An Elon Musk-led consortium of investors recently submitted a surprise bid of $97.4 billion for all of OpenAI's assets in a note to OpenAI's board of directors, first reported by The Wall Street Journal. However, in a swift retort on X/Twitter, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed the offer, quipping that OpenAI could instead "buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," which got Musk to reply with a simple "Swindler." Though humorous on the outside, the altercation builds on previous tensions between the two, such as a recent exchange following the announcement of Stargate, which Elon's xAI was left out of.
During the Paris AI Action Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would reveal private sector investments totaling around €109 billion euros ($112.5 billion) in AI. The plan includes a €20 billion commitment from Canadian firm Brookfield and up to €50 billion from the UAE, which will fund a 1 gigawatt data center. The massive investment pledges, ranging from Amazon to Mistral, underscore Europe's drive to return to the bigger picture in the race to develop the best AI systems.
Thousands of artists are calling on Christie's Auctions in New York, US, to cancel its Augmented Intelligence auction, alleging that the AI models used were trained on human-created works without permission. The protest was backed by a letter with over 3,000 signatures, which includes artists like Karla Ortiz and Kelly McKernan, and accuses the auction of endorsing "mass theft" by profiting off of unlicensed content. However, a Christie's spokesperson defended the sale by stating that AI was "in most cases" trained on the artists' "own inputs."
OpenAI is looking to boost its presence in Europe by laying out a plan to open a new office in Munich, as announced in a press release on Friday. The ChatGPT maker aims to make use of Germany’s renowned technical expertise, academics, and industrial innovation to help more users, businesses, and institutions benefit from AI. CEO Sam Altman emphasized that this move builds on discussions with German officials since 2023, and follows up on the company's recent expansions into Paris, Brussels, and Dublin.
Apple's latest research paper on consumer robotics highlights the importance of expressive movement in human-robot interaction, perhaps drawing inspiration from Pixar's ever-iconic, letter-stomping Luxo Jr. lamp. The study suggests that robots designed with "intention, attention, and emotions" can foster more natural connections with users. Along with the paper, Apple included a video demonstration that shows the lamp robot, using its lampshade as a head and arm as a neck, responding in Siri's voice.
Co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence (SSI) is reportedly raising new capital at a valuation of at least $20 billion and is in talks with investors both past and present, according to Reuters. The list of investors includes names such as Sequoia, DST Global, and Andreessen Horowitz, which have helped SSI previously secure $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation. The startup aims to develop superintelligent AI with robust guardrails and is set to pursue a "new research direction" beyond traditional scaling methods.