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What’s Appening: Musk OpenAI Bid, Global AI Summit, Apple Invites, RPLY App
Newsletter
February 11, 2025
MUSK’S LATEST MOVE IS AUDACIOUS BID TO BUY OPENAI
👀 TLDR
In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover Elon Musk’s shock bid for OpenAI, with fellow billionaire and rival Presidential BFF Sam Altman now feeling his wrath. We also have news on Meta’s unscrupulous use of data, global leaders getting together to chat about AI, the next generation of Alexa, an AI app for iMessage, and more!
🎬 Our Top Take
💰🤖 OpenAI – Musk-Led Consortium Submits Shock Bid to Buy Company
A few days ago, a proposed $40 billion investment by SoftBank into OpenAI valued the company at $300 billion, so it might seem a little unserious that Elon Musk made a bid at a third of that price yesterday. You also might think Musk is too busy tearing the government apart, with no time for shots at his archenemy (one of many?) Sam Altman. Alas, no. His consortium’s $97 billion bid is very serious, and his lawyer suggests they are willing to go a lot higher. Value aside, the attempt to buy the world’s most prominent AI brand feels quite shocking, even in these crazy times. Sam Altman has rebuffed the deal, saying he would instead buy Twitter/X for $9.7 billion (you have to respect the clapback). The pair’s rocky history underpins the sight of two tech titans fighting for control of OpenAI based on ideological grounds. Musk has long criticized Altman’s push to transform OpenAI into a for-profit company, going as far as trying to legally block it. Whatever happens, the bid could throw a wrench in the works for OpenAI’s future fundraising, and it poses a conundrum for those already invested in the ChatGPT company. It’s a high-stakes game, but we all know what happened when Musk last took on reluctant sellers with Twitter. Watch this space, we guess. #MuskVsSam Read more here.
🗣️ Poll: Will Musk Get the Deal Done? |
📲 App of the Week: Apple Invites
We mentioned the impending arrival of Apple’s new Invites app a few weeks ago. Now that it’s here, we’ve been able to take a good look at it. The app is an events planning tool, something similar to existing apps like Evite or Partiful (the latter won Google Play’s App of the Year 2024). Apple Invites allows you to custom-make invites for up to 100 people (including non-iOS users). There are some AI tools shoe-horned in, including Apple Playground for image creation, and you can also share music playlists or photo albums. All in all, it’s pretty nifty. It’s free to use, although you need a Cloud+ subscription. Download it here.
🧐 Stat of the Week: 500M Devices
📈📉 Amazon – Can An AI-Powered Alexa Turn a Profit?
Alexa has long been powered by (fairly rudimentary) AI and machine learning technology, yet February 26 is set to be a great leap forward for the home assistant. Amazon will unveil the updated version of Alexa, powered by generative AI. Half a billion Alexa devices are used worldwide, but Amazon has failed to successfully monetize their popularity. That could change, with Amazon expected to release a subscription service (costing $5 or 10$ per month, depending on who you ask). It’s being framed as a gamble by Amazon, but it also feels like a risk worth taking. Users will still be able to access “classic Alexa” if they do not want to take the subscription. #AIAlexa Read more here.
🗞️ Other Stories
🔥 Meta Under Fire. A UK investigation has shown that betting companies covertly – and illegally – shared data with Meta, which in turn flooded users’ Facebook feeds with betting adverts. Story here. 🌍 Agenda Setting. The biggest-ever summit on AI takes place in Paris this week. World leaders aim to lay out some rules on global governance for the technology. Get the full story here. | 🍏 Apple Encryption. The UK Government is putting huge pressure on Apple to give access to users’ encrypted data. Privacy campaigners say it’s a huge scandal. Apple is holding firm for now. More here. 🗣️ Sorry I Missed You. A new Mac app offers AI assistance on iMessage. RPLY will reply to your overlooked messages, helping you reach “inbox zero.” Is it really that difficult to reply to a text? Details here. |
📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance
Big news from Paul, announcing his new venture, and 3Advance’s latest client, Shift! Watch the video on LinkedIn and learn why Paul is co-founding Shift, the network to connect the global Irish. Shift.irish is launching this month, with the Shift app coming later this year. Bring it on! ☘️
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