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Saturday, 31 October · updated just now

AI News

Hard terms in each story, explained in plain English.

Funding

OpenAI Raises $11 Billion, Well Short of Its $30 Billion Target

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, raised only about $11 billion in its latest funding round, well short of the $30 billion it wanted. Its valuation came in at $1.25 trillion, below what was expected. Major investors appear to be pulling back amid a recent tech sell-off.

Quick glossaryOpenAI, valuation, tech sell-off
OpenAI
OpenAI is a San Francisco-based AI company best known for building ChatGPT, a chatbot that answers questions and writes text.
valuation
The estimated total worth of a company, based on what investors think it is currently worth.
tech sell-off
A sudden wave of selling in technology company shares, which pushes their prices down quickly.
The Decoder
Burning Potato score: 70%
Policy

Meta Accused of Using UK News Content for AI

Meta has been accused in Britain of using content from news websites to develop its artificial intelligence. The headline gives few details, so it is not yet clear what the claim is based on or what action may follow. Publishers and readers may want to watch how this develops.

Quick glossaryMeta
Meta
An American technology company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and is best known for its social media apps.
صوت الإمارات
Burning Potato score: 69%
Privacy

Your AI Chats Can Be Made Public, a Warning Says

A Computerworld article reports that there are several ways AI chat conversations can be made public, so users should not assume their chats stay private. People who share personal details with AI tools may want to check their privacy settings and think carefully before typing sensitive information into a chatbot.

Quick glossaryComputerworld, chatbot, privacy settings
Computerworld
A long-running US technology news website that covers business computing, software, and IT news for professionals.
chatbot
A computer program you can type or talk to, which replies in a conversational way, like a helpful digital assistant.
privacy settings
Options inside an app or account that let you control who can see your information and what gets saved or shared.
computerworld.com
Burning Potato score: 68%
Tools

OpenAI Reverses ChatGPT Pro Usage Limit Cut

OpenAI has reversed a cut to usage limits for its paid ChatGPT Pro plan after users complained. The company says it has doubled the capacity available to these subscribers, so they can keep using the chatbot for longer before hitting their limits.

Quick glossaryOpenAI, usage limit, capacity
OpenAI
An American AI company that is best known for building ChatGPT, its popular chatbot, and is based in San Francisco.
usage limit
a cap on how much a person can use a service, such as messages per hour, within a set period.
capacity
the total amount of requests or work that a computer system can handle at the same time.
صوت الإمارات
Burning Potato score: 68%
Tools

Amazon Lets Coding Agents Show Live Web App Previews

Amazon's AWS blog describes a way for an AI coding agent's running session to get an authenticated web address. That address forwards web traffic and live connections to chosen ports. In the example, the agent keeps a Vite website running, so its preview can be watched as it is built. The feature is part of Amazon Bedrock AgentCore runtime.

Quick glossaryAmazon, coding agent, WebSocket
Amazon
A US tech giant best known for its online shopping site and its AWS cloud computing business.
coding agent
An AI program that writes, tests and changes computer code largely on its own, without constant human direction.
WebSocket
A way for a web app and a server to stay connected and pass messages both ways instantly.
AWS Machine Learning Blog
Burning Potato score: 67%
Tools

Mistral Releases Large 4 to Public With Cybersecurity Focus

French AI company Mistral has made its Large 4 model publicly available. Mistral says this version improves on the one it unveiled three weeks ago, after testing with governments and business users. It is aimed at cybersecurity users.

Quick glossaryMistral AI, Large 4, Cybersecurity
Mistral AI
A Paris-based AI company best known for building powerful language models that compete with those from US firms.
Large 4
The newest version of Mistral's big AI system that understands and writes text, trained on huge amounts of data.
Cybersecurity
The work of protecting computers, networks and data from hackers, scams and other digital attacks.
Economic Times Tech
Burning Potato score: 67%
Research

Claude AI Agent Performs Brain Surgery on a Mouse

An AI agent picked a gene therapy, chose the brain target and set the injection coordinates on its own, then delivered the treatment to an epileptic mouse. The lead researcher, Ocana-Santero, says it is the first time an AI agent has autonomously chosen a treatment and delivered it to a living mouse.

