@techcrunch.com
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sites.libsyn.com
, Last Week in AI
OpenAI has recently unveiled significant advancements in its AI model lineup, introducing o3 and o4-mini models, and updating to GPT-4.1. These new models showcase enhanced capabilities in several key areas, including multimodal functionality, coding proficiency, and instruction following. The o3 and o4-mini models are particularly notable for their ability to see, code, plan, and use tools independently, marking a significant step towards more autonomous AI systems.
The advancements extend to OpenAI's API and subscription services. Operator, OpenAI's autonomous web browsing agent, has been upgraded to utilize the o3 model, enhancing its capabilities within the ChatGPT Pro subscription. This upgrade makes the $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro subscription more attractive, offering users a more powerful AI experience capable of completing web-based tasks such as booking reservations and gathering online data. It also places OpenAI competitively against other AI subscription bundles in the market. In addition to the new models, OpenAI has introduced GPT-4.1 with optimized coding and instruction-following capabilities. This model family includes variants like GPT-4.1 Mini and Nano, and boasts a million-token context window. These improvements are designed to enhance the efficiency and affordability of OpenAI's services. The company is also exploring new frontiers in AI, focusing on the development of AI agents with tool use and autonomous functionality, suggesting a future where AI can take on more complex and independent tasks. Recommended read:
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Kevin Okemwa@windowscentral.com
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OpenAI and Microsoft are reportedly engaged in high-stakes negotiations to revise their existing partnership, a move prompted by OpenAI's aspirations for an initial public offering (IPO). The discussions center around redefining the terms of their strategic alliance, which has seen Microsoft invest over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019. A key point of contention is Microsoft's desire to secure guaranteed access to OpenAI's AI technology beyond the current contractual agreement, set to expire in 2030. Microsoft is reportedly willing to sacrifice some equity in OpenAI to ensure long-term access to future AI models.
These negotiations also entail OpenAI potentially restructuring its for-profit arm into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), a move that requires Microsoft's approval as the startup's largest financial backer. The PBC structure would allow OpenAI to pursue commercial goals and attract further capital, paving the way for a potential IPO. However, the non-profit entity would retain overall control. OpenAI reportedly aims to reduce Microsoft's revenue share from 20% to a share of 10% by 2030, a year when the company forecasts $174B in revenue. Tensions within the partnership have reportedly grown as OpenAI pursues agreements with Microsoft competitors and targets overlapping enterprise customers. One senior Microsoft executive expressed concern over OpenAI's attitude, stating that they seem to want Microsoft to "give us money and compute and stay out of the way." Despite these challenges, Microsoft remains committed to the partnership, recognizing its importance in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Recommended read:
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Tom Dotan@Newcomer
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OpenAI is facing an identity crisis, according to former research scientist Steven Adler, stemming from its history, culture, and contentious transition from a non-profit to a for-profit entity. Adler's insights, shared in a recent discussion, delve into the company's early development of GPT-3 and GPT-4, highlighting internal cultural and ethical disagreements. This comes as OpenAI's enterprise adoption accelerates, seemingly at the expense of its rivals, signaling a significant shift in the AI landscape.
OpenAI's recent $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf, an AI-native integrated development environment (IDE), underscores its urgent need to defend its territory in AI-powered coding against growing competition from Google and Anthropic. The move reflects OpenAI's imperative to equip developers with superior coding capabilities and secure a dominant position in the emerging agentic AI world. This deal is seen as a defensive maneuver as OpenAI finds itself on the back foot, needing to counter challenges from competitors who are making significant inroads in AI-assisted coding. Meanwhile, tensions are reportedly simmering between OpenAI and Microsoft, its key partner. Negotiations are shaky, with Microsoft seeking a larger equity stake and retention of IP rights to OpenAI's models, while OpenAI aims to claw those rights back. These issues, along with disagreements over an AGI provision that allows OpenAI an out once it develops artificial general intelligence, have complicated OpenAI's plans for a for-profit conversion and the current effort to become a public benefit corporation. Furthermore, venture capitalists and limited partners are offloading shares in secondaries, which may come at a steep loss compared to 2021 valuations, adding another layer of complexity to OpenAI's current situation. Recommended read:
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@the-decoder.com
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THE DECODER
, AI News | VentureBeat
Microsoft is making a significant push towards AI interoperability by adding support for the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol to its Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. This move aims to break down the walled garden approach to AI development, allowing AI agents built on different platforms to communicate and collaborate seamlessly. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, has publicly endorsed both Google DeepMind's A2A and Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), signaling a major industry shift toward open standards. Nadella emphasized the importance of protocols like A2A and MCP for enabling an agentic web, where AI systems can interoperate by design.
This commitment to interoperability will allow customers to build agentic systems that can work together regardless of the platform they are built on. Microsoft's support for A2A will enable Copilot Studio agents to call on external agents, even those outside the Microsoft ecosystem or built with tools like LangChain or Semantic Kernel. According to Microsoft, Copilot Studio is already used by over 230,000 organizations, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500, suggesting a potentially wide adoption of A2A-enabled agentic collaboration. A public preview of A2A in Azure Foundry and Copilot Studio is expected to launch soon. OpenAI is also contributing to the advancement of AI interoperability through its Agents SDK, introduced in March. This SDK provides a framework for building multi-agent workflows, allowing developers to define agent behavior, connect to external tools, and manage the action flow. The Agents SDK also supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling agents to discover and call functions from any compatible server. By supporting open standards like A2A and MCP, both Microsoft and OpenAI are fostering a future where AI agents can work together to automate daily workflows and collaborate across platforms, promoting innovation and avoiding vendor lock-in. Recommended read:
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