Microsoft is considering a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the startup that created the viral chatbot ChatGPT, and plans to integrate it with Office products and Bing search.
This is a big deal. If successful, it will bring powerful AI tools to the masses. So what would ChatGPT-powered Microsoft products look like? Although neither Microsoft nor OpenAI would answer our questions, we do know enough to make educated and intelligent guesses. Tip: This is probably good news if you find creating PowerPoint presentations and responding to emails boring. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkila
Melissa’s story is from The Algorithm, her weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.
The unavoidable
I’ve scoured the internet to find you today’s funniest/important/scariest/fascinating stories about technology.
1 China’s population fell for the first time in 60 years
The news has major implications for the country’s social, defense and economic policies. (CNN)
+ The Chinese economy is collapsing. (Quartz)
+ India is on its way to becoming the most populous country in the world. (Economist $)
+ Anti-covid zero protesters are still detained. ($Bloomberg)
2 The first bill for buying Elon Musk on Twitter looms
How he copes with it is another major test of his leadership. (FT$)
+ We are witnessing the brain death of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Getty Images sues the creators of Stable Diffusion
Getty claims the software was trained using millions of illegally retrieved images. (The edge)
+ Microsoft is “soon” adding ChatGPT to its cloud service. ($Bloomberg)
4 Sales of electric vehicles have reached a milestone
They accounted for 10% of new cars sold last year. (WSJ$)
+ Tesla cuts prices, but not everyone is happy. (The edge)
5 Tenant Selection Algorithms Allegedly Discriminated Against Black Tenants
Now the US Department of Justice is getting involved. (Wired $)
+ AI has exacerbated racial bias in housing. Could this help eliminate it instead? (MIT Technology Review)
6 3D Printed Buildings Could Help Solve America’s Housing Crisis
But there is a major obstacle: the way the construction industry currently operates. (New Yorkers $)
+ Meet the printing designers in salt and clay. (MIT Technology Review)
7 US tech companies are poaching talent from Latin American startups
Local startups are struggling to match salaries, which are still low by American standards. (Rest of the world)
8 The agony and ecstasy of owning a coveted Instagram handle
You better be prepared for people trying to steal it. (Slate $)
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