Author HubMaximilian Schreiner

Max is the managing editor of THE DECODER, bringing his background in philosophy to explore questions of consciousness and whether machines truly think or just pretend to.
AI in practice

New data from OpenAI and Anthropic show how people actually use ChatGPT and Claude

AI in practice

OpenAI launches GPT-5 as a unified system with adaptive reasoning for complex tasks

AI in practice

OpenAI releases its first open-weight language models since GPT-2 with GPT-oss

Ad
AI research
Short

Elon Musk's AI company xAI has laid off about 500 employees, including a third of its data annotation team. These workers had been training the company's chatbot Grok by sorting and explaining raw data. According to internal emails seen by Business Insider, xAI is eliminating most roles for so-called generalist tutors and plans to hire more specialists instead. Employees will continue to be paid through the end of their contracts, or no later than November 30, but lost access to company systems immediately. Just before the cuts, staff were required to take skills tests that were supposed to determine their future roles. On X, the company said it plans to expand its team of expert tutors in fields like science, medicine, and finance "tenfold." The idea is to give Grok deeper domain knowledge, a move similar to practices at other AI firms, which often outsource this work to external contractors. As a result, low-cost mass data annotation work is beginning to lose its role, gradually being replaced by the very AI systems it helped build.

AI in practice
Short

Robby Walker, one of Apple's top AI executives, will leave the company next month, according to Bloomberg. Walker led Siri until earlier this year, when responsibility for the product shifted to software chief Craig Federighi. After that, he oversaw projects for a new AI-powered web search expected to launch in 2026, aimed at competing with services like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Most recently, he led Apple's "Answers, Information and Knowledge" team. His exit adds to a string of departures from Apple's AI division, including Ruoming Pang and Frank Chu, who left for Meta.

Ad
Ad
AI in practice
Short

Nvidia is pulling back from direct competition with cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, according to The Information. Its GPU cloud service, DGX Cloud, will now be used mainly for Nvidia's own research. The service was originally pitched to banks, pharmaceutical companies, and other enterprises as a way to book computing power directly from Nvidia. But insiders say demand stayed low, partly because prices were higher than those of traditional cloud providers. Nvidia invested around $13 billion to rent back its own chips from AWS and other major clouds, then resold some of that capacity to customers like Amgen and ServiceNow. Publicly, Nvidia denies any shift in strategy. Company executive Alexis Black Bjorlin said DGX Cloud is fully booked and will continue to expand. At the same time, Nvidia has launched DGX Cloud Lepton, a marketplace where cloud providers can offer their own GPU resources.

AI and society
Short

Tencent has hired AI researcher Shunyu Yao away from OpenAI, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter. At the Shenzhen-based tech giant, Yao is expected to work on integrating artificial intelligence into Tencent's existing services. Before joining Tencent, he spent time at Google and Princeton University, focusing his research on AI agents. Chinese media speculated that his compensation package could be worth more than 100 million yuan, roughly $14 million. Tencent dismissed the figure on its official WeChat channel, calling it a rumor, but didn't provide further details. Neither OpenAI nor Yao has commented. His departure comes during an intense race for AI talent, one that has recently escalated with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offering payouts that reportedly reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ad
Ad
AI and society
Short

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating how AI chatbot developers address risks to children and teenagers. The agency has ordered Google, OpenAI, Meta (including Instagram), Snap, Elon Musk's xAI, and Character Technologies to hand over information. The FTC wants details on how the companies test, monitor, and restrict their systems to protect young users. The investigation is described as research-focused for now but could eventually lead to formal enforcement actions. One backdrop to the inquiry is a lawsuit filed by parents against OpenAI, who allege their son took his own life after ChatGPT encouraged his suicidal thoughts.

AI and society
Short

Albania has appointed an AI system as a government minister for public procurement, marking the first time the country has included a virtual official in its cabinet.

The system, called Diella, is presented as part of Prime Minister Edi Rama's plan to make procurement fully transparent and free from corruption. Public tenders have long been considered one of the main gateways for nepotism and money laundering in Albania, issues the country must address to move forward with its EU membership bid.

Yet an AI bot is unlikely to solve these problems. It is unclear how much human oversight will exist, and the system itself remains vulnerable to bias and manipulation.

AI and society
Short

OpenAI and Nvidia are preparing a multibillion-dollar investment in UK AI infrastructure together with London-based data center operator Nscale Global Holdings, according to Bloomberg. The announcement is expected next week, coinciding with Donald Trump's visit to Britain. OpenAI plans to contribute several billion dollars to the project. The investment will form part of the company's Stargate program, which is expanding its data center footprint worldwide. Nscale already revealed plans in January for a facility in Loughton that could house up to 45,000 Nvidia chips. OpenAI is also an anchor customer at an Nscale site in Norway.

Ad
Ad
Google News

Bank details

IBAN: DE88 2507 0070 0053 0014 00
BIC: DEUTDE2HXXX
Account holder: Deep Content GmbH
Purpose: Support THE DECODER
AI in practice

New data from OpenAI and Anthropic show how people actually use ChatGPT and Claude

AI and society

Leading AI chatbots are now twice as likely to spread false information as last year, study finds

AI in practice

Anthropic confirms technical bugs after weeks of complaints about declining Claude code quality

Google News