OpenAI offers feds a stake, Anthropic gets out of AI model jail and Meta wants to be a neocloud
OpenAI reportedly has floated giving the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, perhaps the start of a series of such stakes in other AI companies as well.
This no doubt has traditional anti-industrial-policy Republicans, all apparently dead now, spinning in their graves, because it’s a dumb idea for all sorts of reasons — and likely won’t happen anyway. So why is Sam Altman (pictured) offering it? Some call it a bribe to the Trump administration for favorable treatment, but if that’s a harsh way to put it, this is the same administration that’s regulating it. Yeesh.
Anthropic models got out of jail, sort of, as the Trump administration lifted controls on two of its most powerful AI models — but with some potentially onerous restrictions. Meantime, while the U.S. futzes around with unclear, ever-changing rules, Chinese models keep getting better, with fewer guardrails.
Is Meta Platforms finally going to offer cloud services? Yes, at least until it comes up with AI models that are capable and popular enough to need that compute for itself. Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang told staff this week that it’s catching up, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicates things are going more slowly than expected, especially agents, the hottest thing in AI right now. Indeed, it seems that everyone wants to be a neocloud: Softbank also said this week that it plans to offer AI cloud services starting next year.
