Happy holidays from Artificial Ignorance! We’re closing out the year on a nice round number: 150 roundups.
I’m hoping to do one last post this year, if time allows - a look back at the biggest stories of 2025. But if not: I’m very grateful to all of you reading, and looking forward to what’s to come in 2026!
Empire State Defiance
Last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the RAISE Act, which requires companies with over $500 million in revenue that develop large AI systems to publish safety protocols, report critical incidents within 72 hours, and face penalties up to $3 million for violations.
Why it matters:
The law goes further than California’s SB 53, establishing a dedicated enforcement office within the state’s Department of Financial Services. The bill’s sponsor calls it “the strongest AI safety law in the US.”
The timing is particularly significant - coming just a week after Trump’s executive order attempting to override state AI laws, the law is both a regulatory achievement and a direct challenge to federal preemption efforts.
Even though the law won’t take effect until January 2027, it may orce AI companies to comply with the strictest standards to operate nationwide - giving New York and California outsized influence over the industry’s future despite Trump administration opposition and the absence of federal rules.
Elsewhere in AI geopolitics:
China’s AI regulations require chatbots to pass a 2,000-question ideological test, spawning specialized agencies that help AI companies pass.
Italy’s antitrust authority orders Meta to suspend WhatsApp terms that bar rival AI chatbots from the platform.
The Pentagon partners with xAI to embed Grok-based AI systems directly into GenAI.mil as soon as early 2026.
And tech lobbyists say David Sacks’ push for an executive order blocking state AI laws undercut their efforts to craft a permanent federal solution.
Groq Talk
Nvidia has struck a “licensing” deal with AI chip startup Groq for $20 billion, acquiring rights to use the company’s low-latency chip designs while bringing aboard Groq’s CEO and other executives.
Between the lines:
This deal represents something of a strategic pivot for Nvidia - rather than competing head-on with every AI chip competitor, the company is selectively absorbing promising technologies to maintain dominance across different market segments.
Groq’s specialty in ultra-responsive, low-latency chips fills a specific gap in Nvidia’s portfolio, particularly for inference workloads where speed of response matters more than raw training power - a growing market as AI models move from development to deployment.
This transaction follows a pattern of “acqui-hiring plus licensing“ deals (similar to the Meta-Scale, Google-Character, and Microsoft-Inflection arrangements) that allow big tech to sidestep regulatory scrutiny while still absorbing critical talent.
Elsewhere in AI infrastructure:
US data centers and the Pentagon face growing national security concerns over their increasing reliance on Chinese batteries.
US companies sold $1.7T of investment-grade bonds in 2025, nearing the 2020 record, with AI infrastructure borrowing making up approximately 30% according to Goldman Sachs.
ByteDance has made preliminary plans to spend approximately $23B in AI capex in 2026, up from ~$20B in 2025, with ~$12B budgeted for AI processors.
Nvidia plans to begin shipping its H200 chips to China before mid-February 2026 with initial shipments expected to be 40,000 to 80,000 units.
And the global AI boom is being driven by thousands of newcomers diluting Big Tech’s infrastructure dominance, with US data center credit deals hitting $178.5B in 2025.
Alexa, Play Defense
Amazon faces a strategic crossroads as AI shopping agents threaten to disintermediate its customer relationships, forcing the e-commerce giant to choose between blocking these bots or embracing them.
The big picture:
AI agents promise to revolutionize e-commerce by autonomously searching and purchasing products across the web, potentially generating $1 trillion in US retail revenue by 2030. But this shift threatens Amazon’s margins, as ChatGPT et al would likely require a transaction fee.
Amazon is currently playing defense - blocking 47 AI bots from crawling its site, suing Perplexity for unauthorized scraping, and developing its own tools like Rufus and Buy For Me. Meanwhile, competitors like Walmart and Shopify are adopting a “frenemy” strategy, partnering with AI companies while setting guardrails.
Despite the hype, agentic commerce remains nascent with significant technical limitations - only single-item purchases, no loyalty program integration, and frequent glitches - giving Amazon a narrow window to shape the market before these tools mature and consumer behavior shifts permanently away from direct retailer websites.
Elsewhere in the FAANG free-for-all:
Google DeepMind VP of Research Pushmeet Kohli discusses AlphaFold 2 five years after its launch, covering topics like hallucinations and building an “AI co-scientist”.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google pledged a combined $67.5B in Indian investments since October as part of an AI spending frenzy in India, with 80% announced in December.
Alphabet agrees to acquire data center company Intersect for $4.75B in cash plus existing debt to expand its AI data center footprint.
Google’s TPUs and Gemini are competitive, but Nvidia’s and OpenAI’s first-mover advantage makes their lead seem durable as Google faces the innovator’s dilemma.
And Josh Woodward, head of Google Labs, is credited with turning around the Gemini app, growing its MAUs from 350M in March to 650M by October.
Elsewhere in AI anxiety:
Cursor CEO Michael Truell warns that “vibe coding” advanced projects may create “shaky foundations” that eventually crumble.
Some US schools are deploying AI surveillance tech like facial recognition and listening devices, though critics say there is little evidence they make schools safer.
Google’s Nano Banana Pro and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Images can make nonconsensual bikini deepfakes from photos of fully clothed women, prompting Reddit to ban r/ChatGPTJailbreak.
OpenAI details efforts to secure its ChatGPT Atlas browser against prompt injection attacks, including building an “LLM-based automated attacker.”
And some experts in human-computer interaction say making AI chatbots act humanlike creates cognitive dissonance for users over how much to trust them.
Things happen
Karpathy’s 2025 LLM year in review. OpenAI rolls out Your Year with ChatGPT, a Spotify Wrapped-like feature. AI can work across scales like steel and the steam engine before it. MiniMax releases M2.1 with enhanced coding capabilities. The NeurIPS transfromation from small academic conference to massive industry event with 24,000+ attendees. Cursor-developer Anysphere acquires Graphite. The AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025. Chinese AI startup Z.ai releases GLM-4.7 with improved coding performance. Browser extensions with 8M+ installs collected and sold users’ AI chatbot conversations. OpenAI staff discussed prioritizing sponsored content in ChatGPT responses. Local AI is driving the biggest change in laptops in decades. Measuring AI ability to complete long tasks. OpenAI introduces a framework to evaluate chain-of-thought monitorability. Salesforce regrets firing 4000 staff and replacing them with AI.
The word "regulatory achievement" is an oxymoron. A genuinely compelling steel man for state-led AI regulation can’t be built because the technology’s nature contradicts the conditions that make local governance effective.
Geopolitics is always interesting. I'm so curious how every country adapts to AI, or regulates it, or just lets it go crazy and progress as fast as possible. It's very interesting. Thank you for the roundup!