GeekWire's Most-Read Stories of the Week

Catch up on the top tech stories from this past week. Here are the headlines that people have been reading on GeekWire. ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: BOT or NOT? This special series explores the evolving relationship between humans and machines, examining the ways that robots, AI and automation are impacting our work and lives: [Read more.]( THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES [Amazon Business leader taking leave of absence; Devices exec will step in to fill role]( Alex Gagnon, vice president of Amazon Business and a 21-year veteran of the tech giant, is taking a leave of absence from the company, GeekWire has learned. [Zulily’s downfall: How the high-flying online retailer soared, sank, and shut down]( For hundreds of people once associated with Zulily, their time at the Seattle-based online retailer was meaningful and formidable — which is why many are bemoaning the tech company’s recent evaporation. [Copilot Pro vs. ChatGPT Plus: Microsoft’s new paid service offers alternative to OpenAI subscription]( Microsoft’s new $20/month AI chatbot subscription, Copilot Pro, promises to give individual users priority access to the latest AI models, starting with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, along with AI integrations in Microsoft’s productivity suite that were previously reserved for business users. SPONSOR MESSAGE [Register for the 50th Bellevue Downtown Association Annual Celebration]( You’re invited to the Bellevue Downtown Association’s 50th Annual Celebration! Join us as we honor the people, projects, and partnerships that continue to shape our thriving Downtown community. Together with hundreds of other city builders and community leaders, we’ll celebrate the making of a great place and toast the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. Receive the early registration price until January 22. [Register today.]( [Washington state’s capital gains tax stands as U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeal of law]( The U.S. Supreme Court today decided not to hear an appeal of a Washington state Supreme Court ruling from March 2023 that found a statewide tax on capital gains to be lawful. [Scanning against scammers: Costco testing membership card readers at store entrances]( Membership has its privileges at Costco, and in a bid to keep it that way, the retail giant is piloting a new way to keep non-members out of its stores. [The most promising pitches from Techstars Seattle Demo Day 2024]( The 2011 cohort of Techstars Seattle will be hard to beat. [Tech Moves: Ex-Microsoft CVP joins Builder.ai as president; Moonbeam hires Seattle marketing vet]( — Vahé Torossian, a longtime former corporate vice president at Microsoft, joined software development startup Builder.ai as president and chief partner officer. [PowerLight joins Blue Origin to study power beaming system for the moon]( PowerLight Technologies says it's joined a team headed by Blue Origin to design a power beaming system for charging up robots on the moon. [Amazon logistics leader John Felton takes new role as CFO of Amazon Web Services]( John Felton, a member of Amazon’s senior leadership team who most recently helped lead the company’s logistics operations, took a new role as senior vice president and CFO of Amazon Web Services. [Three Pacific Northwest space companies win awards from Space Force venture fund]( SpaceWERX, which serves as a Space Force venture fund, has awarded contracts 18 small businesses - including three Seattle-area startups. [Seattle cybersecurity startup Oleria raises $33M]( Oleria, a Seattle startup helping companies manage employee access to applications and data, raised $33.1 million in a Series A round. [First Mode reduces workforce as it revises its vision for lower-emission heavy trucks]( First Mode says it's cutting back on its workforce as it adjusts to market demand for heavy trucks that rely less on fossil fuels. [Meet the 6 women innovators featured in a new STEM exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center]( Six orange statues on display at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle offer an eye-catching way to learn about the contributions of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). [Microsoft says exec emails accessed in hack by Russian group]( Microsoft revealed Friday that a Russian state-sponsored actor known as Nobelium accessed its internal systems and executive email accounts. [Amazon not planning to add delivery fees in Seattle as new minimum wage law impacts Flex drivers]( Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash made it known last week that they were adding new delivery fees for Seattle customers as a result of recently implemented minimum wage laws for gig workers. GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [INRIX: Chief Revenue Office]( - [BRINC: Head of Manufacturing & Supply Chain Operations]( - [BRINC: Senior HR Generalist]( - [City of Redlands: IT Security Analyst]( - [City of Redlands: Network Engineer]( - [GeekWire: The Etzioni Internship in Climate Tech Journalism at GeekWire, Summer 2024]( - [BRINC: Senior/Principal Backend & Platform Software Engineer]( - [Dexis Professional Services: PRISM Integration SME/Engineer (Advisor-Grade 8)]( - [BRINC: Senior/Principal Full-Stack Software Engineer]( - [City of Newport: Systems Administrator I or II]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? 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