Meta partners with Midjourney, licensing their «aesthetic technology»

Little is known about the deal outside a few posts on x.com.
Midjourney licensing its technology to Meta might be the first of many. (Picture: screenshot)
Meta’s head of the Superintelligence Lab, Alexandr Wang, announced today a «technical collaboration between our research teams» as Midjourney has expertise that «complements our own.»

Little is known about the actual details of the collaboration, and Meta’s spokesperson, when asked by The Verge, simply defers to Wang’s x.com post:

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Friday roundup: Grok spills shares, Meta freezes hiring and AI Mode expands

Be careful what you share in Grok, or you might be spilling secrets to Google.
Grok lists shared chats on Google
If you want to share a chat with friends on Grok, you might get more than you bargained for. According to Forbes, the share-button generates a unique URL that is also shared with search engines, and they found more than 370K stored Grok conversations on Google. OpenAI had a similar problem a few weeks back, and disabled the option. No news yet on mitigation from x.ai.
More at Forbes.

Meta AI enacts hiring freeze as part of reorg
The Wall Street Journal reports that it is part of a wider reorganization of the «Superintelligence» unit, and CNBC reports that it is about «creating a solid structure» for the lab. Apparently, investors have been spooked by the massive expenditures on the unit, after spending big this summer to secure talent. Alexandr Wang, head of the Superintelligence Lab, denies the reports.
More at the WSJ and CNBC.

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Check out this list of all the AI features announced by Google

Lots of new AI capabilities were announced at the Made by Google event.
You can now edit photos just by asking, directly in the app. Plenty of other AI enhancements were announced. (Picture: Google)
While all eyes were on the fancy new hardware announced by Google, they also introduced a slew of new AI features.

MacRumors has a handy list of all the functions, in case you are not interested in the phones themselves and want to follow what’s new instead.

Lots and lots of AI
The list includes a personal daily digest of calendar events, topics and recommended playlists, automatic call transcripts, AI writing prompts, and Voice Translate from a host of languages.

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ChatGPT-6 is already in the pipeline, with better personalization, memory

GPT-6 should be much more attuned to your personality, and you should be able to make it more attuned to your needs.
The next great thing is always around the corner, and hype is already building for GPT-6. (Picture: generated)
For Sam Altman, expanding the memory functions of the next GPT model will be key, he tells CNBC.

Better memory will enable GPT-6 to get to know us better, remember more details around us, and lead to much better personalization.

— People want product features that require us to be able to understand them, he tells MSNBC.

Will remember more about you
The next GPT should therefore remember more of who you are and what you care about, and allow you to create chatbots that «mirror personal tastes,» CNBC writes.

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT Go in India, a shortened paid tier for ~$5/month

ChatGPT Go is less than $5 per month, and offers 10x better service than the free tier
ChatGPT Go could expand to other markets based on feedback on the service.
There are one billion internet users in India, but it is very price sensitive — and the second biggest market for ChatGPT.

The new plan offers greater access to GPT models, and expands on the free tier for just a little more cash.

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Almost all game developers say AI is reshaping their industry

You'd have a hard time finding a game developer not using AI at this stage.
Almost everyone in the games industry has embraced AI tools. (Picture: Google)
In a new survey of game developers from Google Cloud, 90% of them say they use generative AI in their workflows — and even more (97%) see it as truly transformative.

Further, 90% report that AI is reducing repetitive tasks in their work, and 94% even see it as driving innovation.

The technology has upended «norms in developers’ daily lives and work processes,» the study finds.

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Anthropic lets their chatbots turn off conversations due to «model welfare»

Anthropic doesn't know if their models are sentient, but is taking care of their well-being just in case.
Is «model welfare» even a thing, now? Anthropic is not so sure. (Picture: Anthropic)
The new feature is for «extreme edge cases» where all other «attempts of redirection» have failed, and the user persistently asks for information intended to create harm.

— We remain highly uncertain about the potential moral status of Claude and other LLMs, now or in the future, Anthropic says in their post on the issue.

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OpenAI upgrades GPT-5 personality to be more likable, in less than a week

Not a total suck-up lie 4o, but still friendly and up front. GPT-5 gains a better personality.
GPT-5 should be more verbose and nice in its replies going forward, without being sycophantic. (Picture: generated)
The latest ChaGPT is already more verbose and friendly for some, with the full rollout expected to last a day or so.

So far, the new GPT-5 has handled football banter like champ, managed complex geopolitics and has given advice on food recipes without calling me a Michelin-worthy chef, while delivering compelling, well sourced analysis quickly, in more than one-sentence responses.

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Short Friday news; Meta’s bias checker, how to deal with children, Gemini’s new memory, and more

Metas new bias-chief is a right wing influencer who crusaded against DEI politicies
Generated picture.
Meta’s new «bias»-checker is a right-wing influencer
Robby Starbuck rose to fame as an influencer campaigning against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the USA. He often sued companies to force them to end such policies, and even sued Meta after their AI wrongly implicated him in the events of January 6.

