Grok Gets Some Competition, ChatGPT Gets Depressed, and More of the Top AI News Stories This Week

Microsoft announced an alliance with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to ensure that artificial intelligence serves the interests of workers, according to a blog post Monday. Labor leaders called the collaboration “historic” as Microsoft became the first big tech company to work alongside workers in deploying AI. —Maxwell Zeff Read More

While most AI companies are preciously unveiling their latest algorithms with press tours and blog posts, others seem content to throw their latest wares out into the digital ether like a pirate ship casting off dead weight. One company that fits this latter category is Mistral, a French AI startup that released its latest large language model, without explanation, in a nondescript Torrent link posted to X over the weekend. —Lucas Ropek Read More

There’s little to no evidence suggesting that “your devices are listening to you,” but that hasn’t stopped people from believing big tech is monitoring every word they say. Now, a marketing subsidiary of Cox Media Group is throwing fuel on the fire with claims that it can deploy “active listening” through your smartphone, smart TV, and other devices to target ads for its clients. —Maxwell Zeff Read More

Grimes, the futuristic pop singer and mother of Elon Musk’s children, is working on a plush AI toy named “Grok” with the Silicon Valley startup Curio. The toy reportedly has no relationship or affiliation with Musk’s AI chatbot from xAI, the “woke” chatbot that’s also named Grok, according to The Washington Post. —Maxwell Zeff Read More

Robots may help determine your legal fate if you end up in a British court. The UK Judicial Office issued guidance Tuesday permitting judges to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to write legal rulings and perform several other tasks. —Thomas Germain Read More 

People are saying that ChatGPT has seasonal depression. Weird, right? To learn more, check out Ars Technica’s report.

Despite rumors he’s a terrible boss, Sam Altman has been dubbed the “CEO of the Year” by Time magazine. Altman spoke to Time this week, dishing on everything from his recent ousting from OpenAI to what he thinks about the future of AGI.

There are a lot of weird uses for AI and one of those uses is apparently communing with the dead. The New York Times reports that more and more people are using software to create avatars for people who have died.

Intel’s latest chips boast big performance gains, but never mind any of that. What would be a normal annual chip refresh announcement from one of the world’s biggest silicon developers has put the biggest emphasis yet on onboard PC AI, with the latest Intel Core Ultra line as part of the current Meteor Lake chipsets promising drastic performance boosts in the integrated GPU while splitting other intensive tasks on the new neural processing unit, the NPU. —Kyle Barr Read More