Microsoft Brings Python to Excel, Cruise Reduces Its Fleet Following a Crash, and MrBeast Creates Controversy

Hello friends and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch's regular newsletter that covers the biggest tech happenings of the past few days. Couldn't follow the news closely? Don't worry. WiR will let you know.

In this edition of WiR, we cover Microsoft bringing Python to Excel, Cruise was forced to downsize its robotaxis fleet following a crash, and Amazon launched its new Fire TV Channels app. We also recap Twitter competitor Bluesky collapsing under the load, badly timed Olympics video from influencer MrBeast, IBM building code translator for COBOL and Snapchat expanding further into generative AI.

If you haven't already, sign up here to get WiR delivered to your inbox every Saturday. Now, without further ado, here's the news of the week!

Microsoft Brings Python to Excel: Microsoft this week announced the public preview of Python in Excel, which will allow advanced spreadsheet users to combine scripts in the popular Python language and their familiar Excel formulas in the same workbook. The feature will first roll out to Microsoft 365 Insiders as part of the Excel for Windows beta, Frederic reports.

Cruise Told to Reduce Fleet Following Crash: Cruise, GM's self-driving car subsidiary, has been asked by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to reduce its fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco following a crash. to an accident Thursday night with a fire truck.

MrBeast's geopolitical nightmare: Billionaire creator MrBeast inadvertently stoked generations of geopolitical tension in his latest YouTube video, in which contestants from "every country on earth" competed in elimination challenges Squid Game for a chance to win $250,000. It was the countries that were not included in the contest, along with the map featured in the video, that made the topic ripe for debate.

IBM uses AI to translate COBOL code: IBM this week unveiled Code Assistant for IBM Z, which uses a code-generating AI model to translate COBOL (one of the older programming languages ​​used ) in Java syntax. This is potentially very handy, given that over 800 billion lines of COBOL are used on production systems, and many companies that use it are very keen on migrating to more modern languages.

Amazon Launches Fire TV Channels App: Amazon announced on Monday the launch of its new Fire TV Channels app, giving Fire TV customers access to over 400 free, ad-supported TV channels, including ABC News , CBS Sports, Fox Sports, MLB, Martha Stewart and more.

Bluesky struggles to cope with growing popularity: X (formerly Twitter) competitor Bluesky relented following Elon Musk's announcement that X would no longer support user blocking in favor only mutes. The company often faced an influx of users when Twitter announced particularly unwanted changes, writes Sarah.

Snapchat adds new generative AI features: Snapchat is preparing to further expand its generative AI features, after...