Former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk...

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Elon Musk is facing a new legal battle, this time from Twitter's former top employees seeking over a whopping $128M in severance pay.

Will the billionaire’s legal team ever catch a break? Let’s get into it…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk

• AI replaces 700 customer service reps

• 8 New products

• Google co-founder makes a rare appearance

• Instagram rolls out new DM feature

• Apple launches new M3 MacBook Airs

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

ELON MUSK

🐦 Former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk

The Rundown: Four former top Twitter executives, including the ex-CEO and CFO, are suing Elon Musk for allegedly failing to pay over $128 million in severance — claiming the billionaire fired them without cause.

The details:

• The plaintiffs include former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, CLO Vijaya Gadde, and GC Sean Edgett.

• Musk allegedly cited reasons like "gross negligence" for the firings, which the execs deny in the suit.

• The former leaders say Musk has "special ire" toward them due to clashes during the acquisition process.

• Severance amounts range from $6.8M to $57.4M per exec, with Agrawal seeking the largest sum.

Why it matters: Elon has had his fair share of lawsuits recently — but this time, he’s on the receiving end. While the aggressive strategy towards rebranding the Twitter HQ culture and brand has seemingly been a success, the consequences continue to ripple on.

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KLARNA

📲 AI replaces 700 customer service reps

The Rundown: Swedish Fintech giant Klarna released a blog praising the success of its OpenAI-powered customer service chatbot, which handled a whopping 2.3M conversations in the last month.

The details:

• Klarna estimates the assistant will drive $40M in additional profit in 2024.

• The chatbot finished the equivalent work of 700 full-time employees.

• The average time to resolution dropped from 11 minutes to 2 minutes, with the bot available 24/7 and able to converse in over 35 languages.

• The Swedish firm laid off 700 employees in 2022 and said it will no longer be hiring new staff outside of engineering due to AI.

Why it matters: Klarna’s eye-popping statistics are a likely indicator of where all customer service is heading. Which, despite profit gains and user satisfaction, will decimate a massive segment of workers. While AI’s unlocks are endless — they won’t come without a major reorganization of current labor.

NEW PRODUCTS

🎨 StickerBaker- Bake custom stickers instantly with AI-generated designs

📸 Instanice- Transform your photos with stunning aesthetic effects effortlessly

🖼️ Ideogram- Helps you create stunning, photorealistic images from text

🪄 Freepik Pikaso- Create and edit images in real-time through the power of simple drawing

🎮 Auxuman- Transform your ideas into video games

🎥 LTX Studio- AI filmmaking platform for creators, marketers, filmmakers and studios

🤳🏻 Cartoonifier- Transform your photos into whimsical cartoons

🎬 Videotok- Create AI-Powered TikTok, Reels, and Shorts Videos with Ease

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

SNIPPETS

Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted in a rare public appearance that the company "definitely messed up" the launch of its Gemini image generation model, citing a lack of thorough testing.

Instagram rolled out the ability for users to edit their direct messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them, similar to Apple's iMessage edit feature.

Qatar unveiled a $100 million startup investment program through its development bank, aiming to attract seed and growth-stage tech companies to establish or expand operations in the country.

Apple launched its next-generation M3 MacBook Air range in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, featuring faster CPU and GPU performance, an upgraded Neural Engine, and support for connecting two external displays.

HP debuted a new printer subscription service called HP All-In Plan, essentially renting printers to consumers for a monthly fee that includes ink refills.

California has given Waymo permission to expand its autonomous robo-taxi operations to highways in Los Angeles and the Bay area, now allowing the cars to drive at up to 65mph.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company expects to ‘break new ground’ in AI later this year during its annual shareholder meeting.

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THAT’S A WRAP

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