, the former Celsius CEO, for defrauding crypto investors. The crypto lender filed for bankruptcy over the summer.
Privacy ping: As Natasha L notes, Apple received a rare fine. France’s data protection watchdog group fined the consumer tech giant about $8.5 million related to Apple’s practice of “not obtaining local mobile users’ consent prior to placing (and/or reading) ad identifiers on their devices in breach of local data protection law.”

Daily Crunch: In layoff update, Amazon CEO tells workers ‘we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Today at its special launch event, home backup power giant EcoFlow launched a flurry of new products, including a ‘Whole-home Backup Power Solution.’ The company also launched a battery-powered fridge and a portable battery-powered air conditioning unit, which both makes sense. There’s also a lawnmower, which makes me think that preppers will have delightfully pristine lawns, even as the apocalypse looms.

Today at CES in Las Vegas, hidden among all its other news, a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch it is also planning to release full-house battery backup power solutions to go with its more portable battery backup systems, and its RV-focused solutions. The company was tight-lipped about exactly what it was releasing, or when, but it’ll be interesting to see what the battery backup powerhouse comes up with later in the year

Power backup

EcoFlow’s Whole-home Backup Power Solution is a backup power system that aims to keep a house running without noisy, gas-guzzling generators. The kit is available in three different kits to scale based on a user’s needs. The company has built the solution around its high-end Delta Pro portable power station.

“We’re excited to be showcasing our innovative Whole-home Backup Power Solution and our new smart devices at CES 2023. In recent years we’ve been through the pandemic which was a life-altering event, we’ve got electricity bills that are rising and extreme weather that is creating an ever more unstable energy situation,” said EcoFlow’s Head of Business Development, Brian Essenmacher, at the company’s press event at CES. “That’s why EcoFlow is providing power that’s easier than ever and helping users to make the most of life, whether that’s by saving users time and money to devote to the things that matter most to them, or by making life more enjoyable at home, outdoors and in mobile spaces.”

The Advanced Kit connects two Delta Pro units via the company’s Double Voltage Hub, resulting in an impressive 7,200W output. That should be plenty to power pretty much any device you have in the house. Take it easy on the power consumption, and the company claims you can keep an average home running for about a week. For folks who want to keep the party going for even longer can hook up a duel-fuel generator (powered by a propane tank or good old-fashioned gasoline) to further reduce grid dependence.

EcoFlow Wave 2: portable air conditioner and heater

It’s not exactly a powerhouse in terms of cooling or heating, but for a portable, battery-powered unit, the upgraded EcoFlow Wave 2 is a welcome breath of fresh (or hot) air. With the add-on battery, it can run for up to 8 hours on a charge, and at 14 kg (33 lbs), it’s reasonably portable as well.

The heating/cooling unit packs 5,100 BTUs of cooling and 6,100 BTUs of heating – on par with an entry-level window AC unit. It’s enough to cool or heat a room or a small space such as an RV – assuming the RV itself is well insulated.

EcoFlow Glacier: portable fridge with ice maker

The end of days just won’t be the same if you can’t enjoy it with an ice-cold margarita, so EcoFlow has you covered on that front as well. The Glacier has a high-capacity ice makers that the company says will produce 18 ice cubes four times per hour. The fridge can run for 24 hours on a single charge, and has an option for direct solar charging: Plug in a solar panel, and you’re good pretty much indefinitely.

The fridge has a 297Wh battery built in, and features a bunch of power saving features to stretch the cooling powers even further.

EcoFlow Blade: the robotic lawn mower

So far, EcoFlow’s marketing and messaging has been focused on disaster response and power cuts, with a side of ‘hey you want to live out of an RV, we’ve got power stations for that’. The lawnmower is operable via an app, and features automatic leaf collection, virtual boundary navigation and all sorts of other neat fully-robotic-lawnmower features.

The company says the device has advanced route planning and virtual boundary planning, obstacle climbing and avoidance, and theft protection. The device comes with 4G built-in, so it can merrily roam around your property out of Wi-Fi range.

The products will be available in April this year, pricing has not yet been set.

EcoFlow teases full-house battery backup coming later this year by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

New York City public schools have restricted access to ChatGPT, the AI system that can generate text on a range of subjects and in various styles, on school networks and devices. As widely reported this morning and confirmed to TechCrunch by a New York City Department of Education spokesperson, the restriction was implemented due to concerns about “[the] negative impacts on student learning” and “the safety and accuracy” of the content that ChatGPT produces.

