Generative AI News Rundown - Pi-crosoft, Unusual Inflection, Google + Apple, GPT-5, Anthropic, Grok-1, and Much More

We begin with an in-depth discussion of Microsoft’s not-quite acquisition of Inflection AI and the billion-dollar startup’s recent large language model (LLM), which appears to approach GPT-4-level performance. We carry on with the LLM roundup with a review of Grok-1’s open-source debut, Apple’s discussions with Google about using Gemini for the iPhone, GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 rumors, Perplexity’s rumored unicorn status, Together AI’s funding round and more. Of course, we also hit on NVIDIA’s Blackwell announcement and the rise of GR00T. Figure 01 may have raised over $600 million for its humanoid robot startup, but NVIDIA’s announcement was more impactful. Now that NVIDIA and Tesla both have active humanoid robot programs, you have two companies that know how to scale manufacturing in the segment. While I don’t expect this industry to hit acceleration anytime soon, NVIDIA and Tesla will help push the innovation envelope faster and bring plans for mass production. Generative AI News Top Stories of the Week 🔦 How OpenAI's Former Board Inadvertently Created a New Competitor Inside its Patron Inflection Reveals a New Model Rivaling GPT-4, Pi Daily Users, and Different Assistant Strategy X.ai's Grok-1 Model is Officially Open-Source and Larger Than Expected Anthropic Says it Just Dethroned GPT-4 from Atop the Frontier Generative AI Model Rankings GPT-4.5 Turbo Details Leak Through Search Engines Ahead of Rumored OpenAI Announcement OpenAI Gears Up for Mid-Year Launch of GPT-5: Report How Apple's Discussions with Google and OpenAI Could Impact Generative AI Generative AI Product Garden 🪴 Nvidia Unveils Powerful Generative AI Blackwell Chip and Platform Character AI’s Generative AI Chatbots Learn to Speak Aloud Midjourney Upgrades Synthetic Image Engine With Consistent Character Generation Pika Augments Generative AI Video Platform With Synthetic Sound Effects Google Infuses Fitbit with New Personal Health Generative AI Model Based on Gemini France Fines Google for $272 Million Over Generative AI Training Practices ChatGPT Can ‘Read Aloud’ Responses in 5 Voices and 37 Languages OpenAI's Sora Text-to-Video Demonstrations are Insanely Good Generative AI Funding Fountain and Money Gusher 💰⛲️ Why Perplexity is Already a Unicorn Together AI Raises $106M to Expand Open Source Generative AI Platform ChatGPT Speaks Through Figure 01 Robot Following $675M Funding Apple Acquires DarwinAI Ahead of 2024 Generative AI Plans Generative AI in the World 🌎 OpenAI Adds News Partnerships in French and Spanish Through Le Monde and Prisa