UsefulAiNewsBackup16Mar25


Last update: Saturday 3/16/25
Our weekly news page provides links to reports about major innovations in generative AI. Our page is not for AI experts. It's for (1) computer savvy professionals who want to be alert to genAI's potential impact on their careers, and (2) computer savvy citizens who want to be alert to genAI's potential impact on our society. 

... Most of the links on this page refer to reports published after the "AI Big Bang", i.e., after Sam Altman's sudden firing and rapid rehiring by OpenAI, i.e., after November 20, 2023. The previous edition of this page can be found here ➡ PreBigBang  

A. OpenAI  | B. Microsoft | C.  Google | D. Other Models | E. Agents | 
Top 2 stories in past week ... 
  1. Responses to NSF/OSTP request for input on AI Action Plan
    -- "OpenAI’s proposals for the U.S. AI Action Plan", OpenAI, 3/13/25
    -- "Response to the National Science Foundation’s and Office of Science & Technology Policy’s Request for Information", Google, 3/13/2
    -- Response to "Request for Information (RFI) on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan (“Plan”)", Anthropic, 3/8/25

    -- "Response to the National Science Foundation’s and Office of Science & Technology Policy’s Request for Information on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan T", News Media Alliance, 3/14/25

  2. Other Models
    Intense Reactions within Apple to Apple's delay of Siri upgrades
    -- "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino", John Gruber, Daring Fireball, 3/12/25 ***
    -- Subsequent reactions reported by MacRumors, 9t05Mac, The Verge,  Gizmodo, Bloomberg, 
Upcoming events ...
  • GPU Technology Conference (GTC) starts next week … March 17 thriugh March 21 … San Jose, California.
Evolving context and connections ... 
Fast moving AI news is often exciting, but also confusing. This page is designed to provide readers with an evolving context for the news and reminders of the connections between news items. From time to time, links to older stories whose content has been overcome by newer events will be deleted. However, enough older links will be retained so that readers can get a quick sense of how we got to where we are today by skimming the headlines of the preceding stories in chronological order. Sectionz will usually include 7 to 10 stories.
 ➡ Our publication schedule

A. OpenAI
  • "OpenAI Says DeepSeek May Have Improperly Harvested Its Data", Cade Metz, NY Times, 1/28/25 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, The Verge, Financial Times, Forbes

  • "OpenAI launches new o3-mini reasoning model with a free ChatGPT version", Tom Warren, The Verge, 1/31/25  ***  
    --- This story also covered by ZDNet, CNet, The Guardian, .. and OpenAI

  • "ChatGPT [paid] Subscribers Nearly Tripled to 15.5 Million in 2024", Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati, The Information, 2/1/25

  • "ChatGPT’s agent can now do deep research for you", Richard Lawler, The Verge, 2/2/25
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch,  The Guardian ... and OpenAI

  • "OpenAI Forecast Shows Shift From Microsoft to SoftBank", Cory Weinberg, Jon Victor and Anissa Gardizy, The Information (exclusive), 2/21/25
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, Windows Forum

  • "OpenAI unveils GPT-4.5 ‘Orion,’ its largest AI model yet", Maxwell Zeff, TechCrunch, 2/27/25  
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, Wired,  Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Engadget, ...and OpenAI (video)

  • "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company is ‘out of GPUs’", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 2/27/25

  • "OpenAI Plots Charging $20,000 a Month For PhD-Level Agents", Stephanie Palazzo and Cory Weinberg, The Information, 3/5/25
    -- This story also covered by  TechCrunch

  • "OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 AI model comes to more ChatGPT users," Kyle Wiggers, -- TechCrunch, 3/5/25

B. Microsoft 
C. Google 

D. Amazon, Meta, Anthropic, Apple, and other Big Tech model
  • "Meta unveils a new, more efficient Llama model [3.3 70B]", TechCrunch, Kyle Wiggers, 12/6/24  
    -- This story also covered by VentureBeat, 

  • "Nvidia’s Top Customers Face Delays From Glitchy AI Chip Racks", Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy, The Information, 1/13/25
    -- This story also covered by Reuters, TechSpot, Bloomberg (YouTube) 

  • "Anthropic Projects Soaring Growth to $34.5 Billion in 2027 Revenue", Jon Victor and Stephanie Palazzolo, The Information, 2/12/25
    -- This paywalled exclusive story also covered by Reuters

  • "Elon Musk’s xAI adds ‘Big Brain’ reasoning to Grok-3", Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 2/18/25 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, Computerworld, Bloomberg, TechDivision (video)

    -- Earlier stories about how Musk built the Colossus supercomputer were given insufficient notice by this blog. Here's a recent report -- "How xAI turned a factory shell into an AI ‘Colossus’ to power Grok 3 and beyond", Brian Buntz, R&D World, 2/17/25

  • "Amazon Unveils Alexa+, Powered by Generative A.I.",  Karen Weise, NY Times, 2/26/25  
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, The Verge, Wired, Gizmodo, Engadget, MacRumors. .. and Amazon,

  • "Apple shareholders vote to keep its diversity policies", Stephen Nellis, Reuters, 2/25/25 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, Washington Post, The Guardian, 
    -- President Trump's angry reaction was covered by Gizmodo.
    -- This blog's data driven damnation of all Big Tech DEI programs as despicable, hypocritical, sham operations -- except Apple's commendable efforts -- was featured in the introduction to our 13Feb25 podcast. The BS DEI operations won't be missed. They won't be missed.