“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email, adding that the restricted access came in response to requests from schools.

It’s not a ban per se. The New York City public school system is using the same filter forChatGPT that it uses to block other apps and websites — e.g. YouTube and Facebook — on school property. Individual schools can request to have ChatGPT unblocked, and the spokesperson said that the New York City Department of Education would “welcome” the opportunity to have a conversation with OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, about how the tool could be adapted for education.

As for OpenAI, when reached for comment, a company spokesperson said that OpenAI is developing “mitigations” to help anyone spot text generated by ChatGPT. That’s significant. While TechCrunch reported recently that OpenAI was experimenting with a watermarking technique for AI-generated text, it’s the first time OpenAI has confirmed that it’s working on tools specifically for identifying text that came from ChatGPT.

“We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems. We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the OpenAI spokesperson said. “We’ve always called for transparency around the use of AI-generated text. Our policies require that users be up-front with their audience when using our API and creative tools … We look forward to working with educators on useful solutions, and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from AI.”

ChatGPT has an aptitude for answering questions on topics ranging from poetry to coding, but one of its biggest flaws is its ability to sometimes give answers that sound convincing but aren’t factually true. That ledQ&A coding site Stack Overflow to temporarily ban users from sharing content generated by the AI, saying that ChatGPT made it too easy for users to flood the site with dubious answers. More recently, the International Conference on Machine Learning, one of the world’s largest AI and machine learning conferences, announced a prohibition on papers that include text generated by ChatGPT and other like AI systems for fear of “unanticipated consequences.”

In education, the debate has revolved largely around the cheating potential. Google “ChatGPT to write school papers,” and you’ll find plenty of examples of educators, journalists and students testing the waters by wielding ChatGPT to complete homework assignments and standardized essay tests. Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern used ChatGPT to write a passing AP English essay, while Forbes staffer Emma Whitford tapped it to write two college essays in 20 minutes. Speaking to The Guardian, Arizona State University professor Dan Gillmor gave ChatGPT one of the assignments he typically gives his students and said that he would’ve given the AI’s essay “a good grade.”

Plagiarism is another concern. Like other text-generating AI systems, ChatGPT — which is trained on public data, usually collected without consent — can sometimes regurgitate this information verbatim without citing any sources. That includes factual inaccuracies, as alluded to earlier, as well as biased — including blatantly racist and sexist — perspectives. OpenAI continues to introduce filters and techniques to prevent problematic generations, but new workarounds pop up every day.

Despite those limitations, some educators see potential in generative AI technologies like ChatGPT. In a recent piece for Stanford’s Graduate School of Education website, Victor Lee, associate professor of education at Stanford, noted that ChatGPT may help students “think in ways they currently do not,” for example by helping them discover and clarify their ideas. Teachers may benefit from ChatGPT as well, he posits, by generating many examples for students of a narrative where the basic content remains the same but the style, syntax or grammar differ.

“ChatGPT may [allow] students to read, reflect and revise many times without the anguish or frustration that such processes often invoke, [while] teachers can use the tool as a way of generating many examples and nonexamples of a form or genre,” Lee said in a statement. “Obviously, teachers are less delighted about the computer doing a lot of legwork for students. And students still need to learn to write. But in what way, and what kinds of writing? A … side effect of this new medicine is that it requires all of us to ask those questions and probably make some substantive changes to the overarching goals and methods of our instruction.”

As NYC public schools block ChatGPT, OpenAI says it’s working on ‘mitigations’ to help spot ChatGPT-generated text by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Update, 1/5/23, 4:30 PM ET: Twitch reports that the site is in the process of recovering, though some users are still experiencing issues.

The popular live streaming service Twitch is experiencing an outage for the second time this week. Around 3 PM ET on Thursday afternoon, many creators who were live on Twitch were cut off in the middle of their streams.

“We are aware of issues with the site and our teams are actively working on a resolution,” Twitch Support tweeted. “Thank you for your reports and patience whilst we work on it — we will keep you updated here.”

Through out the incident, Twitch’s status page indicated that all systems were operational.

Not all streamers were affected, and some were able to restart their streams within about twenty minutes of the outage. But the timing of these issues sparked frustration among fans.

Just two days prior, on January 3, a Twitch outage temporarily made it seem as though some creators had deleted their accounts. This was because Twitch was having trouble loading followed channels on both desktop and mobile.

Twitch confirmed on its status page that the outage “could manifest in chat not working, login difficulties, search impaired, etc.”

