Useful AI News


Last update: Saturday 1/18/25
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 | 
F. SLM News | G. Public Policy  | H. OpEds+Misc | I. Hacks | J. Basics

Top 3 stories in past week ... 
  1. OpEds+Misc 
    The MAGAfication of Silicon Valley Continues
    -    - "OpenAI Courts Trump With Vision for ‘A.I. in America’", Cade Metz and Cecilia Kang, NY Times, 1/13/25 ... This story also covered by Gizmodo .... and OpenAI

  2. Public Policy
    "Biden Administration Adopts Rules to Guide A.I.’s Global Spread", Ana Swanson,     NY Times, 1/13/25
    -- This story also covereed by TechCrunch,  ... and The White House

  3. Other Models 
    "Nvidia’s Top Customers Face Delays From Glitchy AI Chip Racks", Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy, The Information, 1/13/25
    -- Thus story also covered by Reuters,  TechSpot, Bloomberg (YouTube) 
  • Upcoming events
    -- 
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 Shifts Strategy as Rate of ‘GPT’ AI Improvements Slows", Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo ,and Amir Efrati, The Information, 11/9/24
  • "OpenAI’s Sales Chief Sees ‘Paradigm Shift’ in Corporate AI Spending", Aaron Holmes, The Information, 11/27/24

  • "12 (working) days of OpenAI" ... and ... OpenAI YouTube Channel
    -- A series pf announcements of new OpenAI products that starts on 12/5/24. The following announcements might be of special interest to the readers of this blog.

    Day 1 (Thursday 12/5/24) ... Models o1 and o1 Pro
        For uses who have ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Pro subscriptions
    "Here's What OpenAI's $200 Monthly ChatGPT Pro subscription Includes", Reece Rogers, Wired, 12/5/24 ... This story also covered by TechCrunch, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, and OpenAI

    Day 3 (Monday 12/9/24) ... Sora makes videos 
         Accessed via its own Website, not via OpenAI's chatbot
         For uses who have ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Prosubscriptions
    "The Most Hyped Bot Since ChatGPT", Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 12/9/24 ...  ... This story also covered by Reuters, Marques Brownlee (video) ... and OpenAI

    Day 5 (Wednesday 12/11/24) ... Apple Intelligence now "supervised" by ChatGPT 
    "Apple launches its ChatGPT integration with Siri", Kif Leswing, CNBC, 12/11/24 ... This story also covered by The Verge ... and OpenAI + video

    Day 6 (Thursday 12/12/24) ... ChatGPT reads and "understands" live video feeds 
    "ChatGPT now understands real-time video, seven months after OpenAI first demoed it", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 12/12/24  ... This story also covered by 9to5Mac, Bloomberg... and OpenAI (video)

    Day 7 (12/13/24) ... Projects for OpenAI to organize chats and files
    "ChatGPT Projects are fancy folders for your AI chats", Jay Peters, The Verge, 12/13/24 ... This story also covered by VentureBeat, Mashable,  ... and OpenAI (video)

    Day 8 (Monday 12/16/24) *
    "OpenAI brings its AI-powered web search tool to more ChatGPT users", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 12/16/24 ... This story also covered by The Verge, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, ... and OpenAI (video)

    Day 12 (Friday 12/20/24) ... Next generation from o1 to o3 
    "OpenAI announces new o3 models", Maxwell Zeff and Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 12/20/24 ... This story also covered. by Wired,The Verge, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Engadget,  ... and OpenAI (video)

  • "OpenAI lays out its for-profit transition plans", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 12/27/24 
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, Gizmodo, Engadget,  ... and OpenAI
B. Microsoft 
C. Google 

D. Amazon, Meta, Anthropic, Apple, and other Big Tech models

E. Agents
Editor's note -- This section replaces the old "Large Lange Model News" section because, nowadays, all AI news is based on large language models ... except news about small models ithat will conntinue to be reported in the next section. Agents have been discussed for the last two years, but at this poine they seem to be on the verge of becoming a reality. Indeed, agents might become the hottest arena of competition for Big Tech AI producers, whose other developments will be covered in the preceding sections -- A, B, C, and D
  • "OpenAI’s Swarm AI agent framework: Routines and handoffs", Bryson Masse, VentureBeat, 10/14/24
    -- This story also covered by Computerworld

  • "Anthropic’s agentic Computer Use is giving people ‘superpowers", Taryn Plumb, VentureBeat, 10/24/24 
    -- This story also covered by Wired, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Corbin Brown's demo (YouTube video) ... and Anthropic

