Regional AI Model: Latam-GPT
A coalition of twelve Latin American countries, led by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) and over 30 partner institutions, announced they’ll launch Latam-GPT in September 2025. Based on Meta’s Llama 3 and trained across regional compute (including AWS and CAF-backed cloud), this open-source model aims to capture local cultures and languages, starting with a Rapa Nui translator and expanding into education, healthcare, and public services. Despite no dedicated budget yet, leaders are optimistic that proof-of-concept demos will secure further funding. 🔗 Read more
Adobe Firefly Mobile App Debuts
Adobe released Firefly Mobile on iOS and Android, integrating its own text-to-image and text-to-video model alongside partner engines (OpenAI, Google, Ideogram, Luma AI, Pika, Runway). Creators can generate unlimited basic images, with premium/partner models available via a $10 monthly upgrade. Adobe emphasizes that Firefly uses only content it holds rights to, addressing mounting copyright concerns. 🔗 Read more
Amazon Plans Corporate Headcount Reduction
CEO Andy Jassy warned that as generative AI and autonomous agents automate routine tasks, like inventory forecasting and customer-service chatbots, Amazon’s corporate workforce may shrink over the coming years. With over 1.5 million employees at the end of 2024, the company is ramping up AI training and experimentation to help staff transition into newly emerging roles. 🔗 Read more
xAI Seeks $4.3 B Equity Funding
Elon Musk’s startup xAI is in talks to raise $4.3 billion in equity, on top of a $5 billion debt facility, to underwrite its rapid AI research and infrastructure expansion. Since 2023, xAI has secured $14 billion in equity and is on track to spend roughly $13 billion this year, underscoring the immense capital demands of advanced model development like its Grok chatbot. 🔗 Read more
NAACP Threatens Legal Action Over xAI Emissions
Represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the NAACP issued a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue under the Clean Air Act, alleging that dozens of methane-fired turbines at xAI’s South Memphis data center lack required permits and pollution controls, jeopardizing local air quality. xAI maintains compliance, but the SELC contends nearly all turbines ran unpermitted as of April. 🔗 Read more
Mastodon Strengthens Data-Use Policies
On June 17, Mastodon.social updated its terms, effective July 1, to bar automated scraping (bots, spiders) of user data for AI training, except by standard search engines caching for human review. Enforcement hinges on individual Fediverse instances adopting similar rules. 🔗 Read more
Meta’s Talent Recruitment Battles
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed Meta offered top researchers signing bonuses up to $100 million to lure them away from OpenAI and DeepMind, but none have accepted. Altman credited OpenAI’s mission-driven culture and belief in its AGI path for retaining talent, suggesting collaboration and purpose can outweigh massive pay packages. 🔗 Read more