Sam Altman’s task is to demonstrate that his company can catch up with Meta while sending a clear message that it has a handle on the reckless behavior of its most powerful AI. Striking that balance will not be straightforward — a huge test for the perennially under-pressure 41-year-old boss.
Can Sam Altman Catch Up While Slowing Down?bloomberg.comStarting Tuesday, OpenAI will convene its annual developer conference. The timing isn’t ideal.Today, by refining the technology and adding some consumer-friendly touches, Muse is to AI agents what the iPod was to MP3 players: A stylish and innovative recasting of an existing technology so it struck a chord with everyday people. The rewards for reaching the non-nerds could be enormous.
Zuckerberg’s ‘Tamagotchi-Like’ AI Could Be Meta’s iPod Momentbloomberg.comMark Zuckerberg is on to something. Hot on the heels of Meta Platforms Inc.’s hugely well-received launch of its Muse personal AI agent, Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday evening the next phase: a “Tamagotchi-like” pendant for interacting with the cuddly assistant on the go. It’s slated to be out in time for Christmas.The move is a sign of things to come as Silicon Valley giants try to protect their entrenched advantages in the age of artificial-intelligence agents. Consumers will lose out if their preferred agent can’t work well with the full range of digital services to which they have become accustomed. These competitors will need to find ways to work together or risk being forced to open up.
I’m Using Meta’s AI Agent and Amazon Can’t Stand Itbloomberg.comMeta Platforms Inc. is rightly receiving plaudits for its new AI agent, Muse. I’ve been using it, and it’s plainly the most impressive product Meta has released in years. Harold — the name I gave to my bot — works to organize my calendar, scour Facebook Marketplace for good deals and buy things, with my blessing, from Amazon.com Inc.I've known Cathy White for years and years, so it was a delight to join her on her podcast to discuss my work at Bloomberg and the career journey that took me there.
One fear over the past few days is that an artificial-intelligence slowdown, whatever that looks like, might harm the stocks of chipmakers. If AI development takes a breather, the insatiable appetite that has propelled component makers to unprecedented heights would dissipate. Will AI companies still need all those data centers?
The answer is yes. And then some.
Chipmaker Stocks Will Weather Any AI Slowdownbloomberg.comOne fear over the past few days is that an artificial-intelligence slowdown, whatever that looks like, might harm the stocks of chipmakers. If AI development takes a breather, the insatiable appetite that has propelled component makers to unprecedented heights would dissipate. Will AI companies still need all those data centers?Any hope that the coming summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be productive in taking steps to mitigate the harms of artificial intelligence seems to have been dashed, thanks to a commander in chief unwilling to acknowledge the pivotal moment that faces us as AI companies call for a slowdown in development.
A US-China Pact on AI Is Possible, But Not by Posturingbloomberg.comAny hope that the coming summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be productive in taking steps to mitigate the harms of artificial intelligence seems to have been dashed, thanks to a commander in chief unwilling to acknowledge the pivotal moment that faces us as AI companies call for a slowdown in development.When John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive officer of Apple Inc. at the start of this month, he needed no introduction to the company’s more than 160,000 employees. The same can’t really be said of the public, most of whom will be meeting, and sizing up, Apple’s new top boss for the first time on Wednesday. He’ll begin by making the case for buying an iPhone that costs at least $2,000.
A $2,000 iPhone Gives Apple’s New CEO His Steve Jobs Momentbloomberg.comWhen John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive officer of Apple Inc. at the start of this month, he needed no introduction to the company’s more than 160,000 employees. The same can’t really be said of the public, most of whom will be meeting, and sizing up, Apple’s new top boss for the first time on Wednesday. He’ll begin by making the case for buying an iPhone that costs at least $2,000.If you were Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang and you were laying out a few sector-shifting artificial-intelligence trends that could take shape over the coming months and years, you might include the following:
- Open-weight AI models, maybe from China, will continue to develop into a viable and cheaper alternative to closed and frontier models, thus becoming more popular for the majority of day-to-day tasks for typical businesses.
- Frontier AI companies will continue to make strides in diversifying the chips they use for inference, reducing their reliance on Nvidia.
- Prudent businesses will trend toward “sovereign” hosting and model building, rather than turning to the handful of powerful hyperscalers and frontier labs as they might do now.
For all these scenarios, Nvidia’s $13 billion Hugging Face acquisition, confirmed Thursday, represents a near-perfect hedge to how Nvidia’s business mostly operates today.
Nvidia’s $13 Billion Hugging Face Deal Is a Bargain Hedgebloomberg.comIf you were Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang and you were laying out a few sector-shifting artificial-intelligence trends that could take shape over the coming months and years, you might include the following:Good news for fans of music produced by actual musicians: Some important victories are being won in the war against AI slop and trickery.
The Pushback Against AI Songs Is Music to My Earsbloomberg.comGood news for fans of music produced by actual musicians: Some important victories are being won in the war against AI slop and trickery.Jon Ronson is happy to be known as the written word’s answer to the awkward TV documentarian Louis Theroux. In The Castle, Ronson’s first book in 11 years, he briefly references their intertwined careers. The friendly rivals have evidently realized the extreme-people-watching beat has more than enough material to go round.
That both men have turned their attention to the “masculinity crisis” shows how consuming the topic has become. Theroux’s hit Netflix documentary Inside The Manosphere used his trademark naive patter to let subjects dig their own holes, the realization dawning on them in real time. Ronson’s subjects seem to realize only belatedly that they’ve said too much. That’s certainly true of Christopher Mark, the aggressive, paranoid, castle-owning subject of Ronson’s book.
Review: Jon Ronson's The Castlebloomberg.comPoking the manosphereFor the time being, we should perhaps consider the rebounded stocks as “survivors” rather than winners because there is still plenty of execution to happen before we can confidently say the AI storm has been weathered.
The ‘SaaSpocalypse’ Has a Remarkable Number of Survivorsbloomberg.comYou may remember February’s run on software-as-a-service stocks in which billions of dollars in value were wiped off companies that investors worried would be obliterated by artificial intelligence in the not-too-distant future, their specialist features replaced by bespoke in-house tools built on demand by AI instead.My deep skepticism over Meta’s proposed settlement began to lift — though not completely — as I made my way through the details of the alterations it has promised to make to its apps like Facebook and Instagram: daily time limits; no notifications during school hours; autoplay disabling; non-algorithmic feeds; a midnight to 6 a.m. lockout, to pick a few. Even better are age-gating measures to block underage users and further protect teens. Other promises include an end to toxic “beautifying” filters that should have never seen the light of day, and efforts to limit the dopamine effect of “likes” by hiding them. One thought I had reading these changes was simply: Can I enable them for my account, too?
Meta, Under Duress, Finally Does the Right Thing for Teensbloomberg.comFinally, what some said could never be done has happened: Meta Platforms Inc. has been forced to make real changes to protect the millions of young people who use its products. Make no mistake, while the amount that the company agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit brought by several states — up to $18 billion — is large, it is dwarfed in significance by the long-tail positive effects this so-called Big Tobacco moment will have on the well-being of teens. Meta’s simultaneous call that other social mVery fun to join Alex and Chris on Crashed to discuss a topic very close to my heart: defending the humble computer keyboard. Or rather, the importance of thinking by writing.