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If someone ever makes an HBO Max series about the AI industry, the events of this week will make quite the episode.On Wednesday, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, announced the company had rehired Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, cofounders of Mira Murati’s AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab. Zoph and Metz had left OpenAI in late 2024.We reported last night on two narratives forming around what led to the departures, and have since learned new information.A source with direct knowledge says that Thinking Machines leadership believed Zoph engaged in an incident of serious misconduct while at the company last year.…
Is it cute? Is it chaotic? Or something in between? Budweiser won’t say yet, but whatever creature is under its bucket is about to turn heads at Super Bowl 60. The beer brand is returning to the Big Game with its 48th national spot, celebrating its 150th anniversary. The teaser, “Stable,” is fronted by five of its iconic Clydesdale horses. The animals are shown standing shoulder-to-shoulder in their St. Louis, Mo. barn.Suddenly, they’re startled by the rattling of an overturned metal bucket being pushed along the ground by an unidentified creature. One of the horses whinnies in amusement, before text…
Through an extension to its previous $50 million Series A round that closed in September, AI video generation startup Higgsfield has sold another $80 million worth of stock, bringing its total Series A to $130 million. The company says it has now hit a $1.3 billion valuation. Higgsfield offers a tool that allows consumers, creators, and social media teams to create and edit AI-generated videos. The company was founded by Alex Mashrabov, former head of Generative AI at Snap, who landed at the company after it bought his previous startup, AI Factory, in 2020 for $166 million. Mashrabov was a…
Elon Musk’s X has introduced new restrictions stopping people from editing and generating images of real people in bikinis or other “revealing clothing.” The change in policy on Wednesday night follows global outrage at Grok being used to generate thousands of harmful nonconsensual “undressing” photos of women and sexualized images of apparent minors on X.However, while it appears that some safety measures have finally been introduced to Grok’s image generation on X, the stand-alone Grok app and website seem to still be able to generate “undress”-style images and pornographic content, according to multiple tests by researchers, WIRED, and other journalists.…
Higgsfield, an AI video startup positioning itself at the center of advertising’s shift toward synthetic media, has hired former Perplexity ad executive Taz Patel as vice president of platform partnerships, ADWEEK has learned. Patel began the role this week and will report directly to CEO Alex Mashrabov. He is tasked with turning widespread adoption of Higgsfield’s AI video tools into more formal relationships with agencies and brands. While Higgsfield is being used by enterprise-level agencies and brands on a self-serve business, “we’re just not engaging them yet” on a deeper level, Patel said. As marketers increasingly test AI-generated video—often quietly and without…
As of Thursday, 92 million Iranians have been completely blocked from accessing the internet for more than a week, in what is now one of the longest nationwide internet shutdowns ever, according to experts. Last Thursday, Iran’s leadership blocked internet and phone access across the whole country in response to massive anti-government protests, which began at the end of last year and have prompted a brutal and deadly crackdown from authorities. As of this writing, Iranians have not been able to access the internet for more than 170 hours. The previous longest shutdowns in the country lasted around 163 hours…
When Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good last Wednesday morning in Minneapolis, the 37-year-old mother became one of at least 25 people killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting since 2015.In the days after Ross fired at Good multiple times from the front and side of Good’s car, visual investigations from outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post have reconstructed the event, which unfolded in a matter of seconds, combing through a series of videos that emerged from various angles. These present apparent contradictions between the narrative presented by the White House and…
Gap is making a big push into original entertainment, hiring Pam Kaufman as executive vice president, chief entertainment officer, a newly created role. Kaufman, a former Paramount executive, will be tasked with building the retail company’s “Fashiontainment” platform, which spans entertainment, content, and licensing across music, television, film, sports, gaming, consumer products, and cultural collaborations. She will start on Feb. 2 and report to Gap Inc. president and CEO Richard Dickson. Gap Inc., which owns brands including Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic, will also open an office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles this spring. Kaufman will split her time between LA,…
Just when you thought the circular deals couldn’t get any more circular, OpenAI has invested in CEO Sam Altman’s brain computer interface (BCI) startup Merge Labs. Merge Labs, which defines itself as a “research lab” dedicated to “bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability,” came out of stealth on Thursday with an undisclosed seed round. A source familiar with the matter confirmed previous reports that OpenAI wrote the largest single check in Merge Labs’ $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation. “Our individual experience of the world arises from billions of active neurons,” reads a statement…
As a software reporter at WIRED, I’ve tested a lot of shitty agents over the past couple of years. These experiences expose a consistent pattern of generative AI startups overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to these “agentic” helpers—programs designed to take control of your computer, performing chores and digital errands to free up your time for more important things. But the bots I installed on my laptop would struggle to complete even basic tasks. They just didn’t work.This poor track record makes Anthropic’s latest agent, Claude Cowork, a pleasant surprise. When I tested it by running it through some…
DoorDash will not run a Super Bowl ad this year.The food-delivery app has been a staple in recent Super Bowl games, advertising four times during the national broadcast.Last year, the delivery app promoted its membership program with a spot starring comedian Nate Bargatze. The ad was created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland and DoorDash’s in-house agency, Superette.It was markedly different from DoorDash’s 2024 campaign, which ambitiously attempted to give away products from every brand that advertised during the game. The ad scored the ad industry’s prestigious Cannes Lions Titanium Grand Prix award, and a man in Texas won the $500,000 giveaway.DoorDash’s…
After months of rumors the Trump administration was going to impose tariffs on semiconductors, a tariff has been announced for some chips. The tariff only applies to certain semiconductors, including the Nvidia H200 advanced AI chips set to ship to China. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday that entailed a 25% tariff on advanced AI semiconductors that have been produced outside the U.S. and then pass through the U.S. before being exported to customers in other countries. This news formalizes a key component of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to give Nvidia the green light to start…
Other Great Packing CubesPhotograph: Kat MerckShacke Pak Packing Cubes for $29 (set of 8): These were pretty good quality for an Amazon brand; there’s a sturdy handle and the material is slightly thicker than other packing cubes at this price point. I like the mix of mesh for breathability and opaque fabric for privacy. They come in nine colors, but the colors are clownishly bright (blue pictured above), and the four-paneled mesh design reminds me of a jock strap. Shacke says it uses YKK zippers on all its packing cubes, but I peeled back the covering on the zipper and…
Ethereal Exploration Guild, an Indian space tech better known as EtherealX, has climbed 5.5x in valuation to $80.5 million after its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable and is readying engine hot-fire tests ahead of its first technology demonstration flight, planned for 2027. The Bengaluru-based company confirms that it closed an oversubscribed $20.5 million Series A round led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, as TechCrunch reported earlier. Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund, and Riceberg Ventures also participated, EtherealX said. The raise follows a $5 million seed round in August…
A few weeks ago, if you had told me I would be excited to open a box with “Hacipupu” emblazoned on the front of it, I would have called you a liar. But this figure is, for better or for worse, right up my alley. The box contains a blind bag, and the bag contains your bear. I got Blueberry. It’s soft, it’s not too big or too small, its facial expression is adorable, and it smells like blueberries. The smell does dissipate quickly, but it made the unboxing experience even more fun than it would have been otherwise. There’s…
WhatsApp is allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users with Brazilian phone numbers, days after the country’s competition regulator ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from being offered on the app via its business API. Under the new policy, the company is providing a 90-day grace period starting January 15 to developers and AI providers, mandating them to cease responding to user queries on the chat app, and notify users that their chatbots won’t work on WhatsApp. Now, Meta told developers that they don’t have to notify users with Brazilian…