6 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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OpenAI

OpenAI kicked off an AI revolution with DALL-E and ChatGPT, making the organization the epicenter of the artificial intelligence boom. Led by CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI became a story unto itself when Altman was briefly fired and then brought back after pressure from staff and Microsoft, an investor and close partner.

The company at the heart of the AI bubble
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The Nvidia-backed data center company is part of a growing ecosystem of so-called neoclouds propping up the AI industry and its insatiable hunger for compute.

Nilay Patel
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
ChatGPT violated copyright, German court rules.

It’s the latest legal ruling that training on copyrighted materials without permission violates said copyright, ignoring OpenAI’s argument that users should be the ones held liable.

German music rights society GEMA filed the case on behalf of the lyricists behind nine of the country’s biggest hits, though OpenAI says it’s considering an appeal.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
Seven more people are suing OpenAI.

The lawsuits, filed in California, are just the latest to claim ChatGPT harmed loved ones and led to mental health breakdowns. Four died by suicide after interacting with the bot.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
ChatGPT just got two new apps.

Now you can plan a workout routine with Peloton or make vacation plans with Tripadvisor directly in ChatGPT. They’re the latest additions to the AI platform’s app library since it launched last month. More are still on the way, including Uber and DoorDash.

Screenshots of the Peloton and Tripadvisor apps in ChatGPT in front of a blue background
Image: OpenAI
Hayden Field
Hayden Field
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talked about how it will pay for about $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments.

Addressing concerns about OpenAI’s revenue growth, he wrote that the company expects to end this year “above $20 billion in annualized revenue run rate and grow to hundreds of billion by 2030,” and that though that may be tough to square with its “commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years,” the company is “feeling good about our prospects there” due to its upcoming enterprise offering, consumer devices, and robotics.

The AI industry is running on FOMO

At least according to Big Tech’s latest earnings calls.

Hayden Field
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Sam Altman gives up on his Tesla Roadster.

Just like MKBHD in September, the OpenAI CEO has now canceled his Roadster preorder — or tried to, at least, given his email request bounced back. Altman said he understands delays, “but 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.” Using it to advance his feud with Elon Musk was probably a bonus.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
OpenAI could go public next year. 

An IPO could happen by “the second half of 2026,” Reuters reports, citing unnamed people. A potential 12-figure valuation would make OpenAI one of the most valuable publicly traded companies worldwide.

OpenAI just finished its for-profit restructuring and inked a new deal with Microsoft covering plans for hardware and AGI.

Sora is showing us how broken deepfake detection is

OpenAI’s video generator uses a system that’s supposed to help online platforms tag deepfakes — so why aren’t we seeing them?

Jess Weatherbed
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
Microsoft’s not very open about OpenAI.

It’s tough getting details about one of the tech world’s most complicated relationships, even for investors.

Microsoft’s latest annual report simply folds losses from its multi-billion dollar stake in OpenAI into a $4.7 billion expense line called “other, net,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Other important details are equally vague.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI is acquiring the creators of Apple’s Shortcuts app.

The team behind Software Applications Incorporated sold its Workflow app to Apple in 2017, which later became Shortcuts. Now the startup, along with its AI interface for the Mac called Sky, is joining OpenAI.

OpenAI says it plans to “bring Sky’s deep macOS integration and product craft into ChatGPT.”

Hayden Field
Hayden Field
OpenAI’s latest legal request is raising eyebrows.

The company reportedly requested a full list of attendees from the memorial of the 16-year-old who died by suicide after increasingly confiding in ChatGPT, according to lawyers for his family, who are suing OpenAI. The request covered “all documents relating to memorial services or events in the honour of the decedent including but not limited to any videos or photographs taken, or eulogies given . . . as well as invitation or attendance lists or guestbooks,” the FT reported, citing a document.

The ChatGPT Atlas browser still feels like Googling with extra steps

OpenAI’s new browser is great at providing AI-generated responses, but not so great at searches.

Emma Roth
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Sora will let you cameo “characters.”

That means you can make AI videos with reusable characters of things like “your dog, guinea pig, favorite stuffed toy, and pretty much anything else you want,” according to OpenAI’s head of Sora. The app is also getting “basic” video editing capabilities, and an Android version will launch “soon.”

The AI sexting era has arrived

What could go wrong?

Hayden Field
Elissa Welle
Elissa Welle
OpenAI’s AI datacenters in Abu Dhabi are actually being built.

Photos of the UAE datacenter construction site released Thursday show the footprints of the big buildings that OpenAI and its Stargate partners, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank say will house 16-gigawatts of compute power for everything from curing cancer to sexting. Thus far, construction of the first 200 megawatts is “well underway” to meet the 2026 deadline.

Construction site with cranes and vehicles surrounding the footprints of buildings.
Image: G42