Musk vs Altman: The Billion-Dollar AI Feud

Welcome to the first edition of The Neural Net…

When we started this journey, we weren’t sure how often we’d publish while juggling full-time jobs. But with AI evolving daily, there’s never a dull moment! Our goal is to bring you the top headlines twice a week - let us know if you want more!

In this issue:

• Elon Musk Wants to Buy OpenAI

• Meta Found A New Way To Collect Data - Straight From Your Brain

• Hindsight Is Indeed 20/20 With Apple’s Vision Pro

• BMW Goes Full German, Uses AI To Add Efficiency

• DeepSeek, DeepTrouble 

• Let Lindy.ai Book Your Next Vacation

Musk vs. Altman: The Billion-Dollar AI Feud

Elon Musk just threw a $97.4 billion wrench into OpenAI’s future. Our favorite tech billionaire (or should we say politician) and a group of investors have made an unsolicited bid to acquire the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, arguing the company has strayed from its original mission. Musk, unsurprisingly, was one of OpenAI’s original founders in 2015, alongside Sam Altman. Altman shot back on X, rejecting the offer, but cheekily suggested he’d buy X for a cool $9.74 billion instead - an ironic offer much less than the roughly $44 billion Elon paid.

But OpenAI isn’t just building AI - it’s printing valuations. Last October, the company locked in a $157 billion valuation after raising $6.6 billion in funding. But that number might already be outdated. Reports suggest OpenAI is in talks to raise another $40 billion, which could push its valuation to a jaw-dropping $340 billion. Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor, is riding this wave, having already poured $13 billion into the AI powerhouse. Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI is a tad unusual as it blurs the lines between nonprofit and for-profit interests in a way that’s rarely seen at this scale.

Elon Musk’s goal for OpenAI is to return it to its original nonprofit roots, focusing on its mission to develop safe, open-source AI that benefits all of humanity. Musk has expressed concern that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit model and its deepening ties with Microsoft are undermining its initial commitment to safety, transparency, and broad accessibility of AI technology.

If Musk gains control of the nonprofit behind OpenAI, he’d not only influence its governance but also have the power to reshape the company - and possibly the U.S.'s future as the leader in AI. Lately, OpenAI has found itself caught in a global AI feud, facing off against DeepSeek, a rising Chinese AI startup.

With legal fights, investor drama, and sky-high valuations in play, the battle over the future of AI is just getting started.

Heard in the Server Room
Quick hits roundup of AI news

• Meta's Brain-Reading AI: The Future of Thought-to-Text Technology 

  Meta is advancing AI and neuroscience with brain-reading technology that translates thoughts into text with up to 80% accuracy for skilled typists. While it currently requires a $2 million scanner (and you thought Apple’s Vision Pro was expensive), its potential to enhance AI by understanding language processing is significant.

•  Apple's AR Setback: Vision Pro Lives, but Alexa and AI Rivalry Heat Up

  Speak of the devil, Apple has paused development on new AR smart glasses but continues to support the high-end $3,500 Vision Pro. Meanwhile, Amazon is enhancing Alexa with AI, posing a challenge to Siri’s dominance. With Meta and Google driving AI innovation, Apple’s future in wearables remains uncertain - but the competition is far from over.

• BMW’s Secret Weapon: How Narrow AI Keeps Production on Track

  At BMW's Regensburg plant, Narrow AI helps prevent costly disruptions by analyzing data and predicting issues, saving over 500 minutes of downtime annually. Unlike generative AI, which creates new ideas, Narrow AI focuses on specific tasks like optimizing delivery routes and inventory management. We only wonder how long it will take for the AI to suggest removing blinkers as unneeded parts.

DeepSeek, DeepTrouble

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, just dropped its R1 model, and it's already shaking up the game by offering budget-friendly, open-source AI tools. Their mobile AI assistant shot to the top of Apple’s App charts, and the impact was immediate - Nvidia’s stock took a hit and lost nearly $600 Billion in valuation in just one day over concerns that future demand for Nvidia’s chips would fall.

DeepSeek claims to have trained its R1 model for less than $6M of compute (compared to GPT 4’s $100M), which would represent a sharp decrease in the need for high end Nvidia chips and mark a drastic shift in the AI power balance between the US and China. However, OpenAI is investigating whether DeepSeek simply copied its own GPT models to reduce cost. While this may seem far fetched for a Chinese company, their investigation is still ongoing.

If that weren’t enough to pour cold water on R1, DeepSeek is also facing scrutiny over security and privacy issues. It has been banned from many government devices, including in New York, Texas, the U.S. Navy, and NASA due to fears of data harvesting and surveillance. Experts have also flagged vulnerabilities in its models, including unencrypted data being sent to ByteDance-controlled servers. Even with the rocky start, China has thrown down the AI gauntlet and created a sputnik moment for the US.