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AI Agenda

By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Image via Getty

XAI Investors on How The Startup Can Win; Is Reinforcement Learning Over?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 29, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Before we get into today’s column, I’d like to give a big thank you to all our subscribers who joined us at our “Financing the AI Revolution” conference yesterday. It was amazing to get to meet so many of you.One of the most interesting discussions for me came during our panel on how private and public investors are thinking about investing in... Before we get into today’s column, I’d like to give a big thank you to all our subscribers who...

Ryan Kolln, CEO of Appen, speaks onstage during HumanX AI Conference 2025 at Fontainebleau Las Vegas on March 11, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Image via Getty.

The Data Labeling Company Serving Chinese Model Builders

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 28, 2025 7:00am PDT

It’s no secret that the success of today’s large language models wouldn’t be possible without the armies of humans creating the data, like solved math or coding problems, for the AI to be trained on. But as important as data labeling companies—such as Scale AI, Turing and Invisible—have been to the AI sector, they’re not absolutely crucial.... It’s no secret that the success of today’s large language models wouldn’t be possible without the...

The Startups Developing Robot Hands; OpenAI’s Revenue Hopes

The Startups Developing Robot Hands; OpenAI’s Revenue Hopes

By Rocket Drew · Apr 24, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get into Thursday’s column, be sure to read my colleague Sri’s story on OpenAI’s revenue forecasts. The projections go a long way in explaining why investors led by SoftBank think OpenAI is worth $260 billion. While subscriptions to OpenAI’s pioneering ChatGPT will continue to make up the majority of revenue for the next five years,... Before we get into Thursday’s column, be sure to read my colleague Sri’s story on OpenAI’s...

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OpenAI’s Bid To Get Google’s Search Data

By Erin Woo · Apr 23, 2025 7:00am PDT

Photo via Getty

OpenAI’s Bid To Get Google’s Search Data

By Erin Woo · Apr 23, 2025 7:00am PDT

Hello! Erin here, reporting from the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. as federal judge Amit Mehta oversees a hearing on how to remedy Google’s illegal search monopoly.Much of the trial so far has centered not on Google’s traditional search engine—famous for its blue links—but on the AI-powered search market, as the government... Hello! Erin here, reporting from the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. as...

Stock photo via Getty

Three New Ways Developers Are Using AI

By · Apr 22, 2025 7:00am PDT

It’s no surprise that software developers love AI tools. (Just look at the revenue growth of Anysphere, the creator of the popular AI-powered code editing software Cursor, from my colleague Natasha’s feature on the startup last month.)You’ve probably read lots about the most obvious ways that developers are using AI models to speed up software... It’s no surprise that software developers love AI tools. (Just look at the revenue growth of ...

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OpenAI’s Agent Moment; Cursor’s AI Hallucination

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 21, 2025 7:30am PDT · 1 comment

Google’s role in the AI sector will be in the spotlight this week, as the Justice Department makes its case in a Washington court for how to deal with what the court has already found to be Google’s illegal search monopoly. We’ll keep you updated.Meanwhile, looking back at last week, we had both an AI snafu and—perhaps more importantly—OpenAI’s... Google’s role in the AI sector will be in the spotlight this week, as the Justice Department...

Dario Amodei. Photo by Getty

Anthropic Invests in Startup That Decodes AI Models

By Rocket Drew · Apr 17, 2025 7:00am PDT

Anthropic has made its first investment in another startup, putting $1 million into Goodfire, a one-year-old startup that helps AI developers understand the inner workings of their AI models, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investment.The check is a small slice of the $50 million raised by the San Francisco-based startup in a... Anthropic has made its first investment in another startup, putting $1 million into Goodfire, a...

Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s ‘Yeet’ Social Feed Aims to Fix ChatGPT Usability

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 16, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s ‘Yeet’ Social Feed Aims to Fix ChatGPT Usability

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 16, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—confirmed by my colleague Amir—that the company is developing an X-like social feed within ChatGPT, in part so that users can share how they’re using the chatbot to solve problems or create images.There are a couple reasons why this sort of product... If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—...

Sarah Owens. Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory

OpenAI’s Innovator’s Dilemma; Gemini’s Product Lead on What’s Next

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 15, 2025 7:00am PDT

ChatGPT is growing like gangbusters, but many people still don’t know how to utilize it properly or find it to be intimidating.Take Sarah Owens, a molecular biologist at Argonne National Laboratory, who we cited in an article we published Monday as a happy new user of OpenAI’s technology. While she’s got some good results from ChatGPT in... ChatGPT is growing like gangbusters, but many people still don’t know how to utilize it properly...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Revenue Lags at AI Evaluation Startups

By Sri Muppidi · Apr 14, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Startups whose products evaluate artificial intelligence to make sure it isn’t making things up or delivering unsafe results, like Patronus and Braintrust, have caught the attention of investors. But previously undisclosed sales data from these and other startups selling evaluation software show corporate customers have been relatively slow to... Startups whose products evaluate artificial intelligence to make sure it isn’t making things up...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

AI Startups’ Revenue Disclosures Get Worse

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 10, 2025 7:00am PDT

I don’t envy AI investors right now. The price of AI startup shares (unlike the value of my stock portfolio) seem to be only going up, which means it’s riskier to make new bets. And the way startups are disclosing financial metrics to investors seems to be getting more muddied. Take annual recurring revenue, which typically multiplies the... I don’t envy AI investors right now. The price of AI startup shares (unlike the value of my stock...

