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OpenAI lawyers question Meta’s role in Elon Musk’s B takeover bid  | TechCrunch

OpenAI lawyers question Meta’s role in Elon Musk’s $97B takeover bid  | TechCrunch

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OpenAI is asking Meta to produce evidence related to any coordinated plans with Elon Musk and xAI to acquire or invest in the ChatGPT-maker.

The request was made public in a brief filed Thursday in Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI. Lawyers representing OpenAI said they subpoenaed Meta in June for documents related to its potential involvement in Musk’s unsolicited, $97 billion bid to takeover the startup in February. It’s unclear from the filing whether such documents exists. OpenAI ultimately denied Musk’s bid.

OpenAI’s lawyers say they discovered that Musk communicated with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg concerning xAI’s bid to purchase the ChatGPT-maker, including “about potential financing arrangements or investments.”

Meta objected to OpenAI’s initial subpoena in July; the ChatGPT-maker’s lawyers are now seeking a court order to obtain such evidence. OpenAI is also asking the court for any of Meta’s documents and communications related to “any actual or potential restructuring or recapitalization of OpenAI” — the core issue in Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone directed TechCrunch towards a section of OpenAI’s filing which states that neither Meta nor Zuckerberg signed Musk’s letter of intent to acquire the ChatGPT-maker.

Meta declined to comment further. OpenAI and legal counsel for Musk did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

In the background of OpenAI’s fight with Musk, Meta has significantly invested in its own efforts to develop frontier AI models. In 2023, Meta executives obsessed over developing an AI model that could beat OpenAI’s GPT-4, court filings in another case revealed. By early 2025, Meta’s AI models fell behind the industry standard, reportedly infuriating Zuckerberg.

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Zuckerberg has upped the pressure in recent months, poaching several of OpenAI’s leading AI researchers, including a co-creator of ChatGPT, Shengjia Zhao, who now leads research efforts at the company’s newest AI unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs. Meta also invested $14 billion in Scale AI, and reportedly approached several other AI labs about acquisition deals.

While it’s unclear how far talks developed between Musk and Zuckerberg, the mere idea of a partnership between the two billionaires represents just how much of a threat OpenAI is. Two years ago, Musk said he would physically fight Zuckerberg in a cage match (it never happened though).

The rise of AI may have prompted Musk and Zuckerberg to set aside their differences.

The briefing disclosed Thursday is part of a larger lawsuit filed by Musk against OpenAI that takes issue with OpenAI’s conversion of its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation. Such a conversion is necessary for OpenAI to obtain funding from investors, and eventually go public. However, Musk — a cofounder and early investor in OpenAI — has attempted to throw a wrench in the endeavor, claiming that the restructuring goes against the startup’s founding mission.

Lawyers representing Meta asked the court to reject OpenAI’s request for evidence, arguing that Musk and xAI can provide any relevant information. Meta also argues that its internal discussions of OpenAI’s restructuring and recapitalization are not relevant to the case.

This story has been updated to add more information about the case, as well as history of Musk and Zuckerberg’s relationship.

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Magic: The Gathering will continue expanding this year—both for fans of its crossover sets, and those all in on the primary game.

At Friday’s Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced several new sets, with the main course being Reality Fracture. Releasing in October, the set will wrap up the game’s current arc wherein Planeswalker Jace has created an alternate universe so he can undo damage previously caused by the Phyrexians and Eldrazi. The Echoverse introduces new versions of popular Magic characters, like Chandra having ice magic rather than her usual fire.

Fracture’s creative and narrative lead Meris Mullaley told Polygon the new versions of Chandra and other mainstays like Ajani and Garruk are born from Jace’s goal to make “the perfect multiverse, [which] comes with some of his own biases. Chandra’s impulsiveness was something he bumped up against a lot. Where did that come from, what in her life shaped her to be that way? As Jace is crafting his multiverse, he’s like, ‘What if her dad didn’t die? What if he and Chandra were helping run Avishkar?’”

On the crossover front, Wizards is going back to Middle-earth with a Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering. Following the Lord of the Rings set from 2023, the characters and locations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel will get their own cards, with legacy characters like Gandalf and Bilbo receiving updates. If that weren’t enough, some cards have artwork similar to book covers, and others are done in the dwarven language.

