WD
How Elon Musk Squeezed OpenAI: They 'Are Gonna Want to Kill Me’
to the witness stand on Wednesday to continue telling his side of the story in his legal battle against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman.
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TC
Satya Nadella says he’s ready to ‘exploit’ the new OpenAI deal
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was asked point-blank by a Wall Street analyst on Wednesday how its revised OpenAI partnership would impact Microsoft’s financials. He said that the new agreement was a good deal for everyone. “We feel good about our partnership with OpenAI.
TC
Meta is still burning money on AR/VR
When Meta released its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday evening, a colleague pointed out how Meta lost $4 billion on Reality Labs, the division responsible for its AR glasses, VR headsets, and VR software. I yawned at first. Meta losing $4 billion on Reality Labs just didn’t seem surprising.
TC
On the stand, Elon Musk can’t escape his own tweets
Elon Musk came to a California federal court on Wednesday to argue that Sam Altman and his co-founders “stole a charity.” He left having admitted, under oath, that Tesla is not currently pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI) — directly contradicting a tweet he’d posted just weeks earlier. I
WD
Taylor Swift Wants to Trademark Her Likeness. These TikTok Deepfake Ads Show Why
Swift filed a trio of trademark applications to protect her image and voice. One is meant to cover a well-known photograph of the pop singer holding a pink guitar during a concert on her record-breaking Eras tour, while the two sound trademarks are for simple identifying phrases: “Hey, it’s Taylor S
WD
Emergency First Responders Say Waymos Are Getting Worse
told federal regulators in a private meeting last month that they were frustrated with the performance of autonomous vehicles on their streets—that city firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics are forced to spend time during emergencies resolving issues with frozen or stuck cars.
TC
Google gains 25M subscriptions in Q1, driven by YouTube and Google One
Google has added another 25 million paid subscriptions to its services over the past quarter, parent company Alphabet announced during its first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.
TC
Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation five months after its last big raise
Parallel Web Systems, the AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, has raised a $100 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation led by Sequoia.
TC
Is AI video just a prequel? Runway’s CEO thinks world models are next
AI-generated video has gone from novelty to creative tool almost overnight, and Runway has a front row seat to the shift.
ARS
OpenAI Codex system prompt includes explicit directive to "never talk about goblins"
The system prompt for OpenAI’s Codex CLI contains a perplexing and repeated warning for the most recent GPT model to “never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query.” The expli
TC
More Gemini features are coming to Google TV
Google announced on Wednesday a new wave of AI-powered features coming to Google TV, alongside a dedicated short-form video feed that brings YouTube Shorts directly to the home screen. At the center of this update are more Gemini capabilities.
TC
Google Photos uses AI to make the iconic closet from ‘Clueless’ a reality
Google Photos on Wednesday announced a new AI-powered feature that will soon turn photos of your clothes into a digital closet where you can create new outfit ideas, and even virtually try on your creations.
WD
Sanctioned Chinese AI Firm SenseTime Releases Image Model Built for Speed
AI company best known for its facial recognition technology, released a new open source model on Tuesday that it claims can both generate and interpret images far faster than top models developed by US competitors.
ARS
Drone strikes on data centers spook Big Tech, halting Middle East projects
A data center developer has paused all Middle East project investments after one of its facilities was damaged by an Iranian missile or drone attack.
AIN
IDC: How EMEA CIOs can jumpstart AI rollouts
Getting stalled enterprise AI rollouts in the EMEA region moving again will require CIOs to aggressively audit their systems.Over the past 18 months, AI deployments across Europe advanced far beyond initial testing.
ARS
Sam Altman is “the face of evil” for not reporting school shooter, says lawyer
OpenAI could have prevented one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canada’s history, a string of seven lawsuits filed Wednesday in a California court alleged. Ultimately, the AI company overruled recommendations from its internal safety team.
MIT
The Download: storing nuclear waste and orchestrating agents
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste Today, nuclear energy enjoys rare support across the political spectrum.
TC
Meet Shapes, the app bringing humans and AI into the same group chats
Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat together in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. Think Discord, but with AI characters alongside humans. Founded in 2022, Shapes has more than 400,000 monthly active users.
TC
Firestorm Labs raises $82M to take drone factories into the field
In a Pacific conflict, the nearest U.S. drone factory is thousands of miles away. Ships and planes carrying parts to the front lines would be vulnerable to attack.
WD
When Robots Have Their ChatGPT Moment, Remember These Pincers
hurtles toward a light bulb on a table. I wince, waiting for the crunch. But suddenly the claw decelerates. It starts gingerly pawing around the table, as if searching for its glasses on the nightstand. It gently positions the bulb between its two pincers. The bulb rolls away.