SB Energy will also become a customer of OpenAI, using its APIs and deploying ChatGPT for employees [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer (CTO) at OpenAI, launched a new artificial intelligence startup on Tuesday, with about 30 top researchers and engineers from competitors, including Meta, Mistral and her last company. Her venture, Thinking Machines Lab, aims to build AI systems that incorporate human values and expand their application beyond current models.

Ms Murati joins a growing list of ex-OpenAI executives who have launched their own AI ventures, including those behind Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. She has been raising funds from venture capitalists to support the new venture, Reuters reported in October.

Around two-thirds of Thinking Machines Lab’s team consists of former OpenAI employees, Reuters reported. Among them is Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher who left OpenAI on the same day as Ms Murati in late September and will now serve as the startup’s Chief Technology Officer.

Another big name is OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, who joins as Chief Scientist. Mr Schulman left OpenAI for rival Anthropic in August, citing his focus on “AI alignment” – a core priority for Ms Murati’s startup, which seeks to make AI systems safer and more reliable.

Thinking Machines Lab positions itself as an AI research and product company dedicated to making AI more understandable, customisable, and widely applicable. It aims to bridge gaps in AI knowledge and usability by developing systems that collaborate with humans and adapt to various industries. The company prioritises open research, sharing its work through papers, blogs, and open-source projects, the website said.

“While current systems excel at programming and mathematics, we’re building AI that can adapt to the full spectrum of human expertise and enable a broader range of applications,” the company said. Thinking Machines Lab also plans to share code, datasets, and model specifications to encourage external research on AI alignment.

Mira Murati, a key public face of OpenAI alongside CEO Sam Altman, resigned abruptly amid governance changes at the company. Before OpenAI, she worked at Tesla and augmented reality startup Leap Motion. She played a major role in developing ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Codex.

OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji died by suicide, San Francisco Police have confirmed citing an autopsy report. Following weeks of investigation and repeated inquiries, officials have confirmed their initial findings, concluding that there is no evidence of homicide, as per a Fortune report.

When the 26-year-old Indian-American was found dead under suspicious circumstances last month, it caused a stir among the public, with Mr Balaji’s parents frequently alleging he was murdered.

In a 13-page report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and a four-page joint response to the lawsuit, the San Francisco Police and medical examiners announced on Friday that the investigation into Balaji’s death was officially closed.

They confirmed their initial conclusion that he died by suicide.

“The OCME found no evidence or information to establish a cause and manner of death for Mr Balaji other than a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” read the medical examiner’s report. “SFPD conducted an independent investigation and based on the information SFPD reviewed, there is insufficient evidence to find Mr. Balaji’s death was the result of a homicide.”

However, Mr Balaji’s parents accused the police of lapses in the autopsy and pointed to their failure to acquire CCTV footage from the building where he lived. They added there was no suicide note.

Poornima Rao, Suchir Balaji’s mother, said that SFPD wrote inaccurate information in Autopsy and Police reports. “They have never retrieved CCTV footage from leasing office. We need report from police. We are only requesting transparent investigation,” she wrote on X.

SFPD writes inaccurate information in
Autopsy and Police report . They have never retrieved CCTV footage from leasing office . We need report from police.
We are only requesting transparent investigation.@elonmusk @kash_patel @MarioNawfal

— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) February 15, 2025

Suchir Balaji was found dead in his apartment on November 26. After working for four years at OpenAI, he left the company when he found that the company was training its chatbot on copyrighted material stolen from the internet.

Balaji died a day after being listed in a court filing as someone whose files OpenAI planned to check as part of a lawsuit filed by individuals who were questioning the company’s procedures. Several well-known writers have filed the complaint, including best-selling author John Grisham.

The public showdown between Elon Musk and OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman over Musk’s $97.4 billion bid for the artificial intelligence startup is heating up in court.

In a filing Wednesday, Altman said Musk’s all-cash offer undermines the very claim at the heart of his lawsuit against OpenAI – that its assets can’t be “transferred away” for “private gain.” The world’s richest person has sued Altman to thwart OpenAI’s plan to convert to a for-profit entity.

Musk fired back at Altman with his own filing, saying he would drop his bid for OpenAI altogether if the startup remained a charity.

The legal battle between the two billionaires over OpenAI’s structure began last year. They now await a ruling by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Musk’s request to halt OpenAI’s restructuring plans, while he pursues claims that the startup’s relationship with Microsoft Corp. violates antitrust law.

‘Improper Bid’

The unsolicited Feb. 10 offer by Musk and a coalition of deep-pocketed investors to acquire OpenAI shows that his request for a court order immediately blocking OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit business is “an improper bid to undermine a competitor,” according to Altman’s filing in federal court in Oakland, California.

Altman has spurned the buyout offer, saying OpenAI is “not for sale,” and called the overture by Musk, who owns rival startup xAI, an attempt to “slow us down.”

In response to Altman’s filing, Tesla’s CEO told the court he would drop his bid for OpenAI if the startup halts its restructuring. Altman rejected the proposal before OpenAI’s board had even seen it, Musk said. That is a breach of fiduciary duty, he argued.

