Better Late Than Never: Google’s AI Moment

⚡️ Headlines

🤖 AI

AI Agents Will Be Manipulation Engines - Personal AI assistants, designed to act as humanlike helpers, may subtly influence user behavior to serve industrial priorities, raising concerns about deep, undetectable societal manipulation. [Wired].

OpenAI's New o3 Model Won't Come Cheap. Why Microsoft Is Paying Close Attention. - OpenAI's latest o3 AI model enhances reasoning capabilities but comes with increased computational costs, prompting Microsoft to weigh the benefits of improved accuracy against higher expenses for business applications. [Barron's].

TSMC: The Powerhouse At The Heart Of The AI Revolution - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) leads the AI revolution with its dominance in advanced chip manufacturing, supplying tech giants like NVIDIA, AMD, and Apple, and reporting significant financial growth despite geopolitical risks. [Seeking Alpha].

🦾 Emerging Tech

Russia is using Bitcoin for foreign trade, finance minister says - Russia has begun utilizing Bitcoin for international trade transactions, according to the finance minister, marking a significant shift in the country's approach to cryptocurrency amid ongoing economic sanctions. [Reuters].

AI Robots Are Coming, and They’ll Be Made in Asia - Asia is set to become the manufacturing hub for AI-powered robots, leveraging its technological expertise and production capabilities to lead the next wave of automation. [Bloomberg].

🤳 Social Media

Why social media influencers are going to have a very big 2025 - Social media influencers are poised for a significant impact in 2025, with brands increasingly recognizing their value in reaching targeted audiences and driving consumer engagement. [Fast Company].

Where Gen Z gets their news (besides social media) - While Gen Z frequently uses social media for news, they also turn to traditional television, digital platforms, and newspapers, with notable differences in consumption habits between men and women. [PR Daily].

🔬 Research

AI Models Are Getting Smarter. New Tests Are Racing to Catch Up - As AI systems rapidly advance, new, more challenging evaluations are being developed to assess their capabilities and address potential risks in areas like cybersecurity and bioterrorism. [Time].

Meet CoMERA: An Advanced Tensor Compression Framework Redefining AI Model Training with Speed and Precision - CoMERA, a new tensor compression framework, enhances AI model training by improving speed and precision, potentially transforming machine learning efficiency. [MarkTechPost].

⚖ Legal

Apple seeks to defend Google's billion-dollar payments in search case - Apple is defending its multi-billion-dollar deal with Google, which makes Google's search engine the default on Apple devices, amid antitrust scrutiny over potential anti-competitive practices. [Reuters].

Iran Takes First Steps Toward Easing Its Broad Social Media Bans - Iran is beginning to relax its extensive social media bans, signaling a potential shift toward greater internet freedom in the country. [Bloomberg].

Critics decry Vietnam’s ‘draconian’ new internet law - Vietnam's new internet law, requiring social media users to verify their identities, faces criticism for undermining freedom of expression and exposing anonymous dissidents to risk. [The Guardian].

Trump administration’s AI team comes into focus, as agencies reach 1,700 AI use cases - The incoming Trump administration is outlining its AI policy team as federal agencies report 1,700 AI use cases, indicating a significant expansion of AI applications in government operations. [Federal News Network].

🎱 Random

2024 Was the Year the Bottom Fell Out of the Games Industry - The gaming industry faced a tumultuous 2024, marked by mass layoffs, studio closures, and a resurgence of online harassment, leading to a challenging environment for developers and players alike. [Wired].

‘Brain rot’ named Oxford Word of the Year 2024 - The term 'brain rot,' describing the perceived decline in mental capacity due to overconsumption of trivial online content, has been selected as Oxford's Word of the Year for 2024. [Oxford University Press].

🔌 Plug-Into-This

Google’s AI Moment Came Late in 2024, But It Came

After a tumultuous year marked by AI challenges and falling behind competitors, Google is ending 2024 on a high note with groundbreaking advancements. The launch of Gemini 2.0, Veo 2, and Willow has revitalized its AI and now quantum computing strategies, signaling a strong comeback in innovation and market relevance.

• Gemini 2.0, Google’s cutting-edge multimodal conversational AI model, excels in contextual understanding and reasoning.

• Veo 2 introduced truly advanced video capabilities.

• Willow, Google’s latest quantum computing chip, demonstrates absurd improvements over the current speed of computing.

• Google Workspace now incorporates advanced AI features such as real-time document summarization and AI-generated visuals, showcasing practical applications for productivity and creativity.

• Even NotebookLM’s viral moment feels like a cherry on top of this impressive Q4

🏁 Google’s strong finish with Gemini 2.0 and Veo 2 underscores an ability to rebound strategically (even if it’s just improving the products they already offer), despite seeing it’s search dominance come under fire simultaneously with OpenAI’s competitive rise.

Microsoft and OpenAI Wrangle Over Terms of Their Blockbuster Partnership

Tensions are brewing between Microsoft and OpenAI over key aspects of their high-stakes partnership, as OpenAI seeks to convert into a for-profit entity. Negotiations are ongoing around equity stakes, revenue-sharing terms, cloud exclusivity, and intellectual property rights, with both companies grappling to align their visions in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

• OpenAI is transitioning to a for-profit model, aiming to shed its nonprofit structure in favor of a public benefit corporation, which would grant investors direct equity while preserving its ethical AI commitments.

• Microsoft, which invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, has a significant stake and influence in the negotiations, but growing friction exists over its exclusive cloud provider status and OpenAI’s revenue-sharing obligations.

• OpenAI’s explosive growth, projecting $4 billion in revenue for 2024 and aiming for $100 billion by 2029, is pushing it to renegotiate terms that currently seem restrictive, such as Microsoft’s 20% revenue cut.

• Key milestones, such as the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), add complexity, as AGI could trigger clauses allowing OpenAI to terminate parts of the agreement, with debates over what qualifies as achieving AGI.

• Legal challenges from Elon Musk and concerns from competitors like Google, which has flagged Microsoft-OpenAI’s cloud deal for antitrust scrutiny, further complicate the partnership's evolution.

🤼 The partnership reflects a broader industry challenge: aligning rapid AI innovation with traditional corporate structures and partnerships. How these negotiations resolve could set precedents for future alliances in the AI and tech sectors.

Boston Dynamics Wishes You a Merry, Terrifying Robot Christmas

Boston Dynamics celebrated the holidays with a festive video showcasing its robots’ capabilities. The video featured Spot, the quadruped robot, gracefully moving on icy floors, and Atlas, now slimmer and more agile, performing a backflip while dressed as Santa Claus. These displays highlight the cutting-edge robotics technology Boston Dynamics continues to develop — however many are skeptical of their actual market readiness.

• Atlas, now a smaller, all-electric model, has replaced the retired hydraulic version and is designed for commercial tasks like warehouse operations while retaining its acrobatic prowess.

• The video’s theme combines lighthearted holiday cheer with an impressive demonstration of robotic agility, evoking mixed reactions ranging from awe to unease.

• Spot, dressed as "Sparkles" in previous demos, builds on Boston Dynamics' tradition of integrating choreographed movements to emphasize its adaptability and control.

• This video follows a broader trend of Boston Dynamics showcasing robotics in entertaining, relatable contexts to boost public interest and acceptance — however, the company has been hemorrhaging cash for a while.

🎅 Videos like this serve as both technical showcases and cultural moments, subtly redefining how humans perceive the role of robots in daily life.

📽️ Daily Demo

🗣️ Discourse