After a cooler-than-expected reception to GPT-5 and mounting pressure from rising training, compute and infrastructure costs, OpenAI is looking to India as a cornerstone of its global expansion strategy. On Friday, CEO Sam Altman announced on X that the company will open its first office in New Delhi later this year. He also said he…
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co-founder of DreamWorks, and Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk, make an unlikely duo. Their collaboration began in an even more unexpected setting: the annual Burning Man festival held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. It was there, in 2022, that Katzenberg first saw a light show by Musk’s drone entertainment…
This Q&A is part of Observer’s Expert Insights series, where industry leaders, innovators and strategists distill years of experience into direct, practical takeaways and deliver clarity on the issues shaping their industries. Twin sisters Shay and Shabnam Safarzadeh have built a career that defies easy categorization. Technologists, educators and philanthropists, they’ve made it their mission…
Will A.I. systems ever achieve human-like “consciousness?” Given the field’s rapid pace, the answer is likely yes, according to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. In a new essay published yesterday (Aug. 19), he described the emergence of “seemingly conscious A.I.” (SCAI) as a development with serious societal risks. “Simply put, my central worry is that…
In its latest push into A.I. and semiconductors, SoftBank yesterday (Aug. 18) announced a $2 billion investment in Intel. The Masayoshi Son-led conglomerate purchased shares at a slight discount—$23 each—giving it about a 2 percent stake in the struggling U.S. chipmaker. “For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation,” said…
More than 7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease—a figure expected to rise as life expectancies increase. To help accelerate progress, Bill Gates and a coalition of partners are backing a new A.I. competition designed to spur breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s and related dementia research. Unveiled today (Aug. 19) by the Alzheimer’s Disease Data…
Last week, under the blistering heat of an August day at a Ford plant in Louisville, Ky., Ford CEO Jim Farley, a self-proclaimed lifelong petrol head, announced a $30,000 electric pickup truck slated for release in 2027. Farley pitched it as a new “Model T moment,” a breakthrough meant to reinvent how cars and trucks are assembled….
When the University of Applied Arts Vienna admitted Flynn, a generative A.I. model trained as an art student, into its Fine Arts program, it marked more than a technical first. The move reframed questions about authorship, autonomy and artistic legitimacy in a digital age. Developed by artists and technologists Chiara Kristler and Marcin Ratajczyk, Flynn…
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn has some explaining to do. Earlier this year, after the language learning app circulated an internal memo about prioritizing A.I. in hiring and phasing out contractors, the company was quickly cited as an example of how A.I. is eliminating jobs across industries. In reality, Duolingo has no plans to replace…
Firefly Aerospace is aiming for the Moon—and beyond. The Texas-based space company went public on the Nasdaq on Aug. 7 in the largest space IPO of the year so far, just months after completing a historic lunar landing. The debut is a rare bright spot for the otherwise subdued commercial space sector in recent years…
