AI funding rounds, acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes, plus regulation, copyright lawsuits and big compute deals.
Scarlett Johansson just called on the U.S. government to pass federal deepfake laws after a viral AI video misused her likeness alongside other Jewish celebrities. Johansson warned that hate speech multiplied by AI poses an existential threat, urging lawmakers to treat AI misuse as an urgent bipartisan priority.
OpenAI just released a major update to its Model Spec, placing the behavioral guidelines into the public domain under a CC0 license. The updated framework explicitly embraces intellectual freedom, encouraging models to thoughtfully address sensitive or controversial topics without pushing an agenda, while clarifying how developer and user instructions can override default styles.
A new Rutgers University survey just revealed that 47% of Americans trust AI to benefit the public, surpassing their faith in social media (39%) and Congress (42%). Trust is highest among young adults and urban residents, though 62% still trust human journalists over AI-generated news. Why it matters: while public acceptance is growing faster than expected, actual AI literacy remains remarkably low, with respondents averaging just 3.3 out of 8 on a knowledge test.
The US and UK just refused to sign a declaration on safe and trustworthy AI at the Paris summit, breaking away from around 60 other participating nations. US Vice President JD Vance explicitly warned against overly precautionary rules and vowed to keep AI dominance inside America. Why it matters: Global consensus on tech guardrails is fracturing as the race for dominance heats up.
Microsoft and defense tech firm Anduril just expanded their partnership to drive the next phase of the U.S. Army's IVAS program. Anduril will take charge of future hardware and software development alongside production, while Microsoft Azure will serve as the preferred cloud for related AI workloads. Bringing Palmer Luckey's team onboard gives Microsoft an experienced hardware partner to revitalize its high-profile military headset contract.
Elon Musk just led an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, aiming to force the ChatGPT maker back into an open-source, safety-focused nonprofit with help from xAI. Sam Altman immediately laughed off the hostile takeover on X, sarcastically offering to buy Twitter back for $9.74 billion instead.
Google, OpenAI, Roblox, and Discord just launched ROOST, a non-profit providing free open-source AI tools to detect and report child exploitation material. Backed by over $27 million, the group plans to share vetted datasets and host moderation APIs. Why it matters: Amid intense regulatory pressure, tech giants are pooling resources to set shared safety standards.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France's AI sector secured 109 billion euros in private investment for the coming years. Backed by UAE funds, North American investors, and local tech firms like Mistral, the push aims to serve as Europe's heavyweight answer to the US Stargate initiative.
OpenAI just struck a content partnership with Nordic powerhouse Schibsted Media Group to pull articles from major titles like VG and Aftenposten directly into ChatGPT. The integration provides ChatGPT's 300 million users with timely Nordic news summaries featuring clear source links. Why it matters: OpenAI continues building out its verified media network to feed real-time responses while shielding itself from copyright backlash.
OpenAI just aired its first-ever Super Bowl ad, charting human progress from fire to ChatGPT to usher in what it calls the Intelligence Age. The company shared that over 300 million people now use ChatGPT—with nearly eight in 10 under 35—and that its creative team leaned on Sora to visually brainstorm the campaign.
OpenAI just shared three key economic observations on the road to AGI, noting that intelligence costs drop 10x every 12 months while socioeconomic value grows super-exponentially. The post also highlights that AI agents will soon act as junior virtual coworkers, making human agency more vital than ever.
Andrew Ng just backed Google's decision to drop its seven-year pledge against building AI weapons. Speaking at a veterans event, the Google Brain cofounder argued American firms shouldn't refuse to help U.S. troops, stressing that competing with China is vital. The shift marks a broader pivot as tech giants seek lucrative military partnerships.
Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a valuation of at least $20 billion. The pre-revenue startup was valued at $5 billion just last September, quadrupling its valuation as investor hype around top frontier AI researchers shows no signs of slowing down.
AI researcher Steven Hoi just joined Alibaba to lead its AI-to-Consumer business group. He plans to focus on building foundation models and AI agent applications for consumer markets over the coming decade. It shows Alibaba is getting serious about turning frontier model tech into everyday consumer software.
OpenAI is reportedly set to air its first television commercial during Sunday’s Super Bowl, according to The Wall Street Journal. Coming shortly after the December hire of its first CMO, Kate Rouch, the spot marks the ChatGPT maker’s biggest advertising push yet. Why it matters: As tech giants race for mainstream users, OpenAI is trading pure word-of-mouth for prime-time marketing.
Lyft just partnered with Anthropic to deploy Claude for customer support, cutting resolution times for driver inquiries by 87%. The bot handles frequent questions before routing trickier issues to human staff. Notably, Lyft also revealed that generative AI now writes one in four lines of its engineering code.
OpenAI co-founder John Schulman just left rival lab Anthropic after only six months on the job. Schulman, who originally joined to focus on hands-on AI alignment research, announced on X that he is departing to pursue another "extremely compelling" opportunity.
OpenAI just struck its biggest ChatGPT rollout to date, partnering with the California State University system to deploy ChatGPT Edu to over 500,000 students and staff across 23 campuses. The program includes custom course bots and free certification training to build an AI-ready workforce.
LinkedIn is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing the platform of unlawfully sharing Premium users' private InMail messages with third parties to train AI models. The suit claims LinkedIn quietly amended its privacy terms to cover its tracks and seeks $1,000 per user. LinkedIn denies using member messages for model training.
President Trump just signed an executive order re-establishing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), revoking the 2021 Biden-era framework. The revamped 24-member council will be co-chaired by the newly appointed Special Advisor for AI & Crypto alongside the top science advisor. Why it matters: The move officially elevates AI and crypto to the core of White House national security and tech policy.
