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Maximilian 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.
Read full article about: Apple turns to Google's Gemini as Siri's technical debt becomes too much to handle

Apple will use Google's Gemini models for its AI features, including a revamped version of Siri. The multi-year partnership means Apple will rely on Google's Gemini and cloud technology for its upcoming products, according to CNBC. The new features are expected to roll out later this year.

In a statement, Apple said that after careful evaluation, Google's technology offers the most capable foundation for its applications. Rumors about talks between the two tech giants first surfaced in March of last year. Later reports suggested the switch would cost Apple more than one billion dollars annually.

The move comes as Apple continues to struggle with Siri's underlying architecture. Internal reports describe Siri as a technically fragmented system built from old rule-based components and newer generative models - a combination that makes updates difficult and leads to frequent errors. Apple is also working on an entirely new in-house LLM architecture and a model with roughly one trillion parameters, aiming to eventually break free from external providers. Google faced similar challenges early on keeping pace with OpenAI's rapid progress but managed to catch up.

Comment Source: CNBC
Read full article about: UK regulator investigates X over Grok AI's role in generating sexualized deepfakes

British media regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation into X over the AI chatbot Grok. The probe follows reports in recent weeks that Elon Musk's chatbot and social media platform were increasingly being used to create and share non-consensual intimate images and even sexualized images of children.

Ofcom is now examining whether X violated the UK's Online Safety Act. The regulator contacted X on January 5, 2025, demanding a response by January 9. The investigation aims to determine whether X took adequate steps to protect British users from illegal content. Violations could result in fines of up to 18 million pounds or 10 percent of global revenue. In severe cases, a court could even order X blocked in the UK.

Ofcom is also looking into whether xAI, the AI company behind Grok, broke any regulations. Last week, the EU Commission ordered X to preserve all internal documents and data related to the Grok AI chatbot through the end of 2026.

New Deepseek technique balances signal flow and learning capacity in large AI models

DeepSeek researchers have developed a technique that makes training large language models more stable. The approach uses mathematical constraints to solve a well-known problem with expanded network architectures.

Read full article about: Global AI compute hits 15 million H100 equivalents, Epoch AI finds

Epoch AI has released a comprehensive database of AI chip sales showing that global computing capacity now exceeds 15 million H100 equivalents. This metric compares the performance of various chips to Nvidia's H100 processor. The data, published on January 8, 2026, reveals that Nvidia's new B300 chip now generates the majority of the company's AI revenue, while the older H100 has dropped below ten percent. The analysis covers chips from Nvidia, Google, Amazon, AMD, and Huawei.

Epoch AI estimates this hardware collectively requires over 10 gigawatts of power - roughly twice what New York City consumes. The figures are based on financial reports and analyst estimates, since exact sales numbers are often not disclosed directly. The dataset is freely available and aims to bring transparency to computing capacity and energy consumption.

Read full article about: Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI heads to trial

Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman is going to trial. A California federal judge announced Wednesday that she intends to reject attempts by Altman's lawyers to dismiss the case. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said during the hearing in Oakland that there is ample evidence to proceed.

Musk accuses OpenAI of deceiving him about its shift from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure. He says he donated $38 million to the company. The trial is scheduled for March. OpenAI denies the allegations, calling the lawsuit baseless and part of ongoing harassment by Musk.

The company claims Musk was informed about its profit plans back in 2018. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left the company in 2018.