The Vibes are off
Yesterday Meta launched Vibes, an AI video feed where users can create and share short-form AI-generated videos - an entirely AI-powered TikTok.
What’s new:
Meta is doubling down on AI-generated content creation with Vibes, allowing users to make videos from scratch, remix existing content, or add music and visuals - all directly shareable to Instagram and Facebook.
The launch follows Meta’s June reorganization into “Superintelligence Labs” after facing setbacks with its open-source Llama 4 model and key staff departures - making Vibes a crucial test case for their AI monetization strategy.
But with politicians (and the public at large) increasingly blaming social media for the rising civil unrest and increasingly wary of AI in any and all forms, it’s unclear whether this new app will achieve the critical mass needed for a new social platform.
Elsewhere in the FAANG free-for-all:
Meta is considering using Google’s Gemini and Gemma AI models to improve its ad targeting capabilities.
Google launched its Search Live feature in the US, allowing users to ask questions in AI Mode while sharing their phone’s camera feed for real-time help.
Google introduced Mixboard, an AI-powered tool for creating mood boards, now available in public beta in the US.
Meta launched an AI assistant for Facebook Dating in the US and Canada to reduce “swipe fatigue” by helping users find matches through natural language prompts.
And Google Cloud now works with nine of the 10 leading AI labs, including OpenAI, and with 60% of the world’s generative AI startups, fueling its growth.
Elsewhere in foundation labs:
Google updates Gemini 2.5 Flash with better response formatting and image understanding, plus releases new 2.5 Flash and 2.5 Flash-Lite previews for developers.
Google DeepMind unveils Gemini Robotics 1.5 and Robotics-ER 1.5 models, enabling multi-step tasks for robots like sorting laundry and using web search.
Alibaba releases the Qwen3-VL vision models, Qwen3Guard safety moderation models, and three closed-weight models including Qwen3-Max with 1T+ parameters.
Alibaba releases Qwen3-Omni, a family of open-source AI models that can process text, audio, image, and video inputs and generate both text and speech outputs.
And privacy startup Duality says it has developed a private LLM inference framework that uses fully homomorphic encryption to let LLMs answer encrypted prompts.
Nvidia’s giant GPU gamble
Nvidia and OpenAI announced a massive strategic partnership to deploy 10 gigawatts of AI infrastructure, with Nvidia planning to invest up to an unprecedented $100 billion as the systems come online starting in late 2026.
The big picture:
This represents one of the largest AI infrastructure investments ever announced, with 10 gigawatts capable of powering an estimated 4-5 million GPUs - equivalent to Nvidia’s entire annual production and double last year’s output.
This is, if anything, still small in comparison to Sam Altman’s ambitions - he’s envisioned building a “factory” that can produce a gigawatt of new AI infrastructure every week to meet exploding compute demands.
But there’s concerns about the circular nature of the deal: Nvidia provides the investment to OpenAI, which hands it right back to Nvidia to buy more chips - though that didn’t stop Nvidia’s stock jumping 4% and adding $170 billion in market cap on the news.
Ultimately, the partnership could cement both companies’ market dominance, as OpenAI gets guaranteed access to scarce high-end chips while Nvidia locks in its biggest customer, potentially stifling competition from rivals like AMD or custom chip efforts.
Elsewhere in OpenAI:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Pulse, a mobile feature that delivers daily personalized updates based on chats, feedback, and connected apps.
OpenAI releases GDPval, a benchmark to test AI performance on “economically valuable, real-world tasks” - and says Claude Opus 4.1 was the best performing model.
OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo has been meeting with potential candidates for a role overseeing monetization efforts, including ads in ChatGPT.
The company launched OpenAI for Germany (in partnership with SAP) and ChatGPT Go in Indonesia for ~$4.50 per month.
And OpenAI has reportedly considered building glasses, a digital voice recorder, and a pin, and has signed a deal with Luxshare as it continues to recruit from Apple’s hardware, design, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
Elsewhere in AI data centers:
OpenAI plans to spend approximately $100B on backup servers rented from cloud providers through 2030, in addition to the $350B already projected for server rentals.
OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced five new data center locations in the US, boosting Stargate’s planned capacity to nearly 7 GW.
Microsoft says it will bring a $3.3B data center in Wisconsin online in early 2026 and calls it “the world’s most powerful AI datacenter.”
A look at the data center cluster in the Chinese city of Wuhu, where 15 companies, including Huawei, have built data centers with a total investment of $37B.
Oracle is discussing providing Meta computing power for training and deploying AI models, in a deal worth about $20B - as Meta requests authorization “to sell energy, capacity, and certain ancillary services.”
And some companies are turning to fossil fuels to power their data centers as countries around the world scramble to meet rising energy demands amid the AI boom.
Neon goes dark
A viral app called Neon (that pays users to record their phone calls and sells the data to AI companies) briefly hit #2 in Apple’s App Store before going offline - due to a major security flaw that exposed all users’ phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts.
Between the lines:
Neon’s website says the company pays 30¢ per minute when you call other Neon users and up to $30 per day maximum for making calls to anyone else - a seemingly small price to pay for full access to your conversations.
Yet users granted Neon sweeping, irrevocable rights to audio recordings that go far beyond its stated privacy protections, creating potential for voice cloning, fraud, and other misuse by undisclosed AI partners.
Ultimately, Neon’s success may signal a concerning AI data gold rush, with perverse incentives for companies to harvest increasingly personal data while cutting corners on user protection, and app stores struggling to catch these privacy risks before they reach millions of users.
Elsewhere in AI anxiety:
AI models underperform in hospital settings and face legal hurdles, showing why AI isn’t replacing radiologists whose job involves much more than image recognition.
A US federal judge preliminarily approved Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement with authors.
Research suggests low productivity gains from AI may stem from employees using AI to produce “workslop” - low-effort, passable work that creates more burdens for others.
The RIAA amended its lawsuit against Suno, now accusing it of unlawfully “stream ripping” songs on YouTube and violating the DMCA.
Tests show OpenAI’s Sora can closely mimic Netflix shows, movies, TikTok videos, and Twitch streams, suggesting it was trained on versions of such content.
xAI sued OpenAI in California for allegedly stealing trade secrets by means of hiring away key employees.
And Google DeepMind updated its Frontier Safety Framework to account for new risks, including the potential for models to resist shutdown or human modification.
Things happen
UK AI tool recovered £480M from fraud in 12 months. Google launches Data Commons MCP Server. Scale AI launches SEAL Showdown, a crowdsourced AI benchmarking system. UK startup Mantic becomes first AI to crack the top 10 in geopolitical forecasting. A profile of AI skeptic Ed Zitron. Zuckerberg and Altman seek to get closer to Trump after Musk fallout. Microsoft terminated Israeli access to Azure over surveillance concerns. Spotify updates its AI policy with music labeling and spam filters. Alibaba shares hit four-year high after announcing increased AI spending. Over 200 figures call for AI red lines by 2026. Huawei’s DeepSeek model is nearly 100% successful at political censoring. China curbs monks’ AI preaching following scandals. Meta launches super PAC to fight state AI bills. GSA approves Llama for US government use. xAI offers Grok to feds for $0.42 per agency. Fans flood Twin Peaks Reddit with AI slop to protest policies. YouTube channel uploads AI videos of women being shot. Microsoft explores AI content marketplace to compensate publishers. AI was supposed to help juniors but makes seniors stronger. The humans increasingly hired to clean AI slop. Google’s DORA report on AI-assisted development. Peter Thiel: Regulating AI hastens the Antichrist. ChatGPT is blowing up marriages as spouses weaponize AI.
