OpenAI teases 12 days of mystery product launches starting tomorrow

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1. OpenAI teases 12 days of mystery product launches starting tomorrow

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a 12-day period starting December 5 to unveil new AI features and products. The event may include a public release of the company's text-to-video model Sora and a new "reasoning" AI model similar to O1-preview.

The announcements will be livestreamed every weekday until December 20. The "12 days of shipmas" event is seen as a critical move to potentially place OpenAI ahead of competitors like Google and Anthropic. However, the potential launch of Sora has been met with controversy, with artists claiming OpenAI used them for unpaid R&D and PR. Google has positioned itself to compete with Sora by releasing its own video-generation model, Veo.

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2. US regulator says AI scanner 'deceived' users after BBC story

US weapons scanning company Evolv Technology will be banned from making unsupported claims about its products in a proposed settlement with the US government. The company claimed its AI scanner could detect all weapons, but BBC investigations showed these claims to be false. Evolv has reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but hasn't admitted wrongdoing.

The FTC said the action should be a warning to other AI companies. Evolv's mission is to replace metal detectors with AI weapons scanners, which can actively detect concealed weapons like bombs, knives, and guns. The proposed settlement will ban Evolv from making unsupported claims about its products' ability to detect weapons and give some school customers the option to cancel their contracts.

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3. Liquid AI’s new STAR model architecture outshines Transformer efficiency

Liquid AI, a startup based in MIT, has introduced STAR (Synthesis of Tailored Architectures), a framework designed to automate the generation and optimization of AI model architectures. STAR uses evolutionary algorithms and a numerical encoding system to balance quality and efficiency in deep learning models.

The framework has demonstrated a 90% cache size reduction compared to traditional Transformer architectures and can scale its designs, reducing inference cache requirements.

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4. OpenAI hires first marketing chief from Coinbase

OpenAI has appointed Kate Rouch as its first chief marketing officer, following her tenure at Coinbase. Rouch, who previously led global marketing and public relations at Meta, will join OpenAI as the company's first CMO. OpenAI's valuation has risen to $157 billion since ChatGPT's launch, raising $13 billion from Microsoft.

The company has not yet focused on strategic marketing, but its recent hire suggests a potential investment in marketing. OpenAI faces competition from Anthropic, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, all vying for a larger share of the generative AI market.

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5. China hits US with ban on critical minerals used in tech manufacturing

China has retaliated against the US following new export curbs announced by the Biden administration, which restrict Chinese businesses from accessing foreign products containing a single US-made chip. China's Ministry of Commerce has announced a ban on exports of "dual-use items" related to gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials to the US.

Experts warn that the US risks losing access to rare-earth metals critical to manufacturing popular products if new trade restrictions are placed on China. The ban on exports into the US could also be a response to President-elect Donald Trump's threat to increase tariffs on all Chinese goods once he takes office. Analysts warn that new export curbs could hurt businesses in the US and allied nations while potentially doing very little to block China from accessing US tech.

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