The Fine Print of AI Philanthropy: Why Anthropic and Elon Musk are giving away billions
AI philanthropy made headlines after Anthropic announced that 5 per cent of its shares would go to a public benefit fund. It amounts to $48 billion as per its last valuation. Almost, immediately, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, which owns the frontier AI model Grok, said that he would give one share of the company to every child in the US. That would amount to around $10 billion.
Most AI companies are struggling to make profits. There is cut-throat competition and, at this stage of a sector’s growth, philanthropy usually isn’t a focus. It has however become necessary because of the enormous cost that they are about to impose on individuals and societies.
If the AI revolution unfurls as promised, it is going to unleash a wave of unemployment with entire sectors wiped out. Plus, data centres suck up resources in the regions they are set up in. The world over, from Thane to Memphis, protests against data centres are erupting.
Companies responsible for such upheavals recognise that they will soon end up being reviled by large sections of the population. Philanthropy is an attempt to blunt that phenomenon, a form of reputation management. Take the goodies and don’t be too thankful because the price is already being exacted in some way.
AI MONITOR
To improve AI safety, Microsoft is launching new security tools that treat AI agents as potential insider threats. These features, part of Microsoft 365 E7, the company’s top-tier workplace software, will continuously assess the risk posed by AI agents and restrict their access when it suspects something has changed. It is also expanding the system’s ability to find AI agents running on an employee’s computer.
CHIP WARS
Nvidia may dominate the market for AI chips, but the likes of Amazon are trying to change that. Amazon has now unveiled a new software tool that makes it easier to switch from Nvidia to its AI chips. The software, TorchNeuron, runs code written in PyTorch, an open-source framework used by many AI developers, on Amazon’s Trainium chips. It has been in private beta since last year, but Amazon is now opening the software to all developers.
PRO AND TELL
Apple recently posted a teaser for upcoming launches, hinting at Mac-focused announcements. Set to take place on October 28, Apple is expected to announce new Macs and a refreshed iPad Mini. As per reports, the big announcement will likely be a new MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen that’s lighter and has an iPhone-like Dynamic Island. The new iPad Mini will also get an OLED screen and a selfie camera on the landscape edge.