Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball to lead strategy
… I’ve been waiting to hear a clearer strategy on the future of Xbox beyond “a return of Xbox,” and the recruitment of Ball certainly explains why we haven’t seen that yet. …
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OpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle
… In a memo viewed by The Verge, Brockman wrote that since OpenAI’s product strategy for this year is to go all-in on AI agents, the company is combining its products to “invest in a single agentic platform and to merge ChatGPT and Codex into one unified agentic experience for all.” To do this, the c… …
Netflix’s new studio will produce animated shorts with generative AI
… But while InterPositive is primarily focused on the use of AI in post-production, INKubator appears to go much further: A listing for INKubator’s head of technology calls it “our next-generation, creative-led, GenAI-native animation studio,” with plans to “bridge innovation with imaginative storyte… …
Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to ‘manipulate’ AI
Google updated its spam policy to mark attempts to “manipulate” its AI model in search results as spam, including results in AI Overview or AI Mode in Search, as Search Engine Land reports: “In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our Search sy… …
Microsoft’s new Xbox chief is ‘reevaluating’ exclusive games
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma held an all-hands meeting this morning and laid out her strategy for a “return of Xbox” with employees. …
Apple names Johny Srouji as chief hardware officer
… He is stepping into the shoes of current hardware engineering head John Ternus, who will replace Tim Cook as CEO in September, while Cook becomes the chairman of the board. …
Elon Musk tells the jury that all he wants to do is save humanity
… He said that he has been worried about AI in his college years, that it could be a “double-edged sword,” one that could “solve all the diseases and make everyone prosperous, or it could kill us all.” He suggested that AI had two outcomes: the utopian Star Trek one, or the dystopian Terminator one. …
Mira Murati tells the court that she couldn’t trust Sam Altman’s words
… Cofounder Ilya Sutskever, in part of a 52-page memo to OpenAI’s board that was read in a deposition, said that Altman “exhibits a consistent pattern of lying, undermining his execs, and pitting his execs against one another.” Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, in a 2024 podcast where she discu… …
You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze
… Therefore, Sommer said, a sustainable business model “would require that genAI be infused in everything from billboards to checkout kiosks,” with providers taking a cut of all of those transactions. “The free era was really a land grab — it’s a common strategy used by startups,” said Eve’s Madheswa… …
John Ternus’ first big problem is AI
… On Alphabet’s February earnings call, executives largely ignored a question about the company’s AI partnerships, including with Apple, though Pichai said he was looking forward to Google powering “the next generation of Apple foundation models based on Gemini technology.” Ternus, who reportedly has…