TBC News

Tag: openai

  • Meta Throws Billion-Dollar Tantrum, Finally Snags Three OpenAI Researchers After Desperate Recruiting Circus

    Meta Throws Billion-Dollar Tantrum, Finally Snags Three OpenAI Researchers After Desperate Recruiting Circus

    Meta has reportedly lured three senior researchers from OpenAI, scoring a rare win in Mark Zuckerberg’s high-stakes, high-drama talent poaching saga.

    The trio—Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai—formerly led OpenAI’s Zurich office and are now part of Meta’s so-called “superintelligence” team.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, the hires come amid Zuckerberg’s over-the-top campaign to woo AI researchers with compensation packages north of $100 million.

    This recruiting frenzy includes WhatsApp spams, dinner soirées at his mansions, and a group chat ironically dubbed “Recruiting Party 🎉.”

    Despite these efforts, many high-profile targets—like OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman—have declined his lavish offers, opting instead to launch rival startups.

    Zuckerberg recently secured Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang with a $14 billion investment, likely setting records for both overpaying and overcompensating.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, meanwhile, publicly dismissed Zuckerberg’s charm offensive in a podcast, claiming the “best people” have stayed loyal—for now.

    Meta’s latest haul may offer a glimmer of hope for a strategy that’s so far produced more headlines than results.

  • OpenAI’s Magic Earbud Dream Turns Into Trademark Tantrum

    OpenAI’s Magic Earbud Dream Turns Into Trademark Tantrum

    OpenAI and Jony Ive’s hardware startup, io, are knee-deep in a trademark lawsuit with Google-backed iyO, revealing spicy new details about their not-so-secret plan to build an AI gadget for the masses.

    The drama began when iyO accused the two companies of trademark infringement, prompting OpenAI to yank promotional materials tied to its $6.5 billion acquisition of io under court order.

    Filings show that OpenAI and io have spent over a year researching in-ear devices, even purchasing 30 headphone models and meeting with iyO’s execs to test their tech — which, spoiler alert, reportedly didn’t work.

    Despite the earpiece obsession, OpenAI claims their first product might not even go in your ear — or on your body — but could be some magical third device to sit on your desk and whisper sweet AI nothings.

    Tang Tan, io’s co-founder and ex-Apple hardware wizard, told the court the prototype isn’t a wearable and won’t hit shelves for at least a year.

    Emails in the lawsuit reveal io was eyeing iyO’s custom ear-scanning data, with one engineer suggesting they buy a 3D ear database to get started with ergonomic designs.

    iyO’s CEO allegedly tried selling the company to OpenAI for $200 million and even offered to become their AI hardware wing — a courtship OpenAI flatly rejected.

    Former Apple execs at io insist they’re not making custom earbuds, despite their oddly specific research history and meetings with rival in-ear tech startups.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the tech world sprints toward smart glasses, while OpenAI and io fumble with form factors and fight over whose imaginary AI widget owns the rights to three letters.

  • Robots, Burgers, and Billionaires: Sam Altman Throws More Money at Delivery Droids That Spy for AI

    Robots, Burgers, and Billionaires: Sam Altman Throws More Money at Delivery Droids That Spy for AI

    Coco Robotics, a Los Angeles startup building last-mile delivery robots, has raised $80 million in fresh funding.

    The round was backed by angel investors Sam Altman and Max Altman, along with Pelion Venture Partners, Offline Ventures, and others.

    This brings Coco’s total haul to over $120 million since its founding in 2020.

    The robots, which are emissions-free and can carry up to 90 liters of goods, have reportedly completed over 500,000 deliveries for chains like Subway, Wingstop, and Jack in the Box.

    Coco last raised $36 million in a Series A round in 2021.

    The company also has a data-sharing arrangement with OpenAI, where Coco gets to use OpenAI tech while OpenAI quietly scoops up robot-collected data to train its models.

    Coco was founded by Brad Squicciarini and Zach Rash, who apparently convinced investors that burgers delivered by robots is the future we deserve.

  • OpenAI Now Hoarding Your Deleted Chats Thanks to NYT Court Fight

    OpenAI Now Hoarding Your Deleted Chats Thanks to NYT Court Fight

    OpenAI is now storing deleted ChatGPT conversations indefinitely due to a court order tied to The New York Times’ ongoing copyright lawsuit.

    The company says it is appealing the ruling, which overrides its existing policy of erasing deleted chats after 30 days.

    The order compels OpenAI to retain all output logs, regardless of user deletion requests or data privacy laws.

    This change affects ChatGPT users on Free, Pro, Plus, and Team plans but excludes Enterprise, Edu, and zero-data-retention business agreements.

    OpenAI insists the stored data will be restricted to a small internal legal and security team for litigation purposes only.

    The New York Times filed the lawsuit in 2023, alleging that OpenAI and Microsoft infringed on its copyrights by using its content to train AI models.