Friday’s top tech news: Jury rules in favor of Elon Musk in securities fraud trial

Plus new details on Meta’s next AI headset, and another smart home company embarking on its Matter transition.
To close Friday’s news, came with unexpected speed a ruling in a securities fraud lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of fraud based on his 2018 tweets that he was considering taking Tesla private.
The jury deliberated less than two hours before determining that Musk is not liable for investor losses based on the tweet, avoiding a verdict that could have cost him billions of dollars in damages.
Thank God the wisdom of the people has prevailed!
I greatly appreciate the unanimous finding of innocence by the jury in the Tesla 420 private case.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2023
It’s funny, Google has been promoting its AI efforts for years, but something about the general attention ChatGPT is getting, combined with Bing owner Microsoft’s interest in the technology, seems to have started a fire among the search giant. Google is holding an event on search and AI next week on February 8. And CEO Sundar Pichai’s recent comments really make it sound like Google will soon let people interact with its AI technology in a way very similar to ChatGPT.
As we prepare to welcome Sony’s PSVR2 to the world later this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know that it hasn’t forgotten about its own Quest headset. During Meta’s earnings call, the CEO said the new headset would support its mixed reality technology when it launches later this year.
Finally, Aqara, a smart home company that announced a very interesting presence sensing sensor at CES this year, is gearing up to support the new Matter smart home standard. While this paves the way for seamless integration of its technology with other smart home devices, unfortunately there are still some a lot of reservations.
Stay tuned as we continue to update this list with today’s most important news: Friday, February 3, 2023.