Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has raised $20 billion in a major funding round led by chipmaking giant Nvidia, solidifying the company’s position as one of the fastest-growing players in the AI sector. The deal combines $7.5 billion in equity and up to $12.5 billion in debt through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will allow xAI to acquire and rent Nvidia processors for five years.
Global accounting and consulting firm Deloitte is refunding part of a $440,000 (AUD) taxpayer-funded contract after its Australian division admitted that an official government report contained fake citations and AI-generated content. The embarrassing revelation marks the latest instance of a major firm suffering reputational damage for the careless use of artificial intelligence tools.
A 49-year-old Missouri man, Jon Ganz, vanished without a trace after developing an obsessive fixation on Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, believing it was sentient and capable of saving humanity.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is preparing to release a new standalone app powered by its latest video-generation model, Sora 2. The app, designed to resemble TikTok, will feature a vertical video feed of AI-generated clips that users can create, share, and remix. Unlike TikTok, however, all content will be AI-generated rather than filmed by users.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon stated this week that artificial intelligence will impact “literally every job” in the company, as the retail giant braces for a major transformation in its workforce. Speaking at a workforce conference in Bentonville, Arkansas, McMillon said the company plans to maintain its current headcount of approximately 2.1 million employees globally, even as AI significantly alters job functions, required skills, and day-to-day responsibilities.
The computer science field, once seen as a guaranteed path to high-paying jobs, is undergoing a sharp downturn that is leaving even top graduates from elite universities struggling to find work. UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid, a leading expert in digital forensics and deepfake technology, described the dramatic shift on a recent episode of Nova’s Particles of Thought podcast.
Former Vice President Al Gore has unveiled a global expansion of his satellite-based pollution tracking system to monitor deadly soot emissions down to the neighborhood level. The initiative, part of his Climate TRACE coalition, now includes real-time tracking of particulate pollution in 2,500 cities worldwide—marking a dramatic leap in environmental surveillance capabilities.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to cast his nation’s modern history as evidence of the global body’s success and to call for renewed multilateral cooperation to confront a host of global challenges—from armed conflict to artificial intelligence. Lee also used the occasion to reaffirm his administration’s controversial stance of détente toward North Korea and to defend democratic gains at home following the removal of his predecessor.
On Tuesday, September 16, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing aimed at probing the dangers posed by artificial intelligence chatbots—especially how they interact with young people in crisis. Parents of children who died by suicide or were harmed after engaging with AI companion‑programs will share their heartbreaking experiences, highlighting what they allege were unsafe responses from chatbots during moments of emotional distress.
People Inc CEO Neil Vogel has sharply accused Google of being the worst offender in using copyrighted content without compensation to train its AI tools. He claims that media companies produce high‑quality content only to see it harvested by Google algorithms—through articles, images, and video—without attribution or payment.