Wizards of the Coast will bring The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering on August 14, and Reality Fracture will hit stores on October 2. You can read about Wizards’ upcoming, fully new game Mood Swings here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Big #Magic #Gathering #Set #Multiverse #AdventureMagic: The Gathering,The Hobbit,Wizards of the Coast">The Next Big ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Set Is a Multiverse Adventure Magic: The Gathering will continue expanding this year—both for fans of its crossover sets, and those all in on the primary game. At Friday’s Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced several new sets, with the main course being Reality Fracture. Releasing in October, the set will wrap up the game’s current arc wherein Planeswalker Jace has created an alternate universe so he can undo damage previously caused by the Phyrexians and Eldrazi. The Echoverse introduces new versions of popular Magic characters, like Chandra having ice magic rather than her usual fire. Fracture’s creative and narrative lead Meris Mullaley told Polygon the new versions of Chandra and other mainstays like Ajani and Garruk are born from Jace’s goal to make “the perfect multiverse, [which] comes with some of his own biases. Chandra’s impulsiveness was something he bumped up against a lot. Where did that come from, what in her life shaped her to be that way? As Jace is crafting his multiverse, he’s like, ‘What if her dad didn’t die? What if he and Chandra were helping run Avishkar?’” On the crossover front, Wizards is going back to Middle-earth with a Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering. Following the Lord of the Rings set from 2023, the characters and locations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel will get their own cards, with legacy characters like Gandalf and Bilbo receiving updates. If that weren’t enough, some cards have artwork similar to book covers, and others are done in the dwarven language. Wizards of the Coast will bring The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering on August 14, and Reality Fracture will hit stores on October 2. You can read about Wizards’ upcoming, fully new game Mood Swings here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Big #Magic #Gathering #Set #Multiverse #AdventureMagic: The Gathering,The Hobbit,Wizards of the Coast

crossover sets, and those all in on the primary game.

At Friday’s Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced several new sets, with the main course being Reality Fracture. Releasing in October, the set will wrap up the game’s current arc wherein Planeswalker Jace has created an alternate universe so he can undo damage previously caused by the Phyrexians and Eldrazi. The Echoverse introduces new versions of popular Magic characters, like Chandra having ice magic rather than her usual fire.

Fracture’s creative and narrative lead Meris Mullaley told Polygon the new versions of Chandra and other mainstays like Ajani and Garruk are born from Jace’s goal to make “the perfect multiverse, [which] comes with some of his own biases. Chandra’s impulsiveness was something he bumped up against a lot. Where did that come from, what in her life shaped her to be that way? As Jace is crafting his multiverse, he’s like, ‘What if her dad didn’t die? What if he and Chandra were helping run Avishkar?’”

On the crossover front, Wizards is going back to Middle-earth with a Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering. Following the Lord of the Rings set from 2023, the characters and locations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel will get their own cards, with legacy characters like Gandalf and Bilbo receiving updates. If that weren’t enough, some cards have artwork similar to book covers, and others are done in the dwarven language.

Wizards of the Coast will bring The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering on August 14, and Reality Fracture will hit stores on October 2. You can read about Wizards’ upcoming, fully new game Mood Swings here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Big #Magic #Gathering #Set #Multiverse #AdventureMagic: The Gathering,The Hobbit,Wizards of the Coast">The Next Big ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Set Is a Multiverse AdventureThe Next Big ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Set Is a Multiverse Adventure Magic: The Gathering will continue expanding this year—both for fans of its crossover sets, and those all in on the primary game. At Friday’s Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced several new sets, with the main course being Reality Fracture. Releasing in October, the set will wrap up the game’s current arc wherein Planeswalker Jace has created an alternate universe so he can undo damage previously caused by the Phyrexians and Eldrazi. The Echoverse introduces new versions of popular Magic characters, like Chandra having ice magic rather than her usual fire. Fracture’s creative and narrative lead Meris Mullaley told Polygon the new versions of Chandra and other mainstays like Ajani and Garruk are born from Jace’s goal to make “the perfect multiverse, [which] comes with some of his own biases. Chandra’s impulsiveness was something he bumped up against a lot. Where did that come from, what in her life shaped her to be that way? As Jace is crafting his multiverse, he’s like, ‘What if her dad didn’t die? What if he and Chandra were helping run Avishkar?’” On the crossover front, Wizards is going back to Middle-earth with a Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering. Following the Lord of the Rings set from 2023, the characters and locations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel will get their own cards, with legacy characters like Gandalf and Bilbo receiving updates. If that weren’t enough, some cards have artwork similar to book covers, and others are done in the dwarven language. Wizards of the Coast will bring The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering on August 14, and Reality Fracture will hit stores on October 2. You can read about Wizards’ upcoming, fully new game Mood Swings here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Big #Magic #Gathering #Set #Multiverse #AdventureMagic: The Gathering,The Hobbit,Wizards of the Coast

Magic: The Gathering will continue expanding this year—both for fans of its crossover sets, and those all in on the primary game.

