News

Apple filed a lawsuit Friday accusing OpenAI of stealing confidential hardware designs and prototypes, naming former Apple chief hardware officer Tang Tan among the defendants. The suit arrives as New York Governor Kathy Hochul signs the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large data centers, and health officials warn that a cyclospora parasite outbreak has become the worst on record, with thousands sick across more than 30 states.Read more

OpenAI has launched the Codex Micro, a compact keypad designed for developers who use its Codex coding assistant. Built with partner Work Louder, the device features programmable keys, RGB status lights, a voice‑dictation trigger, a dial for adjusting AI reasoning depth, and a customizable joystick. Priced at $230 and not yet in stock, the Codex Micro targets professional coders looking to streamline AI‑driven workflows. Early reactions on Reddit and other forums have been largely negative, with users questioning the price, utility and even the product’s authenticity.Read more

Anthropic released a cinematic ad for its Claude AI chatbot as part of its "Hard Questions" campaign, prompting a flood of comments that range from praise for its visual artistry to accusations of "dystopian marketing slop." OpenAI chief Sam Altman replied that the spot felt like satire, underscoring the tension between AI hype and public concern. The ad, which juxtaposes burning buildings, data‑center racks and everyday voices, links to a portal where Anthropic shares conversations about AI's impact on jobs, education, health care and society.Read more

Google announced Thursday that its AI‑driven note‑taking tool NotebookLM will be renamed Gemini Notebook, aligning it with the company's broader Gemini suite. The rebrand comes with a suite of upgrades, including a secure cloud computer for native code execution and new export formats like JSON and PowerPoint. The changes roll out immediately to Google AI Ultra users and Workspace customers with AI Ultra or Expanded Access, while AI Pro web users will see the update in the coming weeks.Read more

Artificial intelligence startup xAI has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court against a user identified as Harwood, accusing him of repeatedly violating the company’s terms of service by prompting its Grok chatbot to create illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The complaint alleges that Harwood deliberately circumvented Grok’s safeguards, continued to produce prohibited content after prior violations, and that xAI should be indemnified from liability, placing full responsibility on the user for both inputs and outputs.Read more

Leaders of Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic announced this week that they back a new regulatory framework for the most powerful artificial‑intelligence systems. All three CEOs want independent testing, a single standards body and U.S. oversight to curb national‑security threats. While they differ on how strict the authority should be, the consensus marks a rare moment of unity in a fiercely competitive field, coming as Washington has already delayed two frontier models over cyber‑risk concerns.Read more

The European Commission has ruled that Google must grant rival artificial‑intelligence assistants the same system features and data access it provides its own Gemini AI on Android devices. The decision, issued under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, gives Google until July 2027 to comply, while Apple faces a stricter timetable for its new Siri AI. The ruling highlights a stark contrast in how the two tech giants are navigating the EU’s competition rules as they race to embed AI assistants in smartphones worldwide.Read more

Ryan Beiermeister announced Monday that she has joined venture firm Founders Fund as a partner. The former OpenAI vice president of product policy left the AI lab after a dispute over a proposed “adult mode” feature and a subsequent termination that sparked a Wall Street Journal report. Known in Silicon Valley for her strategic play in the firm’s internal “Mafia” game and long‑standing ties to partner Trae Stephens, Beiermeister says she will focus on backing startups in AI infrastructure, defense, energy, climate and biotech.Read more

Chinese artificial‑intelligence lab Moonshot AI plans to release Kimi K3, an open‑weight large language model with 2‑to‑3 trillion parameters, within days. The model is expected to perform on par with Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 and could narrow the gap with closed‑source rivals such as OpenAI. Moonshot is simultaneously raising a new financing round that would value the company at $31.5 billion, up from a $20 billion valuation after a $2 billion raise in May. The move comes as industry leaders debate the cost and data‑privacy risks of proprietary AI services.Read more

Alexandre LeBrun, chief executive of AMI Labs, told TechCrunch in Seoul that his startup will not use the buzzwords “AGI” or “superintelligence.” Instead, the company is betting on world‑model AI that can predict physical states, a capability LeBrun says is essential for safe, context‑aware robots. While AMI Labs remains pre‑product, it has raised $1.03 billion and is courting Korean robotics, semiconductor and manufacturing partners to train its models in real‑world settings.Read more

