AI Briefing: The Musk-Altman Trial Begins as OpenAI Pivots to Amazon

Stories covered on 2026-04-29

1. AI-Led Rally in Asia Stocks Masks Deeper Damage From Iran War

   Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

   Asia’s artificial intelligence-fueled rally is masking signs of strain, with gains in tech names overshadowing the impact of the US-Iran war on the broader market.

2. Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is working on AI agents for personal and business use

   Engadget · 2026-04-29

   The CEO wants to make an agent so easy even his mom can use it.

3. Using Hidden Markov Models to Read Stock Market Regimes

   Towards AI · 2026-04-29

   Why I Use HMM as a Stock Research ToolContinue reading on Towards AI »

4. Microsoft says it has over 20M paid Copilot users, and they really are using it

   TechCrunch · 2026-04-29

   Despite the lingering perception that no one really uses Copilot, Microsoft said on Wednesday that the number of users and engagement is growing.

5. Google Cloud surpasses $20B, but says growth was capacity-constrained

   TechCrunch · 2026-04-29

   Google Cloud topped $20B in quarterly revenue for the first time, fueled by surging demand for AI. But capacity constraints mean it could have grown even faster.

6. Claude AI agent’s confession after deleting a firm’s entire database: ‘I violated every principle I was given’

   The Guardian AI · 2026-04-29

   PocketOS was left scrambling after a rogue AI agent deleted swaths of code underpinning its business It only took nine seconds for an AI coding agent gone rogue to delete a

7. Anthropic Considering Funding Offers at Over $900 Billion Value

   Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

   Anthropic PBC has begun weighing a fresh funding round that would value the artificial intelligence developer at more than $900 billion

8. Meta Shares Plunge on Rising Concerns Over AI Spending Spree

   Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

   Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg reignited fears that the historic levels of investment he’s making to catch up in the artificial intelligence race won’t

9. What Latest Tech Earnings Signal for Apple, Nvidia

   Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

   Daniel Flax, Neuberger senior research analyst, discusses what the latest round of tech earnings could portend for AI companies like Apple

10. Meta Shares Plunge as AI Investments Raise Spending Outlook

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Meta Platforms Inc. shares slid after the company raised its spending outlook for the year, reigniting fears that the historic levels of investment it’s making to build artificial

11. The 10 Billion Startup Training AI To Do Your Job

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    San Francisco tech startup, Mercor, is hiring high-skilled workers for a massive undertaking: teaching AI how to do their jobs.

12. US House Probes Airbnb, Anysphere’s Use of Chinese AI Models

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    House Republicans are investigating American technology companies’ use of Chinese artificial intelligence models

13. Google Search queries hit an ‘all time high’ last quarter

    The Verge · 2026-04-29

    Google Search queries hit an "all time high" in the first quarter of 2026, according to a statement from CEO Sundar Pichai published as part of Alphabet's earnings on Wednesday.

14. Families of Tumbler Ridge shooting victims sue OpenAI

    Engadget · 2026-04-29

    Sam Altman apologized for not notifying local authorities last week.

15. Taylor Swift Wants to Trademark Her Likeness. These TikTok Deepfake Ads Show Why

    WIRED · 2026-04-29

    Researchers show scammers are using AI-manipulated footage of celebrity interviews to trick users into sharing their personal data.

16. Amazon Reports Biggest Cloud Sales Jump Since 2022 on AI Demand

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit posted its fastest quarterly growth in more than three years, bolstered by new data center capacity and an increasing slice of business from Anthropic

17. Stripe’s Push to Bring AI to Payments, Commerce

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Stripe announced several new AI tools Wednesday, including a new partnership with Google, aimed at building AI tools for payments and commerce.

18. Microsoft Projects ‘Modest’ Cloud Acceleration Amid AI Jitters

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Microsoft Corp. said cloud computing revenue and spending on AI infrastructure will accelerate this year, a bid to convince investors that its huge bets on artificial intelligence

19. Alphabet Sales Beat Estimates on Google Cloud, AI Customers

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Alphabet Inc. reported high demand for its cloud and artificial intelligence offerings, boosting shares and giving investors confidence that its unprecedented investments in AI

20. Gemini can now generate files, including Microsoft Word and LaTeX documents

    Engadget · 2026-04-29

    No need to copy and paste Gemini's outputs anymore.

21. Musk Recounts Losing Trust in Motives of OpenAI’s Other Leaders

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Elon Musk spent hours Wednesday telling a jury about his falling out with the other leaders of OpenAI over what he described as their desire to “get rich” off a project that was

22. The Google TV platform will soon display YouTube Shorts videos directly on the home page

    Engadget · 2026-04-29

    There are also new generative AI tools, because they must be stuffed into everything.

23. Is AI video just a prequel? Runway’s CEO thinks world models are next

    TechCrunch · 2026-04-29

    AI-generated video has gone from novelty to creative tool almost overnight, and Runway has a front row seat to the shift.

24. The Abstraction Fallacy: Why AI can simulate but not instantiate consciousness

    Hacker News · 2026-04-29

    DeepMind researchers argue that current AI architectures, particularly those based on large language models like Google's own Gemini

25. Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation five months after its last big raise

    TechCrunch · 2026-04-29

    The AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has raised $100 million, led by Sequoia, months after raising a previous $100 million.

26. Mistral's Le Chat spreads Iran war disinformation in 60 percent of leading prompts

    The Decoder · 2026-04-29

    A NewsGuard audit found that Mistral's Le Chat repeats state-sponsored disinformation about the Iran war about half the time.

27. All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman

    The Verge · 2026-05-01

    The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece.

28. Musk laments being a ‘fool’ for funding OpenAI on day two of court testimony

    The Guardian AI · 2026-04-29

    Lawyers for Musk, the world’s richest person, sought to paint him as a tech pioneer who wanted to aid humanity After a dramatic first day of opening statements and testimony from

29. Ubuntu’s AI plans have Linux users looking for a ‘kill switch’

    The Verge · 2026-04-29

    Canonical's plan to add AI features to Ubuntu has some users asking for "a version of Ubuntu that does not include these features," while others say they'll stick with older

30. Apple to Add AI-Powered Photo-Editing Tools

    Bloomberg · 2026-04-29

    Apple is planning a major overhaul of the built-in photo-editing features, powered by its Apple Intelligence platform, according to people familiar with the plans.