Microsoft vs. ChatGPT, Amazon doubles down, Samsung laps Apple, and Big Tech wants it all: AI news roundup
The AI industry is attracting billions of dollars in investment — from building new AI chip facilities to a partnership that will give one tech giant a leg up in the race. But that growing demand is being met with a shortage of tech talent.
Check out those and more highlights from the week in AI news.
Big Tech is swallowing up AI
Tech behemoths are on an AI spending spree, doling out billions to invest in, poach from, and gobble up smaller companies developing the world’s artificial intelligence technology. But as they snap up the small players, Big Tech is toeing a fine line with antitrust watchdogs. If they’re not careful, the tech giants may face a further crackdown from regulators on these AI deals — and considering how antitrust enforcers have been scrutinizing them lately, it may not end well for Silicon Valley.
The AI hiring craze has reached the U.S. government
As the use of artificial intelligence continues to spread at all levels, the U.S. government wants to staff up federal agencies with AI experts — or, if they don’t, stop using the technology.
Meta’s smart glasses are getting a chatty AI update next month
Meta is giving its Ray-Ban collaboration smart glasses an upgrade next month that will have users talking to their specs.
AI is making life easier for financial fraudsters
Risks to the cybersecurity and stability of financial firms are being redefined by AI, which is making it easier for fraudsters to carry out more complex and persistent attacks, according to a report from the Treasury Department.
Microsoft customers are complaining that its Copilot AI isn’t as good as ChatGPT
Microsoft customers are reportedly comparing its AI Copilot tools to OpenAI’s ChatGPT — and complaining that Copilot falls short. But Microsoft employees say customers with the complaints just don’t understanding how to use the tool.
Amazon’s $4 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic is its biggest ever
Amazon completed its largest investment in an outside company ever, as it steps up its efforts in the AI race to compete with rivals including Microsoft.
AI has a talent shortage — meaning $1 million job offers even as tech layoffs hit hard
While the tech industry is leading the layoffs in the U.S. — which reached its highest level since the Great Recession in February — one sector of the industry is having a hard time finding the right recruits, and it’s starting a war for talent where offers are reportedly reaching up to $1 million.
Samsung is beating Apple in the race to bring AI to smartphones
Samsung’s free-for-now AI smartphone features will get an update on Thursday, putting the South Korean electronics giant even further ahead of Apple in the race to bring generative AI to cell phones.
The world’s biggest chips producer is on a high-speed hiring spree
Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently re-entered the ranks of the 10 most valuable companies in the world — and it plans to ride its AI-fueled growth to a 100,000-strong global workforce, an executive says.
A Nvidia partner will invest $4 billion in 1 U.S. state
U.S. efforts to become a dominant force in the chipmaking industry could be propelled by a planned $4 billion advanced chip-packaging facility in Indiana.
It looks like Mark Zuckerberg is personally trying to poach Google AI researchers for Meta
Meta has already spent billions on chips to build on its AI efforts against competitors. Now its chief executive is reportedly spending time wooing AI talent from its rivals.
Salesforce is trying to catch up in an AI arms race
If the first outlines of today’s generative AI boom began taking shape roughly a decade ago — say, alongside the founding days of OpenAI — Salesforce was early to the scene. The company launched its first proprietary AI tool in 2016, well ahead of our current conceptions of generative artificial intelligence. But it’s since fallen behind.
A rising AI star has taken the stock market by storm — another sign of an IPO comeback
While everyone was talking about Reddit, Astera Labs quietly took the IPO market by a storm.
The biggest AI companies right now
New chips, more advanced models, record-high stocks — the AI industry has been feeling the rush ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm in November 2022. Since then, OpenAI entered a multi-year, multi-billion dollar partnership with Microsoft, chipmaker Nvidia became the first semiconductor company to surpass a $2 trillion market cap — and now some analysts are warning it’s a bubble that could burst soon.