Good morning. Boy, that Mira Murati news really blew up, didn’t it?
Fortune’s Sharon Goldman and David Meyer dug into what it really means for the next phase of OpenAI, and it’s as thorough an analysis as you’ll find right now.
Take the time and space to do your own exploration, then have a great weekend. —Andrew Nusca
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Deepfakes go to Washington
Beware of who you’re video conferencing with, especially if you’re a member of Congress. It may be an AI-created deepfake on the other end.
The Foreign Relations Committee chairman found this out the hard way. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) recently held a Zoom call with what turned out to be a video impersonation of Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s former foreign minister, according to the New York Times.
Cardin eventually realized something was off—mostly because the deepfake acted odd, including asking “politically charged” questions about the upcoming U.S. election—and ended the call. State Department officials later confirmed the impersonation.
Who did it? It’s not yet clear. But the incident coincides with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issuing warnings about Russia, Iran, and China using AI—including deepfakes—to meddle in U.S. elections.
Senate security officials have since warned lawmakers to be vigilant about who they meet via video conference, citing “technical sophistication and believability” of the recent deepfake.
So if you find yourself on the other side of the screen from “Tom Cruise”...check yourself before you wreck yourself. —Sharon Goldman
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords
Robots that look like us and walk like us have long been merely sci-fi fantasy.
But thanks to advances in hardware and AI, that’s starting to change, yours truly reports in a new Fortune article.
Startups including Agility Robotics and Figure are building so-called droids to do some of the dirty work in warehouses and factories. Amazon and BMW are among the guinea pigs.
Meanwhile Elon Musk has helped to give the movement a PR boost. He’s talked extensively about the promise of droids and has focused his electric car company, Tesla, on producing them for use internally next year.
(Caveat: Musk is better at salesmanship than meeting deadlines.)
Real challenges do remain, of course, from high costs to safety concerns. Some startups are trying to get around those hurdles by building robots with simpler designs, such as using wheels instead of legs.
Will this rapidly-advancing technology eventually steal your job? The CEO of Figure told me it’s inevitable: “It’s basically what’s been happening for two centuries.” —Jason Del Rey
Robinhood, Revolut explore stablecoins
A number of fintech companies are thinking about diving into the stablecoin market. Robinhood and Revolut are reportedly two of them. (Say that five times fast.)
Not a card-carrying crypto bro? A quick primer: Stablecoins are digital assets—cryptocurrencies—whose value is pegged to another financial instrument, such as the U.S. dollar. They are the answer to the question, “What if I like the cost and speed of crypto, but not the volatility?” Et voilà.
Unsurprisingly, the stablecoin market is growing—market researcher Bernstein pegs it at $170 billion—so you can imagine why two of the most valuable companies working in the category might want to issue their own.
The dominant stablecoin issuer is Tether, whose offering is worth some $120 billion; rival Circle is a distant second.
Why now, you ask? Changes in European Union regulations could force crypto exchanges to delist assets from issuers who lack certain permits. And guess who that might be? Hint: It rhymes with "weather." —AN
The dream of Blockbuster Video is alive
Please, please: a moment of silence for the concept of owning an album, movie, or game.
In truth, it died a generation ago. But under a new California law, online storefronts will have to warn customers that digital transactions for media like ebooks and video games are purchases to license the content—not actually own it.
AB 2426, the false advertising law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, tackles the “disappearing” purchase problem by banning digital sellers from using terms like “buy” or “purchase” without making it clear to customers that their license to use virtual content comes with restrictions and can be revoked.
(Unless it’s U2’s Songs of Innocence. That’s going nowhere, pal.)
As always, just because you can doesn’t mean you should, and many listeners, viewers, and players have been left saddened or angry by so-called “delisted content.”
For example, Sony planned to remove Discovery TV purchases (MythBusters, Deadliest Catch, etc.) from PlayStation libraries last year; it ended up reversing the decision by updating its licensing agreement with Warner Bros.
In business as in Blockbuster, a truth: Be kind, please rewind. —Jenn Brice
‘Built with AI enhancements’ is the new black
If you’re not an Apple user, this one’s for you: Samsung has a new pair of Galaxy Tabs, and they come with artificial intelligence.
(I was so surprised! Were you surprised? I was surprised.)
The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10+ are packed full of the latest speeds and feeds, but I won’t bore you with that here. What’s interesting: Samsung is taking advantage of better processing power to integrate AI more readily into the operating system.
There are automated transcriptions and summaries thanks to something called Note Assist. There’s a feature that cleans up messy handwritten notes. (Where were you in college, Samsung?)
But my favorite? There’s a literal “AI key” on the accessory keyboard that allows it to summon Google’s Gemini chatbot or Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant.
Can you imagine an AI key to press everywhere else in life? It’s a Staples Easy Button for the Intelligence Age. —AN
More data
—A Kia website bug led to car hacking, tracking. As they say in the Midwest: Ope, jeez, sorry.
—Ubisoft outlook takes a hit. Assassin’s Creed delays and soft Star Wars sales are to blame.
—Inside Peak XV, the largest India and Southeast Asia VC fund. Everything may be bigger in Texas, but it’s definitely biggest in Asia.
—Study: Big AI chatbots are more inclined to B.S. than plead ignorance. Just like humans!
—Were the books cooked at Supermicro? The DOJ is reportedly looking into it. —AN
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