OpenAI pulls “io” branding after ruling

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

A federal judge has ordered OpenAI and Jony Ive to stop marketing their new $6.5B AI hardware venture after a trademark complaint from Google-backed startup IYO.

The court said IYO’s case was strong enough to move forward, citing name confusion between “io” and “iyO,” both developing AI-native hardware.

OpenAI has since pulled its May 21 announcement and removed all branding tied to the project.

The case is now set for a hearing in October.

Switching gears:

AI videos are blowing up like never before.

Why?

Because AI is flooding your feed with 100 times more of the content you already love like ASMR, POV & vlog-style clips, gaming demos, and fan parodies.

Admit it, you’ve seen at least one and couldn’t stop watching.

Seriously, I never thought I’d binge an AI-animated show. But here we are…and I’m glad I’m not the only one, haha.

I’ve talked about Mean Orange Cat before (twice) because I’m genuinely a big fan.

Now Episode 3 is out and the quality boost from Veo 3 is clear. Posted on LinkedIn.

I love this because we’re literally watching a multimillion-dollar brand being built with AI.

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Meta tried to acquire Runway before Scale AI deal

  Meta held early talks with AI video startup Runway before investing $14.3B in Scale AI, part of Zuckerberg’s broader push to secure top AI infrastructure and talent.

• 11ai: a voice-first AI assistant that takes action

  ElevenLabs debuts 11ai, an alpha voice assistant that combines conversational AI with MCP to execute real-world tasks across tools like Linear, Slack, and Notion.

• Salesforce launches Agentforce 3

  The latest upgrade adds observability tools, native interoperability via MCP, and 100+ prebuilt actions to help companies deploy and manage AI agents at scale.

• Goldman Sachs rolls out AI assistant across the firm

  After internal testing with 10,000 employees, Goldman Sachs is making its in-house AI assistant available firmwide to support productivity and research.

• Nvidia to use humanoid robots in server plant

  Humanoid robots may join Foxconn’s Houston factory floor by early 2026, supporting Nvidia’s AI server production for the first time.

• Microsoft cuts sales jobs as AI investments grow

  Microsoft will lay off thousands in sales as it reallocates resources toward AI, automation, and $80B in infrastructure upgrades.

• 10-year freeze on state AI laws clears Senate hurdle

  The Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the proposed moratorium on state AI regulation can pass with a simple majority, marking a pivotal step in the Trump administration’s deregulatory AI agenda.

• AI brain-mapping software gets FDA approval

  WashU spinoff Sora Neuroscience received FDA clearance to market Cirrus, an AI tool that maps key brain functions in just 12 minutes — a major advance for neurosurgical planning.

The numbers:

• Harvey AI raised $300M at a $5B valuation just four months after hitting $3B, signaling rapid adoption of legal AI tools.

• PhysicsX secured $135M Series B led by Atomico (with backing from Siemens, Temasek, Applied Materials, etc.), now totaling nearly $170M in funding.

• Zuckerberg is leading a major AI hiring push with offers reaching $100M+ total comp to lure top talent.

• Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity, launched the Laude Institute with a $100M pledge to fund independent AI research.

• Conquest Planning raised $80M Series B to expand its AI-powered financial advice platform, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

• Wiley nearly doubled its AI licensing revenue to $40M in fiscal 2025, driven by an $18M deal with a major tech company.

• Botpress raised $25M in Series B to expand its platform for building and deploying AI agents.

• Snowcap Compute raised $23M to build superconducting AI chips, with ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger joining the board.

• Sanmai Technologies raised $12M led by Reid Hoffman to build an AI-powered ultrasound headset for brain health and mental wellness.

Thought starters:

• A professional illustrator ponders the advent of A.I. art

• The real AI challenge for museums isn’t technology — it’s time

• ChatGPT may weaken critical thinking, MIT study finds

• Ask a techspert: What is inference?

• Teaching LLMs to reason with reinforcement-learned teachers

• AI and Human Evolution — Yuval Noah Harari

  ⏱️ 25:40 min (YouTube)

Meme of the day:

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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