At Friday’s Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced several new sets, with the main course being Reality Fracture. Releasing in October, the set will wrap up the game’s current arc wherein Planeswalker Jace has created an alternate universe so he can undo damage previously caused by the Phyrexians and Eldrazi. The Echoverse introduces new versions of popular Magic characters, like Chandra having ice magic rather than her usual fire.

Fracture’s creative and narrative lead Meris Mullaley told Polygon the new versions of Chandra and other mainstays like Ajani and Garruk are born from Jace’s goal to make “the perfect multiverse, [which] comes with some of his own biases. Chandra’s impulsiveness was something he bumped up against a lot. Where did that come from, what in her life shaped her to be that way? As Jace is crafting his multiverse, he’s like, ‘What if her dad didn’t die? What if he and Chandra were helping run Avishkar?’”

On the crossover front, Wizards is going back to Middle-earth with a Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering. Following the Lord of the Rings set from 2023, the characters and locations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel will get their own cards, with legacy characters like Gandalf and Bilbo receiving updates. If that weren’t enough, some cards have artwork similar to book covers, and others are done in the dwarven language.

Wizards of the Coast will bring The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering on August 14, and Reality Fracture will hit stores on October 2. You can read about Wizards’ upcoming, fully new game Mood Swings here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Big #Magic #Gathering #Set #Multiverse #AdventureMagic: The Gathering,The Hobbit,Wizards of the Coast

And nutrition is where Toval runs aground a little. The nutritional notes on that chicken parm meal betray 2,300 milligrams of sodium per serving, pretty much the entire daily allowance for an adult human. This is also on par with comparable servings of Stouffer’s meat lasagna. The Tovala meal also carried about 10 times the cholesterol as Stouffer’s.

Many other meals followed a similar pattern, loading up on fats and salt in order to make meals tasty. The net effect is that it’s a lot more like rich restaurant food than what most people prepare at home. Whether this is a good or a bad quality is up to you.

Only one meal of the seven I tried failed utterly: I flagged a teriyaki chicken dinner to my editor as a possible cultural crime against Japan. The meal was sweet soy drenching pale and steaming chicken, with an implausible side of thick egg rolls and some loose, unseasoned broccoli. It felt like the “Japanese” food you’d get at a mall food court in the ’90s. But again, this was a rare major misstep.

A more pernicious issue, in meals designed for the whole family, is the near-universal high-fat, cholesterol, and sodium content. Many with the income and inclination to eat hearty, low-effort meals like the ones from Tovala are either parents with children, or people in the retirement bracket. Each has their own reason to desire a little more nutrition, and less fat and salt.

By the end of a couple of weeks of testing recipes, I’ll admit I felt a little relieved. I was grateful to feel my arteries slowly reopen. Tovala’s culinary model makes a lot of sense to me, as a smart way of splitting the difference between prepared meals and fresh food. And the company has proven it can cook well. It might be nice if they’d also cook a diet that felt more sustainable.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

#Tovala #Oven #Meal #Kit #Robot #Chef #Futurekitchen,food and drink,cooking,review,meal kits,shopping">The Tovala Oven and Meal Kit Is Like a Robot Chef of Future PastA garlic-herb salmon with risotto was probably the best among the family meals I tried. The chopped asparagus was less than visually appealing when drizzled in garlic butter, but still tasty and a bit crisp. The salmon was tender and flaky. And the sweet pea risotto had no choice but to be delicious. There was so much cheese, butter, and lemon it was pretty much a concert of fats and acid.That chicken parm was likewise a mountain of cheese and salt. It reminded me, pleasantly, of countless family meals I had as a child in the 1980s: cheese-topped chicken, garlic bread, shells stuffed with ricotta and topped with even more cheese. The big difference is that there is simply no way my mother would have cooked this meal without a vegetable.Toval app via Matthew KorfhageAnd nutrition is where Toval runs aground a little. The nutritional notes on that chicken parm meal betray 2,300 milligrams of sodium per serving, pretty much the entire daily allowance for an adult human. This is also on par with comparable servings of Stouffer’s meat lasagna. The Tovala meal also carried about 10 times the cholesterol as Stouffer’s.Many other meals followed a similar pattern, loading up on fats and salt in order to make meals tasty. The net effect is that it’s a lot more like rich restaurant food than what most people prepare at home. Whether this is a good or a bad quality is up to you.Only one meal of the seven I tried failed utterly: I flagged a teriyaki chicken dinner to my editor as a possible cultural crime against Japan. The meal was sweet soy drenching pale and steaming chicken, with an implausible side of thick egg rolls and some loose, unseasoned broccoli. It felt like the “Japanese” food you’d get at a mall food court in the ’90s. But again, this was a rare major misstep.A more pernicious issue, in meals designed for the whole family, is the near-universal high-fat, cholesterol, and sodium content. Many with the income and inclination to eat hearty, low-effort meals like the ones from Tovala are either parents with children, or people in the retirement bracket. Each has their own reason to desire a little more nutrition, and less fat and salt.By the end of a couple of weeks of testing recipes, I’ll admit I felt a little relieved. I was grateful to feel my arteries slowly reopen. Tovala’s culinary model makes a lot of sense to me, as a smart way of splitting the difference between prepared meals and fresh food. And the company has proven it can cook well. It might be nice if they’d also cook a diet that felt more sustainable.Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.#Tovala #Oven #Meal #Kit #Robot #Chef #Futurekitchen,food and drink,cooking,review,meal kits,shopping

