OpenAI is slated to close the largest funding round in history at $6.5 billion next week, and as the Wall Street Journal reports, Apple has just pulled out of the round in the eleventh hour.
Apple’s involvement was already surprising—it’s rare for the iPhone maker to invest in external companies. The reporting of a potential investment came after Apple announced a ChatGPT integration into Siri.
The New York Times reports that documents shown to potential investors in just another tech company have an interesting detail:
Roughly 10 million ChatGPT users pay the company a $20 monthly fee, according to the documents. OpenAI expects to raise that price by two dollars by the end of the year, and will aggressively raise it to $44 over the next five years, the documents said.
The proposed investment could value the company at $150 billion and give it two years to convert to a for-profit business before the funding becomes debt.
[The New York Times]
The AI Act came into law on August 1st, but some rules for “high risk” systems won’t be enforced until August 2027. Now, companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Samsung are promising to make a head start.
Meta and Apple (which have been critical of the EU’s AI stance) are notably absent, but OpenAI has signed the pledge despite previous grumblings.
[European Commission - European Commission]
The feature, which gives ChatGPT a more conversational tone, is rolling out now to Plus and Team users. My colleague Kylie got a chance to check out the feature ahead of its release and said it left her feeling “equal parts amazed and uncomfortable.”
My home office has a lot of knick knacks: a Kirby pencil case, a mirror that looks like a CD, and a light-up Majora’s Mask. It turns out, though, I should step my game up.
In a recent podcast interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his home office is decorated with objects tracking the technological development of humanity, including a hand ax, which he often stares at.
“I just think about how far we have come from this single piece of technology we used everything for.”
[The San Francisco Standard]
Sam Altman published some thoughts today about what artificial intelligence will mean in a couple of decades.
Although it will happen incrementally, astounding triumphs – fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics – will eventually become commonplace.
[ia.samaltman.com]
The company announced OpenAI Academy, which it says “will invest in developers and organizations leveraging AI to help solve hard problems and catalyze economic growth in their communities.”
Details such as how to apply and when the program will launch are scant, but OpenAI says the academy will offer AI training and technical guidance and $1 million in API credits, among other things.
