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Musk Diverts AI Resources from Tesla, Risking EV Giant's Future
5 minute read to stay updated on Tech.
Kristoffer Lindström
June 05, 2024
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OpenAI employees are raising serious concerns over the company's safety and secrecy. The whistle-blowers, a group of nine current and former employees, are accusing OpenAI of prioritizing profits and growth over potential dangers of their AI systems. They allege that OpenAI uses strong-arm tactics to suppress their concerns and proposed greater transparency and more protections for whistle-blowers. Responding to these allegations, OpenAI asserts its commitment to creating secure AI systems, encouraging rigorous debate, and maintaining an active dialogue with various stakeholders.
💡 Insight: OpenAI's internal conflict underscores a broader industry tension between rapid innovation and ethical safeguards. The push for AGI is increasingly seen as a high-stakes race, prompting calls for transparent governance and robust whistleblower protections to prevent potential misuse and manage public trust.
Shutterstock has generated $104 million in revenue from licensing its vast library for AI training, with clients including Reka AI, OpenAI, and Meta. The data licensing arm has become a new growth engine for Shutterstock as demand for legal, high-quality data for AI training surges. The business projects 2024 revenue at $138 million from this segment, and expansions are expected to drive sales to $250 million by 2027.
💡 Insight: Shutterstock's pivot to AI data licensing has proven lucrative, generating $104 million in 2023. This growth underscores a strategic shift as traditional licensing demand wanes. With major players like OpenAI and Meta on board, Shutterstock's extensive, legally licensable content is a competitive differentiator amidst rising copyright concerns in AI training. Startups should look at their own data and product to see if there are “spill-over” data that could be valuable, but still focus on keeping check of privacy concerns.
Visibility of Google's AI Overviews has dipped to showing in only 15% of searches, according to BrightEdge. Healthcare queries showed the highest incidence at 63%, while Restaurants and Travel were below 1%. Despite this, BrightEdge anticipates AI usage in search to increase and become more efficient with continued testing.
💡 Insight: Google's reduction in AI Overviews to less than 15% of queries marks a strategic refinement in AI integration into search. This decline, especially evident in key industries like Healthcare, Travel, and Restaurants, suggests an ongoing calibration aimed at enhancing search accuracy and user experience. This adjustment underscores Google's focus on predicting user intent and reducing content redundancy, signaling a long-term shift toward increasingly sophisticated AI-driven search capabilities. The move reflects a clear acknowledgment of current limitations.
Elon Musk is under scrutiny for reportedly prioritizing his social media platform X and his AI startup xAI over Tesla's self-driving tech ambitions. According to leaked emails, the CEO instructed Nvidia to divert thousands of H100 AI chips away from Tesla. This could set back Tesla's AI projects by several months, further impacting the company already grappling with a challenging financial year and underperforming driver-assistance software. The move has incensed shareholders and could dampen trust as Tesla's fortunes are closely tied to the success of its full self-driving technology.
💡 Insight: Elon Musk's decision to divert H100 AI chips from Tesla to X and xAI risks delaying Tesla’s critical AI and Full Self-Driving advancements, exacerbating its financial struggles. This shift could heighten shareholder discontent and threaten Tesla's competitive edge in the EV market amidst growing pressure from cost-effective Chinese alternatives. Elon’s Tesla pay package is currently also under scrutiny; the motorization for Musk’s other venture over Tesla does not help his case.
BRIEF
Nvidia and Salesforce have increased their investments in Canadian AI startup Cohere, contributing to a $450 million funding round, according to anonymous sources. This funding marks a rise in Cohere's valuation, which now stands at $5 billion. The AI company reported a surge in annualized revenue reaching $35 million as of March, demonstrating impressive financial growth. The startup competes in a high-stakes AI market with the likes of OpenAI that includes high-profile investors such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
Swedish home furnishings giant, Ikea, is set to open a virtual store on the popular online game platform, Roblox, on June 24th. This marks Ikea's first venture into mainstream gaming as well as becoming the first brand to offer paid employment on the platform. The game replicates Ikea's work culture and enables players to explore various roles within the virtual store, offering a limited number of paid roles and the opportunity for virtual career progression.
Chinese fast-fashion behemoth, Shein, is anticipated to go public in London, according to Sky News. The move could value the company at $63.7 billion, making it one of London's largest IPOs in years. Concerns over governance, supply chain, and business practices remain amid the retailer's rapid growth and popularity among young buyers for its low-cost fashion. Successful listing could boost credibility among investors, regulators, and buyers, and garner further growth capital.
Intel Corp. has agreed to sell a 49% stake in its Irish plant, Intel's Fab 34, to Apollo Global Management for $11 billion. This decision, aimed at easing the corporation's financial strain, marks Intel's second initiative to encourage external funding.
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WndrCo Raises $460M for Venture Capital, Revolutionizing Tech Investment Landscape - WndrCo, the tech investment firm founded by Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg, has raised over $460 million in its first venture capital fund. The fund will primarily support startups innovating in the future of work, consumer technology, cybersecurity, and developer infrastructure.
Databricks Purchases Tabular, Ramping Up Competition with Snowflake - Databricks has acquired cloud data optimization startup Tabular, potentially spending up to $2 billion. The deal anticipates increased product competition with entities like Snowflake through affordable querying on Iceberg tables, a format Tabular fosters.
Market Research AI Platform GetWhy Secures $34.5M in Series A Funding - AI platform GetWhy has garnered $34.5M in Series A funding from PeakSpan Capital. The platform uses AI to transform video-interview insights, serving customers including Nestlé, McDonald’s, and Nike.
Creandum Closes €500M Fund, Aims to Back 40 Next-gen Euro Startups - Creandum, the VC firm known for backing Spotify and Klarna, has secured a €500 million fund. The funding will support 35-40 early-stage European tech companies specializing in AI, SaaS, and climate tech.
CrowdStrike Surpasses Q1 Expectations; Revenue Up 33% to $921M - CrowdStrike experienced a 33% YoY increase in Q1 2024, hitting a revenue of $921m. Q2 revenue is projected at $959.8m, matching analyst forecasts. The Annual Recurring Revenue also surged by 33.5% YoY to reach $3.65b.
AI Video Start-up Pika Secures $80M for Rivalry against OpenAI, Google - AI start-up Pika, specialising in video-generation, secured $80 million funding, boosting its valuation to $470 million. Pika creates AI-based videos from text prompts, targeting competition with OpenAI and Google.
ChatGPT Faces Second Major Outage, Disrupting Several AI Tools - OpenAI's ChatGPT experienced a second major service outage today. It mimicked issues in other AI services including Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude AI. Despite recurrent disruptions, OpenAI's API service remains unaffected.
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