OpenAI execs respond to Meta offers

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Monday.

OpenAI leaders are in crisis-response mode after Meta poached several senior researchers.

In a Slack memo obtained by Wired, Chief Research Officer Mark Chen likened the exits to “someone breaking into our home” and said management is recalibrating compensation and talking with every staffer who has an offer.

Chen added that most employees will take a recharge week while executives work through it, aiming to curb burnout after stretches of 80-hour weeks.

Meanwhile, Meta is restructuring its AI unit under a new group called Superintelligence Labs, led by Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman.

The move consolidates all AI teams and follows a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, along with high-profile hires from DeepMind and Anthropic.

OK let’s keep going ↓

🔥 Creative pulse

Casey Neistat shared a fully AI-generated music video made with Google Veo.

Directed by Max Joseph. 250 hours of editing.

Watch the video. Posted on LinkedIn.

And then there’s this…

A mysterious band called The Velvet Sundown appeared out of nowhere and already has over 550,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Here’s the crazy part:

If they’re real, they’ll blow up just from people thinking they’re AI.

If they’re AI, then we’re about to see thousands more like this. Labels and creators testing names, sounds, and vibes with low overhead…

💡 Here’s what you should know

• Microsoft’s path to medical superintelligence

  Microsoft’s AI Diagnostic Orchestrator solved 85 percent of complex NEJM medical cases, performing more than four times better than doctors while using fewer diagnostic resources.

• Cursor on web and mobile

  You can now use Cursor Agents anywhere to fix bugs, build features, and collaborate directly from your browser or phone.

• Apple weighs OpenAI, Anthropic to power new Siri

  Apple is testing Claude and ChatGPT on its private cloud, a privacy-first move that signals Apple’s AI struggles and a potential shift away from its own models.

• Baidu open‑sources Ernie 4.5 multimodal AI models

  The release includes 10 variants (0.3B to 424B parameters) with MoE architecture, strong benchmark performance, and developer toolkits, all freely available under Apache 2.0.

• CJ ENM debuts AI-generated series ‘Cat Biggie’

  Produced in just five months by a six-person team, Cat Biggie marks CJ ENM’s first fully AI-made series, with plans to expand into AI film and drama later this year.

• New York launches $40M Empire AI Beta supercomputer

  Housed at the University at Buffalo, the upgraded system will accelerate research in fields like cancer diagnostics and climate modeling across the Empire AI consortium.

• OpenAI releases AI economic blueprint for Australia

  The blueprint urges national investment in AI infrastructure and public services, as OpenAI positions itself as a policy partner amid rapid user growth in the region.

• Wimbledon goes fully AI for line calls in 2025 debut

  For the first time, Wimbledon is using 100% electronic line calling across all 18 courts, cutting its 300-person line judge team to 80 match assistants as AI replaces human calls after 148 years.

• BBC rolls out generative AI tools in news production

  Pilots include AI-assisted bullet summaries and automated style editing for local reports, aiming to boost newsroom efficiency while maintaining human oversight.

• Europe’s AI gigafactory plan draws 76 bids

  Submissions span 60 sites and include plans to deploy over 3 million next-gen AI chips, signaling strong industry demand for sovereign infrastructure.

• Google showcases new AI tools for education

  Includes Gemini in Workspace, smarter lesson planning, and AI-powered support in Google Classroom (more here).

💰 The numbers

• Clio is acquiring legal AI platform vLex for $1B, adding 1B+ legal documents and boosting its ARR to $300M.

• Cato Networks closed a $359M Series G round to bolster its AI-driven SASE cybersecurity platform.

• Gensmo raised $60M in seed funding to scale its AI fashion agent for virtual try-ons and personalized styling.

• Levelpath raised a $55M Series B to grow its AI-native procurement platform built by the Scout RFP team.

• Tandem Health secured a €42.6M (~$50M) Series A to expand its AI clinical documentation assistant into a full healthcare OS.

🧠 Thought starters

• Work begins to create artificial human DNA from scratch

• MIT-backed startup launches AI agents to accelerate science

• Over 1,100 authors urge publishers to ban AI-written books

• Marc Benioff’s Race to One Billion AI Agents

  ⏱️ 24:01 min (YouTube)

• AI and the paradox of trust — Yuval Noah Harari

  ⏱️ 14:27 min (YouTube)

😂 Meme of the day

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

Are we friends on LinkedIn and X? Let’s connect — DM me or hit the follow button.

P.S. If this was valuable, forward it to a friend. If you’re that smart friend, subscribe here.

P.P.S. Interested in reaching other ambitious readers like you? To become a sponsor, reply to this email.