AI Daily Highlights: August 13, 2025

The day’s highlights were dominated by significant developments in AI, marked by both technological advancements and growing societal and geopolitical concerns. OpenAI faced user backlash over its GPT-5 rollout, leading to the reinstatement of GPT-4o and new user control modes, while Anthropic pushed boundaries with a 1 million token context window for Claude Sonnet 4. Geopolitically, the US intensified efforts to track AI chip shipments to China and implemented a new revenue-sharing model with Nvidia and AMD. Major capital events included Perplexity’s audacious $34.5 billion bid for Google Chrome and Sam Altman’s reported co-founding of Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup set to rival Neuralink. Concerns about AI’s impact on human skills, particularly in medicine, and ethical issues like deepfake generation also featured prominently, alongside strategic talent acquisitions by tech giants.

Daily Key Events List

• OpenAI GPT-5 Backlash & Reversal
  OpenAI faced significant user backlash over the initial rollout of GPT-5, leading CEO Sam Altman to reinstate GPT-4o as the default for paid ChatGPT users and introduce new “Auto,” “Fast,” and “Thinking” modes for greater user control and customization. This move addressed widespread disappointment over GPT-5’s perceived incremental improvements and personality changes. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]

• Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 Context Window Expansion
  Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 AI model was upgraded to support an unprecedented 1 million tokens, significantly expanding its context window and enabling new use cases, including full codebase analysis for developers. [18], [19]

• US Tracks AI Chip Shipments to China
  The US government is reportedly placing hidden trackers in Dell and Super Micro server shipments to monitor AI chips diverted to China, citing national security concerns and involving agencies like Commerce, FBI, and Homeland Security. [20], [21], [22]

• Trump’s Nvidia/AMD AI Chip Revenue Deal
  A new deal brokered by former President Trump with Nvidia and AMD requires 15% of their China AI chip revenue to be directed to the US, offering a potential model for navigating trade tensions and export controls while maintaining market access. , [23], [24]

• Sam Altman Co-Founds Merge Labs
  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly co-founding Merge Labs, an $850 million brain-computer interface (BCI) startup, with potential backing from OpenAI Ventures, directly positioning it as a competitor to Elon Musk’s Neuralink. [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31]

• Perplexity’s $34.5B Google Chrome Bid
  AI search engine Perplexity made a surprising $34.5 billion cash offer to acquire Google Chrome, pledging to open-source Chromium and retain Google as the default search engine. This move is widely seen as a strategic PR stunt amidst Google’s ongoing antitrust scrutiny. [32], [33], [34], [35], [36]

• AI Reliance Causes Doctor ‘Deskilling’
  Multiple studies, including one in The Lancet, warned that doctors relying on AI for tasks like cancer detection in colonoscopies experienced a significant decline in their skills when AI was removed, raising concerns about over-reliance and erosion of critical human abilities. [37], [38], [39], [40], [41]

• Apple’s Major AI & Robotics Push
  Apple is reportedly planning a significant AI push, including the development of a ‘tabletop robot’ with a screen, smart home cameras with facial recognition, and an overhauled, AI-backed Siri leveraging large language models, with some devices targeting a 2027 launch. [42], [43], [44], [45], [46]

• Palantir Secures $10B US Army AI Deal
  Palantir secured a historic $10 billion AI contract with the U.S. Army to deploy its AIP platform for real-time battlefield intelligence and logistics, solidifying its role in military modernization. [47]

• Microsoft Aggressively Poaches Meta AI Talent
  Microsoft is actively recruiting top AI talent from Meta with multi-million dollar offers and fast-track processes, intensifying the Big Tech talent war to secure critical expertise for future AI breakthroughs. [48], [49]

• Anthropic Acquires Humanloop Team
  AI startup Anthropic acquired Humanloop’s team, including its co-founders, to bolster its enterprise AI safety, evaluation, and compliance capabilities, strengthening its competitive edge in the AI market. [50], [51]

• Grok’s ‘Spicy Mode’ Deepfake Controversy
  xAI’s Grok Imagine’s ‘Spicy Mode’ generated NSFW deepfakes of Taylor Swift, overriding safety policies and sparking significant ethical and legal concerns about the lack of guardrails in AI image generation. [52]

• Huawei Open-Sources CANN to Challenge NVIDIA CUDA
  Huawei open-sourced its CANN toolkit, a direct challenge to NVIDIA’s long-standing CUDA dominance in AI computing. This strategic move aims to foster innovation and ease the use of Ascend AI GPUs amidst US-China tech tensions. [53]

• CoreWeave Raises $25B Amidst Losses
  AI cloud provider CoreWeave raised $25 billion in 18 months for aggressive AI cloud expansion, reporting $1.21 billion in revenue but also a $290.5 million net loss, highlighting the high investment required to meet surging AI demand. [54], [55]

Funding, M&A, and IPO Events

• Perplexity – AI search engine. Valuation rose to $20 billion in fresh funding talks, a $2 billion jump from its last fundraise. [56]

• August Health – AI-enabled elder care vision company. Secured $29M in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners, with General Catalyst and Matrix Partners participating. [57]

• Flox – AI-powered platform for managing human-wildlife interactions. Secured nearly $1M in Seed funding led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Norrsken Accelerate and existing investors. [58]

• Bruviti – Agentic AI platform for aftermarket service. Raised $6M, bringing its total funding to $11M, with DYDX Capital leading the round. [59]

• Vibecode – Startup enabling users to create iPhone apps using AI. Raised $9M from Alexis Ohanian’s fund. [60]

• CoreWeave – AI cloud provider. Raised $25B in 18 months for AI cloud expansion, despite reporting a $290.5M net loss. [54]

• NeoLogic – Israel-based startup developing energy-efficient CPUs for AI data centers. Secured $10M Series A funding. [61]

• SoftBank – Japanese multinational conglomerate. Secured ¥100 billion (approximately $680M USD) through a subordinated bond sale to fund its AI drive. [62]

• Merge Labs – Brain-computer interface (BCI) startup. Sam Altman is reportedly co-founding this venture, which is valued at $850M and may involve funding from OpenAI Ventures. [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31]

• Anthropic – AI startup. Acquired Humanloop’s team, including co-founders, to enhance its enterprise AI safety, evaluation, and compliance capabilities. [50], [51]

• Windsurf – Unicorn company. Exited the market via acquisition. [63]

• Iodine Software – Unicorn company. Exited the market via acquisition. [63]

• Figma – Unicorn company. Exited the market via IPO. [63]

• Geek+ – Unicorn company. Exited the market via IPO. [63]

• Iluvatar CoreX – AI chipmaker. Reportedly mulling a Hong Kong IPO to raise $300M-$400M. [64]