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

#Tovala #Oven #Meal #Kit #Robot #Chef #Futurekitchen,food and drink,cooking,review,meal kits,shopping">The Tovala Oven and Meal Kit Is Like a Robot Chef of Future Past

A garlic-herb salmon with risotto was probably the best among the family meals I tried. The chopped asparagus was less than visually appealing when drizzled in garlic butter, but still tasty and a bit crisp. The salmon was tender and flaky. And the sweet pea risotto had no choice but to be delicious. There was so much cheese, butter, and lemon it was pretty much a concert of fats and acid.

That chicken parm was likewise a mountain of cheese and salt. It reminded me, pleasantly, of countless family meals I had as a child in the 1980s: cheese-topped chicken, garlic bread, shells stuffed with ricotta and topped with even more cheese. The big difference is that there is simply no way my mother would have cooked this meal without a vegetable.

Image may contain Page Text Electronics Mobile Phone and Phone

Toval app via Matthew Korfhage

And nutrition is where Toval runs aground a little. The nutritional notes on that chicken parm meal betray 2,300 milligrams of sodium per serving, pretty much the entire daily allowance for an adult human. This is also on par with comparable servings of Stouffer’s meat lasagna. The Tovala meal also carried about 10 times the cholesterol as Stouffer’s.

Many other meals followed a similar pattern, loading up on fats and salt in order to make meals tasty. The net effect is that it’s a lot more like rich restaurant food than what most people prepare at home. Whether this is a good or a bad quality is up to you.

Only one meal of the seven I tried failed utterly: I flagged a teriyaki chicken dinner to my editor as a possible cultural crime against Japan. The meal was sweet soy drenching pale and steaming chicken, with an implausible side of thick egg rolls and some loose, unseasoned broccoli. It felt like the “Japanese” food you’d get at a mall food court in the ’90s. But again, this was a rare major misstep.

A more pernicious issue, in meals designed for the whole family, is the near-universal high-fat, cholesterol, and sodium content. Many with the income and inclination to eat hearty, low-effort meals like the ones from Tovala are either parents with children, or people in the retirement bracket. Each has their own reason to desire a little more nutrition, and less fat and salt.

By the end of a couple of weeks of testing recipes, I’ll admit I felt a little relieved. I was grateful to feel my arteries slowly reopen. Tovala’s culinary model makes a lot of sense to me, as a smart way of splitting the difference between prepared meals and fresh food. And the company has proven it can cook well. It might be nice if they’d also cook a diet that felt more sustainable.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

#Tovala #Oven #Meal #Kit #Robot #Chef #Futurekitchen,food and drink,cooking,review,meal kits,shopping

Ask.com, originally founded as the Y2K stalwart Ask Jeeves, is officially dead.

“As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026,” the homepage now reads.

SEE ALSO: Friendster has returned! But you can only connect with offline friends.

Ask Jeeves was launched in 1997 by the Berkeley-based duo Garrett Gruener and David Warthen, a year before Google’s now-dominant search engine debuted to the masses. At the time, Ask Jeeves’ natural language processing, combined with its personality-filled voice and branding, made it the go-to web search and answer engine for early internet adopters. The website’s butler mascot, Jeeves, modeled after the P.G. Wodehouse character, made appearances at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, holding its own against other iconic corporate logos of the early 2000s.

“Can one man have all the answers?” If he has access to the entire internet, absolutely.

But while many still refer to the site by its 1990s name, Ask.com hasn’t been “Ask Jeeves” for nearly 20 years, with the brand dropping the latter word and its valet logo in 2006. The shift came after a change in ownership, when the brand was transferred to American holding company IAC. In 2009, Ask.com was dubbed the official search engine of NASCAR.

