🎉 Mysterious New LLM, Lawsuits for OpenAI, Tesla Optimus and Pals, Apple Partnerships
GPT-5 Testing the Waters?, More Legal Headaches for OpenAI & Microsoft, Race for the Robotic Household Maid, Apple Mulls OpenAI Partnership
Welcome to this week’s edition of AImpulse, a five point summary of the most significant advancements in the world of Artificial Intelligence.
Here’s the pulse on this week’s top stories:
What’s Happening: A mysterious, impressive new AI model called “gpt2-chatbot” just appeared on the Chatbot Arena, showing off advanced capabilities and leading to speculation that it could be an early OpenAI stealth test of GPT 4.5 or even 5.
The details:
The model lacks any official documentation or attribution, but reportedly self-identifies as ChatGPT and created by OpenAI when asked.
Users have praised the model for its reasoning, math, coding and even ASCII art skills that seem to match or exceed GPT-4 and above models in testing.
Additional speculation includes OpenAI doing quiet benchmarking for a new model before publicly releasing it.
To add fuel to the speculative fire, Sam Altman later posted that he has “a soft spot for gpt2“.
Why it matters: There is always an air of mystery surrounding OpenAI, and while this model could just be the rumor mill kicking into overdrive — its capabilities are impressing some of the top minds in the AI community, regardless of who is behind it or what it is.
What’s Happening: Eight major U.S. newspapers just filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the tech giants of illegally using their copyrighted articles to train AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot.
The details:
Newspapers in the filing include The NY Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, The San Jose Mercury News, and more.
The papers allege that "millions" of articles have been used to train models without permission or compensation.
They claim the use of copyrighted content allows chatbots to compete as sources of news, while also attributing inaccurate info to the papers.
The lawsuits come as OpenAI continues to ink deals with other major publishers, including the Financial Times, Axel Springer, and more.
Why it matters: Another day, another lawsuit against OpenAI… But for every paper suing the AI giants, it seems like another is striking a lucrative deal for data and training.
What’s Happening: Elon Musk provided new updates on Tesla’s Optimus autonomous robots during the company’s 2024 Q1 earnings call — stating that Tesla should be thought of as an AI or robotics company, not an automaker.
The details:
Musk said he believes Optimus will be ‘more valuable than everything else in the company combined’.
He revealed that Optimus should be doing ‘useful tasks’ in Tesla factories by the end of the year and sold externally by the end of 2025.
A new graphic featured Optimus at the top of Tesla’s ecosystem chart, with the robots accounting for ‘a majority’ of the company’s long-term value.
Tesla’s shares surged following the call despite missing earnings expectations.
Why it matters: While many still look at Tesla and think of cars, Musk’s AI and robotic visions are operating on a grander scale. The confident predictions on Optimus also show where the company is heading — with the ‘sentient’ humanoid robot at the center of Musk’s futuristic plans.
What’s Happening: Sanctuary AI just released the seventh-gen of its Phoenix humanoid robot, featuring substantial new enhancements to both the physical design, AI systems, and training process.
The details:
Gen 7 brings longer operational times, streamlined manufacturing, and significantly lower production costs.
The robot’s body has been overhauled with improved dexterity, durability, visual perception, and sensing capabilities.
Phoenix’s ‘Carbon’ AI system can now master new tasks in under a day, a major leap from earlier generations' weeks-long training times.
Why it matters: Humanoid robots continue to advance at lightning-fast speeds — with new models inching closer and closer to sci-fi capabilities. With rapidly accelerating AI models coming alongside improved hardware, it’s only a matter of time before these robots are integrated into the real world.
What’s Happening: According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is revisiting conversations with OpenAI about integrating the company’s AI into the coming iPhone iOS 18 update.
The details:
Apple and OpenAI are negotiating terms for a potential partnership that would see OpenAI’s features integrated into iOS 18.
The news comes ahead of June’s WWDC event, which is expected to reveal the tech giant’s major AI announcements.
Apple is also exploring a deal with Google to license Gemini, potentially striking agreements with both AI giants.
Why it matters: Apple’s AI era is coming, and all the leading companies might be coming along for the ride. With OpenAI, Google, and Apple’s own AI potentially integrating into the new iOS, Apple has the potential to start the next 'ChatGPT moment' for major AI adoption by putting AI directly into the hands of its 1.4B+ iPhone users.