  • "Apple Vows to Build A.I. Servers in Houston and Spend $500 Billion in U.S.", Meaghan TobinTripp Mickle and Jason Karaian, NY Times, 2/25/25  
    -- This story also covered by Forbes, Washington Post, Reuters

  • "A.I. Start-Up Anthropic Closes Deal That Values It at $61.5 Billion", Cade Metz, NY Times, 3/3/25

  • "Apple Says Some AI-Powered Enhancements to Siri to Be Delayed", Sabela Ojea, Wall Street Journal, 3/5/25 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, Engadget, 

  • Intense Reactions within Apple to Apple's delay of Siri upgrades
    -- "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino", John Gruber, Daring Fireball, 3/12/25 ***
    -- Subsequent reactions reported by MacRumors, 9t05Mac, The Verge,  Gizmodo, Bloomberg, 

E. Agents
Editor's note -- This section replaces the old "Large Lange Model News" section because, nowadays, all AI models are large language models ... except the small models that will continue to be reported in the next section.
F. Small Language Model (SLM) news + Open Source
Editor's note -- News reports are classified in this category if and only if they explicitly refer to models with less than 70 billion (70B) parameters. The pace of development should heat up as small, fast models are hooked up to large models and as the competition to become the dominant self-contained AI model on smart phones intensifies.

G. Public policy and legal considerations 
  • "Lawsuit says Mark Zuckerberg approved Meta's use of pirated materials to train Llama AI'', mariella moon, Engadget, 1/10/25 
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch, Mashable, Reuters, 

  • "EU puts out guidance on uses of AI that are banned under its AI Act", Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 2/4/25

  • "US lawmakers want DeepSeek banned from government devices", will shanklin, Engadget, 2/6/25
    -- This story also covereed by Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, ... and House.gov

  • "OpenAI’s board ‘unanimously rejects’ Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company", Emma Roth, The Verge, 2/14/25
    - This story also covered by TechCrunch, CNN. Wall Street Journal and ... OpenAI Board (post on X)

  • "AI Action Summit", Wikipedia, 2/12/25
    -- "The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit was held at the Grand Palais, Paris, France, from 10 to 11 February 2025.[ The summit was co-chaired by France and India." 

    -- Outcome
    "At the summit, the US and UK refused to sign a declaration on "inclusive and sustainable" AI, which was supported by 60 countries, including France, China, and India."
    ... Outcome discussed in "Vance tells Europeans that heavy regulation could kill AI", Jeffrey Dastin and Ingrid Melander, Reuters, 2/11/25 ...  and NY Times, AP News

  • "Judge Denies Musk’s Request to Block OpenAI’s For-Profit Plan", Cade Metz, NY Times, 3/5/25 
    -- This story also covered by Reuters, CNN, The Guardian, Bloomberg

  • "Justice Dept. Doubles Down on Request to Break Up Google", David McCabe, NY Times, 3/7/25 
    -- This story also covered by Wired, Washington Post, Engadget, 

  • Responses to NSF/OSTP request for input on AI Action Plan
    -- "OpenAI’s proposals for the U.S. AI Action Plan", OpenAI, 3/13/25
    -- "Response to the National Science Foundation’s and Office of Science & Technology Policy’s Request for Information", Google, 3/13/2
    -- Response to "Request for Information (RFI) on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan (“Plan”)", Anthropic, 3/8/25

    -- "Response to the National Science Foundation’s and Office of Science & Technology Policy’s Request for Information on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan T", News Media Alliance, 3/14/25

H. Misc = Opinions, other news, rumors, long reads (max = 15)  
  • "Eyeing Higher Margins, AWS and Other Cloud Providers Embrace DeepSeek", Jon Victor, The Information, 2/4/25

  • "What DeepSeek? Big Tech Keeps Its A.I. Building Boom Alive.", Karen Weise, NY Times, 2/8/25

  • "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new startup", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 2/18/25  
    -- This story also covered by Reuters, NY Times, Forbes

  • "Nvidia Stock Wobbles On Q4 Details. Blackwell Sales Look Strong, For Now.", Patrick Seitz, Investors Business Daily, 2/26/25  
    -    - This story also covered by Business Insider, Reuters, CNBC, ... and Nvidia

  • Magafication ... and the beat goes on 
    -- "Anthropic quietly removes Biden-era AI policy commitments from its website", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 3/5/25

