Sam Altman reimagines Satya Nadella's OpenAI visit in Studio Ghibli style, Microsoft CEO responds
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman brought back echoes of ChatGPT's Ghibli-style image trend on Friday, sharing an AI-generated image of himself with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella. The viral trend took off last month after ChatGPT gained native image generation capabilities, allowing users to reimagine real-life photos with a Studio Ghibli-inspired twist among other effects.
'Welcomed Satya Nadella to OpenAI's new offices while also showcasing some of the latest technology that the ChatGPT maker is working on.' Altman wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Altman's post received a prompt response from Microsoft CEO, who wrote, 'Great to see you today,@sama. Love the new office!'
While ChatGPT's new image generation capabilities have gone viral thanks to the Ghibli-style trend lighting up social media, they've also sparked renewed concerns around copyright infringement. Critics argue that OpenAI's tool is effectively mimicking—and in some cases, ripping off the work of original artists. The OpenAI CEO had addressed some of these issues during a recent conversation with TED's Chris Anderson.
'I think the creative spirit of humanity is an incredibly important thing, and we want to build tools that lift that up, that make it so that new people can create better art, better content, write better novels that we all enjoy. I believe very deeply that humans will be at the center of that.' Altman said during the discussion.
'I also believe that we probably do need to figure out some sort of new model around the economics of creative output. People have been building on the creativity of others for a long time. People take inspiration for a long time. But as the access to creativity gets incredibly democratized, and people are building off of each other's ideas all the time. I think there are incredible new business models that we and others are excited to explore. Exactly what that's gonna look like, I'm not sure,' the OpenAI CEO added.
First Published: 2 May 2025, 01:48 PM IST
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
23 minutes ago
- Indian Express
In a first, UN report calls for urgent action on AGI: What does it mean?
The United Nations Council of Presidents of the General Assembly (UNCPGA) recently released a report seeking immediate global coordination in the wake of the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI). At present, leading tech giants OpenAI, Google, and Meta are working towards achieving AGI, which are essentially systems that are capable of equalling or surpassing human intelligence in various cognitive tasks. OpenAI's Sam Altman has been saying AGI may be on the horizon although these human intelligence-level systems aren't here yet. Similarly, Google DeepMind, as a step towards AGI, is reportedly working towards creating a 'world-modelling' team to simulate environments. Meta, on the other hand, is reportedly investing $15 billion into Scale AI and a 50-member squad to accelerate its AGI vision. Anthropic is working on safe and adaptable models, and there are speculations that it will reach AGI in the next two to three years. So far, no company has demonstrated true AGI, and most of these are scaling up multimodal and reinforcement-learning systems. Even though AGI seems to be a work in progress, the UNCPGA report suggests that with massive financial investments in history and unprecedented R&D efforts, AGI could emerge within this decade. It could lead to some extraordinary benefits, such as the acceleration of scientific discoveries related to public health, transformation of industries and increased productivity, and even contribute to the realisation of sustainable development goals. The report also acknowledges that AGI could lead to unique and potentially 'catastrophic risks'. AGI could execute harmful actions beyond human oversight, resulting in irreversible impacts. 'Without proactive global management, competition among nations and corporations will accelerate risky AGI development, undermine security protocols, and exacerbate geopolitical tensions. Coordinated international action can prevent these outcomes, promoting secure AGI development and usage, equitable distribution of benefits, and global stability,' reads the report. The UNCPGA report recommends immediate and coordinated international action supported by the United Nations to effectively address the global challenges that could arise owing to AGI. The report underscores six major risks, including loss of human control over AGI; AGI-enabled weapons of mass destruction; cybersecurity vulnerabilities; economic instability; autonomous AGI with existential risks; and missed opportunities to solve global challenges. On the other hand, the UN panel also listed its recommendations to mitigate these risks, which include bold and coordinated steps, including a dedicated UN General Assembly session on AGI; a global AGI Observatory to track the development and risks; a certification system for secure and trustworthy AGI; A proposed UN framework convention on AGI governance; and exploring a dedicated UN agency for global coordination.
