The meaning of Rocket’s Redfin deal

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss the big real-estate technology news of the week: Rocket Companies, the mortgage, real estate and personal finance platform, is buying Redfin, the Seattle-based, tech-powered real estate company. Plus, Microsoft is bringing its Copilot AI technology to gaming, but will this be more than “Xbox meets Clippy”?

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Amazon vet Grant Hinkson spent more than eight years leading design engineering within the company's Devices and Services Design Group. But he couldn’t escape his desire to put his creative art and music skills to use in new ways, so he left to start his own game development project. His first release, called “Connectome,” is coming to Meta Quest VR. Read more.?

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Upcoming events: Tech and startup community gatherings on our radar in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

• March 17: Free Facilitation Lab Seattle with Voltage Control
• March 18: Discover How AI Redefines Expectations Responsibly
• March 18: Founder Workshop: “Pitch Clinic for Startup Fundraising”
• March 19: Startup & Small Business CoWorking Bothell
• March 20: Microsoft@50, presented by GeekWire, Town Hall Seattle
• March 20: START SOMETHING: Samantha Holloway, with moderator Marius Ciocirlan

Check out the GeekWire Calendar for more.

Catch up on your GeekWire Awards voting: Our annual event honors the top innovators and companies in Seattle and Pacific Northwest tech. See the complete list of finalists across nine categories and learn more in our coverage so far:

• Key acquisitions and big funding rounds lead Deal of the Year category
• CEO of the Year finalists share tips on leading startups
• Nuclear power, quantum computing and more Innovation of the Year finalists
• Echodyne, Pulumi, Read AI, Statsig and Truveta in line for Next Tech Titan
• Get tickets for the event, April 30 in Seattle.

Hot Links:

• With the Alexa+ rollout, Amazon is discontinuing a privacy feature that lets users avoid sending voice recordings from their devices to the cloud. (Ars Technica)
• Confused about what constitutes an AI agent? So are Amazon, Microsoft, Google and other big tech companies, apparently. (TechCrunch)
• OpenAI and Elon Musk agreed to a fast-tracked trial in Musk’s lawsuit over OpenAI’s for-profit conversion. Microsoft is seeking to dismiss the claims against it and doesn’t want to be part of the expedited trial. (Reuters, CourtListener)?

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