Business Roundup Week Ending May 17

Chat GPT-4o is Out… and It’s Amazing

• OpenAI has released the latest version of ChatGPT that can converse using speech in real-time, understand visual inputs, and detect emotions.
• The new release is called GPT-4o (that’s the letter “o” which stands for “omni”) and is significantly faster than GPT-4.
• The demo showed natural dialogue, emotional awareness, adapting tone and style, incorporating sounds and singing.
• It highlighted enhanced visual comprehension, analyzing images, documents, charts, and even detecting emotions.
• Free users can access GPT-4o with usage limits, but Plus users have up to 5x more message capacity.
• A MacOS desktop desktop app with voice conversation features is launching for both free and paid users.
• You really do have to see this to believe it. Read the full announcement here (with some examples). Check out these amazing demos.

New Plugin to Rollback Failed Auto-Updates

• Andy Fragan made a proposal and released a feature plugin that will detect fatal errors during an automatic update and roll back to the
  previously installed version.
• Currently, if a fatal error occurs, the site crashes without any rollback mechanism like there is for core auto-updates.
• An email notification is sent to the site admin email when a rollback occurs.
• The functionality has been included in WordPress 6.6 nightly builds for thorough testing.
• Many agencies (mine included) have not implemented auto-updates for plugins because of the very issues this plugin aims to fix.
• Would you consider moving to automatic updates if the rollback feature was included in core?
• Give the feature plugin a try here.

Squarespace Acquired by UK VC Group – Taken Private

• The UK private equity firm Permira is acquiring website building platform Squarespace in a $6.9 billion all-cash deal.
• Permira previously acquired Zendesk, email platform Mimecast, and cybersecurity firm BioCatch.
• Squarespace went public in 2021, but will now return to private company status after it past $1B in revenue for the first time last year.
• Squarespace Founder, CEO, and Chairman Anthony Casalena, who steered the company from a blogging platform to a billion dollar business, will remain in his position.
• Squarespace has also invested heavily in AI to help businesses produce web and email content.
• Read more details in this Tech Crunch article.
• Squarespace is a legitimate competitor for WordPress, especially for simple websites. What impact do you think this move will have on your agency?

Worth a Look

• Like it or not, AI is affecting you and your business. Paolo Belcastro discusses how AI Is shaping WordPress workflows in the latest episode of WPTavern Jukebox.
• Animated block backgrounds are all the rage. Learn how to make these eight animations with just a little code.
• The stock art giant Shutterstock reached a deal to acquire Envato. Read the details in the press release.