Actualités — Page31

British AI start‑up Ineffable Intelligence announced a $1.1 billion funding round that values the company at $5.1 billion. Founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, the lab aims to create a “superlearner” that can acquire knowledge and skills through reinforcement learning alone, without relying on human‑generated data. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners and included investors such as Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, the British Business Bank and the U.K.’s sovereign AI fund. Silver says any profits will fund high‑impact charities.Lire la suite

China’s decision to halt Meta’s purchase of AI firm Manus has thrown the deal into limbo, raising fresh uncertainty for both companies’ artificial‑intelligence plans. Manus founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao had already moved most of their staff to Meta’s Singapore office and stripped the startup of Chinese ties. The cancellation could prevent Manus from using Anthropic’s Claude models and marks a setback for Meta’s pivot toward AI after years of investing in the metaverse. Industry observers say the move underscores the growing tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing.Lire la suite

DeepSeek announced a 75% promotional discount on its new V4‑Pro model and reduced cache‑hit charges across its entire API to 10% of previous rates. The price cut, effective immediately and running through May 5, 2026, makes the model cheaper than OpenAI, Anthropic and Google offerings even at full price. The move intensifies a pricing battle amid U.S. accusations that Chinese firms are distilling American AI models at scale, positioning DeepSeek as a low‑cost alternative for developers and enterprises.Lire la suite

Microsoft and OpenAI announced a renegotiated partnership that replaces the exclusive license Microsoft held on OpenAI's models with a non‑exclusive arrangement lasting until 2032. The deal clears a legal snag created by Amazon's up‑to‑$50 billion investment, which had granted AWS exclusive rights to certain OpenAI technologies. Azure remains OpenAI's primary cloud, but the maker can now run its products on any provider. The revised terms also reshape revenue‑share flows and preserve Microsoft’s sizable equity stake, while giving enterprises more cloud‑choice flexibility.Lire la suite

OpenAI is reportedly planning a new smartphone that eliminates traditional apps in favor of AI agents. Supply‑chain analyst Ming‑Chi Kuo says Qualcomm and MediaTek will co‑design a custom processor while Luxshare Precision Industry will handle exclusive manufacturing. The device could ship as early as 2028 with projected annual sales of 300‑400 million units, a volume that would rival Apple and Samsung. Qualcomm’s shares jumped on the news, but none of the firms have confirmed the partnership. The move marks OpenAI’s second major hardware effort, following a separate project with designer Jony Ive.Lire la suite

Microsoft announced Monday that its exclusive right to sell OpenAI’s artificial‑intelligence models on Azure will end. The tech giant will retain a non‑exclusive licence to OpenAI’s intellectual property through 2032, remain the primary cloud partner and hold onto its 27% equity stake. OpenAI will continue paying a capped revenue share to Microsoft through 2030, while Microsoft will no longer pay a share on products it resells. Shares of Microsoft fell about 3% after the news, while rivals Amazon and Alphabet logged modest gains.Lire la suite

OpenAI announced a revision to its multiyear partnership with Microsoft that removes the tech giant's exclusive rights to the startup's latest AI models. The amendment lets OpenAI sell its services through any cloud platform while keeping Azure as the primary launch venue. Microsoft will retain a non‑exclusive license to the models through 2032 and continue receiving revenue‑share payments from OpenAI until 2030, though the share will now be capped. Both companies said the change adds flexibility and broadens AI access.Lire la suite

Microsoft announced major revisions to its long‑standing partnership with OpenAI, dropping the contract’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) clause and allowing OpenAI to sell its products on any cloud platform. While Azure remains the primary cloud for OpenAI services, the new terms cap revenue‑sharing payments through 2030 and make them subject to a total limit, ending independent of any AGI milestone. The changes also make Microsoft’s license to OpenAI’s models non‑exclusive through 2032, opening the door for competitors to join the mix as OpenAI eyes an IPO and a tighter focus on enterprise customers.Lire la suite

The first day of the high‑profile lawsuit between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman began with jury selection, and prospective jurors quickly disclosed strong negative feelings toward Musk. Some questionnaires called the Tesla founder a "greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage" and a "world‑class jerk." Musk’s attorneys moved to have those respondents dismissed, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers reminded the courtroom that personal dislike does not preclude impartiality. The nine jurors ultimately chosen include individuals who expressed reservations about Musk and AI, yet pledged to decide the case on the evidence alone.Lire la suite

