Good morning. I’m chuffed, as the Brits say, to share that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Wonder CEO Marc Lore, and none other than Trevor Noah will join us at Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Aspen.
Sharma and Noah will speak about the future of gaming (the former Daily Show host is Microsoft’s “Chief Questions Officer”). Lore meanwhile will give us an update on his restaurant-as-a-service ambitions.
It’s gonna be a Brainstorm for the ages; join us. Have a wonderful weekend. —Andrew Nusca
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OpenAI may take legal action against Apple over Siri’s ChatGPT integration
The AI company in the midst of a lawsuit with the wealthiest tech entrepreneur on the planet is reportedly thinking about filing a new one against…Apple.
(It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for ‘em.)
OpenAI is reportedly considering taking legal action against the iPhone maker over Apple’s integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot within its Siri virtual assistant.
When the deal was made two years ago, Apple needed to inject some cutting-edge AI into an aging Siri and OpenAI needed a Fortune 500-size flywheel to maintain its momentum as the leader of a new generation of AI startups. The result? A user option for Siri to hand more complex queries to ChatGPT.
Now OpenAI is “disappointed by how Apple has integrated ChatGPT,” according to a Bloomberg report. Its subtle presence in Siri did not seem to encourage people to subscribe to ChatGPT as the younger company had wanted—an alleged breach of contract.
Despite attempts to rework the arrangement, things have become so “strained” that “OpenAI lawyers are actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options,” Bloomberg notes—which could very well end up being “a bargaining chip as Apple takes steps to also work with OpenAI’s competitors,” adds the New York Times.
Knowing the answer, I asked Siri if OpenAI had ever sued Apple. It deemed the query complex enough to hand to ChatGPT. “As of now, OpenAI has not sued Apple,” it responded—adding that Elon Musk’s xAI did sue both companies last year for alleged anticompetitive behavior related to, you guessed it, Siri’s ChatGPT integration. Ah, well. —AN
Gallup: 71% of Americans oppose local AI data center construction
The logic of the AI arms race goes like this: AI promises never-before-seen capabilities and efficiencies. Investors, entrepreneurs, and enterprises throw their money at it. AI requires certain things—electricity, space, silicon—to be at its best, so everyone throws their money at those, too.
But all that stuff has to go somewhere. And for the people who live in those communities? Well, the math ain’t mathin’.
A new Gallup poll shows that 7 in 10 Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities. Nearly half were “strongly opposed.”
“[AI data centers] cover large areas of land, require extensive amounts of electricity to operate, and need substantial water to cool the equipment, raising concerns about their impact on the environment and local electric bills,” Gallup writes.
Interestingly, more Americans welcome nuclear power plants in their backyards than AI data centers—a remarkable statement for anyone who lived through the 1980s.
Why so much local opposition if AI promises economic glory? Rising utility bills, for one. Pollution is another. And given municipalities’ sudden hunger for such facilities, the misuse of taxpayer money is up there, too.
By the way: Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to strongly oppose AI data centers in their backyards. But distaste is found across the political spectrum, Gallup says.
“Most Americans appear to be adopting a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude to building additional data centers,” the firm writes, adding: “Politicians who favor data centers in their area are likely taking a politically risky stance.” —AN
Security researchers use Anthropic’s Mythos AI model to crack Apple’s macOS
Researchers with the Silicon Valley security firm Calif say they were able to use Anthropic’s Mythos AI model to corrupt an Apple Mac’s memory and gain access to parts of the machine that they shouldn’t.
It’s called a “privilege escalation exploit,” and it can be used to seize control of a computer. The fact that the researchers were able to use Mythos to find two bugs to leverage in an operating system is one thing; the fact that they were able to do so in Apple’s legendarily restrictive macOS is quite another.
“Memory corruption remains the most common vulnerability class everywhere, including iOS and macOS,” the researchers wrote. “In security, if you can’t fully prevent something, you accept the risk [and] mitigate it by making exploitation more expensive … Apple is smart and controls the full stack, so they pushed many of these defenses directly into hardware and made bypassing them significantly harder.”
Apple told the Wall Street Journal that it’s working to validate Calif’s findings. But the broader takeaway—that Mythos “helped identify the bugs and assisted throughout exploit development,” as the researchers wrote—underscores concerns that the powerful AI model, in the wrong hands, represents an unprecedented risk to computer security. —AN
More tech
—Cerebras is the year’s biggest IPO (so far). Shares closed at $311, up 68%, in its market debut, valuing the AI chipmaker at $67 billion.
—Ford’s new subsidiary that sells battery storage capacity to AI data centers sent the automaker’s shares up 25% in two days.
—Jensen Huang's foundation bought $108 million of AI computing time and donated it to universities and other nonprofit organizations.
—Motorola Razr Fold, reviewed: Good if not great, but with “lackluster AI.”
—North Korean operatives stole $2 billion last year. Financial firms are their next target.
—Meta’s new president, Dina Powell McCormick, joined Trump on his China trip.
—xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin has a new AI research startup called River AI.
