The Morning After: OpenAI and Microsoft aren’t happy
And we’ve got Peter Jackson to thank for one last Beatles song.
Microsoft may own almost half of OpenAI, but a recent expose hints the pair aren’t the happiest of bedfellows. The Wall Street Journal claims the AI company warned Microsoft not to incorporate GPT-4 into Bing search without further training, but it did so anyway. It resulted in several high-profile examples of odd behavior, including bots arguing with users, and at least one instance of a user being urged to dissolve their marriage and elope with Bing instead.
There’s resentment, too, on Microsoft’s side, finding its own internal AI projects overlooked in favor of OpenAI. Which, despite the close financial ties, is very much free to work with Microsoft’s rivals in plenty of fields. It’s led to a situation where the pair are working together, and yet against one another. And that’s never a recipe for success.
– Dan Cooper
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.
The biggest stories you might have missed
Google's Pixel Watch now offers overnight blood oxygen tracking
Pixel phones receive a slew of new features, like improved car crash detection
Moog acquired by conglomerate inMusic, joining Akai and Alesis
GM and Samsung SDI are building a $3 billion EV battery cell plant in Indiana
The more powerful 2024 Polestar 2 starts at $49,900
Watch the trailer for the second season of Apple TV+ series 'Foundation'
Instant Pot parent company files for bankruptcy
Reddit's CEO reportedly told staff the community's API protest will blow over
Popular subreddits plan to extend API protests indefinitely
There’s almost nothing in the human spirit as indomitable as the phrase, “You sure about that, pal?” It’s something Reddit CEO Steve Huffman seems unable to stop milking in his user base after sending a memo to staffers saying the API protests would “pass.” His internal missive added that, despite tens of thousands of communities going dark, there was no “significant revenue impact.” Consequently, those in charge of the communities have pledged to keep their protests running indefinitely, with one user inviting Reddit’s leadership to “f- around and find out.”
Toyota claims its future EVs will have a range of over 600 miles
And something about hydrogen.
Toyota has announced its next-generation EV battery will have a range of 621 miles, or 1,000 kilometers. It’s part of a long series of announcements from the company that kickstarted the EV revolution finally embracing the technology. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Toyota announcement without plenty of sweet words about hydrogen, but we all know the writing’s on the wall for that one, at least for small and mid-size vehicles.
Paul McCartney is using AI to create a final song for The Beatles
It’s likely to be a 1978 demo written by John.
Sir Paul McCartney has announced he’ll release one last song from The Beatles, which was recorded with the help of AI. It comes from the same trove of John Lennon demos used to make “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” in the mid ‘90s. A third song, “Now and Then,” was on the same tapes, but electrical interference rendered Lennon’s vocals unusable. McCartney was inspired to go back to the material after watching Peter Jackson’s Get Back, which used AI to extract clean dialog audio from the studio noise. The song will be released later this year, but be warned – George Harrison didn’t think much of it when they tried to re-record it in the ‘90s.
Embracer announces layoffs and game cancellations after a $2 billion deal falls through
It could have implications for some mid-tier game revivals in the works.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing the name Embracer, a publisher that has spent big to pick up a roster of big, if not blockbuster, games franchises. It’s the name behind the names behind series like Borderlands, Homeworld, TimeSplitters, Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings. Sadly, it also managed to tie itself in financial knots after an unnamed deal, reportedly worth $2 billion, fell apart back in May. Consequently, it’s announced it’ll need to restructure to survive, with several as-yet unannounced games on the chopping block and the potential for mass layoffs in the near future.
