AI Reading for Friday October 17

OpenAI's ChatGPT processed at least 2.5 billion messages per day in July, had about 700 million users, and, per researchers, 70% of queries were non-work-related, while Sam Altman said weekly users reached 800 million. - Business Insider

OpenAI expects AI chips co-developed with Broadcom to cost 20–30% less than NVIDIA GPUs, which face prolonged backlogs on GPU orders. - Bloomberg

OpenAI has expansive ambitions but faces questions about how much it can achieve before hitting a wall. - Financial Times

OpenAI subpoenaed multiple nonprofits, including Ekōdd, which says over 70% of its funding comes from small individual donors, seeking communications about Elon Musk and donors as part of its defense against X Corp's lawsuit over OpenAI's for-profit shift. - Ars Technica

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on a podcast last week that he wanted ChatGPT to become “people’s personal AI subscription,” exploring a "sign in with ChatGPT" feature for websites, letting startups charge OpenAI model usage costs to users' ChatGPT accounts. - The Information

OpenAI paused depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. after users generated “disrespectful” deepfake videos of the civil rights leader using its artificial intelligence tool Sora. - Bloomberg

OpenAI updated Sora 2 to let free users generate videos up to 15 seconds (previously about 10 seconds), while Pro subscribers ($200/month) can create up to 25‑second videos and access a Storyboard tool, the company said. - TechRadar

OpenAI will allow sexually explicit "erotica" on ChatGPT for verified adults beginning in December, CEO Sam Altman said, drawing criticism from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation which warned of mental-health harms and urged reversing the change. - Variety

OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner warned AI could match or exceed human capacity by 2027 and create a "permanent underclass," while MIT, Carnegie Mellon and the Bank of England flagged underperforming AI and sustainability concerns. - the Guardian

Leopold Aschenbrenner, 23, a former OpenAI employee who began at FTX's philanthropy arm, now runs an AI-focused hedge fund managing over $1.5 billion, drawing both praise as an AGI visionary and criticism for his limited experience. - Fortune

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said AI is real but some asset prices are "in bubble territory," and that JPMorgan has invested billions since 2012 with over 2,000 AI staff and reported roughly $2 billion in savings or revenue. - Yahoo Finance

The AI investment bubble poses a larger global economic threat than U.S. tariffs, and financial markets and economic realities have constrained America's use of import duties. - Financial Times

What GPU pricing can tell us about how the AI bubble will pop: Rental health awareness - Financial Times

Ed Zitron told an Ars Technica live event that generative AI is overhyped, calling it "a $50 billion revenue industry masquerading as a $1 trillion one" and citing OpenAI's estimated $9.7 billion loss in H1 2025. - Ars Technica

If Nvidia is the new Cisco, is OpenAI the new AOL? Tim Draper predicts an AI hype bubble and rebound, creates AI avatars from his speeches, and says Draper Associates uses AI to surface about five potential investments weekly, although humans remain essential. - Business Insider

JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are reorganizing around AI, reporting Q3 profits of $14.4 billion and $4.1 billion respectively, constraining headcount growth, with JPMorgan forecasting at least 10% cuts in operations roles over five years and planning retraining. - CNBC

Accenture announced more than 11,000 job cuts tied to an $865 million "reinvention" to shift hiring toward data, automation and AI deployment, with legacy repeatable-task roles targeted for exits, CEO Julie Sweet said. - Yahoo Finance

Amazon plans a 2025 global round of layoffs across divisions including PXT and AWS, continuing cuts of more than 27,000 jobs since 2022, with analysts estimating 10,000–15,000 roles at risk as the company shifts toward generative AI. - www.ibtimes.co.uk

Internal Amazon 'AWS Confidential' documents show AI startups are delaying AWS adoption and diverting early budgets to AI models, GPU training/inference and AI-as-a-service; YC 2024 metrics report 88% using OpenAI, 72% Anthropic, 4.3% AWS Bedrock. - Business Insider

ByteDance is promoting its AI chatbot Cici with paid ads and influencer partnerships in the UK, Mexico and Indonesia, building on Doubao's 157 million monthly active users - WIRED

Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro has led benchmarks in coding, mathematics, logic and emotional reasoning, topped blind user-preference rankings against 26 models, and is being integrated across Android, Google Drive, NotebookLM and Google Home while expanding to wearables. - Tom's Guide

Google AI Studio A/B testing surfaced a model labeled "Gemini 3.0" (model ID ecpt50a2y6mpgkcn) that produced higher-quality SVGs than Gemini 2.5 Pro and exhibited about 24 seconds longer time-to-first-token and roughly 40% longer outputs. - Rick Lamers' blog

Appfigures data shows that after Google integrated Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash) on Aug. 26, Gemini downloads rose 331% (~6.1M gain) by Oct. 6 while Adobe Firefly downloads fell 68% (~2M loss), signaling user migration to Gemini. - Business Insider

If Google brings Gemini and its Search app to macOS, it could integrate web, Drive and local file search with conversational Cmd+Space responses and agentic task execution, directly competing with Apple Spotlight and exposing Siri and Apple Intelligence gaps. - Android Authority

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on being an AI leader and then getting beaten by OpenAI with ChatGPT. OpenAI's late-2022 ChatGPT launch beat Google's internal chatbot, prompting a "code red," redirected teams and Google's March 2023 release of Bard (later Gemini). - Business Insider

Microsoft's annual digital threats report found over 200 instances this July of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea using AI to create fake online content—more than double July 2024 and over ten times 2023 counts, and warned attacks will escalate. - AP NewsWhy Microsoft Let OpenAI Play the Field - The Information

Microsoft is adding Hey Copilot voice activation to Windows 11 and embedding generative-AI features into the OS, Yusuf Mehdi said, enabling voice-driven file creation, editing and agentic background tasks to replace Cortana. - Ars Technica

Microsoft is adding always-listening Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision to every Windows 11 device where Copilot is available, accessible via the wake word "Hey Copilot," with an opt-in rollout underway, Yusuf Mehdi said. - The Register

"Hey Copilot": Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it - The Verge

Open-source Anthropic MCP connector integrates Claude with Microsoft 365 (SharePoint/OneDrive, Outlook and Teams), adding enterprise search and allowing Team and Enterprise plan users to search and analyze documents, emails, chats and meeting summaries. - The Verge

Claude Skills: like a hints file with to-dos and scripts for specialized tasks - Anthropic

Claude Skills considered awesome. Token-efficient Markdown-based modules (with scripts and YAML frontmatter) that power document/code-interpreter features, support .pdf/.docx/.xlsx/.pptx, and may reduce large context-token costs versus Model Context Protocols. - Simon Willison’s Weblog

Salesforce's Benioff warns of AI 'false prophets' while promising true profits by 2030; Salesforce reported Q2 revenue of $10.24B (up 10% YoY) and net income $1.89B (up 32%), said cloud/AI ARR topped $1.2B (up 120%), and CEO Marc Benioff expects more than $60B revenue by 2030. - The Register

Salesforce pitches AI to help ICE boost hiring - The New York Times

CCTV's Financial Investigation reported Chinese paper mills using generative AI chatbots to mass-produce forged academic papers, with workers completing over 30 articles weekly and one Wuhan agency handling more than 40,000 orders annually. - Yahoo

AI tools like PassGAN reportedly boost password-cracking success up to 73% and crack ~51% of passwords in a minute. - The Register

Vendors are deploying "weapons-grade" AI to untrained users, contributing to high failure rates—citing "95 percent of junked AI proofs of concept"—and failures will continue until organizations adopt skills, governance and process changes. - The Register

At AI World, Oracle announced support for third‑party LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google, Meta, xAI), an agent marketplace, and an 18 zettaFLOPS AI compute buildout due late next year. - The Register

AI hoovers hotel data, trains on it, then helps users book through AI, instead of following links to direct hotel sales channels. - Hospitality Net

Kayak launched "AI Mode" on Kayak.com (desktop and mobile web), using ChatGPT to let U.S. users in English ask travel questions and compare or book flights, hotels and cars, with plans to expand languages, countries and voice support. - TechCrunch

Uber launched a U.S. pilot to source labeled data for its AI models, powered by Uber's AI Solutions Group, with payments within 24 hours. Maybe while you drive? - Fast Company

