Alex Heath

They do, but they very rarely talked about it, and NEVER talk about what they want to do

My read is that Anthropic is basically captured by Amazon from a financial perspective

Tim Cook says Apple is ‘open to’ AI acquisitions What’s next for AI Siri?

those who follow Apple know how absolutely wild it is for Cook to come out and say — on an earnings call, no less — that the company is looking at acquisitions

shows how much pressure Apple is feeling on the AI front www.theverge.com/news/716790/...

Why AI researchers are getting paid like NBA All-Stars Meta’s AI talent war is reshaping the industry and resulting in some of the most lucrative job offers on the planet.

Had a blast on Decoder chatting with @alexeheath.com about the AI talent wars & why some researchers are getting traded like NBA superstars.

Talked about my Windsurf scoop & Meta feature, plus tales from AI industry folks watching it all unfold on the inside. www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

Google gets its swag back People who work in the AI industry think Google is quietly winning.

AI was supposed to kill Google. Instead:

- Search is growing
- Gemini is growing
- DeepMind is firing on all cylinders

I think it’s safe to say that Google is back. www.theverge.com/command-line...

techmeme for podcasts when

are we past peak writing? feels like reading is moving into luxury territory

YouTube video by The Verge A-lister antics and Schedule A shenanigans | The Vergecast

This is such a great example of how just giving new people a platform opens up such interesting ideas. I always like The Vergecast, and I read tons of stuff by @miasato.bsky.social + @franhoepfner.bsky.social but this lens on celebs using online platforms is brilliant www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74M...

We are not ready for better deepfakes Captions CEO Gaurav Misra on his company’s alarming AI deepfake report and what has him worried for the future.

first podcast I've started with "damn we are cooked"

sincerely though, I appreciate a CEO building deepfakes being real about the good and bad tradeoffs of ever-better ones proliferating www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

OpenAI prepares to launch GPT-5 in August GPT-5 is expected to arrive in early August

my colleague @tomwarren.co.uk reports that OpenAI is targeting August for the launch of GPT-5 (Sam Altman just mentioned testing it on Theo Von)

plan is to also ship open-weight reasoning model before GPT-5 www.theverge.com/notepad-micr...

How dupes turned online shopping upside down Getting copied is devastating — but not necessarily illegal. Who owns what in an era of unprecedented mass consumption?

New from me: The internet is built on sameness. People hawk the same stuff, use the same music, write the same SEO articles. Now the aesthetics and modes of the web have escape into the real world.

If you thought your feeds were derivative, wait until you see dupes:
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

Why AI is moving from chatbots to the browser Chatbots are out, browsers are in.

more here, click and subscribe www.theverge.com/command-line...

a lil scoop in today's newsletter: Shane Smith tried to buy Substack

Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on the AI startup frenzy: ‘Everyone’s pivoting, then pivoting again’ Meaning founder Ellis Hamburger on what AI founders aren’t saying publicly.

I’m guest hosting the Decoder podcast for the next couple of months, starting with this chat with the one and only @hamburger.bsky.social www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

Here’s What Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering Top AI Talent The Meta CEO is leading a hiring blitz, offering top talent at OpenAI eye-watering pay packages and endless access to cutting-edge chips.

Scoop: Here's what Mark Zuckerberg is offering top tier research talent to come to Meta: www.wired.com/story/mark-z...

Sam Altman Slams Meta’s AI Talent Poaching Spree: 'Missionaries Will Beat Mercenaries' “What Meta is doing will, in my opinion, lead to very deep cultural problems,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a leaked memo sent to OpenAI researchers.

Scoop: Sam Altman slammed Meta's AI talent poaching spree in a memo to staff last night. "Missionaries will beat mercenaries," he said: www.wired.com/story/sam-al...

spends a super long flight to Europe trying to mentally check out from work

immediately sees a major AI CEO while picking up checked bags at small regional airport

Runway is going to let people generate video games with AI After making inroads in Hollywood, Runway is entering the gaming market.

I tried Runway’s video game generator, which is rolling out over the next several days to everyone

The CEO tells me he’s talking to a bunch of gaming companies about doing deals

AI is coming for video games www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Meta says it’s winning the talent war with OpenAI A top Meta exec just called Sam Altman “dishonest.”

In an internal meeting today, a top Meta exec said Sam Altman was "dishonest" for saying that the company is offering $100 million bonuses to poach OpenAI employees.

“we are succeeding at getting talent from OpenAI," Meta's CTO told staff www.theverge.com/command-line...

only in San Francisco does it take awhile to figure out that the conversation you’re overhearing is about Warriors trade rumors, not the comp packages AI researchers are getting

OpenAI’s first AI device with Jony Ive won’t be a wearable It’s also not shipping for at least a year.

Sam Altman in a March email to an audio device startup that was asking him to personally invest in its round: “thanks but im working on something competitive so will respectfully pass!” www.theverge.com/openai/69173...

I interviewed the VP of glasses at Meta, which just announced a new design with Oakley.

We discussed the first meeting he had with new AI chief Alexandr Wang, how people are using the Meta Ray-Bans, the current status of AR glasses, and more. www.theverge.com/command-line...

in the case of SSI, Meta ended up investing in its recent funding round instead (along with Google). now, SSI's CEO is set to leave and co-lead Meta AI. I expect for the new team under Alex Wang to be announced as soon as next week. wild times

Meta held talks to buy Thinking Machines, Perplexity, and Safe Superintelligence Mark Zuckerberg is spending big on AI.

yes, Mark Zuckerberg looked at acquiring Perplexity and Safe Superintelligence

he also approached Mira Murati about buying her new AI lab, Thinking Machines

none of these talks got very far, though, mainly due to disagreements about price and/or strategy www.theverge.com/command-line...

Also in this week’s newsletter: Apple has an AI problem

Why is Zuck spending so much to reboot his AI efforts? Llama has fallen so far behind that Meta product teams have discussed using outside models www.theverge.com/command-line...

How Big Tech is swallowing the AI industry Amazon and Microsoft have shown how Big Tech is going to consolidate the AI industry one way or another.

this one aged well www.theverge.com/2024/7/1/241...

This is also the latest example of a Big Tech co hiring the founder(s) of a hot AI startup and sending a bunch of money to its shareholders to basically buy it without triggering antitrust review.

Microsoft/Inflection
Amazon/Adept
Google/Character
Meta/Scale

This is just the first shoe to drop. I’m expecting Meta to unveil its new “superintelligence” team that Zuck has personally been driving (and Wang will lead) as soon as next week.

Meta is paying $14 billion to catch up in the AI race Meta is forming a new “superintelligence” AI group.

It’s official: Meta is paying $14.3 billion to buy 49% of Scale, the AI industry’s leading data dealer. Scale CEO Alexandr Wang will report to Zuck.

This is essentially Meta paying $14 billion to catch up in the AI race. www.theverge.com/meta/685711/...