  • Other recent announcements of agents 
    -- Salesforce (Bloomberg, Axios) ... and Salesforce
    -- Microsoft (Bloomberg, ZDNet) ... and Microsoft
    -- Google (The Verge, The Information)

  • "Microsoft’s new Magentic-One system directs multiple AI agents to complete user tasks", Emilia David, VentureBeat, 11/5/24

  • "Google Accidentally Reveals ‘Jarvis’ AI That Takes Over Computers", Erin Wooa and Stephanie Palazzolo, The Information, 11/5/24
    -- This story also covered by Endadget, Gizmodo

  • "You can now try out Microsoft’s new AI-powered Xbox chatbot", Tom Warren, The Verge, 11/4/24
  • "ChatGPT can now read some of your Mac’s desktop apps", Maxwell Zeff, TechCrunch, 11/14/24
    -- This story also covered by MacRumors, 9to5Mac, 

  • "Google Cloud launches AI Agent Space amid rising competition", Carl Franzen, VentureBeat, 11/21/24

  • "Google Unveils A.I. Agent That Can Use Websites on Its Own", Cade Metz and Nico Grant, NY Times, 12/11/24
F. Small Language Model (SLM) news 
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.
  • "Microsoft releases Phi-2, a small language model AI that outperforms Llama 2, Mistral 7B", Carl Franzen, VentureBeat, 12/12/23 
    -- This story also covered by ZDNet, TechRepublic, Medium, Computerworld ... and Microsoft

  • "Allen Institute for AI releases ‘truly open source’  LLM to drive ‘critical shift’ in AI development", Sharon Goldman, VentureBeat, 2/1/24 ... OLMo 7B parameters
    -- This story also covered by TechCrunch ... and Allen Institute

  • "Google goes 'open AI'" with Gemma, a free, open-weights chatbot family", Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 2/21/24 ...7B and 28B
    -- This story also covered by Reuters, Fast Company, Hugging Face, Fortune, NY Times ... and Google

  • "Meta releases Llama 3, claims it’s among the best open models available", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 4/18/24 
    -- Meta's announcement of Llama 3 ➡ HERE
    -- Another Big Tech's opinion: "Elon Musk’s ‘not bad’ review thrusts Meta’s Llama 3 AI into spotlight", Michael Nuñez, VentureBeat, 4/19/24

  • "Microsoft Makes a New Push Into Smaller A.I. Systems", Karen Weise and Cade Metz, NY Times, 4/23/24  
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, Engadget, Ars Technica, ZDNet ... and AI Revolution YouTube Video... and Microsoft ➡ Microsoft benchmarks pdf

  • "Why Apple is taking a small-model approach to generative AI", Brian Heater, TechCrunch, 6/11/24  
    --     Apple's small language model strategy also discussed by VentureBeat, Wired, The Verge, ... and Apple (SLM) plus Apple ("private cloud compute" extension of SLM)

  • "Meta just beat Google and Apple in the race to put powerful AI on phones", Michael Nuñez, VentureBeat, 20/24/24
  • "Meta makes its MobileLLM open for researchers, posting full weights", Carl Franzen, VentureBeat, 10/31/24

  • "Microsoft makes powerful Phi-4 model fully open-source on Hugging Face", Carl Franzen, VentureBeat, 1/8/25 
    - This story also covered by Hugging Face, AI News, ... and Microsoft 

G. Public policy and legal considerations 
  • "Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case", Lauren Feiner, The Verge, 8/5/24 
    -- This story also covered by Bloomberg, Engadget, Wired, Gizmodo, Reuters, NY Times, Washington Post, TechCrunch,

  • "US, UK and EU sign on to the Council of Europe’s high-level AI safety treaty", Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch, 9/5/24  
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, The Guardian

  • "California Passes Election ‘Deepfake’ Laws, Forcing Social Media Companies to Take Action", Stuart A. Thompson, NY Times, 9/17/24 
    -- This story also covered by Washington Post, Fortune, 

  • "Gov. Newsom vetoes California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047", Gov GavinNewsom (CA), 9/29/24
    -- This story also covered by Reuters, Washinfton Post, 

  • "U.S. Proposes Breakup of Google to Fix Search Monopoly", David McCabe, NY Times, 11/21/24  
    -- This story also covered by Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Reuters
    -- Note: Selling Chrome browser is one of the proposed remedies.
    -- A closely. related story, "US Justice Department Seeks to Unwind Google’s Anthropic Deal", Josh Sisco and Leah Nylen, Bloomberg, 11/21/24

