This Month
ChatGPT: Gen Z’s lifestyle subsidy, or its biggest rival?
Uni students are getting free trials of AI services and using them heavily, but then discover AI is taking away their opportunities once they have graduated.
VC giants jostle for $15b AI start-up
A stake in Thinking Machines Lab – valued at more than $15 billion – is in high demand. At least two local firms have secured one.
Soon you can hand your credit card to AI. What could go wrong?
Visa is opening up its platform to artificial intelligence, allowing them to build bots authored to pay for everything from concert tickets to groceries.
April
Australia can harness natural advantages to catch up in global AI race
Lack of investment and public distrust of the technology have left the country behind much of the world, but it doesn’t have to be like that.
Alibaba plans to release flagship AI model as soon as April
The Hangzhou-based company new offering comes as competition from rivals, including OpenAI and DeepSeek, heats up.
OpenAI finalises biggest ever tech funding round at $US300b valuation
The ChatGPT maker has closed the largest private funding round in history, at $US40 billion, led by Japanese investor SoftBank.
March
You don’t need a family office to buy shares in unicorns
For as little as $8000, investors can buy stock in unlisted tech superstars like Airwallex on a market that, at first glance, looks and feels a lot like a public market. Is Canva next?
The hottest new C-suite position is head of AI
Boards and leadership teams are scrambling to hire someone who speaks the language of artificial intelligence.
Musk’s xAI joins Microsoft-BlackRock $47b AI fund
The Microsoft-backed group will be renamed the AI Infrastructure Partnership, or AIP, and focus on infrastructure investments.
A new type of AI is coming that will generate trillions (and remake the world)
Every week, I meet engineers and entrepreneurs working on AI who tell me that change – the kind of transformation we’ve never seen before – is just around the corner.
Be afraid: Google’s new AI assistant will remember your search history
The tech giant has unveiled updated artificial intelligence tools, including a feature that learns from your web browsing, while OpenAI says the US will lose to China if it can’t use copyrighted work.
Google’s new AI search could change the way you use the internet
The tech giant has unveiled a new search mode that could stop users clicking through to websites as it works to counter the growing popularity of its AI rivals.
AI start-up Anthropic worth $US61.5b after mega funding round
OpenAI rival Anthropic, the maker of Claude, has closed a deal that cements its place as one of the largest start-ups in the world.
February
‘Astonishingly good advice:’ Altman rates new ChatGPT
OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman says chatting with its new GPT-4.5 model feels like having a conversation with a thoughtful person.
The ‘insane’ question Nvidia must answer in earnings spotlight
One month after Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek wiped $US600 billion off Nvidia’s valuation, Jensen Huang needs to prove the show is still on the road.
Australian developers trialling DeepSeek say it’s 5 times cheaper
Testers say the Chinese AI platform is on par with OpenAI and Anthropic and offers an “amazing level of performance”, but is far cheaper to run.
OpenAI board rejects Musk’s $153b bid to control company
OpenAI’s chairman said the board had “unanimously” rejected Elon Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition.
Musk will pull OpenAI bid if it remains a non-profit, lawyers say
If OpenAI’s board “is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission”, then Elon Musk will withdraw his hostile bid for control of the ChatGPT maker.
Sam Altman calls Musk ‘insecure’ as AI race gets personal
The OpenAI chief accused the billionaire of playing games over his offer for control of the start-up. “I wish he would just compete by building a better product”.
Musk probably won’t take over OpenAI, but investors should still worry
Elon Musk’s attempts to buy OpenAI is the latest in a flood of potentially market-shaking events, which make the fortunes of the world’s biggest companies anyone’s guess.