Quick glossaryAnthropic, gene therapy, epileptic
Anthropic
An AI company that makes the Claude assistant and is known for its focus on AI safety.
gene therapy
A treatment that changes or adds genes in a body's cells to fix a health problem at its source.
epileptic
Describes a condition where a person has repeated seizures caused by sudden bursts of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
The Decoder
Burning Potato score: 67%
Research

AI May Have Disproved a 27-Year-Old Computer Science Theory

A news report says AI may have disproved a computer science theory that has been around for 27 years. Details are limited, so the claim is not yet confirmed. If true, such findings can shape how researchers think about computing, though everyday users will see little direct change for now.

Quick glossaryNDTV, Disproved, Computer science theory
NDTV
An Indian news channel and website best known for its television news coverage and online reporting.
Disproved
Shown to be false, meaning someone proved that an idea does not hold up under testing or logical checking.
Computer science theory
A proposed rule or idea about how computers solve problems, accepted by researchers until someone finds a flaw in it.
NDTV
Burning Potato score: 66%
Policy

Google Plans Shared AI Training Opt-Out Using robots.txt

Google has said it plans to support a shared opt-out from AI training through robots.txt, a file websites already use to guide automated visitors. The move aims to give site owners a common way to say they do not want their content used to train AI models. The plan was shared in a Google Search blog post.

Quick glossaryGoogle, robots.txt, opt-out
Google
A US technology company best known for its search engine, Android phones, Gmail and YouTube.
robots.txt
A small text file on a website that tells automated programs which pages they are allowed to read.
opt-out
A choice to step out of something, such as letting your content be used for AI training.
developers.google.com
Burning Potato score: 66%
Business

Cognizant Sets Up OpenAI Group to Help Firms Deploy AI

Cognizant has set up a new group called the OpenAI Frontier Capability Group. Its goal is to help large companies, known as enterprises, put AI to use at scale across their work. The move shows how big IT firms are working with AI makers to bring the technology into business.

Quick glossaryCognizant, Frontier Capability Group, deploy
Cognizant
Cognizant is a US-based IT services firm best known for helping large companies with technology work and outsourcing.
Frontier Capability Group
A specialist team inside a company that builds skills and knowledge around a new, cutting-edge technology.
deploy
To put a tool or system into real use so that people can work with it and rely on it every day.
ET CIO
Burning Potato score: 66%
Tech

Apple Intelligence Comes to China With iOS 27.3

Apple announced on its Chinese newsroom website that Apple Intelligence will reach China with the iOS 27.3 update. The features will first appear in a test version set to launch on November 4, with the full update coming after.

Quick glossaryApple, Apple Intelligence, iOS 27.3, beta
Apple
An American technology company best known for the iPhone, Mac computers and its built-in software on those devices.
Apple Intelligence
Apple's built-in AI features that help people write, edit and get things done on its phones and computers.
iOS 27.3
A software update for iPhones, the main software that runs the phone, with this version adding new features.
beta
An early test version of software that some users try before the final release reaches everyone.
The Verge AI
Burning Potato score: 66%
Work

Dartmouth Provost Loses Job Over His Own AI Use

Dartmouth's provost had warned students and staff about AI cheating. He later lost his job after his own use of AI came to light. The case shows how the same tools that people criticise can also cost them their careers.

Quick glossaryDartmouth, Provost
Dartmouth
Dartmouth College is a well-known private university in the United States, located in New Hampshire.
Provost
The senior academic officer at a university who oversees teaching, research and academic staff across the institution.
Ars Technica AI
Burning Potato score: 66%

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