AI funding rounds, acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes, plus regulation, copyright lawsuits and big compute deals.
Apple CEO Tim Cook just revealed he personally uses ChatGPT and confirmed Apple is looking at the tech closely. While excited about its promise, Cook warned about bias and misinformation, arguing that because AI moves too fast for regulation, companies must step up and police themselves.
The EU just urged tech giants including Google and Facebook to immediately start labeling AI-generated text and images to combat online disinformation. Regulators want tags noticeable enough that users scrolling by instantly know "the robot is talking," while also warning Twitter that defying incoming digital laws could trigger fines up to 6% of global turnover.
Apple just announced iOS 17, packing on-device AI upgrades into everyday iPhone interactions. Autocorrect now runs a state-of-the-art Transformer language model directly on the Neural Engine for accurate predictions and grammar fixes, alongside on-device live voicemail transcription. Why it matters: Apple is quietly weaving edge machine learning straight into your core daily habits.
Apple just unveiled the Vision Pro, a standalone spatial computer controlled entirely by eyes, hands, and voice. It packs 23 million micro-OLED pixels across two displays and runs on custom dual M2 and R1 chips to process sensor feeds with almost zero latency. Why it matters: Apple is pitching spatial computing as the next major era after mobile, though the $3,499 price and early next year timeline make it an early-adopter showcase for now.
Compiler legend Chris Lattner just joined the Lex Fridman Podcast to discuss Mojo, his new programming language built for AI hardware and high performance. He breaks down how Mojo compares to Python and PyTorch, alongside his perspective on ChatGPT and the evolving craft of software development.
Meta just announced its next-gen Quest 3 VR headset, launching this fall starting at $499.99 for 128GB. It features a new Snapdragon chip with twice the graphics power, a 40% slimmer optic profile, and improved color passthrough ahead of Apple's expected mixed-reality debut.
Baidu just launched a 1 billion yuan ($145M) fund to back generative AI startups, aiming to boost real-world adoption of its Ernie Bot. The venture will cut checks of up to 10 million yuan for early-stage projects. Instead of backing more foundational models, Baidu is betting China's next AI winners will be in consumer applications.
Nvidia just briefly joined the elite $1 trillion market cap club on Tuesday before paring back gains to close at $990 billion. Fueled by an insatiable demand for generative AI chips behind products like ChatGPT, the company previously projected a massive $11 billion in Q2 sales, beating Wall Street estimates by 50%.
Top AI researchers and tech CEOs just signed a stark, one-sentence warning comparing the extinction risk of artificial intelligence to pandemics and nuclear war. Organized by the Center for AI Safety, signatories include OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Turing Award winner Geoffrey Hinton. Why it matters: The concise statement shows unprecedented alignment across rival labs to force catastrophic AI risks into mainstream policymaking.
Japanese officials just clarified that developers can train AI models on copyrighted works without individual licenses, so long as the goal is data analysis rather than enjoying the creative expression. The exception extends even to commercial systems, though generated outputs that infringe on existing works can still cross legal lines. Why it matters: Japan is removing legal uncertainty to build a competitive domestic AI ecosystem, putting speed ahead of its massive anime and manga industries' compensation worries.
A New York attorney used ChatGPT for legal research and cited six entirely hallucinated cases in a court filing. When ordered to produce the opinions, he had ChatGPT generate bogus rulings and submitted the screenshots. The federal judge has ordered a sanctions hearing for everyone involved.
Nvidia just delivered what Wall Street calls 'guidance for the ages,' projecting second-quarter revenue of $11B against analyst expectations of $7.2B. The chip giant's shares exploded 27%, adding over $200B in market value in a single day. CEO Jensen Huang noted that massive demand for generative AI chips is driving a decade-long transition to accelerated computing across global data centers.
OpenAI just launched a grant program offering ten $100,000 grants to fund experiments in setting up democratic processes for deciding AI rules. Winning teams must engage at least 500 participants and open-source their code and reports by October 20, 2023. Why it matters: OpenAI believes decisions about AI behavior should reflect broad public oversight rather than being dictated by a single company.
Sam Altman just warned that OpenAI could cease operating in the EU if it can't comply with the upcoming AI Act. Altman pushed back on classifying general-purpose models like GPT-4 as "high risk," noting there are technical limits to compliance.
Pew Research Center just found that while 58% of U.S. adults are familiar with ChatGPT, only 14% have actually tried it themselves for work, learning, or entertainment. Awareness is significantly higher among college graduates and adults under 30. Among those who have used the chatbot, roughly four-in-ten say it has been somewhat useful.
Spotify is reportedly developing AI tech that can clone podcast hosts' voices to generate ads without them ever stepping into a booth. The tool would let creators produce localized or multi-language sponsor reads with their permission. Spotify hasn't officially confirmed the feature, but admitted it's actively exploring generative audio.
Microsoft just announced it is adopting OpenAI's open plugin standard across its entire Copilot lineup, while making Bing the default search engine inside ChatGPT. Developers can now build a single plugin that works across ChatGPT, Bing, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, backed by new Azure AI tooling and safety services. Why it matters: It unifies the two biggest AI ecosystems, making building and distributing AI tools far simpler.
Anthropic just secured $450 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital, backed by tech heavyweights Google, Salesforce, and Zoom. The raise boosts its total funding to $1.45 billion to fuel next-gen self-teaching algorithms and its constitutional AI safety tech. Why it matters: Big Tech is actively arming Anthropic as the premier counterweight to OpenAI.
OpenAI just launched its ChatGPT iPhone app, and Apple is already pocketing its standard 30% cut on every $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus subscription through in-app purchases. Analysts estimate Apple could easily rake in hundreds of millions annually from rival AI breakthroughs without even having to build a frontier model of its own.
OpenAI just published a framework for governing future superintelligence, arguing systems exceeding human expert levels could arrive within a decade. The team proposes an international body modeled after the IAEA to inspect frontier models and track compute, while keeping lower-tier models and open source free from heavy red tape.
