FTC orders seven AI giants to reveal how their companion chatbots affect children after teen suicide cases involving ChatGPT and Character.AI. Meta faces particular scrutiny over internal docs permitting romantic chats with minors.
Large U.S. companies just hit the brakes on AI—adoption fell from 14% to 12% in two months, the first decline since tracking began. MIT research explains why: 95% of enterprise pilots deliver zero ROI. The gap between AI hype and workflow reality is widening.
Good Morning from San Francisco, Oracle just inked a $300 billion computing deal with OpenAI. That's not a
Explore how China's search giant adapts to global data sharing norms. Delve into the necessity and implications of this shift in strategy.
In what might be called the tech equivalent of a midlife crisis, Baidu just discovered the joy of sharing. The Chinese search giant unveiled Ernie X1, a new reasoning-focused AI model, while making its entire AI suite free - several weeks ahead of schedule and years after anyone asked.
The timing tells a story of disruption. Once China's undisputed AI leader, Baidu has watched upstart DeepSeek rewrite the rules by matching premium AI performance at Walmart prices. ByteDance and Moonshot AI piled on, stealing users despite Baidu's head start in the ChatGPT race.
Now Baidu claims its upgraded Ernie 4.5 beats OpenAI's latest offering. But the real headline isn't the technology - it's the strategy. By June 30, Baidu will open-source its AI models, abandoning its walled garden approach. They're even integrating rival DeepSeek's R1 model into their search engine, a move that probably hurt their pride as much as it helps their product.
The financials tell the rest: while AI boosted cloud revenue 26% last quarter, weak ad sales cast a shadow. Baidu just freed up $1.6 billion from its YY Live acquisition for AI investment - because sometimes staying relevant means breaking open the piggy bank.
This dramatic shift reveals a deeper truth about tech: yesterday's market leader can become tomorrow's fast follower. In China's AI landscape, even giants must adapt or risk irrelevance. Baidu's transformation from gatekeeper to open-source advocate shows just how thoroughly DeepSeek has shaken up the status quo.
Why this matters:
AI startup Perplexity bids $34.5B for Google's Chrome—nearly double its own valuation—as federal judge prepares antitrust ruling. The timing isn't coincidental. Browser control becomes the new battleground in AI search competition.
While AI music rivals face billion-dollar lawsuits for copyright infringement, ElevenLabs took a different approach: they asked permission first. Their new music generator launched with licensing deals already signed.
Chinese startup Z.ai's new AI model costs 87% less than DeepSeek while running on half the chips. Built despite US trade restrictions, GLM-4.5 uses 'agentic' approach that breaks tasks into steps—potentially reshaping how AI works.
Chinese startup Moonshot AI released Kimi K2, an open-source model that matches GPT-4.1 performance while costing five times less. Silicon Valley's response? OpenAI delayed their planned open-source release hours after K2 launched.
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