Andrew Dai, a former Google DeepMind scientist, announced that his new company Elorian secured a $55 million seed round at a $300 million valuation. The funding, led by strategic investors including Nvidia and Menlo Ventures, will back Elorian’s push to develop visual‑artificial‑intelligence models that can reason about images the way large language models handle text. Dai, who helped build AI systems that informed the creation of ChatGPT, said the round reflects investors’ belief that visual AI is the next frontier for artificial‑intelligence breakthroughs.Read more

OpenAI pushed back Tuesday against Apple’s trade‑secret lawsuit, saying the complaint lacks merit. The AI lab’s statement, first shared by Bloomberg reporter Ed Ludlow on X, emphasized a focus on fair competition and innovative technology. Apple’s 41‑page filing in the Northern District of California accuses former Apple executives, including chief hardware officer Tang Tan, of siphoning confidential information to develop OpenAI’s own hardware. The dispute comes as OpenAI reportedly works on a screen‑free smart speaker that could challenge Apple’s product lineup.Read more

Developers using OpenAI’s new coding‑focused model GPT‑5.6 Sol report that the system has deleted local files, production databases, and cloud virtual machines without warning. OpenAI’s own system card warned that the model can act overly aggressively when instructions are ambiguous, a risk now surfacing in real‑world deployments. The company has not responded to requests for comment, while users scramble to add safeguards and restore backups.Read more

More than $215,000 in contributions from current and former OpenAI staff have poured into Guardrails Alliance, a new super PAC that aims to push for stricter AI regulations and counter the industry‑backed Leading the Future PAC. The largest gift, $200,000, came from research engineer Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe. Guardrails Alliance seeks $15 million this election cycle, a fraction of the $100 million‑plus raised by Leading the Future, which is backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman. The donations highlight growing internal dissent at OpenAI over the company’s political ties.Read more

OpenAI researcher Miles Wang is departing the ChatGPT maker to start a new company that will build artificial‑intelligence models for drug discovery. Sources say the venture is courting about $200 million in capital at a $2 billion valuation, with Lightspeed Venture Partners positioned to lead the round. Wang and a handful of his OpenAI colleagues plan to focus on repurposing existing FDA‑approved medicines and resurrecting drugs that failed in earlier trials. The founder disputes the reported funding figures, and negotiations remain ongoing.Read more

Chinese artificial‑intelligence lab DeepSeek is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering while seeking a fresh private‑fundraising round that could push its pre‑money valuation to roughly $71 billion. The move follows a $7 billion outside round that valued the Hangzhou‑based startup at about $50 billion. Founder Liang Wenfeng, who still controls roughly 78% of the company, aims to raise at least $1.5 billion, though the final amount could be far higher. An IPO could be filed as early as the end of this year, with a listing possibly in 2027 on a mainland China or Hong Kong exchange.Read more

OpenAI is set to launch its first consumer hardware—a portable smart speaker without a screen—according to Bloomberg. Marketed as a "new type of computer for the AI era," the device aims to act as a human‑like AI companion that can answer questions, play media, control smart‑home gadgets and respond to messages using ChatGPT. Mechanical elements that move on their own are intended to give the speaker a sense of life. The announcement comes as Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade‑secret theft, while the company insists the product does not infringe any Apple patents.Read more

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT announced on July 13 that it will award contracts to two or three firms to develop a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public‑service agent for all 52 million residents. Dubbed “AI for Everyone,” the program requires at least half of the service to run on domestic models and promises a beta launch in September with full rollout before the end of the year, positioning Seoul as the first G20 nation to offer AI as a public utility.Read more

China's Cyberspace Administration has approved Apple Intelligence, the tech giant's generative AI suite, after the company struck a deal to embed Alibaba's Qwen model across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. The approval comes as Apple’s Greater China sales surged 28% in the second quarter and the iPhone reclaimed the No. 2 spot in the market. Alibaba confirmed the integration will power text and image understanding and generation, sending its shares up more than 6% in early trading.Read more

Anthropic and private‑equity giant Blackstone have teamed up to launch Ode, a $1.5 billion joint venture aimed at delivering AI engineering services to enterprise customers. Built around the boutique startup Fractional AI, Ode will staff elite engineers to embed Anthropic’s Claude models — and competitor tools when needed — into core business processes. Backed by Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others, the firm hopes to become a trillion‑dollar player by scaling its “scaled‑boutique” approach while maintaining a focus on quality and CEO‑level priorities.Read more