OpenAI’s models ‘memorized’ copyrighted content, new study suggests

A new study appears to lend credence to allegations that OpenAI trained at least some of its AI models on copyrighted content. OpenAI is embroiled in suits brought by authors, programmers, and other rights-holders who accuse the company of using their works — books, codebases, and so on — to develop its models without permission….

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OpenAI’s viral Studio Ghibli moment highlights AI copyright concerns

It’s only been a day since ChatGPT’s new AI image generator went live, and social media feeds are already flooded with AI-generated memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the cult-favorite Japanese animation studio behind blockbuster films such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.” In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen AI-generated images representing…

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OpenAI’s startup empire: The companies backed by its venture fund

Since its founding in 2021, OpenAI Startup Fund has raised $175 million for its main fund and secured an additional $114 million through five separate special purpose vehicles, which are investment pools for specific opportunities. Unlike many sizable tech companies, OpenAI says it doesn’t use the company’s money to invest in startups.  The ChatGPT maker…

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How Musk’s $97.4B bid could gum up OpenAI’s for-profit conversion

On Monday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, offered to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The unsolicited buyout would be financed by Musk’s AI company, xAI, and a consortium of outside investors, per a letter sent to California and Delaware’s attorneys general. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly dismissed Musk’s bid,…

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Nonprofit group joins Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition

Encode, the nonprofit organization that co-sponsored California’s ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk’s injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company. In a proposed brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Friday afternoon, counsel for…

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OpenAI’s o3 suggests AI models are scaling in new ways — but so are the costs

Last month, AI founders and investors told TechCrunch that we’re now in the “second era of scaling laws,” noting how established methods of improving AI models were showing diminishing returns. One promising new method they suggested could keep gains was “test-time scaling,” which seems to be what’s behind the performance of OpenAI’s o3 model —…

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Meta asks California AG to block OpenAI’s switch from non-profit to for-profit

Dear General Bonta:  As a California company that builds Generative AI technology, Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) is deeply concerned about OpenAI’s attempt to shed the non-profit status under which it was founded in order to establish a for-profit entity. We urge you to review this proposed transaction, including the nature and timing of any transfer…

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Will people really pay $200 a month for OpenAI’s new chatbot?

On Thursday, OpenAI released what’s effectively a $200-a-month chatbot — and the AI community didn’t know quite what to make of it. The company’s new ChatGPT Pro plan grants access to “o1 pro mode,” which OpenAI says “uses more compute for the best answers to the hardest questions.” A souped-up version of OpenAI’s o1 reasoning…

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OpenAI’s o1 model sure tries to deceive humans a lot

OpenAI finally released the full version of o1, which gives smarter answers than GPT-4o by using additional compute to “think” about questions. However, AI safety testers found that o1’s reasoning abilities also make it try to deceive humans at a higher rate than GPT-4o — or, for that matter, leading AI models from Meta, Anthropic,…

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Elon Musk files for injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit

Attorneys for tech billionaire Elon Musk have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investor and close collaborator, Microsoft, to prevent OpenAI and other named defendants from engaging in what Musk’s counsel claims is anticompetitive behavior. The motion for an injunction, which was filed late on Friday in the…

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