The Jury’s Out 🧑‍⚖️🤖

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the conclusion of the Elon Musk Vs. OpenAI lawsuit. It was a victory for Sam Altman, but the fact that it was somewhat based on a technical point of the law has left Musk vowing to appeal. We also have news on the upcoming launch of AI-powered Googlebooks laptops, Claude for Small Business, AI in the Apple App Store, and we’ll bring you all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🧑‍⚖️🤖 OpenAI Lawsuit – Victory for Altman, But Musk Vows to Appeal 

In the end, there was no earth-shattering legal judgment on the origins and make-up of OpenAI, but there was a clear victory for Sam Altman, with the jury taking 90 minutes to unanimously decide in OpenAI’s favor. As we mentioned a few weeks ago at the start of the trial, the potential ramifications of Elon Musk’s lawsuit could have been the complete overhaul of OpenAI, as well as the shake-up of the broader foundations of AI governance. This was about more than Musk getting a huge wedge of compensation. Yet, what we got was a big win for OpenAI, albeit based on a technicality; the statute of limitations, basically. In short, the jury decided the case on the fact that Musk brought the lawsuit years after the fact rather than on the issues of the case itself. Musk, as we know, is pugnacious, so he has vowed to appeal, and he certainly didn’t hold back on venting his rage at the decision. For now, though, OpenAI and Microsoft are celebrating, but as seems to be the case with every Big Tech court case of the last twenty years, the losers vow to have another go. #TrialAndError Read more here. 

📲 App of the Week: LibrePods

Apple has been facing plenty of legal action – especially in Europe – to dismantle its walled-garden approach to products, but there’s also a healthy cottage industry in breaching those defenses through software. LibrePods, an open-source app, is one such example, as it enables many of the AirPods' Apple-exclusive features – battery status, noise-control switching, ear detection, etc. – on Android (and Linux) devices. LibrePods is not new, but what is new is its arrival on Google Play, which means you no longer need to sideload the application from GitHub. If you’ve got AirPods and want to listen on a non-Apple device, it’s a no-brainer. Check out LibrePods here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 20 PETABYTES

📈📉 AI – Tessera System Used to Halt Decline of UK Hedgehogs

The number of hedgehogs in the UK has fallen by about 75% since 2000, and the cute-but-spikey critters are not far off the endangered species list. But a massive collaboration centered on the University of Cambridge research team plans to track and, ultimately, save the hedgehog across the country. They’ve been assisted by Tessera, a powerful AI tool that was trained on 20 petabytes of data (the equivalent of about 10 billion photos), and satellites to scour the UK countryside to aid conservation efforts. We can all get behind this, right? #SaveTheHedgehogs Read more here

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We’ll finish this week with a little birthday shoutout to 3Advance’s skipper, Paul Murphy. We won’t say exactly how old he is (but it is getting close to that stage where it becomes rude to ask). Anyway, from the whole team at 3Advance, many happy returns, Paul. We hope you’re able to celebrate with a few pints of plain with family and friends this week! Lá breithe shona duit! 🎂🎂