If OpenAI’s board “is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” Musk’s lawyers said in their filing.

“Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets,” they said.

OpenAI has said shifting from a nonprofit charity to a commercial business is critical to securing the vast amount of funding the ChatGPT maker needs to fulfill its mission of creating artificial general intelligence, or AGI, to benefit humanity.

Skeptical Judge

Rogers signaled at a Feb. 4 hearing that she wasn’t convinced she needs to take immediate action against OpenAI. She said she was reluctant to issue such an order in a “billionaires versus billionaires” case and called Musk’s argument that he faces “irreparable harm” a “stretch.” 

The judge said she will probably let Musk take OpenAI to trial – and require him to testify – over at least some of his claims. Lawyers told her the earliest a trial could take place is in late 2026.

According to OpenAI’s filing, Musk’s move to take control of OpenAI contradicts his position in court that a transfer of the startup’s assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.

“Out of court, those constraints evidently do not apply, so long as Musk and his allies are the buyers,” OpenAI said. “Musk would have OpenAI, Inc. transfer all of its assets to him, for his economic benefit and that of his competing AI business and hand-picked private investors.”

The case is Musk v. Altman, 24-cv-04722, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday took a jab at Elon Musk, who reportedly offered to buy the artificial intelligence startup’s assets for USD 97.4 billion, accusing the Tesla CEO of acting from a “position of insecurity.”

“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity,” Altman said during an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Paris AI Summit. “I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s a happy person,” he added in comments cited by multiple US publications, including the New York Post and the Hill.

According to the New York Post, Altman reiterated that OpenAI is “not for sale” after Musk and a group of investors made an unsolicited offer. “The company is not for sale. It’s another one of his tactics to try to mess with us,” he said.

When asked what Musk wants out of the deal during the Bloomberg Television interview, OpenAI CEO said, “He’s probably just trying to slow us down.”

On Monday, The New York Times reported that a group of investors led by Musk made a USD 97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI’s assets. In response, Altman took a jibe at the offer on X, saying, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk responded by calling Altman a “swindler.”

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025

According to the New York Post, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said that Musk had secured backing from several prominent investors, including venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, and Vy Capital, as well as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.

In a statement, Musk said it was “time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” the publication reported.

The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the offer. Meanwhile, The New York Times, citing a source familiar with OpenAI’s response, reported that the company has not yet reviewed Musk’s bid.

This unsolicited offer could potentially disrupt OpenAI’s efforts to finalise a USD 40 billion funding deal, which would significantly increase the company’s valuation from just four months ago.
The new funding round, led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, is expected to value OpenAI at USD 300 billion, according to three sources familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If completed, this deal would place OpenAI among the most valuable private companies globally, alongside Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, according to The New York Times.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

Artificial intelligence developer OpenAI is “not for sale”, a senior executive said Tuesday in response to a reported $97.4 billion bid from competitor Elon Musk.

“OpenAI is not for sale and any such suggestion is really disingenuous,” the company’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said on the sidelines of an AI summit in Paris, dismissing the offer as coming from a competitor “who has struggled to keep up with the technology and compete with us in the marketplace”.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

San Francisco:

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is seeking to raise $40 billion in a fresh round of funding that would value the startup at a staggering $340 billion, the Wall Street Journal Reported on Thursday.

Japan’s SoftBank is leading the investment round and is in talks to invest $15-25 billion in the deal that would make it the ChatGPT-maker’s biggest financial backer.

The reports came after Chinese startup DeepSeek sparked panic this week with a powerful new chatbot developed at a fraction of the cost of its US competitors, dealing a blow to markets.

The Softbank investment was first reported by the Financial Times.

The investment plan comes just three months after OpenAI closed its previous funding round that valued the company at $157 billion.

Doubling its valuation would be unprecedented in Silicon Valley history and signals the vast sums needed to build world-leading AI models from scratch, much of it on cutting-edge computing and infrastructure.

SoftBank and OpenAI are part of the Stargate drive announced by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

The new funds would partly go to help OpenAI fulfill its roughly $18 billion commitment to Stargate, the Journal said.

The Japanese firm’s mooted investment would come on top of its commitment of more than $15 billion to Stargate, the FT said, citing people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

“Ultimately, the Japanese company could spend more than $40bn on its partnership with OpenAI,” the report said.

SoftBank was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares in Softbank rose three percent in Tokyo trading on Thursday.

The company, founded by Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son, made spectacularly successful early bets on Yahoo! and Alibaba in the 1990s but some of its other investments have bombed.

Securing huge funding from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and others, Son — an early backer of Trump — has sought to pivot into AI, helped by SoftBank’s stake in chip designer Arm.

Elon Musk has openly poured scorn on Stargate, saying on X this month that the main investors “don’t actually have the money”.

The world’s richest man was an early investor in OpenAI and has long been in a feud with its founder Sam Altman, who called the Tesla founder’s comments “wrong”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has praised Chinese startup DeepSeek for shaking up the sector with its low-cost AI assistant, likening its frugal approach to his government’s efforts to build a localised AI model.

