AI funding rounds, acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes, plus regulation, copyright lawsuits and big compute deals.
Reverse-engineering group Rabbitude just revealed that Rabbit left critical API keys hardcoded in its codebase, allegedly allowing anyone to access every response the R1 has ever given. The keys could also let attackers brick devices or alter responses. Rabbit stated it was alerted on June 25 and has found no evidence of compromised user data so far.
The RIAA just filed massive copyright lawsuits against AI music generators Suno and Udio, claiming they unlawfully scraped vast catalogs of copyrighted songs to train their models and demanding up to $150,000 per infringing work. While the labels argue AI songalikes threaten their core business, the startups lean on fair use. Why it matters: this battle could redefine how all generative AI models license training data.
Anthropic just made Claude 3 Haiku and Sonnet available in AWS GovCloud and the AWS Marketplace for the US Intelligence Community. The startup also modified its usage policies to permit authorized foreign intelligence analysis like detecting sabotage and early military warnings, while strictly keeping bans on weapons and cyberwarfare.
OpenAI just acquired Multi, an enterprise-focused remote video collaboration startup, in an acqui-hire deal. Most of Multi's five-person team will join OpenAI, and the standalone app will shut down on July 24. Coming right after its Rockset purchase, the deal signals OpenAI's growing ambitions to build native collaboration features into its enterprise stack.
Universal Music, Warner Music, and Sony Music just sued AI music startups Suno and Udio, alleging they illegally trained their models on copyrighted recordings without permission or payment. Led by the RIAA, the labels seek up to $150,000 per infringed work, totaling billions in potential damages. The copyright battles seen in text and images have officially hit AI music, likely forcing eventual licensing deals.
Stability AI just appointed former Weta Digital CEO Prem Akkaraju as its new chief executive and secured fresh funding led by Sean Parker, who will become board chairman. The cash injection offers a much-needed lifeline after reports revealed the startup lost over $30 million in Q1 and owes nearly $100 million to cloud providers.
Meta has reportedly discussed integrating its generative AI models into Apple Intelligence alongside OpenAI's ChatGPT. Apple has also held talks with Google, Anthropic, and Perplexity, potentially creating a hub where AI companies sell premium subscriptions directly to iPhone users. Negotiations are still ongoing and could fall through.
Apple just confirmed it won't roll out Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, or SharePlay screen sharing to EU users this year due to regulatory uncertainties from the Digital Markets Act. The company claims the DMA's strict interoperability rules could force compromises on user privacy and data security. Apple is working with the European Commission to find a workaround.
OpenAI just acquired real-time analytics database company Rockset to bolster its data indexing and querying infrastructure across products. The Rockset team will join OpenAI to help integrate the technology. Why it matters: The deal tackles a major enterprise pain point, making it far easier for businesses to connect their live, real-time data to AI applications.
AI companies are quietly bypassing the decades-old robots.txt protocol to scrape publisher sites without permission, according to licensing startup TollBit. The finding follows Forbes recently calling out Perplexity for lifting its investigative work. With web scrapers ignoring traditional courtesy standards, publishers' primary defense against AI crawlers is essentially breaking down.
PayPal just hired former Walmart executive Srini Venkatesan as its new Chief Technology Officer to oversee AI, machine learning, and data science across its ecosystem. Venkatesan officially steps in on June 24, succeeding Archie Deskus. It marks a major milestone in CEO Alex Chriss's strategy to turn 2024 into a transition year focused on AI personalization.
OpenAI just revealed updates on its Cybersecurity Grant Program, highlighting sponsored research across UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, and MIT after receiving over 600 applications. The projects focus on countering prompt injections, patching code vulnerabilities, and building autonomous defense agents. OpenAI is also expanding its support by granting free ChatGPT Team and Enterprise tiers to cybersecurity researchers.
OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever just launched Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), a new lab dedicated entirely to building safe superintelligence. The startup says it will insulate itself from short-term commercial pressures and product cycles, with zero plans to release anything else until safe superintelligence is solved.
Elon Musk just revealed that Dell and Super Micro will supply the server racks for xAI's massive new supercomputer. Dell is assembling half the racks alongside Nvidia to build an "AI factory" aimed at powering Grok 3, which Musk says will need a staggering 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips.
Apple is reportedly shelving plans for its next premium Vision headset to focus entirely on a cheaper, lighter model codenamed N109. Aiming for late 2025, the company wants to cut weight by at least a third and hit a price tag between $1,500 and $2,500, though cost-cutting challenges could delay that timeline.
Microsoft just officially launched its new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro Copilot+ PCs starting at $999. Powered by Snapdragon X series processors and dedicated NPUs, the machines enable on-device experiences like real-time Cocreator image generation and system-wide Live Captions. It marks Microsoft's first major hardware push to make on-device Windows AI a practical reality.
Nvidia just dethroned Microsoft to become the world's most valuable public company, reaching a $3.34 trillion market cap after shares rose 3.6% on Tuesday. The chipmaker commands around 80% of data center AI processors, pushing its stock up over 170% this year alone. It confirms that the AI boom's biggest winner remains the hardware engine powering it all.
Google is aggressively pushing DeepMind to shift from an academic research lab into a commercial AI product factory, but the transition is causing serious growing pains. Insiders told Bloomberg that researchers are increasingly frustrated and burned out by top-down corporate mandates, a strain worsened by Gemini's rocky public rollouts.
U.S. cyber officials just teamed up with OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and AWS to run their first joint tabletop exercise simulating a cyberattack on a critical AI system. Over 50 experts gathered in Virginia to test incident response and communication channels, with findings set to shape an official AI security playbook due later this year.
Sam Altman is reportedly considering converting OpenAI into a for-profit benefit corporation, breaking free from the non-profit board's control. The structural overhaul could smooth over governance headaches like last year's boardroom drama, make raising up to $100B far easier, and ultimately pave the way for an IPO.
