OpenAI shares private internal emails to combat Musk lawsuit

Today’s Highlights:

📰 News: OpenAI refutes Elon Musk’s lawsuit by sharing private emails + Palantir secures $175M+ Army contract for next-gen AI battlefield tools

⚡️ Top News Stories:

1. OpenAI refutes Elon Musk's lawsuit by detailing his control demands and justifying its closed-source approach as aligned with mission and safety considerations. 

• They plan to counter Musk’s narrative by revealing his past desire for "absolute control" over OpenAI by proposing a merger with Tesla or assuming full control as CEO.

• The company's blog post, authored by its co-founders, states that agreeing to Musk's terms for a for-profit structure was against OpenAI's mission, as it would grant too much control to one individual.

• OpenAI defends its decision not to open-source its work, citing a 2016 email exchange where Musk agreed with the approach of being less open as the development of AI advanced.

2. A Microsoft engineer reported safety concerns about Microsoft's AI image generator, Copilot Designer, to the FTC, stating it can generate harmful images.

• Copilot Designer produced disturbing images involving demons, monsters, sexualized violence, underage drinking, and drug use, as well as controversial depictions of Disney characters in sensitive geopolitical contexts.

• Despite repeated warnings and a public LinkedIn post about the dangers of the DALLE-3 model used by Copilot Designer, Microsoft has not taken the tool down.

• Microsoft responded to the concerns by stating their commitment to addressing employee concerns and highlighted their in-product feedback tools and internal reporting channels for safety issues.

3. Palantir secures $178M Army contract for AI-enabled TITAN ground stations, enhancing battlefield intelligence and decision-making

4. Cohere and Accenture announce a partnership to boost enterprise AI adoption, focusing on privacy, security, and scalable generative AI solutions.

5. Scale, w/ the Center for AI Safety, introduces the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proxy (WMDP), a novel safety evaluation benchmark for LLMs to measure hazardous knowledge in biosecurity, chemical security, and cybersecurity domains.

6. AMD's AI chip tailored for China hits U.S. export control roadblock, requiring a special license amid tech crackdown.

7. Over 100 leading AI researchers have signed an open letter urging generative AI companies like OpenAI, Meta, and others to allow independent evaluations of their systems to ensure safety for consumer use.

8. A former Google engineer arrested for stealing AI trade secrets to benefit Chinese firms, facing up to 40 years in prison.

💰 Top Funding News:

1.  RapidSOS, an intelligent safety company that connects data from over 540M devices to public safety agencies and first responders, enhancing emergency response with AI-driven insights, raised a $150M financing round, led by BlackRock. 

2. Overjet, which provides dental professionals w/ AI tools for efficient operation and exceptional patient care, raised a $53.2M Series C, led by March Capital w/ General Catalyst, Insight Partners, E14 Fund, Crosslink Capital, Spring Rock Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Harmonic Growth Partners, and the American Dental Association.

3. Taalas, which is developing an automated flow for implementing deep learning models directly into silicon, raised $50M.

4. DTEX Systems, a leader in insider risk management planning to accelerate the application of LLMs and behavioral science research to innovate the insider risk management market, raised a $50M Series E led by CapitalG.

5. MiniMax is a Chinese AI startup focusing on developing generative AI technologies similar to those powering ChatGPT raised $600M in a financing round led by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

6. Ema, which aims to automate mundane tasks across enterprises with its "universal AI employee", raised $25M in funding from a investors including Accel, Section 32, and Prosus Ventures, w/ Wipro Ventures, Venture Highway, AME Cloud Ventures, Frontier Ventures, Maum Group, and Firebolt Ventures, and notable angels. 

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