| Here’s a look at today's AI briefing: - Senate group calls for $32B a year for AI research.
- OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is leaving.
- Anthropic hires Instagram co-founder.
- Senate committee clears bills to protect elections from AI.
- AI could delay Microsoft's already underperforming climate goals.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | A bipartisan coalition of senators, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), unveiled a report outlining how Congress should regulate AI technologies. The roadmap calls for at least $32B annually over several years for non-defense AI research to keep the U.S. ahead of China. More: - The bipartisan group, including Schumer and Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), has been crafting the report for months after holding Senate AI briefings.
- Senators called for funding of a cross-government AI R&D initiative, including "AI-ready data" projects and AI testing infrastructure.
- The report advocates for more funds for the Commerce Department’s export control, which limits AI chip exports to China.
- Other topics include tackling election-related deepfakes, improving immigration for STEM workers, and enacting a data privacy bill.
- Their proposed $32B funding targets non-defense AI, with defense-related AI allocations still under review but expected to be substantial.
What's next: - Schumer said he will meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to discuss AI strategies.
- The plan is to move smaller AI bills individually as they're ready, prioritizing legislation on AI use in elections.
- Johnson has said Congress should promote AI innovation and preserve competitiveness.
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| 2 | | OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is leaving the company. Last year, Sutskever participated in a failed board coup of CEO Sam Altman before reversing his decision. More: - OpenAI research director Jakub Pachocki will replace Sutskever, who joined OpenAI in 2015 after his tenure at Google Brain.
- In an X post, Sutskever wrote he is pursuing a project that's "very personally meaningful" and will reveal details "in due time."
- Altman stated on X that Sutskever's departure "is very sad" and “OpenAI would not be what it is without him."
- Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, also wrote that Sutskever “played a key role in helping build the foundations of what OpenAI has become today.”
Zoom out: - Sutskever initially voted to fire Altman in November along with other OpenAI board members.
- The move angered investors and employees, and Altman was reinstated.
- Sutskever later said he regretted the action but didn’t return to work, with Pachocki effectively stepping in as chief scientist, according to the NYT.
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| 3 | | Anthropic hired Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger as its chief product officer. Krieger will lead the AI startup's product engineering, management, and design efforts. More: - In a blog post, Anthropic said Krieger will help expand its suite of AI business applications and bring its Claude chatbot to a bigger audience.
- Krieger will oversee Anthropic's enterprise services, subscriptions, and software offerings.
- Anthropic, an OpenAI competitor, launched its Claude 3 AI models in March.
- A month later, it unveiled a business version of Claude 3 and a Claude iOS app.
Zoom out: - In 2010, Krieger co-founded Instagram with Kevin Systrom and sold it to Facebook for $1B in 2012.
- Krieger was Instagram's CTO before leaving in 2018.
- Krieger and Systrom later launched Artifact, an AI news app, which they sold to Yahoo for an undisclosed sum last month.
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| 4 | | The U.S. Senate Rules Committee cleared three bills to protect elections from AI-generated deception. The bills would have to move through the House and gain Senate approval before becoming law ahead of the November elections. More: - The Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act would ban the use of AI to create misleading deepfakes of federal candidates.
- The AI Transparency in Elections Act requires disclaimers on political ads generated or significantly altered by AI.
- The final bill, the Preparing Election Administrators for AI Act, would order some federal agencies to create voluntary AI guidelines for election offices.
Zoom out: - Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he opposes the bipartisan legislation, citing concerns over its impact on existing frameworks for removing fake ads.
- But Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) expressed concern that the 2024 elections may be more vulnerable than those in 2020, adding that U.S. adversaries see election interference as "cheap and relatively easy."
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| 5 | | Despite its pledge to become carbon-negative by 2030, Microsoft's greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 30% since 2020, complicating its environmental targets as it grows its use of AI technologies. 
What happened: Microsoft released its 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report today, detailing its carbon footprint and efforts to become carbon-negative by 2030. What the numbers show: In fiscal 2020, Microsoft emitted 11.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. That number has since jumped to 15.4 million metric tons in fiscal 2023, five times Seattle's annual emissions and comparable to the yearly carbon pollution of Haiti or Brunei. Why it matters: Rising demand for AI will only add to Microsoft's energy consumption, hindering its climate targets as it spends heavily on data processing. The OpenAI investor plans to spend over $50B this fiscal year to expand AI data centers in multiple countries, with even higher expenditures expected next year. Response: Microsoft leadership said the company remains committed to its environmental goals. The company is investing in renewable power, developing over 80 new strategies to curb carbon use in areas like construction and travel, and requiring high-volume suppliers to use carbon-free electricity by 2030, it said. Quotable: “In 2020, we unveiled what we called our carbon moonshot. That was before the explosion in artificial intelligence,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told Bloomberg. “So in many ways the moon is five times as far away as it was in 2020, if you just think of our own forecast for the expansion of AI and its electrical needs.” | | | |
| 6 | | Fresh funding: - French AI startup Mistral AI is raising funds at a post-money valuation of $6B, up from $2B in December. Mistral is close to securing around $600M from existing investors General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners, as well as other potential investors.
- The Bot Company, a startup specializing in household robots, secured $150M in seed funding, reaching a valuation of $550M. The company wasformed by former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, ex-Cruise engineer Luke Holoubek, and former Tesla AI manager Paril Jain.
- Autonomous commercial cleaning robotics startup Gausium closed its Series D funding round at $50M. Name of the investors were not disclosed.
- SmarterDx, an AI startup that provides clinical review and quality audits for medical claims, bagged $50M in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, and Floodgate Fund participated in the Transformative Capital-led funding round.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our Inside Venture Capital newsletter. | | | |
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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