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By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

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Two AI Developers Are Plotting $125 Billion Supercomputers

By Anissa Gardizy · Sep 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Developers of artificial intelligence say they need bigger and bigger data centers to concentrate processing power so that it produces better versions of the technology.The companies are notoriously secretive about the details of those plans, though, which is why we just published an AI Data Center Database that lists some of the biggest... Developers of artificial intelligence say they need bigger and bigger data centers to concentrate...

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Jensen Goes on the Defensive

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 29, 2024 7:10am PDT

Another quarter, another (almost) blowout earnings report from chip giant Nvidia. But this time, Wall Street isn’t too appreciative.Nvidia stock opened Thursday morning down a few percentage points, following a slightly bigger sell-off in after-hours trading Wednesday night during Nvidia’s call. What gives? After all, revenue in the last quarter... Another quarter, another (almost) blowout earnings report from chip giant Nvidia. But this time,...

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, in June. Photo by AP.

Nvidia Blows Competitors Out of the Water in New Test

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 28, 2024 8:00am PDT · 1 comment

All eyes are on Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report today (there’s apparently even a watch party for it at a New York City bar if you want to partake in some nonsense), so it’s a good time to share a new example of the company’s technological dominance.This morning, MLCommons, a nonprofit that evaluates artificial intelligence software and... All eyes are on Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report today (there’s apparently even a watch party...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos via Getty/Shutterstock.

OpenAI Shows ‘Strawberry’ AI to the Feds and Uses It to Develop ‘Orion’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 27, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos via Getty/Shutterstock.

OpenAI Shows ‘Strawberry’ AI to the Feds and Uses It to Develop ‘Orion’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 27, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

In case you were wondering why Sam Altman cryptically posted a picture of strawberries earlier this month, the answer almost certainly has to do with Strawberry, a mysterious technical breakthrough that could help OpenAI’s models complete complex tasks such as math problems that conversational AI has traditionally struggled with. (If this sounds... In case you were wondering why Sam Altman cryptically posted a picture of strawberries earlier...

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Ex-Googlers Discover That Startups Are Hard

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Aug 26, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Dozens of former artificial intelligence researchers from Google who struck out on their own are learning that startups are tricky.The latest example is French AI agent developer H, which lost three of its five cofounders (four of whom are ex-Googlers) just months after announcing they had raised $220 million from investors in a “seed” round, as... Dozens of former artificial intelligence researchers from Google who struck out on their own are...

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Is Enthusiasm For Meta’s Llama Slowing Down?

By Kalley Huang · Aug 22, 2024 7:00am PDT · 5 comments

To compete with OpenAI and other artificial intelligence developers, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs cloud providers like Amazon Web Services to convince businesses to use Meta’s AI model Llama.So far, that has been a mixed bag, as my colleagues reported on Wednesday. And we just noticed another potentially troubling sign about Llama’s... To compete with OpenAI and other artificial intelligence developers, Meta Platforms CEO Mark...

The California State Capitol. Photo by Arturo Holmes via Getty.

The Friends and Foes of California’s AI Legislation

By Rocket Drew · Aug 21, 2024 7:00am PDT

If you follow a lot of tech and venture capitalists on X, you’d get the sense that all founders and investors are in violent opposition to SB 1047. The proposed bill moving through the California legislature would regulate large artificial intelligence makers by requiring them to hire outside auditors, ensuring the companies are testing their... If you follow a lot of tech and venture capitalists on X, you’d get the sense that all founders...

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What Could Stop AI Scaling?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 20, 2024 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

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What Could Stop AI Scaling?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 20, 2024 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

So far, many of the improvements in large language models’ capabilities have stemmed from a surprisingly simple concept: scaling laws. Essentially, researchers have noticed that the more computing power and data you use to train AI models, the better they perform. This realization has pushed labs like OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Anthropic and ... So far, many of the improvements in large language models’ capabilities have stemmed from a...

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Red Teams, Bug Bounties and Freelance Hackers

By Rocket Drew · Aug 19, 2024 7:00am PDT

For the past year, an enterprising bunch of freelance hackers has been publicizing on social media how they’ve been able to manipulate the most sophisticated artificial intelligence models. Their “jailbreaks” produce answers that violate the models’ own guardrails, by prompting the models to disclose designs for weapons, drug recipes or sexually... For the past year, an enterprising bunch of freelance hackers has been publicizing on social...

Character.AI cofounders Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas. Photo by Winni Wintermeyer/The Washington Post via Getty. Art by Shane Burke.

What OpenAI’s Previous Talks with Character Say About Its M&A Strategy

By Kalley Huang · Aug 15, 2024 7:00am PDT

Over the past several months, Character.AI seemed to talk to every big tech company about some sort of partnership or acquisition. In the end, its cofounders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and some researchers landed at Google. But Character had another previously unmentioned suitor: OpenAI. Over the past several months, Character.AI seemed to talk to every big tech company about some...

