AI and society | The Decoder

Matthias Bastian

Dec 8, 2024

Canada to invest $2 billion in national AI computing infrastructure

The Canadian flag symbol, a maple leaf, is generated as a wireframe in a neural network.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 8, 2024

Majority of Germans use AI, but skepticism remains high

Microsoft has announced a €3.2 billion investment to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Germany, the largest investment in the country in the company's 40-year history.

Matthias Bastian

Dec 7, 2024

Perplexity partners with global publishers as AI's use of news content faces legal pressure

Perplexity has added more than a dozen international media partners to its publisher program, including The Independent, RTL Germany with stern and ntv as well as companies from Japan and Spain. Such deals are a reaction to the uncertain legal situation regarding the use of journalistic content by AI companies. While large media companies can benefit, smaller publishers without agreements are at risk of falling behind. The new AI answer engines pose an existential question for media companies: deals with AI platforms threaten to turn them into pure content suppliers in the long term.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 6, 2024

OpenAI considers removing clause blocking Microsoft's access to its most advanced AI models

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella standing next to each other, smiling into the camera.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 6, 2024

Media personalities stumble as ChatGPT invents presidential pardon history

A poo emoticon in the style of a robot.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 5, 2024

Elon Musk's xAI massively expands the world's largest AI supercomputer

The logos of Grok and xAI next to each other.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 4, 2024

OpenAI launches "12 Days of OpenAI": livestream series promises big news

Jonathan Kemper

Dec 2, 2024

Why Europe doesn't have a trillion-dollar company, according to Meta's head of AI

Meta's AI chief sees nothing special about ChatGPT.

Maximilian Schreiner

Dec 2, 2024

US cuts off China's access to chip manufacturing equipment in bid to limit AI capabilities

An editorial-style, hand-drawn modern illustration depicting a capable artificial intelligence computer chip built in CHINA. The illustration is sophisticated and thought-provoking, with a capable artificial intelligence computer chip depicted realistically, yet subtly altered to suggest artificiality. The background is elegant and minimalist, focusing the viewer's attention on the a capable artificial intelligence computer chip. The style is sophisticated and professional, suitable for an editorial context

Matthias Bastian

Nov 24, 2024

Judge allows The Intercept's main DMCA complaint against OpenAI to proceed

OpenAI has entered into a long-term global partnership with News Corp, giving the AI company access to current and archived content from News Corp's news sources to improve its products and answer user questions. A leaked pitch deck for OpenAI's "Preferred Publisher Program" shows that the startup decides what constitutes quality journalism. The criteria for selecting publishers are not transparent. If OpenAI succeeds with its content economy based on assistants, chatbots, or products like SearchGPT, select media would be favored, while smaller, independent publishers would lose out. Politicians are missing out on this development, potentially giving OpenAI a lot of power over the future media system.