    -- "AT&T Drops Pronoun Pins, Cancels Pride Programs in DEI Unwind", Kelcee Griffis and Jeff Green, Bloomberg, 3/7/25

    -- "Salesforce cuts diversity hiring goals, joining Meta and Google in scaling back DEI initiatives", Effie Webb, Business Insider, 3/6/25

    -- "Google scrubs mentions of ‘diversity’ and ‘equity’ from responsible AI team webpage", Kyls Wiggers, TechCrunch, 3/8/25

  • "Exclusive: Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Race to Use AI to Drive Sales Gains", Aaron Holmes, The Information, 3/4/25
  • "Google Is Still Behind in AI. Why?", Martin Peers, The Information, 3/7/25

  • "What you need to know about Manus, the new AI agentic system from China hailed as a second ‘DeepSeek moment", VentureBeat, 3/x/25

I.  Language model flaws, hacks, and remedies
  • "Why Two Models Are Better Than One", Stephanie Palazzolo, The Information, 3/28/24
  • "Many-shot jailbreaking", Anthropic, 4/2/24 
    -- This story also covered by video on TechCrunch, 

  • "DeepMind researchers discover impressive learning capabilities in long-context LLMs", Ben Dickson, VentureBeat, 4/24/24 

  • "[Gen] AI Is a Black Box. Anthropic Figured Out a Way to Look Inside", Steven Levy, Wired, 5/22/24
    -- This story also covered by Fast Company, NY Times, Time, ... and Anthropic

  • "OpenAI Offers a Peek Inside the Guts of ChatGPT", Will Knight, Wired, 6/6/24  
    -- This story also covered by OpenAI Blog Note ... and underlying OpenAI Research Paper (pdf)  co-authored by Dr. Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike (before they resigned from OpenAI) and others on the recently disbanded “superalignment” team 

  • "MIT researchers release a repository of AI risks", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 8/14/24  
    -- This story also covered by VentureBeat, CSO, ZDNet, MIT Tech Review ... and AI Risk Repository

  • "ChatGPT caught lying to developers: New AI model tries to save itself from being replaced and shut down", Economic Times, 12/9/24
    -- This story also covered by Business Insider,  ... and Apollo Research (pdf)

  • "New Anthropic study shows AI really doesn’t want to be forced to change its views", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 12/18/24
    -- This story also covered by Anthropic
  • "ChatGPT search tool vulnerable to manipulation and deception, tests show", Nick Evershed, The Guardian, 12/24/24
  • "Buyer beware: OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model is an entirely different beast", Anthony Diamond, GeekWire, 12/24/24 
  • "DeepSeek’s Safety Guardrails Failed Every Test Researchers Threw at Its AI Chatbot", Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman, Wired, 1/31/25 *
    -- Related story ...  "Pentagon scrambles to block DeepSeek after employees connect to Chinese servers", Charles Rollet, TechCrunch, 1/30/25
    -- Related story ...  "UK Warns DeepSeek Users of Data Risks But Won’t Ban It Yet",  Ellen Milligan, Ryan Gallagher, and Alex Wickham, Bloomberg, 1/31/25

J. Basics 
  • "Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but Shakespeare or Harry Potter or Jane Austen or Star Trek or Moby Dick", Aatish Bhatia, NY Times, 4/27/23 
  • "What Is a Large Language Model, the Tech Behind ChatGPT?", Kurt Muehmel, Data Iku, 6/7/23 
  • "Textbooks Are All You Need II: phi-1.5 technical report", Yuanzhi Li, Sébastien Bubeck, Ronen Eldan, Allie Del Giorno, Suriya Gunasekar, Yin Tat Lee, Microsoft Research, September 2023

  • "Phi-2: The surprising power of small language models", Mojan Javaheripi and Sébastien Bubeck , Microsoft Research, 12/12/24
  • WTF are diffusion transformers 
    -- "Stable Diffusion 3.0 debuts new diffusion transformation architecture to reinvent text-to-image gen AI", Sean Michael Kerner, VentureBeat, 2/22/24
    -- "Diffusion transformers are the key behind OpenAI’s Sora — and they’re set to upend GenAI", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 2/28/24
    -- "Diffusion Transformer Explained", Mario Namtao Shianti Larcher, Towards Data Science, 2/28/24

  • "Compact Guide to Large Language Models", DataBricks, 2023 ... Link to form that enables download of their eBook (9 pages) pdf file.
  • "Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.", Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Tech Review, 3/4/24
  • "Let's learn about artificial intelligence -- A series about AI, machine learning, ChatGPT, and more", Mark Wiemer, Medium, 3/21/23
  • "A Glossary for the AI Revolution", Seth Fiegerman and Nate Lanxon ... Illustrations by Mathieu Labrecque, Bloomberg, 10/4/24

  • "Transformers (how LLMs work) explained visually | DL5, 3Blue1Brown, ", 
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