Outtake CEO Alex Dhillon. Photo courtesy of Outtake.

The Year-Old Security Startup Keeping OpenAI’s Name Off Phishing Lures

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 9, 2025 7:00am PDT

Outtake CEO Alex Dhillon. Photo courtesy of Outtake.

The Year-Old Security Startup Keeping OpenAI’s Name Off Phishing Lures

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 9, 2025 7:00am PDT

Large language models have a lot of great applications but a few bad ones as well: for instance, they help criminals launch targeted cyberattacks faster than they previously did. In the year after ChatGPT was released, the number of sites found to be “phishing,” or trying to convince victims to disclose their ID and payment credentials,... Large language models have a lot of great applications but a few bad ones as well: for instance,...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Llama 4’s Rocky Debut

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 8, 2025 7:15am PDT · 2 comments

Meta Platforms on Saturday released two versions of Llama 4, the newest generation of its flagship open-source large language model, called Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick. The release came a day after we reported that Meta had hit some snags with the new model, which had delayed its release a bit. At first glance, the new AI seemed to... Meta Platforms on Saturday released two versions of Llama 4, the newest generation of its...

The construction site of the Docklands Data Centre Campus where Microsoft was negotiating to lease space. Photo by Getty.

Tariffs Trouble Oracle

By Anissa Gardizy · Apr 7, 2025 7:15am PDT · 1 comment

Before we get to tariffs, we wanted to make sure you saw Stephanie and Jessica’s scoop on OpenAI discussing acquiring a startup created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ex-iPhone designer Jony Ive to develop a personal artificial intelligence device. Although Altman isn’t technically classified as a cofounder of the startup, io Products, the... Before we get to tariffs, we wanted to make sure you saw Stephanie and Jessica’s scoop on OpenAI...

Rodney Brooks. Photo by Getty

Roomba Creator Says Humanoid Robots Are Overhyped

By Rocket Drew · Apr 3, 2025 7:46am PDT · 3 comments

It’s not every day you hear a robotics founder trying to cool the hype surrounding their industry, but Rodney Brooks has seen it all before. Speaking at a conference Tuesday hosted by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI, Brooks, a founder of multiple robotics companies including the one behind Roomba vacuums, showed attendees a slide... It’s not every day you hear a robotics founder trying to cool the hype surrounding their...

Mercor co-founders Adarsh Hiremath, Brendan Foody, and Surya Midha. Photo courtesy of ULY

The Valuation Puzzle of Post-Training AI Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

Mercor co-founders Adarsh Hiremath, Brendan Foody, and Surya Midha. Photo courtesy of ULY

The Valuation Puzzle of Post-Training AI Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

We’re starting to see more generative artificial intelligence-related startups announce they’ve crossed $100 million in annualized revenue. According to our Generative AI Database, at least 15 such startups have reached that threshold.The latest is Mercor, which helps OpenAI and other AI developers find contractors to help train new models.... We’re starting to see more generative artificial intelligence-related startups announce they’ve...

Greg Brockman. Photo by Getty

ChatGPT Revenue Surges 30%—in Just Three Months

By · Apr 1, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Before today’s main column about the AI attention war between OpenAI and Google, there’s OpenAI news from my colleague Natasha: ChatGPT has hit 20 million paid subscribers, according to a spokesperson. That’s up from 15.5 million at the end of last year, as we previously reported.It turns out a lot of people are willing to pay for a chatbot... Before today’s main column about the AI attention war between OpenAI and Google, there’s OpenAI...

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XAI Makes Anthropic Look Cheap

By Amir Efrati · Mar 31, 2025 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

The main question after Elon Musk (somewhat predictably) merged xAI with X, which he announced late Friday, is how xAI will build a business the way OpenAI and Anthropic have.Musk says xAI is worth $80 billion. Fine. But Anthropic is privately worth $60 billion and is generating about $120 million a month in revenue. XAI’s revenue is probably a... The main question after Elon Musk (somewhat predictably) merged xAI with X, which he announced...

Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. Photo by Getty

Why Nvidia and CoreWeave Want to Buy AI Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 27, 2025 7:00am PDT

Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s chips and helps AI developers train and run open-source models on those servers, otherwise known as an inference provider.A deal would put Nvidia in direct competition with a slew of other inference... Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a...

Craig Federighi announces ChatGPT integration with Siri at WWDC 2024. Screenshot via YouTube

How Good Is The Apple Deal for OpenAI?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 26, 2025 7:00am PDT

Craig Federighi announces ChatGPT integration with Siri at WWDC 2024. Screenshot via YouTube

How Good Is The Apple Deal for OpenAI?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 26, 2025 7:00am PDT

Last June, OpenAI landed in headlines for its splashy partnership with Apple. The iPhone maker’s Siri assistant would tap OpenAI’s models and ChatGPT to handle some queries and also help customers with writing and generating images.It looked like a huge win for the ChatGPT maker—at first. Nine months later, we’re wondering whether the deal has... Last June, OpenAI landed in headlines for its splashy partnership with Apple. The iPhone maker’s...