In 2024, Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof solved three of the five non-geometry problems at the International Mathematical Olympiad. Unlike a chatbot producing a plausible-looking derivation in prose, AlphaProof worked in Lean, a formal mathematical language in which proofs can be mechanically checked. It trained by proving or disproving millions of mathematical problems, receiving an unusually clean signal each time: either the proof checked out or it didn’t.

This looked like another frontier falling to artificial intelligence. Chess had fallen, then Go, then protein folding, then programming, and now serious mathematics appeared to be giving way too. Mathematics is among the activities we most strongly associate with the mysterious upper reaches of human intelligence, so perhaps the obvious conclusion was that AI was climbing toward those reaches.

But there is another way to look at what happened: Lean, where a mathematical proposition is represented as a type and a proof as a term of that type. — Read More

In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants gathered for their annual leadership retreat at his Hawaii compound. There they hatched a radical plan to reimagine work at the social-media giant in the age of artificial intelligence.

… But on the night of May 19, just hours before the first layoff wave, Zuckerberg blinked. By then, Meta employees were in open revolt, convinced that the company’s AI transformation initiatives were partly aimed at replacing them. [T]he social-media giant attempted to position itself at the forefront of an AI-driven workplace overhaul, only to stumble in the execution. — Read More

What if I told you that Google is out of the AI race?

It didn’t happen because Google lost, though. Despite an underwhelming I/O event earlier this year, several heavyweight departures, and a slower model release pace than its competitors, Google is still alive. It is out of the race because it withdrew. Weird, right? Why would Google do that willingly?

To answer that, I’m going to tell you the story of why and how Google left the AI race that OpenAI and Anthropic are betting everything on.

Here’s my hypothesis, stated plainly: Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis—a pioneer of AI as we understand it today—doesn’t think that automating AI research with coding agents (AI systems that can program better AI systems) is the correct approach to artificial general intelligence (AGI, the kind of AI that’s as good as humans at everything). Google DeepMind’s leadership sees OpenAI and Anthropic’s bet at best as an off-ramp, and at worst as a dead end.

Hassabis is betting on something else: world models. Models that can understand and simulate the real world, not just predict the next token. — Read More

Mark Zuckerberg is making the case for Meta’s approach to artificial intelligence.

In a 6,500-word essay published Monday, Zuckerberg explained the company’s thinking on AI, what it could mean for society and security, and how policymakers should approach calls for greater oversight of the industry. — Read More

AI divisions are getting reshuffled, the search giant announced on Wednesday, with chief scientist Jeff Dean leaving the company after 27 years.

Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, is moving into a chairman role of that unit and also assuming the title chief scientist of parent company Alphabet, according to a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai that was posted to Google’s blog. — Read More

When Google prepared to go public in 2004, Larry Page, a co-founder of the company, wrote a letter to shareholders describing the internet firm’s responsibility to the world.

“We believe a well-functioning society should have abundant, free and unbiased access to high-quality information,” Mr. Page said.

“Google fulfilled that responsibility by acting as a gateway to the internet. It answered people’s search queries with lists of hyperlinks, pushing users out to what is known as the “open web” — the millions of websites run by merchants, publishers, universities and others — for more information. In the ensuing decades, Google became one of the planet’s richest and most powerful companies by directing people to the vastness of the open web.

“Now in the age of artificial intelligence, Google appears to be shrinking back from the open web — and may be imperiling it. — Read More

Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new commercial from Google asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?

With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad depicts a largely unseen Thomas Jefferson mid-draft when he gets a nagging text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting gets scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with every single attendee apparently turning their camera off?), then the whole thing is finalized with e-signatures; cue the fireworks. — Read More

If you want to see a person’s eyes light up at a Silicon Valley party, just say the words “pre-IPO equity.” It works.

Google’s sudden AI talent losses may have less to do with dissatisfaction and more to do with a timeless Silicon Valley calculation: where the biggest equity upside lives. — Read More

Meta has officially introduced Facebook AI Mode for US users, transforming the standard search bar into a conversational tool that answers questions by mining public Group discussions, Reels, and Marketplace data. While the update aims to increase platform engagement and support Meta’s expanding subscription tiers, it faces scrutiny regarding data privacy and the accuracy of crowd-sourced AI summaries. — Read More

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