California Governor Gavin Newsom just vetoed SB 1047, blocking what would have become the strictest AI safety law in the US. The bill would have required models costing over $100 million to implement kill switches and testing protocols. Newsom argued the broad rules would stifle innovation, leaving frontier AI developers free from binding state restrictions.
Apple has pulled out of talks to participate in OpenAI’s upcoming $6.5 billion funding round at the eleventh hour, according to The Wall Street Journal. While Microsoft is set to add another $1 billion and Nvidia remains in talks, Apple decided to pass on writing a rare equity check. The move won't affect their product partnership, with ChatGPT still slated to hit iOS 18 later this year.
ChatGPT's new Advanced Voice Mode was strictly instructed never to sing or hum, but a software architect just bypassed those guardrails by turning music into a chord-guessing game. The AI joined in for a duet of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," proving it knows melodies far better than OpenAI wants to admit amid copyright concerns.
Microsoft just launched general availability for fine-tuning GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini on Azure OpenAI Service. The update also brings Meta's new Llama 3.2 vision models, the Phi-3.5 family, and a new Correction feature to catch hallucinations in real time before users see them. It makes tailor-made enterprise LLMs much easier and safer to deploy.
OpenAI is reportedly on the verge of closing a massive $6.5 billion funding round as soon as next week, but it comes with a strict clause. According to The Wall Street Journal, investors can claw back their money if OpenAI fails to fully convert to a for-profit company within two years. Why it matters: Even with $4 billion in revenue, mounting losses and fierce rivalry are forcing the AI leader to ditch its nonprofit roots for survival.
OpenAI is just about to restructure into a full-fledged for-profit benefit corporation, stripping its founding nonprofit board of control. CEO Sam Altman, who previously owned zero equity, is set to receive billions in shares, hot on the heels of CTO Mira Murati abruptly walking out. Why it matters: The transition officially buries OpenAI's original safety-first, capped-profit promise in favor of traditional Silicon Valley investor returns.
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati just announced her departure from the company, quickly followed by Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and VP of Research Barret Zoph on the same day. CEO Sam Altman revealed leadership succession plans with Mark Chen taking over as SVP of research, as reports swirl about the company restructuring into a for-profit entity.
OpenAI just started rolling out its much-anticipated Advanced Voice Mode to all ChatGPT Plus and Team users, with full access expected over the course of the week. Alongside more expressive real-time conversations, the rollout adds Custom Instructions, Memory, and five new voices. The feature can even apologize for the wait in over 50 languages.
Figma just relaunched its generative AI app builder as First Draft after pulling it in June for cloning Apple's weather app. The tool now lets designers pick from four component libraries—ranging from low-fi wireframes to high-fidelity patterns—powered by off-the-shelf models like GPT-4 and Amazon Titan. It is currently rolling out in limited beta.
Snap just expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to power Snapchat's My AI chatbot with multimodal Gemini models. Users can now send photos and videos to get instant help like translating street signs or picking healthy menu items, which Google says has already driven a 2.5x jump in U.S. engagement.
Police departments across the U.S. are now testing Draft One, an AI tool built by Axon that uses OpenAI's GPT-4 to turn body-cam audio into incident reports in just eight seconds. While officers love the massive time savings, legal experts and researchers warn that automated reporting risks baking LLM hallucinations and systemic racial bias straight into criminal cases.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just published a new essay titled The Intelligence Age, predicting that superintelligence might be just a few thousand days away thanks to deep learning scaling predictably. He argues massive compute and energy infrastructure will be essential to ensure AI drives shared prosperity rather than becoming a resource fought over by the wealthy.
Jony Ive just confirmed he is teaming up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to build a new AI hardware device. Designed by Ive's firm LoveFrom and staffed by key former iPhone engineers, the venture could raise $1 billion by year's end. Specifics and release timing remain under wraps, but they're aiming to reinvent computing beyond traditional software.
GitHub just opened a preview bringing OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini to GitHub Copilot and Models. Developers can now swap out GPT-4o inside VS Code’s Copilot Chat to tackle complex logic bugs and edge cases with deliberate reasoning. Why it matters: Coding assistants are moving beyond basic boilerplate autocomplete toward actual architectural problem-solving.
Biotech firm Genmab just expanded ChatGPT Enterprise across its entire organization, issuing over 2,000 licenses under its "AI Everywhere" initiative. Teams built over 100 custom GPTs to draft clinical trial documents and translate research, reporting an average time savings of 3.5 hours weekly. Why it matters: It shows frontier LLMs moving past generic productivity into complex, regulated biotech workflows.
T-Mobile just teamed up with OpenAI to build IntentCX, a customer service platform powered by OpenAI's APIs and the new o1 model. Slated for rollout next year, the system parses support call transcripts to pinpoint customer pain points, aiming well beyond conventional chatbots.
Snap just unveiled its next-gen AR Spectacles, packing dual Qualcomm chips, hand tracking, and OpenAI multimodal integration into a standalone headset. The glasses feature auto-dimming lenses for outdoor use and run their own Snap OS without tethering to a phone. Why it matters: While consumer AR is still far off with a 45-minute battery life, Snap is beating Apple and Meta to outdoor camera-enabled AI by leasing the kit for $99 a month.
California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed 18 AI bills into law while vetoing the controversial SB 1047. The state is skipping broad existential risk bans to target immediate harm, outlawing election deepfakes and nonconsensual AI nudes, banning unauthorized actor clones, and mandating training data disclosures by 2026.
Perplexity just rolled out a new reasoning focus mode in beta for Pro subscribers, tapping into OpenAI's o1-mini. It is built specifically for math, puzzles, and coding tasks, though it lacks web search integration for now and runs with strict rate limits.
OpenAI just boosted usage limits for its o1 reasoning models for Plus and Team subscribers. The lightweight o1-mini gets a 7x increase from 50 messages per week to 50 per day, while the costlier o1-preview bumps from 30 to 50 messages weekly. It means power users can finally test complex logic and coding tasks without constantly watching the clock.