At the time of publication, we have seem some affected creators reboot their streams, but Twitch has not indicated via Twitter or its website that Thursday’s issue is fully resolved.

Twitch did not immediately respond for comment about the cause of these issues.

Twitch experiences an outage for the second time in a week by Amanda Silberling originally published on TechCrunch

If you’re a gamer who plays on their Android phone a lot, the Razer Edge might be the dedicated platform you’re looking for — and the device will be available later this month starting at $400, the company announced at CES.

The last few years have been interesting for handheld gaming as, following the smash success of the twitch, companies have adopted various approaches to making something better than a phone but not quite as involved as a full-on console. Valve’s Steam Deck has been the most visible of these attempts, but phone gaming conversion kits like the Backbone have also gained in popularity.

Razer is a force in PC gaming but has had only mixed success in the mobile realm, with its branded phones and accessories not making much of a splash. The Edge is its biggest play yet, an Android handheld dedicated solely to gaming — no calls or texts here. It amounts to a modified version of its Kishi phone-mounted controller with extra features and the 5G “phone” permanently attached.

The device itself is definitely enticing for anyone who plays serious games on Android: with a 6.8″ 2,400×1,080 AMOLED screen running at a 144Hz refresh rate, it actually outstrips what most games on the platform support. But of course software tends to grow to fit the container it is put in, so we can expect games that natively support this display mode as well as the few that already do (like Steam Link, but that’s kind of cheating).

As a compact, dedicated gaming platform it seems promising, but the real question is whether, at $400 for the wi-fi version and more for the 5G one, anyone will shell out when for that price you could get a Steam Deck or Switch. Android has plenty of good games on it, but compared with the library available on PC and Switch it may come off as somewhat lacking. And of course you might already have dropped a few bills on your current gaming phone — which you could a controller for much more cheaply.

If, however, you are banking on the continued success of game streaming services like Geforce Now, perhaps a compact dedicated handheld like this, with a great screen and 5G (on Verizon only at present, though), is the way to go. You’ve got until January 26, when it ships, to make your decision.

We’ll see about getting ourselves a little hands-on time with the device at CES and see if it lives up to the hype.

Razer’s 5G Edge gaming handheld hits on January 26 for $400 by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

TikTok has quietly added video scrubbing thumbnails to its platform this week, as the company continues to beef up its video features. The new addition makes it easier for users to find a specific part of a longer video. The feature was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra.

Since the feature is starting to roll out this week, it might not be available for everyone just yet. It appears that the video scrubbing thumbnails are currently only available for newer uploads, as I was unable to see them on older videos. Although users have had the option to rewind or fast forward long videos on TikTok for quite some time now, the addition of video scrubbing thumbnails makes this process more intuitive.

For example, say you’re following a TikTok recipe video and want to get to a specific part of the video, in the past you would have had to blindly scrub through the video. Now, you will be able to see where exactly you want to fast forward to via the new thumbnails.

It was a matter of time before TikTok added this feature, given that it’s slowly been inching into YouTube’s territory. YouTube has had scrubbing thumbnails for what feels like forever, so it makes sense for TikTok to offer them on its platform as well, especially as it continues to present itself as a viable option for longer-form video creators who normally post content on YouTube.

Ever since TikTok rolled out the ability for users to upload videos up to 10 minutes in length, it has been working to improve the viewing experience for users. Last month, TikTok began testing a new horizontal full screen mode with select users globally.

Data has shown that kids and teens now spend more time watching TikTok than YouTube. This has been the case since June 2020, when TikTok began to outrank YouTube in terms of the average minutes per day people ages 4 through 18 spent accessing these two competitive video platforms. By continuing to enhance its viewing experience, TikTok is inching further into YouTube’s domain.

TikTok adds video scrubbing thumbnails to make it easier to find specific parts of videos by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

For the past several CESes, Qualcomm’s big announcements have largely revolved around automotive news. There will likely still be a fair bit of that this week, as well, but the company just announced an upcoming mobile feature in this down time between the Snapdragon Summit and MWC.

The Southern California chipmaker is partnering with Iridium to bring satellite messaging to select Android devices, starting with those running its new flagship SoC, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The technology utilizes the 5G Modem-RF Systems on the Qualcomm hardware, coupled with Iridium’s satellite constellation to deliver emergency messaging, following in the recent footsteps of Apple and T-Mobile.

Garmin is in the mix here, as well, adding support by way of its Response feature built atop the Iridium network for emergency messages in remote locations where no carrier coverage exists. That technology was built with hikers in mind, though certainly there are plenty of other scenarios in which such SOS features could prove a literal life saver.