Now the suit is settled and he has a new job offer; as a Meta advisor to address «ideological and political bias» in their AIs. This is what Trump meant when he went against «woke» AI, and Meta says they have made «tremendous strides to improve the accuracy of Meta AI and mitigate ideological and political bias» since working with Starbuck.
More at The WSJ, The Verge, Mashable and MSNBC.

Gemini now defaults to remembering previous chats
Google Gemini’s new feature is always on by design, and will remember your older chats without specifically asking. The feature delivers «more personalized responses the more you use it,» Google says. It will remember «key details and preferences you’ve shared, leading to more natural and relevant conversations, as if you’re collaborating with a partner who’s already up to speed.»

It can be turned off by going to Settings, then «Personal context.» There is also an option called «Temporary Chats» that won’t be remembered.
More at Google’s launch post, The Verge and 9to5Google.

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Anthropic’s busy week; launches memory, longer context and $1 govt plans

Anthropic has been quietly tapping away on several new features this week.
While most attention was elsewhere, Anthropic has a pretty big week of launches. (Picture: Anthropic)
While other AI companies have captured the spotlight this week, Anthropic has quietly been cooking up some significant upgrades for its AI offerings.

After the launch of Opus 4.1 last week, they have been working at a «fast clip,» to compete with Google and OpenAI, The Verge writes.

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OpenAI brings back more legacy models, ponders «personality» for GPT-5

OpenAI is developing a "warmer personality" for GPT-5, after the backlash for GPT-4o.
Altman and OpenAI have discovered how important personality is for chatbots. (Picture: generated)
In an update on the GPT-5 rollout today, CEO Sam Altman launched a bevy of new features. Like a longer context window for GPT-5-thinking, and changes to the model picker.

The launch of GPT-5 has been a little bumpy, at best. The first reaction was from users missing GPT-4o, which was quickly returned — but what about the other «legacy models?»

Almost all models returned
They are all coming back, and as per now the model picker lists GPTs 4.1, o3 and o4-mini for paid users. The only one missing from before the GPT-5 launch is GPT-4.5, which Altman says «costs a lot of GPUs.»

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Elon Musk threatens lawsuit over Grok placement on App Store

Grok isn't on any Apple Controlled lists, and Musk suspects foul play.
X.ai feels left out in the App Store, and claims it is because of Apple’s special relationship with OpenAI. (Picture: X.ai)
After noticing the Grok app was the 5th choice on the App Store’s top list and ChatGPT was number one, Musk reckons they must be playing their lists to OpenAI’s benefit.

He now threatens an antitrust lawsuit, claiming that ChatGPT is on «literally every list where you [they] have editorial control,» like their «Must-Have Apps» section.

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Sam Altman addresses ChatGPT psychosis, calls them «extreme cases»

According to anectdotal evidence, you'd think ChatGPT psychosis is epidemic.
Only «a small percentage» get delusional from ChatGPT use, Altman says. (Picture: Adobe)
As more and more publications are digging into people getting delusional from AI use, being led down rabbit holes or thinking they are superhuman, the CEO of OpenAI addressed the topic today.

In a lengthy x.com post, Altman considers the issues as «edge cases,» but welcomed both attachment and using ChatGPT as a kind of «life coach.»

Recently, OpenAI announced a wellness update to reduce sycophancy and push back against delusions, and the hope is that this can reduce some of the risks:

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Day after GPT-5 launch, OpenAI will bring back 4o due to popular demand

OpenAI underestimated how attached their users had gotten to the 4o model.
After an uproar on Reddit, ChatGPT 4o is back by popular demand. (Picture: Generated)
UPDATED with how-to: GPT-5 might well function as a PHD-level assistant, but it is less chatty and not as filled with self-affirming responses as 4o, as CEO Sam Altman discovered in his Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything).

He also said on X.com that «We for sure underestimated how much some of the things that people like in GPT-4o matter to them, even if GPT-5 performs better in most ways.»

Reddit meltdown
Over on reddit, however, there were meltdowns on subs like r/ChatGPT and discussions were held on r/singularity and even r/OpenAI, not to mention on r/MyBoyFriendIsAI.

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Quick Friday news roundup: Opus 4.1, Grok undresses Taylor Swift, and more

Opus 4.1 is said to be big jump in performance, but doesn't quite reach the top of the pack.
Anthropic’s Opus 4.1 is very close to the state of the art, and many users are claiming it’s way better than 4.0. (Picture: Anthropic)
Anthropic announces Claude Opus 4.1
In an incremental update that got lost in this week’s headlines, Opus has been «improved across most capabilities» relative to the 4.0 version. It now scores 74.5% on SWE-bench Verified, almost as good as GPT-5. Windsurf says the performance gains are similar to going from Sonnet 3.7 to 4. It’s available now and costs the same as Opus 4.0. Users are also noting a significant improvement.

Google says people are still clicking
After a Pew Research report said users are less likely to click on from AI Overviews in Google, the entire publisher scene erupted and saw doom and gloom on the horizon. They were already seeing fewer clicks from Google in their logs. Now, Google is trying to counter with a happy blog post claiming average click quality has actually increased, and that they are in fact sending more «quality clicks» to publishers than before. Not stats, studies or other underpinning for that, though.

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