“We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust,” Ask.com reads. “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”

Amid an overwhelming shift toward generative AI-powered search engines and a repositioning of AI agents as the future of web browsing, the loss of Ask.com feels like a true end of the early dot-com era. So long Jeeves, hello AI.

#Jeeves #Ask.com #officially #shuttered">No more Jeeves: Ask.com officially shuttered Ask.com, originally founded as the Y2K stalwart Ask Jeeves, is officially dead. “As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026,” the homepage now reads. SEE ALSO: Friendster has returned! But you can only connect with offline friends. Ask Jeeves was launched in 1997 by the Berkeley-based duo Garrett Gruener and David Warthen, a year before Google’s now-dominant search engine debuted to the masses. At the time, Ask Jeeves’ natural language processing, combined with its personality-filled voice and branding, made it the go-to web search and answer engine for early internet adopters. The website’s butler mascot, Jeeves, modeled after the P.G. Wodehouse character, made appearances at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, holding its own against other iconic corporate logos of the early 2000s. Mashable Trend Report “Can one man have all the answers?” If he has access to the entire internet, absolutely. But while many still refer to the site by its 1990s name, Ask.com hasn’t been “Ask Jeeves” for nearly 20 years, with the brand dropping the latter word and its valet logo in 2006. The shift came after a change in ownership, when the brand was transferred to American holding company IAC. In 2009, Ask.com was dubbed the official search engine of NASCAR. “We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust,” Ask.com reads. “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”Amid an overwhelming shift toward generative AI-powered search engines and a repositioning of AI agents as the future of web browsing, the loss of Ask.com feels like a true end of the early dot-com era. So long Jeeves, hello AI. #Jeeves #Ask.com #officially #shuttered

Ask.com, originally founded as the Y2K stalwart Ask Jeeves, is officially dead.

“As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026,” the homepage now reads.

SEE ALSO: Friendster has returned! But you can only connect with offline friends.

Ask Jeeves was launched in 1997 by the Berkeley-based duo Garrett Gruener and David Warthen, a year before Google’s now-dominant search engine debuted to the masses. At the time, Ask Jeeves’ natural language processing, combined with its personality-filled voice and branding, made it the go-to web search and answer engine for early internet adopters. The website’s butler mascot, Jeeves, modeled after the P.G. Wodehouse character, made appearances at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, holding its own against other iconic corporate logos of the early 2000s.

“Can one man have all the answers?” If he has access to the entire internet, absolutely.

But while many still refer to the site by its 1990s name, Ask.com hasn’t been “Ask Jeeves” for nearly 20 years, with the brand dropping the latter word and its valet logo in 2006. The shift came after a change in ownership, when the brand was transferred to American holding company IAC. In 2009, Ask.com was dubbed the official search engine of NASCAR.

“We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust,” Ask.com reads. “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”

Amid an overwhelming shift toward generative AI-powered search engines and a repositioning of AI agents as the future of web browsing, the loss of Ask.com feels like a true end of the early dot-com era. So long Jeeves, hello AI.

#Jeeves #Ask.com #officially #shuttered">No more Jeeves: Ask.com officially shuttered

Ask.com, originally founded as the Y2K stalwart Ask Jeeves, is officially dead.

“As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026,” the homepage now reads.

SEE ALSO: Friendster has returned! But you can only connect with offline friends.

Ask Jeeves was launched in 1997 by the Berkeley-based duo Garrett Gruener and David Warthen, a year before Google’s now-dominant search engine debuted to the masses. At the time, Ask Jeeves’ natural language processing, combined with its personality-filled voice and branding, made it the go-to web search and answer engine for early internet adopters. The website’s butler mascot, Jeeves, modeled after the P.G. Wodehouse character, made appearances at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, holding its own against other iconic corporate logos of the early 2000s.

“Can one man have all the answers?” If he has access to the entire internet, absolutely.

But while many still refer to the site by its 1990s name, Ask.com hasn’t been “Ask Jeeves” for nearly 20 years, with the brand dropping the latter word and its valet logo in 2006. The shift came after a change in ownership, when the brand was transferred to American holding company IAC. In 2009, Ask.com was dubbed the official search engine of NASCAR.

“We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust,” Ask.com reads. “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”

Amid an overwhelming shift toward generative AI-powered search engines and a repositioning of AI agents as the future of web browsing, the loss of Ask.com feels like a true end of the early dot-com era. So long Jeeves, hello AI.

#Jeeves #Ask.com #officially #shuttered

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