This week’s AI roundup covers a major funding boost for a chip startup backed by Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s potential controversial shift toward ads and a new reasoning AI model challenging (again) OpenAI? supremacy.?Let’s dive in—it’s all the AI gossip you need in under 5 minutes.
Tool of the week
??? Instories: Simplify Social Media Content
Instories is a content creation app for designing social media posts, stories, and ads quickly. It offers customizable templates, AI-powered tools like text-to-speech, long to short video edits,?background removal, and animations. Plans start at just $6.99/month, making it accessible to individuals and small businesses.
Instories is perfect for influencers, marketers, and small businesses. It saves time with pre-made templates and AI tools, while delivering polished, professional results.
Verdict: Instories is an affordable, beginner-friendly tool for creating high-quality visuals. While limited in advanced features, it’s great for quick, eye-catching social media content.
AI Weekly
?? Jeff Bezos backs AI chip startup Tenstorrent
AI hardware startup Tenstorrent has raised $693 million in a Series D round, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. Investors include Samsung Securities, Hyundai, and Bezos Expeditions.
- Funding focus: The Toronto-based startup plans to expand its engineering team and develop AI training servers. CEO Jim Keller aims to release a new AI chip every two years and has already secured $150 million in customer contracts.
- Challenging Nvidia: Tenstorrent joins startups like Axelera and Groq in the race to compete with Nvidia, which dominates the AI chip market. With more players entering the space, Nvidia’s monopoly is increasingly under pressure.
- Why It Matters: AI chips are critical for the generative AI boom, and startups like Tenstorrent could disrupt Nvidia’s hold on the market. Bezos’ backing signals growing investor confidence in diversifying the AI hardware ecosystem.
?? Ads might be coming to ChatGPT
OpenAI is considering adding ads to its popular ChatGPT platform, despite founder Sam Altman calling it a “last resort.”
- Financial challenges: OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar confirmed the company is exploring ads as a potential revenue model, though she stressed there are “no active plans” yet. The high cost of running large AI models is pressuring OpenAI to explore new income streams beyond subscriptions.
- A polarizing move: Altman has publicly voiced discomfort with ads, calling the combination of “ads-plus-AI” unsettling. However, OpenAI recently hired former Google ad exec Shivakumar Venkataraman, hinting at preparations for a possible ad-based future.
- Why it matters:?Ads could make ChatGPT more accessible to free-tier users, but they might compromise user trust and raise ethical concerns about how AI-driven content is monetized.
?? Canadian Media companies sue OpenAI for billions
Canada’s largest media organizations are suing OpenAI over claims it used their articles to train ChatGPT without permission.
- Hefty pricetag: The plaintiffs, including the CBC, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail, are seeking damages of up to C$20,000 per article, which could amount to billions. They’ve also requested an injunction to stop OpenAI from using their content in the future.
- Here we are again: This lawsuit follows similar claims in the U.S. from publishers like the New York Times. OpenAI has signed licensing deals with some media companies, but many argue its approach to content use is exploitative.
- Why it matters:?As AI companies increasingly rely on scraping content for training, copyright battles like this could reshape how generative AI is built and funded.
?? Alibaba launches a reasoning AI model to rival OpenAI o1
Alibaba has unveiled QwQ-32B-Preview, a new AI reasoning model designed to compete with OpenAI’s o1.
- Advanced capabilities: The model has 32.5 billion parameters and can process prompts of up to 32,000 words. Alibaba claims it outperforms OpenAI’s o1 on benchmarks like AIME and MATH, solving logic puzzles and complex math problems with advanced reasoning techniques.
- Open, but restricted: The model is available for download under an Apache 2.0 license, enabling commercial use. However, its components are not fully open, limiting transparency and replicability. Like other Chinese models, it adheres to government guidelines and avoids politically sensitive topics.
- Why it Matters:?As generative AI evolves, reasoning models like QwQ-32B-Preview could lead to smarter, more factually reliable systems. However, geopolitical influences and limited openness may affect adoption.
?? Elon Musk files injunction to block OpenAI’s profit shift
Elon Musk has filed a preliminary injunction against OpenAI and its collaborators, accusing them of anticompetitive behavior and abandoning their nonprofit roots.
- The claims: Musk alleges OpenAI has discouraged investors from funding rivals like his own AI company, xAI, and misused sensitive information through its close ties with Microsoft. He’s also pushing to pause OpenAI’s transition to a fully for-profit entity.
- On-going tensions: Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018 over disagreements about its direction. He argues OpenAI’s shift to a profit-driven model undermines its founding mission to make AI research widely accessible.
- Why It Matters:?This legal battle highlights growing concerns about monopolistic behavior in the AI industry. Musk’s case could set a precedent for how AI companies balance profit-making with ethical commitments. However, a spokesperson from OpenAI called the allegations "baseless"
That's a wrap for this week's AI highlights. Stay tuned for more exciting developments as AI continues to reshape our world!
