AI funding rounds, acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes, plus regulation, copyright lawsuits and big compute deals.
"Godmother of AI" Fei-Fei Li just voiced deep concerns over California's SB-1047 safety bill. While acknowledging the legislation is well-intended, Li warned that it won't actually solve the risks it targets—and will instead severely harm AI academia, startups, and the open-source community.
OpenAI co-founder John Schulman just left the ChatGPT maker to join rival Anthropic, aiming to refocus on hands-on AI alignment research. Meanwhile, OpenAI president Greg Brockman announced an extended leave through the end of the year. Schulman's exit leaves only three of OpenAI's 11 original founders at the company as Anthropic keeps poaching top safety talent.
OpenAI just confirmed that its upcoming DevDay won't feature its next major flagship model. Instead of a splashy keynote, the company is shifting to a three-city roadshow across San Francisco, London, and Singapore to focus primarily on API updates and developer sessions.
A YouTube creator just filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company secretly transcribed millions of YouTube videos to train ChatGPT and GPT-4 without consent, seeking over $5 million in damages. With high-quality web text rapidly drying up, video transcripts have become a crucial data well—and now, the latest front in AI copyright battles.
Nvidia has been scraping massive amounts of video from YouTube, Netflix, and other platforms to train its AI models, according to leaked internal documents obtained by 404 Media. Employees raised copyright concerns, but managers insisted the project—code-named Cosmos—had approval from top leadership. Nvidia defended the practice as fully compliant with copyright law, while quietly developing 3D world generators and digital humans behind closed doors.
Elon Musk just revived his legal battle against OpenAI, filing a new federal lawsuit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. The suit claims Musk was conned into funding a fake non-profit and takes direct aim at OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft. Musk is basically arguing that Altman's entire pivot to profit was an elaborate grift from day one.
AI chip startup Groq just pulled in a massive $640 million funding round led by Blackrock, valuing the inference specialist at $2.8 billion. The company claims its custom LPUs run generative AI models 10x faster and with a fraction of the energy of conventional GPUs. Meta's Yann LeCun is also joining as a technical advisor, giving the upstart serious ammo against Nvidia.
Nvidia has reportedly delayed its next-gen Blackwell B200 chips by at least three months due to a design flaw discovered late in production. Massive shipments to heavyweights like Microsoft, Meta, and Google are now pushed into early next year. Nvidia says production will still ramp in the second half, but declined to comment on rumors.
Meta is reportedly negotiating multi-million-dollar deals with actors like Judi Dench, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key to license their voices for its Meta AI assistant. The company aims to wrap up deals ahead of its September Connect event, bringing the voices to Instagram and Ray-Ban smart glasses. Why it matters: Meta is betting that authentic star voices will make hardware like smart glasses feel less like a gadget and more like an engaging companion.
Google just pulled its "Dear Sydney" Olympic commercial following days of intense backlash. The ad showed a father using Gemini to write a fan letter for his young daughter to her track idol, sparking outrage over AI replacing authentic human emotion. Google claimed it was only meant to illustrate early drafting, but viewers felt it completely missed the point.
Google just brought back Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas to join DeepMind, alongside signing a non-exclusive licensing deal for the startup’s tech. Most staff will remain at Character.AI under an interim CEO, with the startup pivoting toward third-party models. It is another big-tech reverse acqui-hire that regulators are already eyeing closely.
AI music platform Suno just fired back at the major record labels' copyright lawsuit, admitting it trains on open-web music while arguing that learning styles and patterns isn't infringement. Suno compared its training to a kid learning rock by listening to records and said it blocks direct artist imitation. The case is set to become a massive legal test for fair use in generative AI.
Helen Toner, the former OpenAI board member who helped engineer Sam Altman's brief firing, is now building a profile as Washington's trusted AI policy expert. After surviving Silicon Valley backlash and dodging Elon Musk's subpoena drama, she is focused on shaping AI safety and governance in the capital.
OpenAI just agreed to give the U.S. AI Safety Institute early access to its next frontier model for pre-deployment testing. The move aims to push back against mounting criticism over sidelined safety researchers and gutted internal guardrails. Details on how much access regulators will actually get remain scarce.
Google just faced intense backlash over its new Olympics ad for Gemini, titled "Dear Sydney." In the commercial, a father asks the chatbot to write a fan letter to a track star on behalf of his young daughter, prompting viewers to criticize it for outsourcing heartfelt human expression. The outrage highlights a growing public discomfort when tech companies suggest AI should replace authentic creativity and emotion.
Microsoft just officially added OpenAI to its competitor list in its latest annual report, specifically flagging AI offerings alongside search and news advertising. Even though Microsoft poured $13B into the startup, OpenAI's new SearchGPT shows they're now stepping straight onto each other's turf. OpenAI says the partnership remains intact.
Tech-loaded "AI toothbrushes" from giants like P&G, Colgate, and Philips might not actually improve your oral health, according to an Ars Technica investigation. Instead, the embedded sensors and companion apps serve as a direct pipeline for brands to capture real-world brushing habits, feed internal R&D, and pitch personalized product ads. Why it matters: The AI hype wave has officially entered your bathroom, and your daily hygiene routine is now prime behavioral data.
Yum! Brands just announced plans to expand its "Voice AI" ordering system to hundreds of Taco Bell drive-thrus in the US by the end of 2024. The tech has been tested across 100+ stores for two years to cut wait times and ease worker workload. Why it matters: While McDonald's recently retreated from drive-thru AI tests, Yum! is aggressively pushing forward.
OpenAI just threw its weight behind three U.S. Senate bills, notably supporting the Future of AI Innovation Act to formally authorize the U.S. AI Safety Institute. The company is actively courting lawmakers ahead of upcoming regulatory scrutiny to secure a front-row seat at the policy table.
Meta just shut down its celebrity lookalike AI chatbots after spending millions on likeness rights just last September. Instead of handcrafted personas based on stars like Dwyane Wade and Paris Hilton, the company is pivoting to AI Studio, letting creators build their own bot personas.