“Garmin Response supports thousands of SOS incidents each year and has likely saved many lives in the process,” Garmin VP Brad Trenkle says in a release, “and we are looking forward to collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies and Iridium to help people connect to emergency services no matter where life takes them.”

Applications include two-way emergency texting and messaging applications beyond SMS, using Iridium’s L-band. With today’s news, Qualcomm is opening access to the feature up to OEMs. The first batch of smartphones to get the feature will be arriving this year. I’d anticipate some more concrete announcements on that front right around MWC.

Qualcomm partners with Iridium to bring satellite messaging to Android phones by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

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Welcome back to Chain Reaction and Happy New Year! As we kick off 2023, I’m curious to see if the crypto industry will be living the, “New Year, New Me” motto or if history will repeat itself. Hopefully the former. Anyways, let’s get into it.

The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Alex Mashinsky, the co-founder and former CEO of crypto lending platform Celsius, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022.

The attorney general claims Mashinsky defrauded hundreds of thousands of investors for billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. This announcement follows a bankruptcy judge ruling from Wednesday that Celsius owns users’ interest-bearing crypto accounts thanks to its fine print.

Separately, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried plead not guilty to all eight counts of U.S. criminal charges on Tuesday.

Prior to the announcement, he was expected to plead not guilty, so this wasn’t a huge shocker to most, but this decision could turn into a lengthy legal battle. Bankman-Fried could face up to 115 years in jail if convicted on all charges. His trial date has been set for October 2, 2023…so stay tuned.

In other big news, Coinbase reached a $100 million settlement after New York financial regulators found the crypto exchange to be violating anti-money laundering laws by failing to conduct adequate background checks.

More details below.

The week in web3

Coinbase reaches $100M settlement over background check failures

As mentioned above, New York financial regulators have found that the popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase violated anti-money-laundering laws by failing to conduct adequate background checks. Coinbase will pay a $50 million fine to the New York State Department of Financial Services and is also required to spend $50 million on improving its compliance program.

Bankruptcy judge rules Celsius Network owns users’ interest-bearing crypto accounts

The verdict gives Celsius ownership of the $4.2 billion in cryptocurrency that users deposited into its high-interest Earn program, according to a 45-page filing from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York on Wednesday. Celsius had approximately 600,000 accounts in its Earn program, and the accounts held a collective value of approximately $4.2 billion as of July 10, 2022, the filing noted. About $23 million of that value consisted of stablecoins. But all of that is now property of the estate, aka Celsius, the judge ruled.

SBF’s anticipated not guilty plea was a ‘smart play’ (TC+)

Former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried’s not guilty plea to several federal fraud charges was largely anticipated and something a few legal experts suggested was a tactical response. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty “because he had the absolute right to do so,” Anthony Sabino, a professor of law at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University, said to TechCrunch. “And it was the smart play.”

Solana price spikes as newly launched dog coin BONK gains community hype

Last week, Solana (SOL) fell to its lowest level since February 2021. But its price has slightly risen this week and some are crediting it to interest from Solana community members in Bonk, a new meme token that airdropped about 50% of its 56 trillion token supply to users last week. The Shiba Inu–themed cryptocurrency has risen about 43.7% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

Investors say web3 and hype are in for 2023, high valuations are out — maybe? (TC+)

Some think 2023 will just be the start of a venture winter and overall economic recession, while others think we could see some stabilization as things head back to normal by midyear. But who is to say? To find out how investors are thinking about the year ahead and what they’re planning, we asked more than 35 investors to share their thoughts.

The latest pod

Chain Reaction’s first season ended in December, but we’ll be bringing in new content for Season 2 next week, stay tuned!

Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a review if you like what you hear!

Follow the money

MSafe closed a $5 million round to develop multi-signature wallet solutions
Assure Wallet raised $1.4 million for its pre-Series A round
On-chain platform Ondefy raised $1 million to grow DeFi adoption
Web3-focused online education infrastructure DeSchool closed its seed round, hitting a $15 million valuation
Digital wallet Centbee raised $1 million to support Bitcoin remittances

This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.

Crypto is ringing in the New Year with new lawsuits and new chaos by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

We didn’t make it to the in-person CES last year, but we did manage to get our hands on a few products from the comfort of our own homes. That list included Power1, an iPhone battery case with a built slot for AirPods charging. The product’s creator, AXS Technologies, has since done a rethink of the accessory, which debuts at this year’s show.