Business Standard
28 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Sasken Partners with Microsoft to Accelerate Smart Device Innovation via Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform (MDEP)
PRNewswire Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 12: Sasken Technologies Ltd. (BSE: 532663) (NSE: SASKEN), a global leader in product engineering and digital transformation, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Microsoft through the Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform (MDEP). This collaboration, enhanced by Sasken's recent acquisition of Borqs Technologies' Connected Devices business, positions Sasken at the forefront of intelligent device innovation. By combining Sasken's expanded capabilities with Microsoft's foundational platform, this alliance will empower OEMs and ODMs to fast-track creation and the launch of cutting-edge, next-generation smart devices. The Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform (MDEP) is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent & secure collaboration devices by bringing together hardware partners, solution providers, and system integrators. By collaborating with MDEP, Sasken will bring enhanced product engineering expertise, strengthened by Borqs' connected device portfolio and chipset partnerships, combined with its strengths in embedded systems, IoT, and lifecycle services, enabling faster innovation, reduced complexity, and superior user experiences. "We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft and become a part of the Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform," said Hareesh Ramanna, Chief Experience Officer & President Borqs Technologies (a Sasken Group company). "This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to enable our customers to build differentiated products and accelerate their time-to-market. The integration of Borqs' connected device engineering talent and chipset expertise into Sasken has significantly augmented our capabilities. Now, by combining this enhanced prowess with the power and scale of MDEP, we are well positioned to deliver unparalleled value to Enterprise OEMs looking to build cutting-edge & secure Collaboration, IoT, and Special Purpose devices that meet the demands of a connected future." Through this partnership, Sasken will provide end-to-end product development & product engineering services, including Hardware design, platform porting, application development, system integration, testing, and lifecycle support on MDEP. Sasken will also work closely with Microsoft to support MDEP's strategic focus areas including security, manageability, and modernization. "Microsoft is committed to empowering device partners with the tools and platforms they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving market," said Juha Kuosmanen, Head of MDEP. "We are excited to welcome Sasken to the Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform. Sasken's deep engineering heritage will be a significant asset to our ecosystem. This will help OEMs bring innovative devices to market more efficiently and tap into a broader range of device opportunities." This partnership highlights Sasken's vision to be a trusted technology partner for global enterprises looking to build the next generation of connected, intelligent products. To learn more about Sasken, visit To learn more about Microsoft Devices Ecosystem Platform, visit MDEP Overview. Media Contact: Rekha Sahay Ghosh Head of Marketing & Communications E: pr@ T: +91 080 6694 3009 Logo:
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Who is Alexandr Wang, and why is Meta betting billions on his startup Scale AI?
Alexandr Wang is the CEO and co-founder of Scale AI, a data-labelling startup that helps other companies train and deploy cutting-edge AI models. Over the years, Wang has built his startup into the backbone of the AI boom, quietly enabling everything from autonomous vehicles to large language models (LLMs). Now, Wang finds himself at the centre of a potential $15 billion shake-up as Meta taps him to lead its newly formed research lab that will focus on building AI systems capable of 'superintelligence'. The $15 billion investment deal is also expected to bring other Scale AI employees to Meta, which is also reportedly offering seven to nine-figure compensation packages to AI researchers from OpenAI and Google who would like to be a part of its new 50-member artificial superintelligence lab. The new lab comes at a crucial time for Meta, which is perceived to be struggling to pull ahead of its competitors Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI in the high-stakes AI race. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed for AI to be incorporated across the company's products such as its Ray Ban smart glasses as well as social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta has also sought to define its competitive edge by developing open AI models, allowing developers to freely download and integrate the source code into their own tools. But internal issues such as employee turnover and underwhelming product launches have reportedly hampered Meta's AI efforts lately. So far, the company's research efforts have been overseen by its chief AI scientist, Turing Award winner Yann LeCun who is widely recognised for his groundbreaking research contributions on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, LeCun's views on AI are not aligned with others in Silicon Valley as he has argued that LLMs are not the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI). Now, Meta is betting on Wang to not only help it regain the lead in the AI race but also push toward another frontier known as artificial superintelligence (ASI) — a hypothetical AI system with intelligence exceeding that of the human brain. Alexandr Wang was born in New Mexico, US, to Chinese immigrant parents who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory as nuclear physicists. Before heading to college, Wang reportedly worked at internet startup Quora. He dropped out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after just one year and joined Y Combinator, the popular startup accelerator that used to be led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. At Y Combinator, he teamed up with Quora alum Lucy Guo to start a new company called Scale AI in 2016. Two years later, both Wang and Guo were named in Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in enterprise technology. Guo shortly exited Scale AI 'due to differences in product vision and road map,' according to a report by Forbes. Wang continued running the startup which was minted as a unicorn in 2019 after raising $100 million in investment from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund followed by another $580 million fundraising round which put the company at a $7 billion valuation. At 24, Wang became the youngest self-made billionaire in the world. His co-founder, Lucy Guo, recently became the youngest self-made woman billionaire due to her stake in Scale AI. Wang was reportedly Sam Altman's roommate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two AI industry leaders were also photographed sitting next to each other at US President Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony in January this year. Scale AI was founded in 2016 as a startup that labelled mass quantities of data required to train AI systems, particularly autonomous vehicles (AV). As a result, most of its data services were primarily offered to self-driving automakers. This move to corner the market for supplying training data so that self-driving cars could tell the difference between various objects, is what made Scale AI well-positioned in the AI boom that was soon to follow. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of data to generate text and other content. Scale AI hires thousands of contract workers to sift through vast amounts of data, label the information, and clean the datasets that are then supplied to tech companies to train their complex AI models. Scale AI's client list includes major automakers such as Toyota and Honda as well as Waymo, Google's AV subsidiary. It has also partnered with Accenture to help the consulting giant build custom AI apps and models. OpenAI, Microsoft, and Toronto-based AI startup Cohere also count among Scale AI's customers, according to a report by Forbes. The US government has also reportedly sought Scale AI's data labelling and annotation services in order to help analyse satellite imagery in Ukraine. Last valued at nearly $14 billion, the company saw about $870 million in revenue in 2024. It further expects to more than double revenue this year to $2 billion, which would put Scale AI's valuation at $25 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg. However, the AI boom has also given rise to a wave of relatively new competitors such as Surge AI, which offers data labeling tools to AI companies, as well as data labeling startups Labelbox and Snorkel AI, which primarily cater to non-tech enterprises.
