Open source LLMs hit Europe’s digital sovereignty roadmap
Large language models (LLMs) landed on Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda with a bang last week, as news emerged of a new program to develop a series of “truly” open source LLMs covering all European Union languages. This includes the current 24 official EU languages, as well as languages for countries
Read MoreDeath of OpenAI whistleblower deemed suicide in new autopsy report
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26; on Friday, the city’s medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, countering suspicions by his family that had fueled widespread speculation online. Balaji made headlines in October when he accused OpenAI of illegally
Read More‘TeslaTakeover’ protests are small, but numerous
Protestors gathered outside a Tesla showroom in New York on Saturday. | Photo: Stephanie Keith / Bloomberg via Getty Images<br> Today marked a second weekend of scattered protests at Tesla showrooms, following a “TeslaTakeover” hashtag that has been trending on Twitter alternative Bluesky this week. Protestors’ messages largely focused on
Read MoreNorth Carolina Amazon workers vote against unionizing
Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Garner, North Carolina voted against unionizing in election results announced today. According to Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), the worker group seeking to form the union, 3,276 ballots were cast in the election, with 25.3% of votes in favor of unionizing
Read MoreApple Intelligence could arrive on Vision Pro in April
Apple is planning to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro headset in an update that could come as early as April, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Just a couple weeks after Apple Intelligence was first announced in June 2024, Gurman reported that Apple was looking to bring its suite
Read MorexAI’s “Colossus” supercomputer raises health questions in Memphis
Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI plans to continue using 15 gas turbines to power its “Colossus” supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, according to an operating permit with the Shelby County Health Department for non-stop turbine use from June 2025 to June 2030. Why does it matter? The Commercial Appeal, a news
Read MorePerplexity launches its own freemium ‘deep research’ product
Perplexity has become the latest AI company to release an in-depth research tool, with a new feature announced Friday. Google unveiled a similar feature for its Gemini AI platform in December. Then OpenAI launched its own research agent earlier this month. All three companies even have given the feature the
Read MoreOpenAI teases a ‘simplified’ GPT-5 model
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at OpenAI canceling the release of o3; TikTok returning to U.S. app stores nearly a month after it was removed; more complications in Elon Musk’s bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion; and more! Let’s do it. OpenAI effectively canceled
Read MoreMarc Andreessen dreams of making a16z a lasting company, beyond partnerships
Many venture industry observers have wondered whether Andreessen Horowitz, a firm that manages $45 billion, has its sights on eventually becoming a publicly traded company. Co-founder Marc Andreessen said he isn’t “chomping at the bit to take the firm public,” on this week’s Invest Like the Best podcast. But he
Read MoreWhat is an encryption backdoor?
Talk of backdoors in encrypted services is once again doing the rounds after reports emerged that the U.K. government is seeking to force Apple to open up iCloud’s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) device backup offering. Officials were said to be leaning on Apple to create a “backdoor” in the service that
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