Like its predecessor, the Model 3 relies on the iPhone’s MagSafe feature, but instead of running the full length of the phone, it’s significantly smaller — though the the company says it adds up to 5x battery life for AirPods. There are two modes – one just charges the headphones, while the other charges both them and the phone at the same time. The pad itself has a magnet strong enough to stick to a phone in a MagSafe case.

“Power1 Model 3 is our most significant and advanced design yet giving users the ability to attach our charging system directly on iPhones or on most MagSafe cases” says CEO John Merenda. “Power1 is the first product to offer all-in-one on-device charging of AirPods and iPhone and creates a new category of charging systems”.

The product is compatible with AirPods Generations 2 and 3 and is set to start shipping in the spring, priced at $100 – the same as its predecessor.

The Power1 AirPods charging case gets a lot smaller by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Want to get a “text” from your dog when he’s hungry, wants to go outside, or wants to play? The dream of being able to communicate with your dog is coming closer to reality with the launch of FluentPet’s new app-connected talking button system. The new product is an update to the model first made popular by a dog named Bunny, whose 9 million+ social media followers landed the sheepadoodle on Forbes’ list of the top 50 social media creators of 2022.

On TikTok alone, Bunny has 8.2 million followers on the @whataboutbunny account.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FluentPet was demonstrating its new communication system for pets, the FluentPet Connect.

Like the first version, the new system involves programmable buttons that, when pressed, speak voice commands. The dog can press the buttons with its paw or nose, while hexagonal, multicolored tiles — which the company called “HexTiles” — hold the buttons in place and offer visual cues for the dogs as to the button’s location. The system can be expanded by snapping together more tiles as the dog’s vocabulary grows.

To use FluentPet, dog owners will record their voice speaking command words, like “water,” “outside,” “ball,” “play,” and others they want to teach their pet to know and understand. Dogs already know words, of course — as any pet owner will tell you — but what makes this system interesting is that the dog can press a button to communicate what it wants. The sound itself emits from a base station with a speaker attached.

Some dogs are smarter than others, and not all dogs will be able to achieve Bunny’s level of success with such a system, of course.

However, the company says that over 70% of dogs using the system will get two buttons within a month — a “play” button and an “outside” button, typically. Then the dog owner may then add on an “All Done” button to signal that a play session has ended. On average, dogs learn up to 9 words with the buttons, the company has found.

Still, the findings from the sales of the original FluentPet system have been eye-opening. Since starting shipping its first-gen product in June 2020, the company has reached over 100,000 households. It surprisingly found that dogs weren’t just able to learn individual words, but were also putting together word combinations to communicate — like “water” plus “bone” to indicate they wanted an ice cube.

“Because we’ve got all of these people that are kind of co-creating this new product category with us, they’re able to communicate to us interesting new things — new button combinations that their dogs seem to use. So this is why we think of it as ‘translation,” explains FluentPet CEO FluentPet CEO Leo Trottier.

Trottier’s background is in cognitive science and A.I., he says — noting he left the Ph.D. program at UC San Diego after doing his undergrad at the University of Toronto in order to build the company that became FluentPet. Originally called CleverPet, the goal had been to build something more in the dog games space. (The other original co-founders have since left).

The data (with users’ permission) is being shared with the Comparative Cognition Lab, and soon, with John Hopkins.

FluentPet’s other co-founder Alexis Devine, is Bunny’s owner — so it turns out, Bunny’s social media across Instagram and TikTok was actually a savvy marketing campaign for FluentPet’s systems.

Work on the updated model began in 2021. This version now introduces Wi-Fi connectivity and a connected mobile app. That means when the sound buttons are pressed by the dog, their message is also sent to the app. If you’re in a different part of the house and can’t hear the sound, the app will alert you.

“There’s app notifications — you can get a ‘text’ message from your dog,” said Trottier. (It’s not really being delivered over SMS, to be clear — it’s from the app.)

The FluentPet Connect system is accepting pre-orders now. The starter pack — aka FluentPet’s “Get Started” Kit — comes with 6 connected buttons, 3 HexTiles and the battery-powered base station with a higher-quality speaker for $159. Original system owners can swap out their old buttons and base station for the new ones, but continue using their own tiles.

The pre-Series A company has raised funding from Republic.com and angel investors; 3 million+ was raised as CleverPet while another 750K came after the pivot.

FluentPet’s talking button system lets you get a “text” from your dog by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch