The Berne Ultimatum 🤖📈

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the news that Anthropic has filed to go public at a valuation of close to $1 trillion. It’s actually overtaken OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI startup. Bernie Sanders isn’t impressed, though, and he wants ‘half’ of each of those companies to be taken into public ownership. We also have news on Meta introducing subscriptions across its apps, new superchips from NVIDIA, the perfect app for keeping abreast of the World Cup, and the crazy bill for AI usage run up by one company.

🎬 Our Top Take

📈🚀 IPOs – AI Companies Going Public as Sanders Asks for Co-Ownership

This week, everyone’s talking about IPOs. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is going public in a matter of weeks, under some rather controversial circumstances, mind you, and there is also the news that Anthropic is set to launch an IPO at a trillion-dollar valuation. Indeed, it is now estimated that Anthropic, not OpenAI, is the world’s most valuable AI company. While investors have been licking their lips at the prospect of these stock launches, they aren’t the only ones with an eye on the soaring values and influence of AI companies: Bernie Sanders wants half. Well, he wants the American taxpayer to own half. He is introducing a new bill, the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would see public ownership of 50% of companies like Anthropic, xAI, and OpenAI. His argument is that since AI is built on public knowledge, some of the profits should go back to the public. It’s quite simple, though Sanders admits that some of the language and odds and ends of the bill are still being written. We won’t get bogged down in the debate over whether this idea is bonkers or not, nor if Senator Sanders will get it through Congress, but we will leave you with one thought: Sam Altman said last week that he viewed the future of AI as being like a utility, with intelligence sold like electricity or water, a basic need. Doesn’t that suggest the public/government should have some influence? #BernieWantsHalf Read more here. 

📲 App of the Week: Apple Sports

With the expanded FIFA World Cup on the horizon, there’s no end of choices for apps to keep you abreast of all the scores and action in a tournament that will feature over 100 games. But might you already have the perfect partner on your phone? Apple Sports has been revamped and extended to over 170 countries (it was previously 90) with a specific focus on the World Cup. It has added all the tournament information, including brackets, visual line-ups, live scores, and so on. It is probably not what we would recommend for hardcore football fans, but it is perfect for casuals, especially those who appreciate Apple’s commitment to slick visuals and layouts. If you don’t have it already for iPhone, you can get it for free here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $500 million

📈📉 AI Tokens – Companies Rush to Impose Employee Usage Limits

Apart from those IPOs, one of the main talking points has been the fact that an unnamed corporation ran up a $500 million bill after introducing Claude to its employees but not setting any token usage limits. Apparently, according to Axios and Inc.com, the employees – not knowing any better – used the AI to run complex queries and workflows before the extreme usage was flagged by the finance department. The rumor mill is now in overdrive as sleuths try to guess which of the anonymous companies was in question. That is some bill. #AIBill Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

A little romance news from 3Advance to wrap up this newsletter – our very own Paul got married over the weekend in New Orleans! The city was the perfect backdrop for what was a truly special gathering of friends and family, and the second line through the streets was as magical as it sounds. A wonderful few days, a beautiful service, and a lot of very happy people celebrating and having the craic with Paul and Anisha. Congratulations to you both from all of us at 3Advance! 🥂💍