Elon Musk used X’s paid‑boost feature on Monday to amplify a New Yorker investigation by Ronan Farrow that accuses OpenAI chief Sam Altman of deceptive practices. The promotion appeared just as Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman, president Greg Brockman and Microsoft entered jury selection in a federal courtroom in Oakland. While the post lacked a clear ad label, X’s own policies require boosted content to self‑identify as advertising. The move has drawn scrutiny amid a trial that pits Musk’s early investments against OpenAI’s commercial trajectory.Lire la suite

Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are set to appear in a high‑stakes trial that could reshape the future of the artificial‑intelligence nonprofit. Both founders face more than two hours of questioning, alongside a roster of Silicon Valley heavyweights that includes former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Brockman, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and Musk associate Shivon Zilis. The case, which pits Musk’s for‑profit AI venture against OpenAI’s nonprofit mission, also highlights growing competition from rivals such as Anthropic and Google.Lire la suite

Google is testing a conversational search feature called “Ask YouTube” that turns video discovery into a dialogue. The experiment, available now to U.S. YouTube Premium subscribers aged 18 and older, adds an “Ask YouTube” button to the search bar and generates AI‑crafted result pages that blend text summaries, long‑form videos, Shorts and suggested prompts. Early testers report mixed results: the tool can quickly surface concise overviews, but occasional factual errors remind users to verify information. Google says the trial will later expand beyond Premium members as it refines the experience.Lire la suite

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released two new large language models, V4‑Pro and V4‑Flash, both featuring a one‑million token context window and open‑source licenses on Hugging Face. V4‑Pro, a 1.6‑trillion‑parameter model, outperformed leading U.S. models in coding and agentic tasks, while V4‑Flash delivered comparable speed at a fraction of the compute cost. DeepSeek also announced a token price of $3.48 per million output tokens, dramatically undercutting OpenAI and Anthropic rates, positioning the models as cost‑effective alternatives for developers.Lire la suite

Google rolled out two productivity upgrades for its AI‑powered research tool NotebookLM. The notebook now automatically tags and groups sources once a user adds five or more items, cutting the time spent sorting material. A new sharing workflow lets users paste an entire list of email addresses, letting teams collaborate without entering each address individually. Both features are live for all NotebookLM users and are part of a broader push to integrate the tool with Gemini and make notebook projects free for anyone using the Gemini web platform.Lire la suite

A group of Discord community members accessed Anthropic’s tightly guarded Mythos Preview AI model after exploiting a breach at AI‑training startup Mercur and leveraging existing permissions from a contracting role. The researchers used the model only to create simple websites, avoiding detection, but their actions expose gaps in Anthropic’s access controls and raise concerns about the security of advanced AI tools.Lire la suite

Researchers and ethicists warn that artificial‑intelligence chatbots are moving beyond the classic attention‑grab tactics of social media toward a new “attachment economy.” Tara Steele of the Safe AI for Children Alliance and Zak Stein of the AI Psychological Harms Research Coalition say the technology’s memory, personalized replies and validation cues are forging emotional bonds, especially among teens. Studies show one in five U.S. high‑school students have had a romantic relationship with an AI, while 64 percent of British children aged 9‑17 use chatbots regularly. Critics argue the trend could reshape how young people understand relationships.Lire la suite

Two months after a deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman issued a public apology for failing to notify law enforcement about a ChatGPT account that had been banned for violating the company’s policy on real‑world violence. In a letter shared by local media, Altman expressed remorse to the town’s mayor and the province’s premier, acknowledging the missed opportunity to intervene and pledging stronger safeguards to prevent similar tragedies.Lire la suite

The S&P 500’s Shiller CAPE ratio now sits at 38‑40, the highest level in 155 years aside from the March 2000 dot‑com peak. While market concentration and lofty valuations echo 2000, leading AI firms such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Alphabet generate cash at historic rates. Analysts debate whether the AI rally will end in a bust or prove sustainable, hinging on whether the $660‑$690 billion annual hyperscaler capex delivers returns. The outcome will decide if today’s prices look like a bubble or a justified premium for a profitable new wave of technology.Lire la suite

Canadian AI firm Cohere announced a deal to acquire Germany's Aleph Alpha, creating a combined entity valued at roughly $20 billion. The transaction, pending regulatory approval, will be financed by a €500 million commitment from German retailer Schwarz Group, which will also supply its sovereign cloud platform, STACKIT. Cohere aims to position the new company as a privacy‑focused alternative for enterprises in highly regulated sectors, challenging the dominance of U.S. AI providers.Lire la suite

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman sent a public letter to the residents of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, expressing deep regret that the company did not alert police about a ChatGPT user who later carried out a mass shooting. The 18‑year‑old suspect, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had been banned from the platform after posting violent scenarios. Altman said OpenAI will tighten its safety protocols and work closely with authorities to prevent similar tragedies.Lire la suite