💰 OpenAI in talks to raise funds at $150B valuation

• OpenAI is negotiating to raise $6.5 billion from investors at a valuation of $150 billion.
• Banks are also considering issuing $5 billion in debt to the startup.
• This new valuation is significantly higher than the previous valuation of $86 billion from earlier this year.

🎥 Adobe Previews Its Upcoming Firefly Video Model

• Adobe Firefly, launched in March 2023, has rapidly added generative features to Creative Cloud tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator, generating over 12 billion images and vectors and gaining quick adoption within the creative community.
• The upcoming Adobe Firefly Video Model, set to be released in beta later this year, will assist video editors in tasks such as ideation, gap-filling in timelines, and enhancing footage, all while ensuring content safety and copyright compliance.
• New features like Text-to-Video and Generative Extend will empower editors to create seamless B-Roll and extend clips for smoother transitions, ultimately enhancing creative workflows and collaboration within video production.

🤖 Mistral releases Pixtral 12B, its first multimodal model

• French AI startup Mistral has released Pixtral 12B, a 12-billion-parameter model capable of processing both images and text, enabling tasks like image captioning and object counting.
• Pixtral 12B is available for download on GitHub and Hugging Face, using an Apache 2.0 license that allows unrestricted use, fine-tuning, and modification.
• Mistral recently completed a $645 million funding round, valuing the company at $6 billion, and is considered a key player in the European AI landscape, positioning itself as an alternative to OpenAI.

🚗 Elon Musk says Tesla has ‘no need' to license xAI models

• Elon Musk denied reports that Tesla is considering a revenue-sharing agreement with xAI to utilize its AI models for Tesla's Full Self-Driving software and other features.
• Musk stated that Tesla has benefited from discussions with xAI engineers but does not need to license any technology from xAI, as its AI models are too large for Tesla's vehicle systems.
• The situation has raised concerns among Tesla shareholders, who have sued Musk for potentially diverting resources from Tesla to xAI, which they view as a competitor.

⚖️ Court clears researchers of defamation for identifying manipulated data

• A court ruled that evidence-supported conclusions regarding research misconduct cannot constitute defamation, which is beneficial for the scientific community.
• Harvard Business School will face trial over its internal investigation process related to allegations against former faculty member Francesca Gino, who is accused of research misconduct.
• The court dismissed most claims in Gino's lawsuit against Harvard and the Data Colada researchers, emphasizing that scientific controversies should be resolved through scientific methods rather than litigation.

🌊 Proposed underwater data center surprises regulators who hadn't heard about it

• Entrepreneurs Sam Mendel and Eric Kim are launching NetworkOcean, proposing underwater data centers to reduce energy consumption and cool servers using seawater, with plans to test a capsule in San Francisco Bay.
• The company has not obtained necessary permits, prompting warnings from California regulatory agencies about potential violations of environmental laws, raising concerns over their impact on local wildlife and the ecosystem.
• Critics argue that innovative projects like this must balance climate goals with existing regulations, as previous underwater data tests by companies like Microsoft have faced scrutiny for operating without proper oversight.