This Is What It Looks Like When AI Eats the World
T that AI will eat the world—a to a famous line about software from the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. In the past few weeks, we’ve finally gotten a sense of what they mean. This spring, tech companies have made clear that AI will be a defining feature of online life, whether people want it to be or not. First, Meta surprised users with an AI chatbot that on Instagram and Facebook. It has since European users that their data are being used to train its AI—presumably sent only to comply with the continent’s privacy laws. OpenAI released GPT-4o, billed as a new, more powerful and conversational version of its large language model. (Its announcement event featured an AI voice named Sky that Scarlett Johansson was based on her own voice without her permission, an allegation OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has denied. You can listen for yourself .) Around the same time, Google launched—and then somewhat —“AI Overviews” in its search engine. OpenAI also entered into new content partnerships with numerous media organizations () and platforms such as Reddit, which seem to be operating on the’s deal with OpenAI is a corporate partnership. The editorial division of operates with complete independence from the business division.) Nvidia, a company that makes microchips used to power AI applications, reported record at the end of May and subsequently saw its market capitalization increase to more than $3 trillion. Summing up the moment, , Nvidia’s centibillionaire CEO, got the rock-star treatment at an AI conference in Taipei this week and, uh, signed a woman’s like a member of Mötley Crüe.
