Generative AI
Ads Are Coming to ChatGPT. Here's How They'll Work
Ads Are Coming to ChatGPT. OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses, and that it won't sell user data to advertisers. OpenAI plans to start testing ads inside ChatGPT in the coming weeks, marking a significant shift for one of the world's most widely used AI products. The company announced Friday that initial ad tests will roll out in the United States before expanding globally. OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses, and that all ads will appear in separate, clearly labeled boxes directly below the chatbot's answer.
OpenAI and Microsoft lose last chance to avoid trial with Elon Musk
OpenAI and Microsoft failed to escape a trial over Elon Musk's claims that Sam Altman's startup betrayed its founding mission as a public charity when it took billions in funding from the software giant and made plans to operate as a for-profit business. A federal judge in Oakland, California, on Thursday rejected requests by OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss claims by Musk and ordered the case to proceed to a jury trial set for late April. Musk helped Altman and others launch OpenAI in 2015 and went on to found his own artificial intelligence company in 2023. Musk's lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial," OpenAI said in a statement. "We remain focused on empowering the OpenAI Foundation, which is already one of the best resourced nonprofits ever."
Inside OpenAI's Raid on Thinking Machines Lab
OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says. If someone ever makes an HBO Max series about the AI industry, the events of this week will make quite the episode. On Wednesday, OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, announced the company had rehired Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, cofounders of Mira Murati's AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab. We reported last night on two narratives forming around what led to the departures, and have since learned new information. A source with direct knowledge says that Thinking Machines leadership believed Zoph engaged in an incident of serious misconduct while at the company last year.
OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman's New Brain-Tech Startup Merge Labs
Merge Labs has emerged from stealth with $252 million in funding from OpenAI and others. It aims to use ultrasound to read from and write to the brain. On Thursday, OpenAI announced its investment in neurotech startup Merge Labs, cofounded by its CEO, billionaire Sam Altman . OpenAI will collaborate with the new venture to develop technology to link people's brains to computers. Merge Labs has raised $252 million in funding from OpenAI, private investment firm Bain Capital, video game developer Gabe Newell, and others to use ultrasound to read and modulate the brain.
OpenAI quietly rolls out a dedicated ChatGPT translation tool
Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini OpenAI claims Translate can rewrite the output to take context and tone into account. OpenAI has debuted a dedicated ChatGPT-powered translation tool. While folks have been using the main chatbot for translation for some time, you can now find ChatGPT Translate on its own webpage, as spotted. The tool can translate text, voice inputs and images into more than 50 languages in seconds, OpenAI says. Most interestingly, ChatGPT Translate can rewrite the output to take various contexts and tones into account, much in the same way that more general text-generating AI tools can do .
Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI
The news is a blow for Thinking Machines Lab. Two narratives are already emerging about what happened. Thinking Machines cofounders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz are leaving the fledgling AI lab and rejoining OpenAI, the ChatGPT-maker announced on Thursday. OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, shared the news in a memo to staff Thursday afternoon. The news was first reported on X by technology reporter Kylie Robison, who wrote that Zoph was fired for "unethical conduct."
2026 May Be the Year of the Mega I.P.O.
"We're going to get into a period of potentially unprecedented I.P.O. "But we are confident they're executable given the scale of these companies and the investor interest." These listings could create an enormous bonanza for Wall Street and Silicon Valley after years of lackluster offerings. They could set off a feeding frenzy among public market investors who have been waiting to get a piece of the A.I. boom, and Wall Street banks stand to make hundreds of millions facilitating the listings. That is stoking more excitement for the A.I. boom as it enters its fourth year, even as the question of a bubble intensifies.
How AI Companies Got Caught Up in US Military Efforts
Two years ago, companies like Meta and OpenAI were united against military use of their tools. Now all of that has changed. At the start of 2024, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI were united against military use of their AI tools. But over the next 12 months, something changed. In January, OpenAI quietly rescinded its ban on using AI for "military and warfare" purposes, and soon after it was reported to be working on "a number of projects" with the Pentagon. In November, in the same week that Donald Trump was reelected US president, Meta announced that the United States and select allies would be able to employ Llama for defense uses.
How AI 'deepfakes' became Elon Musk's latest scandal
A poster featuring an image of billionaire Elon Musk, calling for users of his X social media platform to delete their accounts due to the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok's image-creation feature, is seen at a bus stop in London on Tuesday. PARIS - Elon Musk's company xAI has faced global backlash in recent days over sexualized "deepfake" images of women and children created by its Grok chatbot. Here are the essential facts about the scandal, how governments have responded and the company's attempts to cool the controversy. Grok -- Musk's version of the chatbots also offered by OpenAI and other generative AI companies -- has its own account on the X social media network allowing users to interact with it. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
The Morning After: Apple will use Gemini to power Siri AI
Apple and Google have confirmed that Gemini's models power the new version of Siri and other generative AI features. Here's part of it: "Apple determined that Google's Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple's industry-leading privacy standards." In June, it was reported that Apple was considering partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic for Siri (the voice assistant can currently tap ChatGPT for certain queries as part of Apple Intelligence). Two months later, Google emerged as a contender. Another report suggested Apple might build the new Siri using a custom version of Gemini -- and that it would pay Google around $1 billion a year for the privilege.