UK tech graduate hiring reportedly fell 46% last year, with a projected further 53% drop and overall graduate hiring down 8% year-on-year, as employers automate junior coding and favour experienced hires. - The Register

Australia's Commonwealth Bank reversed its decision to make 45 customer service roles redundant after staff who trained AI chatbots protested, with chairman Paul O'Malley saying "We made a mistake" amid the bank's $300 million AI investment and union, regulator scrutiny. - au.finance.yahoo.com

An Oxford University Press survey of 2,000 UK 13–18-year-olds found 80% use AI for schoolwork, over 90% said it aided at least one academic skill, 60% reported it harmed other abilities, and 51% wanted clearer guidance. - Business Insider

A think-tanker said AI can democratize expertise and provide personalized learning but poses risks—academic integrity/over-reliance, pedagogical misalignment, and psychological harms—and recommended research, regulatory sandboxes, benchmarks, and system reporting. - American Enterprise Institute - AEI

MIT-linked research "This is Your Brain on ChatGPT" found using AI after working on a problem increases neural connections, while prior AI use reduces them; treating AI as primary architect can produce irrelevant outputs and deskill employees. - Fast Company

What are the 2 categories of AI use and why do they matter? The divide   between builders and consumers  is shaping not only how generative AI is used but also whether it delivers value at all. Even if you are a consumer you need to be in the weeds and hands-on. - Fast Company

Artists using gen-AI tools like Midjourney, Runway and DALL·E have won awards and museum placements, reshaping art markets and workflows: Henry Daubrez's AI visuals powered a bitcoin NFT that sold for $24,000. - MIT Technology Review

Spotify announced partnerships with music labels to develop responsible 'artist-first' AI music products, pledging upfront agreements, choice, fair compensation and artist-fan connections while providing few product details or timelines. (I thought it said 'artist-free'?) - Engadget

Generative AI ranks the 'catchiest' songs - CNET

Meta Adds Instagram Parental Controls to Limit Teen AI Chats and Harmful Content - The New York Times

Meta hired Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, after offering a compensation package reportedly worth up to $1.5 billion over at least six years, Thinking Machines Lab said he has decided to pursue a different path. - Yahoo Finance

Chinese company launches autonomous flying taxi with 100-mile range - Fox Business

Is AI really making electricity bills higher? - CNN

AI data-center operators, facing electricity shortages, are constructing on-site power plants to meet growing energy demand. - The Wall Street Journal

When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face: An estimated 100 million people with facial differences are misrecognized or rejected by widely used facial-recognition systems, causing access failures for phone unlocks, IDs, airports and online services. - WIRED

PainChek uses smartphone facial analysis to output 0–42 pain scores, distinguishing between physical pain and emotional distress in patients in residential facilities, with pilots showing a 25% drop in antipsychotic use and 42% fewer falls; other AI tools report >80–90% accuracy. - MIT Technology Review

Carnegie Mellon researchers built a prototype "unobtrusive physical AI" that uses ceiling cameras, computer vision and large language models to predict users' next actions and command everyday objects like your stapler (or keys?) to come to you; could help aged and disabled. - The Register

AI-powered fitness apps, experts including coach Cara D'Orazio and Dr. Ayesha Bryant warn, are producing measurable harms—users report digital guilt, anxiety, demoralization and harmful prescriptions (e.g., six consecutive training days)—and should complement, not replace, human coaches. - Lifehacker

Reddit's AI Answers surfaced medical advice recommending kratom and linking to posts praising heroin in subreddits like r/FamilyMedicine, and moderators could not opt out until Reddit issued an update to block Related Answers on sensitive topics. - 404 Media

Teen Sues Maker of Fake-Nude Software - The Wall Street Journal

Painting with VR turns the world into a coloring book - Reddit

When Alexa wakes up in the middle of the night and says "Sorry I didn't quite get that" - YouTube

A viral TikTok/X clip viewed about 31 million times that purported to show a cat dropping a mouse into its sleeping owner’s mouth is fake and likely generated by OpenAI’s Sora 2, showing timestamp errors, anatomical glitches and erased watermarks. - France 24

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