AI funding rounds, acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes, plus regulation, copyright lawsuits and big compute deals.
Microsoft initially poured $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019 largely because it was worried about falling behind Google's machine learning scale, according to unsealed internal emails. CTO Kevin Scott warned Satya Nadella and Bill Gates that Microsoft took six months just to replicate Google's BERT model due to lagging infrastructure, prompting Nadella to push for the deal.
Google is reportedly shelling out $5 million to $6 million a year to News Corp to develop AI-related content and products. While tech giants scramble to secure media partnerships to feed their models, News Corp quickly pushed back, stating it has absolutely no AI licensing deal in place with Google.
OpenAI just struck a licensing partnership with the Financial Times to bring FT's journalism into ChatGPT. Users will see attributed summaries, quotes, and links to FT reporting in relevant answers. The FT has also deployed ChatGPT Enterprise to all staff, signaling that major publishers are opting to partner rather than fight.
Sam Altman’s OpenAI is reportedly in talks to partner with Worldcoin, his other high-profile venture focused on crypto and iris-scanning digital identity. Under the potential deal, OpenAI would provide AI solutions and services to Worldcoin, though the close ties between Altman’s two ventures are almost certain to draw fresh regulatory scrutiny.
Meta advertisers are watching budgets rapidly evaporate as the company's automated platform, Advantage Plus, misfires with skyrocketing costs and dismal returns. Multiple marketers reported CPMs spiking up to 10 times higher than normal while generating virtually zero revenue. Why it matters: The promise of 'set it and forget it' automation is colliding with costly bugs, driving frustrated businesses back to manual ad setups.
Apple has reopened talks with OpenAI to power new generative AI features on iPhones later this year. The discussions focus on integrating a ChatGPT-like bot into iOS 18 alongside Apple's own models. Apple is still in active talks with Google over Gemini licensing as well, with no final decision made.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security just formed a 22-member AI Safety and Security Board, tapping tech leaders like Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, and Sundar Pichai. The panel is tasked with shielding critical infrastructure like power grids and airports from AI-driven threats. Why it matters: As risks range from automated cyberattacks to bioweapons, Washington is asking the builders of AI to help safeguard the nation against it.
Drake just took down his Kendrick Lamar diss track "Taylor Made" from X after Tupac Shakur’s estate gave him a 24-hour ultimatum to pull it or get sued. The track used AI-generated vocals mimicking the late rap legend. Why it matters: It’s one of the most high-profile clashes yet over unauthorized AI voice clones in mainstream music.
Google just announced a $3 billion investment to build and expand data centers across Virginia and Indiana to power its AI workload. Alongside the infrastructure boost, Google.org is launching a $75 million fund and the Google AI Essentials course to train one million Americans in basic AI skills for free.
A Maryland high school athletic director was just arrested after allegedly using AI to fabricate a racist audio recording of his principal. The deepfaked clip went viral and got the principal suspended, before forensic analysts traced the audio back to AI tools used on the school network. Why it matters: It’s a chilling look at how accessible voice-cloning tech is already being weaponized for personal vendettas.
Google just released a new research report with fellow Andrew McAfee exploring how generative AI will shape the economy. The research argues that fears of mass technological unemployment are likely overblown, predicting AI will diffuse much faster than electricity or the steam engine and help boost entry-level workers' performance.
LA Metro is installing AI-powered cameras on city buses to automatically catch drivers illegally parked in dedicated bus lanes and stops. Violations won't be purely automated—footage gets sent to the transportation department for human review before tickets are issued. Testing kicks off this summer.
Tupac Shakur’s estate just threatened legal action against Drake over his Kendrick Lamar diss track "Taylor Made," which used unauthorized AI clones of the late rapper and Snoop Dogg. The estate gave Drake 24 hours to pull the track, calling it a blatant abuse of Tupac's legacy.
AI coding startup Augment just emerged from stealth with a massive $252M funding round at a near-unicorn $977M valuation. Backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and top venture firms, the company is founded by ex-Microsoft and Google veterans aiming to fix code quality and developer burnout. Why it matters: Coding assistants are a brutal, cash-burning market, but Augment now has the runway to take a real shot at Microsoft's GitHub Copilot.
Moderna just rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise across its thousands of employees, with staff building 750 custom GPTs in just two months. Use cases range from Dose ID—which analyzes clinical trial data to optimize vaccine dosages—to legal review bots. Why it matters: Moderna is betting that generative AI can allow a few thousand people to operate like a 100,000-person pharma giant, aiming to launch 15 new treatments in five years.
Apple has cut its 2024 Vision Pro shipment forecast to 400,000–450,000 units, well below market expectations of 700,000 or more, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. U.S. demand has dropped faster than expected, prompting order cuts ahead of international launches and likely delaying any new hardware iterations until after 2025.
OpenAI just joined forces with competitors including Google, Meta, and Microsoft to adopt new "Safety by Design" principles aimed at protecting children. Led by child protection group Thorn, the alliance pledged to scrub child abuse material across training, deployment, and ongoing platform maintenance, alongside releasing annual progress updates.
Microsoft just hired former Meta VP of infrastructure Jason Taylor as corporate VP and deputy CTO to build its next wave of AI supercomputing systems. Taylor previously spent over a decade managing Meta's AI data infrastructure and hardware budgets. Why it matters: As frontier models demand massive compute, Microsoft is securing veteran talent to scale its foundational data center architecture.
Meta just opened up its Quest operating system, dubbed Meta Horizon OS, to third-party hardware makers including Asus ROG and Lenovo. It basically mimics Google's Android playbook for mixed reality to counter Apple's closed Vision Pro ecosystem.
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman just delivered a TED Talk offering an eye-opening mental model for artificial intelligence, arguing that we are essentially creating a "new digital species." He pointed out that even leading AI creators struggle to define where the technology is heading, urging the world to look closely at this pivotal moment.