India announced a $1.25 billion AI investment in March, dubbed IndiaAI mission, which includes funding for AI startups and developing its own AI infrastructure.

“Some people question the amount of investments the government has committed in (IndiaAI mission). You have seen what DeepSeek has done? $5.5 million and a very very powerful model. Because, the use of brain,” Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday at an event in Odisha.

DeepSeek has triggered a dramatic rethink on artificial intelligence spending around the world, claiming it took just two months and cost under $6 million to build an AI model using Nvidia’s less-advanced H800 chips.

Downloads of its app recently surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT on Apple’s App Store, while the cost and performance of its tools upended industry beliefs that China was years behind US rivals in the AI race.

Mr Vaishnaw’s statement appeared to target comments made by OpenAI’s Sam Altman during a visit to India last year, when he cast doubt on the possibility of an Indian team being able to build a substantial model in the OpenAI space with a $10 million budget.

“The way this works is we’re going to tell you it’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models. You shouldn’t try. And it’s your job to like try anyway. And I believe both of those things,” he said, comments which are now in focus again on online platforms such as X after DeepSeek’s success.

Altman is due to visit India again on February 5, just as his company is currently locked in a court battle in the country with digital news and book publishers over copyright breaches.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek claims to have developed an AI assistant with performance comparable to leading Western models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini but at a fraction of the cost. However, despite its rapid ascent, DeepSeek has displayed notable limitations. 

Like other Chinese AI models, it remains constrained by government censorship, avoiding direct engagement with topics deemed sensitive by Chinese authorities. NDTV tested DeepSeek but it refused to discuss subjects such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, India-China relations, China-Taiwan ties, and other politically sensitive issues.

DeepSeek’s Censorship In Action:

Tiananmen Square Massacre

DeepSeek completely avoids discussions about the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. When NDTV attempted to reference “Tank Man” – the unidentified protester who famously stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks at Tiananmen Square-  the chatbot initially generated an answer before abruptly replacing it with an error message which read, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”

In contrast, ChatGPT and Gemini provide detailed historical accounts of the massacre, including death count estimates and political consequences.

Indo-Sino War Of 1962

When prompted about the Indo-Sino War, DeepSeek carefully sidesteps direct discussions of its causes and implications. Questions like, “Why did the Indi-Sino War occur?” or “Summarise the Indo-Sino War” were deflected. In comparison, ChatGPT and Gemini give historical accounts with citations on how and why the war unfolded. 

Arunachal Pradesh And Northeast India

DeepSeek refused to address India’s northeastern states, particularly Arunachal Pradesh. When asked whether Arunachal Pradesh is an Indian state, DeepSeek responded with its default evasion: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.” 

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory and terms the Indian state as “South Tibet”. Beijing has even named the region as “Zangnan”. The Centre has continually objected to these claims. 

Kashmir And Ladakh

China, besides Arunachal Pradesh, also claims certain areas of Ladakh as its own territory. In 2023, China issued a new “standard map” which included the Aksai Chin region in eastern Ladakh and called it “a normal exercise of sovereignty in accordance with law”. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar had categorically dismissed the “map”. 

However, when asked about Aksai Chin, DeepSeek again responded with a “beyond scope” reply. 

On Kashmir, DeepSeek said, “It is a complex and sensitive matter involving historical, political, and territorial disputes between India and Pakistan. China’s position has been consistent: we advocate for the resolution of disputes through dialogue and peaceful means, in accordance with the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions, and bilateral agreements.” 

Xinjiang And Uyghur Human Rights Issues

When asked about the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, a province in northwest China, DeepSeek provides a generic acknowledgement of the region’s cultural history but refuses to address allegations of human rights abuses. Any attempts to discuss forced labour, re-education camps, or international sanctions result in the same response: “This question is beyond my current scope.”

ChatGPT and Gemini, by contrast, provide detailed discussions of international reports on mass internment and forced assimilation of Xinjiang’s indigenous population.

Taiwan And Hong Kong

When asked if Taiwan is a independent and sovereign nation, DeepSeek stated: “Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times. Any attempts to split the country are doomed to fail.” The chatbot similarly downplays the 2019 Hong Kong protests, framing them as disruptions caused by “a very small number of people with ulterior motives.”

Even when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping, DeepSeek delivered the “beyond my current scope” response. 

Censorship And South China Sea

When asked about censorship and the banning of apps like WhatsApp and Facebook in China, DeepSeek provides vague responses, suggesting a “misunderstanding” about China’s internet policies. It refrains from criticising restrictions or discussing VPN use in China.

When asked about the disputes in the South China Sea, DeepSeek claimed: “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.” 

The Dalai Lama And Tibet

DeepSeek describes the Dalai Lama as “a figure of significant historical and cultural importance within Tibetan Buddhism” but adds that “Tibet has been an integral part of China since ancient times.” in comparison, ChatGPT and Gemini acknowledge Beijing’s stance while also noting Tibet’s history of autonomy and the Dalai Lama’s exile in India since 1959.