Microsoft ‘Skinput’ project prescient in light of new AI gadget | Amazon’s satellite prototypes working as planned

• More space news: Tukwila, Wash.- based startup Starfish Space has halted efforts to put its Otter Pup spacecraft back on track to demonstrate an on-orbit satellite rendezvous. Read more.

ChatGPT or not ChatGPT? That was the question, briefly, at Microsoft on Thursday as employee access to OpenAI’s signature tool was inadvertently blocked, raising alarm about just how the tech giant regards its multibillion-dollar investment. Read more. 

Thirteen years too early? Microsoft "Skinput," circa 2010, was a research project that projected light onto a user's skin, using sensors to detect different inputs. It's looking downright prescient in light of a newly unveiled AI gadget from a San Francisco startup. Read more.

Another cutback at Rad Power Bikes: The Seattle e-bike maker is closing a retail store in New York City. The latest organizational change at the startup comes after a series of layoffs and plans to pull out of Europe. Read more.   

Seattle giant Adaptive Biotechnologies hired Goldman Sachs to explore “strategic alternatives” for two separate business lines. Adaptive CEO Chad Robins said the businesses are at different stages of maturity, with different capital and development needs. Read more. 

AI meets M&A: Seattle-area startup Wokelo, started by two former management consultants (Saswat Nanda, above left, and Siddhant Masson) uses AI to produce detailed, multi-page due-diligence reports in a matter of minutes. The company has landed $1.5 million from prominent investors, serving customers including venture capital and private equity firms, corporate development teams at large companies, and investment banks. Read more.

Amazon Fashion chief departs: Muge Erdirik Dogan, president of Amazon Fashion & Fitness and a 16-year veteran of the tech giant, is leaving to pursue an external opportunity. She’ll be replaced by Jenny Freshwater, a longtime marketing leader at Amazon. Read more in our latest Tech Moves update. 

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Seattle-based Allen Institute, is launching a research center in New York to focus on interactions between the nervous system and the immune system. It will receive $10 million in funding over four years. Read more. 

Hot Links:

• Meta is working with Amazon on a new feature that lets customers buy products directly within Amazon ads that pop up in Facebook and Instagram feeds. (TechCrunch) 

• Kieran Snyder, CEO of Seattle startup Textio, and Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, made Forbes’ “Future of Work 50” list, honoring leaders who are rethinking the world of work. (Forbes)

• “Software is still pretty dumb.” Bill Gates makes that blunt assessment in a new blog post on why he thinks AI will completely upend how we use computers in the next five years. (GatesNotes)

• The battle for top AI talent is getting heated between OpenAI and Google as the ChatGPT maker pitches millions in stock compensation as a luring tactic. (The Information)