The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2. Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty

Google Beats Apple and OpenAI To the Punch

By Erin Woo · Aug 14, 2024 9:16am PDT

In tech, hype can only carry you so far. That’s one lesson from Google’s new product presentation on Tuesday, when it announced a flurry of updates to its devices that competitors like Apple and OpenAI have been talking about (but not shipping) for months.First, Google beat its rivals to launching an AI-powered voice assistant that’s flexible... In tech, hype can only carry you so far. That’s one lesson from Google’s new product presentation...

OpenAI Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki. Photo via YouTube/ICPC News.

The Rising Guard at OpenAI

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

OpenAI Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki. Photo via YouTube/ICPC News.

The Rising Guard at OpenAI

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

OpenAI’s upper management has been a bit of a revolving door lately. The last few months have seen a number of high-profile departures—both permanent and temporary—from the ChatGPT maker, including two cofounders, a product exec, a safety leader and a former board member, and even more internal reorgs.Already, though, others have risen to fill... OpenAI’s upper management has been a bit of a revolving door lately. The last few months have...

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The New Fake Math of AI Startup ARR: Not So Annual, Not So Recurring

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 12, 2024 7:00am PDT

Being a venture capitalist investing in AI startups these days isn’t that different from being a detective. Much of the job, VCs tell me, is sniffing out the BS and separating it from reality.Nowhere is that more true than when analyzing startups’ top lines. We’ve talked in the past about how some AI startups are pitching investors on their... Being a venture capitalist investing in AI startups these days isn’t that different from being a...

Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood and co-founder of Harmonic. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Sequoia Capital Has Discussed Funding AI Reasoning Startup Cofounded by Robinhood CEO

By Jon Victor · Aug 8, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

One of the newest entrants in the race to develop artificial intelligence that can reason through problems is about to raise a bunch more money. Harmonic, a startup cofounded last year by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and self-driving vehicle entrepreneur Tudor Achim, has been in talks to raise funding from investors including Sequoia Capital... One of the newest entrants in the race to develop artificial intelligence that can reason through...

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OpenAI Makes a $60 Million Hardware Startup Bet

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kate Clark · Aug 7, 2024 7:00am PDT

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has long been interested in building an AI-powered device for consumers, similar to the one featured in Spike Jonze’s movie “Her.” He’s personally invested in wearable AI pin startup Humane and separately worked with ex-Apple designer Jony Ive on a personal AI device.Now OpenAI startup's fund, which invests in promising AI... OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has long been interested in building an AI-powered device for consumers,...

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Nvidia’s GPUs Have a Weakness: Video Generation

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 6, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

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Nvidia’s GPUs Have a Weakness: Video Generation

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 6, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

There’s no question that Nvidia has benefitted the most from the AI wave so far. So much so, in fact, that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating complaints that the chipmaker is engaging in anticompetitive behavior, Anissa, Amir and I reported last week.But luckily for the host of rivals hoping to take a slice of Nvidia’s lucrative... There’s no question that Nvidia has benefitted the most from the AI wave so far. So much so, in...

Character AI co-founders Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer. Photos by Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty.

Did Google Just Pay $2.5 Billion to Hire Character’s CEO?

By Amir Efrati and Kalley Huang · Aug 5, 2024 7:20am PDT · 5 comments

Google may have just paid one of the biggest signing bonuses in the history of Silicon Valley to hire two artificial intelligence researchers who left the search giant three years ago. On Friday, after chatbot developer Character announced that its founders and some other employees were going back to Google, Character told its roughly 130... Google may have just paid one of the biggest signing bonuses in the history of Silicon Valley to...

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XAI Eyes Chatbot Maker Character.AI; Meta Spends Big on AI—Now, How Can It Make Money?

By Kalley Huang · Aug 1, 2024 7:00am PDT

The big fish of artificial intelligence are again circling a minnow. Elon Musk’s xAI has considered buying Character.AI, which makes chatbots for hyperrealistic roleplay, my colleagues Natasha and Stephanie and I reported yesterday. Such a purchase would give xAI new avenues for testing and improving its models, as well as additional... The big fish of artificial intelligence are again circling a minnow. Elon Musk’s xAI has...

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How an Old Google Search Trick is Solving AI Hallucinations

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 31, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

If you’ve kept up with this newsletter, you’ve likely learned a lot about retrieval augmented generation, a commonly-used technique that reduces bad results from large language models by providing the models with access to data whose accuracy has been vetted.Artificial intelligence developers have improved traditional RAG (otherwise known as ... If you’ve kept up with this newsletter, you’ve likely learned a lot about retrieval augmented...

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How OpenAI's Smaller Rivals Are Developing Their Own AI That ‘Reasons’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 30, 2024 7:00am PDT

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How OpenAI's Smaller Rivals Are Developing Their Own AI That ‘Reasons’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 30, 2024 7:00am PDT

To expand the market for artificial intelligence, developers must create large language models that can reason through customers’ problems, not just parrot answers based on what’s in the models’ training data.While OpenAI and Google are throwing tons of capital at developing AI that solves problems it hasn’t seen before, small startups and... To expand the market for artificial intelligence, developers must create large language models...