Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has reached out to the California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, requesting intervention to halt OpenAI’s transition from a non-profit to a for-profit organization. Zuckerberg argues that it is inappropriate to use assets built for charitable purposes for profit. Elon Musk supports this position and is already engaged in legal proceedings against OpenAI. There is concern about a potential shift in the tech industry where startups might initially start as non-profits to gain tax advantages and later switch to profitable ventures. OpenAI recently secured $6.6 billion from investors, contingent on relinquishing its non-profit status. However, OpenAI maintains it is fulfilling its fiduciary duties and continues to act for the benefit of humanity.
xAI, another AI company, has integrated a new image generator called Aurora into its chatbot, Grok. Previously, the image generation was handled by a model from Black Forest Labs. Aurora is described as having a deep understanding of the world, being trained on billions of images from the internet. The new model employs a “Mixture of Experts” approach, which involves multiple specialized models responding to requests, thus improving performance without increasing computational demands. Aurora’s training allows it to create photorealistic images and respond accurately to prompts. The model is also multimodal, enabling users to input and edit their images.
Pika Labs, a startup, has launched version 2.0 of its video generator. The key feature is “Scene Ingredients,” allowing users to incorporate their images of people, objects, clothing, or environments into AI-generated videos. The model automatically recognizes the role of uploaded images and integrates them into cohesive scenes based on text instructions. This feature enables users to place historical figures in modern settings or create dance scenes from various elements. Pika Labs, founded by former Stanford University AI lab graduates, has raised $80 million and is valued at $470 million.
Google has announced updates to its AI research assistant, NotebookLM, including the ability to interact via voice with audio summaries created by the tool. Users can ask for additional details or request the assistant to explain concepts differently. The updated interface is divided into three sections: “Sources” for managing project information, “Chat” for AI discussions, and “Studio” for generating new content from sources. Google is introducing a premium subscription, NotebookLM Plus, offering more audio summaries, customizable AI responses, shared team notebooks, and enhanced privacy features. This service is available for businesses through Google Workspace or Google Cloud.
The latest generation of AI language models is moving away from the “bigger is better” paradigm. According to EpochAI, models like GPT-4o have around 200 billion parameters, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet has approximately 400 billion. In contrast, the original GPT-4 had about 1.8 trillion parameters. Several factors drive this trend: the high demand for AI services necessitates more efficient models; “distillation” techniques allow large models to be reduced in size without losing performance; new training methods lead to more efficient models; and improved “In-Context Reasoning” methods enable smaller models to solve complex tasks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had predicted this shift, likening the parameter race to the historical arms race in processor clock speeds.
Bavaria’s Leibniz Supercomputing Centre will receive a new supercomputer by 2027, built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise using Nvidia processors and accelerators. This system, called Blue Lion, will run simulations and focus on AI algorithms. The supercomputer will feature next-generation CPUs and GPUs, likely Rubin (GPU) and Vera (CPU), which Nvidia plans to introduce in 2026. The project is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts, with a budget of up to 250 million euros.
Microsoft has advised companies to reassign the function of the Copilot button, introduced earlier this year. Initially designed to open the Copilot app, Microsoft now suggests admins change this to launch the Microsoft 365 app for easier access in work and educational settings. This change is due to Copilot no longer being directly integrated into Windows, especially following pressure from the EU. The Copilot app is available only to end users with a Microsoft account, not for commercial users with an Entra account.
Klarna, a Swedish payment service provider, has not hired new staff for a year, instead using AI to handle tasks previously done by hundreds of employees. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski stated that the company reduced its workforce by about 22% in the same period, now employing approximately 3,500 people, with around 200 using AI for core tasks. Employees were convinced to embrace AI by offering them a share of the gains as part of their salary. Klarna has been notable for its extensive use of AI, already handling customer inquiries that previously required 700 full-time employees. The technology has achieved customer satisfaction levels comparable to human employees.