Seattle-area office market 'clearly struggling' | Robocall bill passes | A Gates grandbaby

AI-powered chatbots are already changing how professors teach, University of Washington educators said during a panel discussion this week. Professors from a variety of departments and disciplines offered observations on using ChatGPT in the classroom.

Washington state lawmakers approved legislation to limit robocalls, but Kush Parikh, the CEO of Seattle startup Hiya, which makes tech to reduce unwanted calls, said “just making a call illegal won’t necessarily prevent it.” Read more.

Icebergs ahead? Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate Expeditions will face a hazard with historic relevance when the company sets out for another deep dive on the Titanic shipwreck in May.

What was the Deal of the Year? The five finalists in this GeekWire Awards category — Affini-T Therapeutics, Bungie, Copper, First Mode and MotherDuck — had a significant acquisition, IPO or financing round. Cast your vote. 

Hot links: 

• A Gates grandbaby: Melinda French Gates posted a picture holding her grandchild, a month after daughter Jennifer Gates shared news of the baby’s arrival. (Instagram)

• Banned by Amazon: Flipper Zero, a penetration testing tool, has been called a card-skimming device and restricted by the tech giant. (BleepingComputer)

• AI race: The New York Times writes that Microsoft and Google chose speed over caution as they released chatbots in a bid to control the tech industry’s next big thing — generative AI.