👀 Microsoft-OpenAI partnership at risk?

Welcome, AI enthusiasts

Microsoft and OpenAI’s partnership may be on shaky ground, with both sides bringing in big-name advisors to rethink their $13 billion deal. Meanwhile, Mira Murati, a key former OpenAI executive, is setting out on her own, raising big funding for a brand-new AI venture. And Midjourney is gearing up to let users everywhere edit images with AI, with new features that could change how we create and modify content online.
Let’s dive in! 

In today’s insights:

• Microsoft-OpenAI partnership at risk?

• Mira Murati left OpenAI to start her own AI company

• Midjourney's new AI tool lets anyone edit images

Read time: 4 minutes

🗞️ LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT AND OPENAI
👀 Microsoft-OpenAI partnership at risk?

Evolving AI: The two tech giants have hired rival investment banks to negotiate how much equity Microsoft gets after OpenAI’s shift to a profit-driven entity.

Key Points:

• OpenAI recently shifted towards a more profit-oriented model, which requires them to renegotiate their agreement with Microsoft.

• Both companies hired different investment banks to help decide how much of OpenAI Microsoft should own.

• OpenAI is seeking lower costs for Microsoft's cloud services due to its ongoing financial difficulties.

Details:

OpenAI's shift towards making profits has created new challenges for its $13 billion partnership with Microsoft. Originally, the deal provided OpenAI with significant computing resources through Microsoft's Azure, while Microsoft gained exclusive access to OpenAI's models. With OpenAI now facing increasing financial losses, both companies are reconsidering the deal: how much ownership Microsoft should have in OpenAI and what discounts OpenAI can get for using Microsoft's cloud services. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are advising each side, highlighting uncertainty around the future of their partnership.

Why It Matters:

As OpenAI moves to for-profit, reports say both companies are struggling to update their original deal. OpenAI is looking for more computing resources and exploring options like Oracle instead of Microsoft. Recently, Microsoft's AI president Mustafa Suleyman reportedly yelled at OpenAI staff, frustrated with slow tech delivery. While they maintain a 'best bromance in tech' publicly, things seem to be falling apart behind the scenes.

MIRA MURATI
✨ Mira Murati left OpenAI to start her own AI company

Evolving AI: Mira Murati, who used to be the Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, is raising money for her new AI startup, and many investors are interested.

Key Points:

• Murati wants to raise over $100 million to help start her new AI company, which will use special AI models.

• Barret Zoph, another former researcher from OpenAI, might join Murati in this new company.

• Murati was important at OpenAI, working on projects like ChatGPT and making deals with Microsoft.

Details:

Mira Murati, who recently left her job as Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, is now working on raising money for her new AI startup. The new company will focus on making advanced AI products with its own special models. Murati is trying to get over $100 million from investors, which shows how expensive it is to make and train these advanced AI systems. Barret Zoph, a well-known AI researcher who left OpenAI at the same time as Murati, might also join her in this new company. Murati played a big role at OpenAI for six years, helping lead projects like ChatGPT and DALL-E. Her new startup could lead to more exciting ideas in AI.

Why It Matters:

Murati leaving OpenAI and starting her own company shows how quickly the AI world is changing. When talented people start their own companies, it can lead to more competition and new types of AI tools that aren't controlled by big companies like Microsoft. This might give people more choices for AI tools and could make the AI industry more diverse, encouraging faster growth in different areas. It could also mean that smaller companies get a chance to create AI technology that is more focused on specific needs, which might benefit different industries in unique ways.

MIDJOURNEY
🖌️ Midjourney's new AI tool lets anyone edit images

Evolving AI: Midjourney is about to release a new web tool that lets people edit any image from the web using AI. This makes it easier for more people to use advanced image editing.

Key Points:

• Midjourney will let people edit any image from the web using AI, with cool features like changing colors and textures.

• There are concerns about problems like spreading fake images (deepfakes), which can be used to spread false information, or breaking copyright rules by using someone else's content without permission.

• At first, only some people will be able to use the tool, and there will be more human and AI moderators to stop bad uses of the tool.

Details:

Midjourney is getting ready to release a web tool that will make editing images with AI easy for everyone. The new tool, which might come out next week, will let users change colors and details in pictures by writing captions. At first, only a small group of people in the Midjourney community will get to try it. They will also have human and AI moderators to make sure no one uses it in harmful ways. Even though this new tool sounds fun, there are concerns that people might use it to create fake images or break copyright rules. Fake images, called deepfakes, have become a big problem on social media, where they can spread quickly and confuse people like what happened after Hurricane Helene. Fake AI-generated images showing destruction and human suffering were shared widely online, causing a lot of misinformation.

Why It Matters:

This tool could help more people edit images with AI, making it easier for artists, marketers, and regular users to be creative. It could also help small businesses make more professional content without needing expensive software. But it also makes it harder to know if what we see online is real. Finding a way to let people be creative while stopping harmful uses of these tools, like fake news and misleading content, will be a big challenge for companies and the government.

 Which image is real?

💸 AI search engine Perplexity hoping to raise $500 million at an $8 billion valuation

🧠 Meta is exploring different forms of AI reasoning beyond the mathematical focus of OpenAI's latest model

💼 TikTok owner sacks intern for sabotaging AI project

📱 Apple introduces AI framework CAMPHOR to process complex user queries locally on mobile devices

✏️ ChatGPT’s Canvas now shows tracked changes

📈 Trending AI Tools

• 🛠️ ChatGPT Prompting - Quickly build effective prompts by answering key questions (link)

• 🤖 DGM - Professional diagrams for the web and AI (link)

• 🎶 Mubert AI - Generative AI Music (link)

• 📞 EchoWin - Zero missed calls using AI (link)

• 🗣️ Coachvox - Create AI version of yourself to generate leads (link)

• 📽️ Translate.video - Translate videos with 1 click (link)

• 🎙️ CastMagic - Turn podcasts and meetings into content (link)