Latest AI News

Australia's data centre boom is causing significant water consumption challenges, with facilities expected to use 47 billion litres annually. These centres require extensive cooling, with even small operations using enough water for 200 homes yearly. The industry lacks transparency in water usage reporting, focusing historically on power rather than water efficiency. Data centres often strain urban water supplies through evaporation and discharge. Solutions emerging include circular water approaches, advanced cooling technologies, and wastewater recycling. Despite industry summits and international pressure for better reporting, Australia's planning policies remain inadequate regarding water targets for data centres, creating sustainability concerns in drought-prone regions.

Penske Media, owner of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, is suing Google over its AI Overviews search summaries, claiming they use content without permission and reduce website traffic. The lawsuit alleges Google's AI summaries appear at the top of search results, diverting readers and causing significant revenue drops. Google defends the feature as enhancing user experience. This marks the first major legal challenge from a US publisher against Google's AI summaries, joining similar industry lawsuits against AI companies for copyright issues. The case could significantly impact digital publishing and the relationship between tech platforms and media companies.

OpenAI and Microsoft have restructured their partnership, allowing OpenAI to become a public benefit corporation and work with multiple infrastructure providers beyond Microsoft. The agreement ensures Microsoft maintains preferred access to OpenAI's technology while removing the "AGI doomsday clause" that could have restricted access. The nonprofit OpenAI Foundation will retain significant equity and influence. This arrangement reflects the evolving AI landscape, with both companies positioning themselves for increased competition and collaboration as they navigate regulatory scrutiny and advance toward artificial general intelligence.

Elon Musk's xAI has laid off approximately 500 workers from its data annotation team, representing over a third of the group responsible for training the Grok chatbot. The restructuring primarily affected generalist AI tutors, whose positions are being eliminated following a strategic review. Despite these cuts, xAI announced plans to significantly expand its specialist AI tutor team by "10X," focusing on areas like STEM, finance, medicine, and safety. This shift reflects the company's evolving strategy toward more specialized expertise in AI development as it continues its mission to build "truth-seeking AGI" and compete with established tech giants in the artificial intelligence sector.