2026/02/14

An OpenAI researcher has resigned from the company over its decision to introduce advertisements into ChatGPT, warning that the move risks repeating the same privacy erosion that defined Facebook's early history. Zoë Hitzig, an economist and published poet who holds a junior fellowship at the Harvard Society of Fellows, spent two years at OpenAI helping shape how its AI models were built and priced. She published a guest essay in The New York Times on February 11 announcing her resignation, which she timed to coincide with OpenAI's rollout of ads inside ChatGPT. "I once believed I could help the people building A.I. get ahead of the problems it would create," Hitzig wrote. "This week confirmed my slow realization that OpenAI seems to have stopped asking the questions I'd joined to help answer." Hitzig's central concern isn't that advertising is inherently wrong — it's the nature of the data at stake. Users have shared medical fears, relationship problems, and religious beliefs with ChatGPT, she argued, often because they believed they were talking to something with no ulterior agenda. She called this accumulated record of personal disclosures "an archive of human candor that has no precedent." Drawing a direct parallel to Facebook, Hitzig noted that the social media giant once promised users control over their data and the ability to vote on policy changes — pledges that eroded over time until the FTC found that privacy changes marketed as giving users more control actually did the opposite. "I believe the first iteration of ads will probably follow those principles," she wrote. "But I'm worried subsequent iterations won't, because the company is building an economic engine that creates strong incentives to override its own rules." OpenAI announced in January that ads would appear for users on its free and -per-month Go subscription tiers, while paid Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education subscribers would not see ads. The company said advertisements would appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses, be clearly labeled, and would not influence the chatbot's answers. Hitzig's departure adds to a growing chorus of concern from within the AI industry about the collision of advertising incentives and intimate AI interactions.

2026/02/14

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has climbed to third place among US AI chatbots, capturing 17.8% market share in January, up from 14% in December and just 1.9% a year ago, according to data from research firm Apptopia reported by Reuters. The growth positions Grok firmly behind market leader ChatGPT and second-place Google Gemini, but the trajectory is striking. ChatGPT's US share fell from 80.9% in January 2025 to 52.9% last month. Gemini grew from 17.3% to 29.4% over the same period. The AI chatbot market is no longer a one-horse race. ## Growth Despite Global Backlash The market share gains come amid ongoing international scrutiny over Grok's role in generating non-consensual sexualized images, including of minors. French authorities raided X offices last week as part of a child abuse images investigation. Reuters reported earlier this month that despite new curbs announced by X, the Grok chatbot continues to produce sexualized images when prompted. "I suspect that cross-promotion with X is the biggest reason for Grok's growth," Nate Elliott, a principal analyst at Emarketer, told Reuters. X has integrated Grok across its platform, featuring it in the navigation bar and bundling premium Grok access with paid subscriptions. ## Six Billion Images in 30 Days During an all-hands meeting posted on X this week, an xAI executive claimed the platform generated 6 billion images in the past 30 days — six times Google's recently reported 1 billion images generated via its Nano Banana tool in the same period. The numbers land at a pivotal moment for xAI. SpaceX acquired xAI earlier this month in a deal that valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, according to Reuters. Musk has said the merger will power his ambitions for AI data centers in orbit. An IPO for the combined entity is expected. ## The Bigger Picture Grok's rise illustrates a counterintuitive dynamic in the AI market: controversy doesn't necessarily slow adoption. The chatbot's growth accelerated during the same months that brought the deepfake scandal, regulatory probes, and the departure of half of xAI's founding team. Distribution through X's 500-million-plus user base appears to outweigh reputational damage, at least in download numbers. Whether that growth is sustainable as regulatory pressure mounts globally remains the open question. *Source: [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/musks-ai-chatbot-groks-us-market-share-jumps-amid-sexualized-images-backlash-2026-02-13/)*

