OpenAI failed to deliver the opt-out tool it promised by 2025

Pivot 5: 5 stories. 5 minutes a day. 5 days a week.

1. OpenAI failed to deliver the opt-out tool it promised by 2025

OpenAI's Media Manager tool, which allows creators to specify how their works are included or excluded from its AI training data, has not been implemented. The tool was developed to protect OpenAI from intellectual property issues and potentially shield the company from legal challenges.

However, the tool was rarely viewed as a priority internally and has not been updated. OpenAI is fighting class action lawsuits filed by artists, writers, YouTubers, computer scientists, and news organizations, alleging that the startup trained on their works illegally.

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2. Alibaba slashes prices on large language models by up to 85% as China AI rivalry heats up

Alibaba is offering price cuts on its large language models, including Qwen-VL, by up to 85%. The move reflects the intensifying competition among Chinese tech giants to win more business for their artificial intelligence products.

Major Chinese firms like Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, Huawei, and TikTok parent company Bytedance have launched their own large language models over the past 18 months. Alibaba has previously announced price reductions of up to 55% on core cloud products and 97% on its Qwen AI model to boost demand.

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3. US sanctions Russian group over AI-generated election disinformation

The US has imposed sanctions on Russia and Iran for attempting to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. The Treasury Department said the groups aimed to "stoke socio-political tensions" and influence voters. The Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, linked to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, used AI tools to create disinformation and spread fake online news outlets.

The US also accused Russia of manipulating a video to produce baseless accusations about a 2024 vice presidential candidate. The Treasury Department also sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for planning to interfere with the election since at least 2023.

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4. People Are Disgusted by Facebook’s Plan to Deploy AI-Powered “Users”

Meta's generative AI plan aims to populate the dying social network with "characters" to drive engagement, despite other platforms like Instagram being plagued by unauthorized bots. Meta's vice-president of product for generative AI, Connor Hayes, said that AIs will have bios and profile pictures, generating and sharing content on the platform.

There are already "hundreds of thousands" of characters created on the site, though most remain private. Users on the r/futurology subreddit saw the ruse as a way to fill the community with fake users, potentially increasing clicks and ad revenue.

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5. Nvidia to open-source Run:ai, the software it acquired for $700M to help companies manage GPUs for AI

Nvidia has completed its acquisition of Run:ai, a software company that simplifies orchestrating GPU clouds for AI. The acquisition was reported to be worth $700 million. Run:ai's software remotely schedules Nvidia GPU resources for AI in the cloud.

Nvidia plans to open-source the software, which currently supports only Nvidia GPUs. The move is expected to help the community build better AI faster. The acquisition is part of Nvidia's efforts to empower AI teams with the freedom to choose the tools, platforms, and frameworks that best suit their needs.

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