Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, surged in popularity following its Super Bowl ads, while Elon Musk addressed a wave of departures at xAI, and Dutch phone giant Odido reported a data breach affecting millions of customers. These are just some of the headlines emerging from the tech world this week.
Anthropic's Claude experienced a significant boost in downloads after its Super Bowl ads, which featured darkly comedic scenarios of people seeking advice from chatbots. The ads, which mocked AI by steering users to inappropriate websites, helped propel Claude from No. 41 to a top 10 app on the U.S. App Store. According to data from Appfigures, Claude's U.S. downloads across iOS and Android totaled an estimated 148,000 from Sunday through Tuesday, a 32% increase from the preceding three days.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk addressed the recent departures at xAI, including two more co-founders who left this week, bringing the total to six out of the original 12. At an all-hands meeting, Musk suggested the exits were due to a lack of fit rather than performance. "Because we've reached a certain scale, we're organizing the company to be more effective at this scale," he said, according to The New York Times. Musk later clarified on X that the departures weren't voluntary, stating that xAI was reorganized to improve speed of execution.
In other news, Dutch phone company Odido confirmed a data breach that affected millions of its customers. Hackers gained access to the customer contact system and downloaded a significant amount of customer information. A spokesperson for Odido said the breach affected more than 6.2 million customers, including former customers who had service within the past two years. The stolen data included names, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, bank account numbers, and details of government-issued IDs.
In other tech news, Roku announced plans to launch new streaming bundles in 2026 as part of its efforts to grow profitability. The company is also expanding its subscription service, Howdy, to more platforms and partnering with more premium streaming services. The positive impact of HBO Max on Roku's premium subscriptions has encouraged the company to continue this strategy.
Finally, as Valentine's Day approaches, a Stanford graduate student's dating app, Date Drop, is gaining traction. The app pairs students with potential dates weekly based on their questionnaire responses. Over 5,000 students at Stanford have used Date Drop since its launch in the fall, and it has expanded to 10 more schools.
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