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Today:

• Perplexity Valuation Hits $14 Billion

• OpenAI Eyes IPO, Restructures Agreement

• Trump Weighs Chip Sale To G42

• OpenAI Launches HealthBench For AI Testing

• Deep Research Gains Live File Access

Perplexity Valuation Hits $14 Billion

Perplexity is in advanced talks to secure a new funding round of $500 million, raising its valuation to $14 billion. Venture capital firm Accel is leading the round, reflecting growing investor enthusiasm for generative AI companies. This surge in funding highlights the increasing competition against Google’s search dominance, especially as some AI-driven search tools gain traction, potentially disrupting the long-held market stronghold of traditional search engines.

Why This Matters

1. Increased Competition: Perplexity’s growth signals a shift in search dynamics, challenging Google’s long-established dominance with generative AI solutions.
   

2. Investor Confidence: The $14 billion valuation underscores strong investor belief in the future of AI-driven search technologies, indicating a market shift towards innovation in information retrieval.
   

3. Generative AI Impact: As AI-powered search tools gain popularity, traditional search engines may face pressure to innovate, accelerating advancements in AI integration across the industry.

OpenAI Eyes IPO, Restructures Agreement

OpenAI and Microsoft are renegotiating their multibillion-dollar partnership to clear the path for OpenAI to go public while keeping Microsoft linked to its AI tools. Talks focus on how much ownership Microsoft keeps for its $13 billion investment and whether it can keep accessing future models after their current 2030 agreement ends. The deal will shape OpenAI’s corporate switch from charity-style oversight to a profit-seeking structure capable of raising more cash. 

Why This Matters

1. Control of frontier models – The agreement decides how—and for how long—Microsoft and its customers can use OpenAI’s most advanced systems, affecting the wider AI ecosystem.
   

2. Path to public funding – A workable deal paves the way for an eventual IPO, unlocking fresh capital that could accelerate OpenAI’s research and set a template for other AI firms moving from nonprofit roots to public markets.
   

3. Signal of shifting power – Tough talks highlight growing tension between big-tech backers and fast-moving AI labs, underscoring how partnerships, not just products, will shape who leads the next wave of AI innovation. 

Trump Weighs Chip Sale To G42

President Trump’s team is negotiating a deal that would send hundreds of thousands of U.S.-made AI chips to G42, a United Arab Emirates firm once questioned for China ties. Supporters see stronger Gulf partnerships and booming sales for Nvidia and AMD. Critics fear the chips could aid authoritarian governments and military uses. Similar talks with Saudi Arabia and rule changes to ease exports mark a sharp break from Biden-era limits.

Why This Matters

1. New export rules – Looser U.S. controls on selling chips set a precedent other countries may follow, shaping who can build tomorrow’s AI systems.
   

2. Emerging power hubs – Big chip deliveries could turn the UAE and Saudi Arabia into significant AI players, widening the field beyond the U.S. and China.
   

3. Security debate – Handing sensitive hardware to tightly controlled governments (authoritarian = non-democratic) reignites questions about safe, responsible AI use.

🧠RESEARCH

Bielik v3 Small: Technical Report

Bielik v3 introduces compact, efficient AI models (1.5B and 4.5B parameters) for Polish text processing. They match larger models' performance while using fewer resources. Innovations include a custom tokenizer, adaptive learning rate, and efficient training methods. These models excel in Polish language tasks, setting new standards for resource-efficient AI.

UniVLA: Learning to Act Anywhere with Task-centric Latent Actions

UniVLA is a new framework for teaching robots to act across diverse environments without needing extensive action-annotated data. By using task-centric action representations from videos and integrating language instructions, UniVLA adapts to different robot types efficiently. It outperforms previous methods with less compute and data, achieving state-of-the-art results in robotics.

G-FOCUS: Towards a Robust Method for Assessing UI Design Persuasiveness

G-FOCUS introduces a new method to assess UI design persuasiveness efficiently, reducing reliance on costly A/B testing. It uses a benchmark called WiserUI-Bench with real-world UI pairs and expert insights. By minimizing position bias, G-FOCUS improves accuracy in comparing UI effectiveness, offering a scalable, VLM-driven alternative to traditional UI evaluation methods.

🛠️TOP TOOLS

NetworkAI - AI-powered networking tool developed by Wonsulting to streamline and enhance the job search process.

ClipDrop Uncrop - AI-powered tool designed to modify the aspect ratio of images by extending their backgrounds, allowing users to enhance and reformat their photos effortlessly.

Map This - Transform PDF documents into visual mind maps, simplifying the process of organizing and summarizing information. 

SinCode AI - AI platform designed to enhance productivity and creativity for businesses, marketers, and content creators.

OpenAI Playground - Web-based interface that allows users to interact with and experiment with OpenAI’s language models without requiring coding skills. 

📲SOCIAL MEDIA

🗞️MORE NEWS

• OpenAI introduced HealthBench, a benchmark to evaluate AI systems in healthcare. Built with input from 262 physicians, it tests model responses in realistic medical scenarios, emphasizing accuracy, trustworthiness, and improvement potential. o3 outperforms other models.

• OpenAI's deep research now integrates with Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint, allowing users to analyze live file data. Users connect via settings or the composer. ChatGPT accesses and searches file content but only shares query data with Microsoft.

• Google launched the AI Futures Fund to support startups using DeepMind technology, offering early model access, Google Cloud credits, and expert guidance. The fund targets AI innovation from seed to late stages, similar to Microsoft's AI funding strategy.

• The UN is pushing to regulate autonomous AI weapons by 2026, but major powers like the US, Russia, China, and India prefer national guidelines. Experts warn of an AI arms race and accountability issues without binding rules.

• The UAE will introduce AI education for children as young as four to build tech literacy and prepare for future jobs. The curriculum includes AI ethics, prompt writing, and critical thinking, aiming to make the UAE a regional AI hub.