  • "Google to face massive UK class action lawsuit over search dominance", Emma Roth, The Verge, 11/25/24 
    -- This story also covered by Yahoo Finance. Business Wire

  • "F.T.C. Launches Antitrust Investigation Into Microsoft", David McCabe, NY Times, 11/27/24
  • "Canada Accuses Google of Creating an Ad Tech Monopoly", Ian Austen,  NY Times, 11/28/24
  • "UK tribunal green-lights $2.7B Facebook collective action antitrust lawsuit", Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch, 12/5/24

  • "Biden Administration Adopts Rules to Guide A.I.’s Global Spread", Ana Swanson, NY Times, 1/13/25
    -- This story also covereed by TechCrunch,  ... and The White House

H. Misc = Opinions, other news, rumors, long reads
  • "75% of Knowledge Workers Use AI on the Job, but Executives Are Dragging Their Feet", Lisa Lacy, CNET, 5/8/24 
    -- This story also covered by Wired, The Verge, Axios, CNBC, Fast Company, Fortune, ... and Microsoft and LinkedIn  

  • Has Big Tech over invested in GenAI? Are we in a bubble that's about to burst? 
    -- "Big Tech’s AI Promises Become a ‘Show Me’ Story For Investors", Carmen Reinicke, Bloomberg, 8/3/24
    -- "This Week in AI: Companies are growing skeptical of AI’s ROI", Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, 7/31/24
    -- "The Generative-AI Revolution May Be a Bubble", Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 8/2/24
    -- "AI bubble: Tech stocks plummet with another potential 25% drop, analysts warn", Paolo Confino, Fortune, 8/2/24
    -- "Elliott says Nvidia is in a ‘bubble’ and AI is ‘overhyped’", Laurence Fletcher and Costas Mourselas, Financial Times, 8/2/24
      
  • "Hungry for Energy, Amazon, Google and Microsoft Turn to Nuclear Power", Ivan Penn and Karen Weise, NY Times, 10/16/24  
    -- This story also covered by VentureBeat, The Verge, Engadget, TechCrunch, BBC

  • "Microsoft and OpenAI’s Close Partnership Shows Signs of Fraying", Cade MetzMike Isaac and Erin Griffith, NY Times 10/17/24

  • Post-election predictions about the impact of Trump's victory on AI regulation
    -- Wired, "What Donald Trump's Win Will Mean for Big Tech", Lauren Goode, Paresh Dave, and Will Knight, 11/7/24
    -- TechCrunch, "What Trump’s victory could mean for AI regulation", Kyle Wiggers, 11/6/24
    -- The Verge, "What a second Trump presidency means for tech", Lauren Feiner,     11/8/24

  • "OpenAI and others seek new path to smarter AI as current methods hit limitations",  Krystal Hu and Anna Tong, Reuters, 11/15/24
    -- This story also covered by     Beebom, The Information

  • "Nvidia Doubles Profit as A.I. Chip Sales Soar", Tripp Mickle, NY Times, 11/20/24  
    -- This story also covered by CNBC, Reuters, Yahoo Finance ... and Nvidia

  • "How Anthropic Got Inside OpenAI’s Head", Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati, The Information, 12/12/24
  • "Apple will pay $95 million to people who were spied on by Siri", Adi Robertson, The Verge, 1/2/25  
    -- This story also covered by Forbes, ZDNet, CBS, Reuters

  • "Meta removes AI character accounts after users criticize them as ‘creepy and unnecessary’", Kat Tenbarge, NBC, 1/3/25  
    -- This story also covered by The Verge, Gizmodo, The Guardian, CNN, Mashable, 

  • "The MAGAfication of Silicon Valley"
    -- Michael Barbaro, NY Times The Daily podcast, 1/13/25

    --     Meta removes AI character accounts after users criticize them as ‘creepy and unnecessary’", Kat Tenbarge, NBC, 1/3/25  -- This story also covered by The Verge, Gizmodo, The Guardian, CNN, Mashable, 

    -- "    Meta's right-wing reinvention also includes an end to DEI programs and trans Messenger themes", Ian carlos campbell, Engadget, 1/10/25

    -- "OpenAI Courts Trump With Vision for ‘A.I. in America’", Cade Metz and Cecilia Kang,     NY Times, 1/13/25 ... This story also covered by Gizmodo .... and OpenAI

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 

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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