Erin Woo

covering openai, google & ai @theinformation, previously @nytimes et al. tips: [email protected] or erinkwoo.07 on signal

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

SCOOP: Google has signed a deal with the Pentagon to allow the use of its AI for "any lawful government purpose." Google’s agreement also requires it to assist in adjusting its AI safety settings and filters at the government’s request.

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

OpenAI previewed a new "Astra" model family in DC this week, touting its abilities to have multiple agents work together over a long period of time to solve particularly hard problems

scooplet with @leomschwartz and @steph_palazzolo https://t.co/Zb3lCg4NQM

[Stephanie Palazzolo @steph_palazzolo]

Lilian Weng, the Thinking Machines cofounder who announced her departure earlier this week, citing startup-related stress and illness, is rejoining OpenAI.

She'll be working on using AI to develop new models (recursive self-improvement).

w/ @amir

https://t.co/rart1w6KkM

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

@brunellaism arcadia!!! my favorite of all time tbh

[Stephanie Palazzolo @steph_palazzolo]

New w/ @erinkwoo: ChatGPT is nearing 1B weekly active users, 7 months after the company was originally hoping to hit that goal.

Though it took longer than expected, ChatGPT is still one of the fastest apps to reach the milestone.

https://t.co/xBykzPKwha

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

olivia.......

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

san francisco hinge everywhere for those with eyes to see :/

[anon @anonatrisk]

Olivia's boyfriend works in a private equity that specializes in AI transformation.

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

@joshbuckley @QianerLiu not the weights! the weights could still be changed, they're still figuring out how much info to embed into the chip

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

Scoop w @QianerLiu: Google is working on a new AI chip that could be 6-10x more efficient than its TPUs by etching the model directly into the silicon. Alphabet shares jumped 3% this morning after our story published https://t.co/lwFMAIsPNE

[Amir Efrati @amir]

🔥chip news: Google planning to bake LLM architecture into new AI server chips (non-TPUs) to run Gemini 6-10x more efficiently

[forward deployed fish @Jacobkupp]

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a short story in just five words.

He replied:
ChatGPT Basketball
Out of Stock

[Amir Efrati @amir]

TIL Microsoft Copilot does ~not~ automatically have a "right to exist"

[Jill Tucker @jilltucker]

If you ever doubt how magical this world is, one day you will decide to go to a World Cup watch party in Oakland that you found online to root for a country where you spent two years trying to coax English out of the mouths of Cape Verdean teenagers. 1/7

[Stephanie Palazzolo @steph_palazzolo]

New w/ @leomschwartz @amir:

The Trump admin has asked OpenAI to stagger the release of GPT-5.6 over security concerns.

On Thursday, CEO Sam Altman told staff that the government will be approving access to GPT-5.6 customer by customer, a highly unusual approach.

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Sources: Google expands the scope of its months-old AI coding strike team to "midtraining" to better compete with Anthropic, after key executive departures (@erinkwoo / The Information)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

@KnowlesHannah congrats hannah!!

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

@theinformation the best time to become my source was any time in the past four years. the second best time is now 😎

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

i joined @theinformation four years ago yesterday!!! that is so long ago the passage of time is crazy!!!

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

it's my first day covering startups and venture capital for @theinformation!!!

send me tips: [email protected] (or dm for signal)

[Jessica Lessin @Jessicalessin]

When OpenAI talks about "preparing for an IPO," this is the detailed work they are doing to explain to investors and regulators things like...

- relationships with business investors like Nvidia and Microsoft
- noncash accounting charge for warrants
- data center rental agreements
- data center co-ownership agreements
- revenue from related parties
- and more....

@coryweinberg
@erinkwoo

https://t.co/XI0KNbSmxz

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Docs: OpenAI burned through $3.7B in Q1, on revenue of $5.7B, and ended the quarter with $73B+ in cash and marketable securities vs. $40B at the end of December (@erinkwoo / The Information)

(Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

[Erin Woo @erinkwoo]

confirmed:

[Arfur Grok @ArfurGrok]

👀 Barret Zoph (@barret_zoph) has left OpenAI.