Eric Braverman is leaving as CEO of Schmidt Futures, the philanthropic initiative co-founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, to pursue his own charitable venture.
Why it matters: Schmidt Futures — with the mission of mobilizing talent and building platforms for science and society — is one of the top thought leaders on machine learning and other cutting-edge topics.
OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, say their engine can do the work of human content moderators with much of the accuracy, more consistency and without the emotional toll that people face when forced to view violent and abusive content for hours.
Why it matters: This is the latest example of tech companies touting AI as the key to tackling problems created — or exacerbated — by AI.
A rapid expansion of AI skills is underway — as tens of millions of workers race to meet demand from employers.
Why it matters: With millions of jobs at risk — and potentially more to be created — as a result of AI, the ability to acquire new AI-related skills is set to affect individual careers and the economic trajectory of whole nations.
As teachers head back to the classroom for their first full year of post-ChatGPT reality, a new course aims to help them better understand the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI.
Why it matters: Many teachers have deep interest in the technology that affects them and their students,but they often lack easy and accessible resources to stay up to speed with the evolving tools.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, will no longer allow advertisers to promote their accounts within the platform's timeline to attract new followers, according to an email to advertising clients obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Promoted accounts — or "Follower Objective" ads — generate more than $100 million annually in global revenue for X, a source familiar with the company's business told Axios.
Before electric air taxis are whisking passengers over congested cities, they'll likely be ferrying personnel and supplies for military missions.
Why it matters: As the first entity to deploy electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), the U.S. Air Force is acting as an important bridge to the commercial market for a handful of startups, including Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation.
CoinDesk, the crypto media company that broke the story that led to the fall of crypto exchange FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, is eliminating positions, according to an internal note from its CEO to staff obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The expected cuts are part of a broader effort meant to help the company curb costs to facilitate a sale.
The previously unknown partner in a $2 billion video game mega-deal that mysteriously and dramatically collapsed last spring was the Saudi government-funded Savvy Games Group, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The fallout of the failed deal sent shares of The Embracer Group — Savvy's would-be partner, and one of the most voracious acquirers of video games studios in the last several years — plummeting, and forced it into cost-cutting mode.
Robert Nelsen is one of the most successful biotech VCs ever, having backed over three dozen companies that reached billion-dollar valuations. He's also a thyroid cancer survivor who credits early detection to a company in which his firm, Arch Venture Partners, never invested.
Why it matters: There is a simmering medical debate over the value of full-body scans, like the one Nelsen received, and thegrowingcohort of venture-backed startups that provide them.
Bain Capital agreed to buy Chinese data center operator Chindata Group for $3.16 billion, beating out a rival bid from China Merchants Capital.
Why it matters: This suggests that U.S. private equity firms aren't too worried about an expansion of President Biden's executive order on outbound investment. Or that the Treasury Department will take a liberal view of what it means to be a company operating in the AI sector.
The year since passage of the big climate law has brought over $100 billion in U.S. solar and storage company investments.
Why it matters: New data from the Solar Energy Industries Association — a major industry trade group — on private investment suggests the law's subsidies for manufacturing and generation are significantly boosting industry activity levels.
Oil giants are increasingly testing the waters in the nascent direct air capture (DAC) industry.
Driving the news: Chevron will receive up to $3 million to help explore feasibility of a DAC project in California, the Energy Department revealed Friday.
Walter Isaacson — who'll be out 30 days from now with a new book titled "Elon Musk" — tells me Musk has studied the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for leadership insights.
The big picture: "He likes military history," Isaacson said, adding that Musk told him about reading and listening to World War I history. "And he believes there are lessons that apply to corporate life."
Generative AI's security vulnerabilities — and how we get ahead of them — are about to become the tech and policy world's top priorities after this past weekend's largest security test of large language models revealed just how diverse the problems already are.
Driving the news: Nearly 2,500 hackers spent the weekend at the DEF CON conference's AI Village poking and probing some of the most popular large language models for flaws.
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