2026/02/14

Anthropic closed a $30 billion Series G this week, ByteDance's new video tool triggered a copyright fight with Hollywood, and defense AI startup Shield AI is hunting for its own billion-dollar round. ## Anthropic raises $30 billion, now valued at $380 billion Anthropic closed a $30 billion Series G funding round on Thursday, more than doubling its valuation from $183 billion last September to $380 billion. GIC and Coatue co-led the round, with D.E. Shaw Ventures, ICONIQ, and MGX also participating. Portions of previously announced investments from Microsoft and Nvidia were included. The numbers behind the raise tell the real story. Anthropic's run-rate revenue is now $14 billion. Claude Code alone accounts for $2.5 billion of that, having more than doubled since January. Business subscriptions to Claude Code have quadrupled in the same period. This is the second-largest venture funding round ever, behind only OpenAI. The gap between these two companies and everyone else in generative AI is getting wider by the quarter. *Sources: [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/technology/anthropic-valued-380-billion-latest-funding-round-2026-02-12/), [Crunchbase](https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/biggest-funding-rounds-anthropic-leads-ai-robotics/)* ## ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 video sparks Hollywood copyright battle A 15-second AI-generated video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise went viral this week, and the fallout has been swift. The video was made with Seedance 2.0, ByteDance's new video generation model launched on February 10. Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson posted it on X, saying it came from a two-line prompt. The Motion Picture Association responded within hours. MPA CEO Charles Rivkin issued a statement calling on ByteDance to "immediately cease its infringing activity," accusing the company of "unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale." Deadpool writer-producer Rhett Reese responded to the video with blunt pessimism: "I hate to say it. It's likely over for us." He wrote that people will soon be able to create movies "indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases." Whether that timeline is realistic is debatable. What's not debatable is that the quality jump from this generation of video models is making the copyright question impossible to ignore. *Source: [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-02-13/brad-pitt-fighting-tom-cruise-ai-video-shakes-hollywood)* ## Shield AI in talks to raise $1 billion at $11-12 billion valuation Defense AI startup Shield AI is negotiating a funding round of up to $1 billion that would value the company at roughly $11 billion pre-money, according to Bloomberg. That would more than double its valuation from less than a year ago. Shield AI builds autonomous piloting software for military aircraft and drones. The company has raised about $1.17 billion to date across 16 rounds. The new raise comes as defense tech is attracting investor attention amid growing Pentagon interest in autonomous systems and AI-powered decision-making tools. *Source: [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-13/shield-ai-in-talks-to-raise-1-billion-at-12-billion-valuation), [PYMNTS](https://www.pymnts.com/startups/2026/shield-ai-seeks-1-billion-dollars-lead-global-defense-tech-surge/)* ## Alphabet drops 13% in two weeks as $185 billion AI spend rattles investors Alphabet stock has fallen about 13% over the past two weeks despite reporting record earnings. The trigger: the company said it plans to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, mostly for AI infrastructure. That's roughly double the $91 billion it spent in 2025. Investors are asking the obvious question: when does this spending start producing returns that justify the scale? Alphabet holds $127 billion in liquidity and generated $73 billion in free cash flow, so the company can afford it. But "can afford it" and "should spend it" aren't the same argument, and the market is making that distinction loudly. *Sources: [FX Leaders](https://www.fxleaders.com/news/2026/02/14/alphabets-185b-ai-bet-backfires-as-google-stock-risks-breakdown-if-300-goes/), [Motley Fool](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/02/14/where-will-alphabet-be-in-5-years/)* ## Apptronik raises $520 million at $5B+ for humanoid robots Humanoid robotics startup Apptronik closed a $520 million Series A extension, bringing total funding to $935 million and valuing the company at over $5.5 billion, roughly triple its previous valuation. Google and Mercedes-Benz were among the investors. Apptronik's Apollo robot is designed for manufacturing, logistics, and warehouse work. The company is racing to commercialize before both Chinese competitors and Tesla's Optimus reach market. The humanoid robotics sector is attracting serious money right now, with investors betting that AI-powered physical robots are the next major platform after software agents. *Sources: [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/apptronik-raises-520-million-at-5-billion-valuation-for-apollo-robot.html), [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/humanoid-robot-startup-apptronik-has-now-raised-935m-at-a-5b-valuation/)* ## What to watch The capital flowing into AI right now is staggering: $30 billion for Anthropic, $185 billion in planned capex from Alphabet alone, nearly a billion each for Shield AI and Apptronik. The Seedance 2.0 copyright fight, meanwhile, is going to force a legal reckoning that the industry has been postponing for years. When a two-line prompt can generate a photorealistic fight scene between two of the world's biggest movie stars, the "fair use" argument gets a lot harder to make. --- ## Sources - [Reuters — Anthropic $30B funding round](https://www.reuters.com/technology/anthropic-valued-380-billion-latest-funding-round-2026-02-12/) - [Crunchbase — Week's biggest funding rounds](https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/biggest-funding-rounds-anthropic-leads-ai-robotics/) - [Los Angeles Times — Seedance 2.0 viral video](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-02-13/brad-pitt-fighting-tom-cruise-ai-video-shakes-hollywood) - [Bloomberg — Shield AI $1B talks](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-13/shield-ai-in-talks-to-raise-1-billion-at-12-billion-valuation) - [FX Leaders — Alphabet stock drop](https://www.fxleaders.com/news/2026/02/14/alphabets-185b-ai-bet-backfires-as-google-stock-risks-breakdown-if-300-goes/) - [CNBC — Apptronik $520M raise](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/apptronik-raises-520-million-at-5-billion-valuation-for-apollo-robot.html) - [TechCrunch — Apptronik total funding](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/humanoid-robot-startup-apptronik-has-now-raised-935m-at-a-5b-valuation/)

2026/02/13

Companies blamed AI for over 54,000 layoffs in 2025, but economists and analysts say the real reasons are often simpler: overhiring, tariffs, and profit margins.

2026/02/12

Apple's Xcode 26.3 lets autonomous AI agents like Claude and Codex build, test, and iterate inside the IDE. Here's what's new, how it compares to other editors, and what it means for iOS and macOS developers.

2026/02/11

MCP gives AI models a standard way to connect to external tools and data. A practical guide to how the protocol works, who's using it, and how to build your first MCP server.