Bringing together a few news items, we analyze the politics of scale in AI. First, OpenAI has one of the largest funding rounds ever at $6.6 billion raised for a valuation of $157 billion—with our boy Masayoshi finally getting his taste of OpenAI by investing $500 million. Second, CA Governor Gruesome Newsom vetoed an AI safety bill, which would have put stricter regulations on the largest class of AI models. Third, an excellent new paper offers a blistering critique of the bigger-is-better paradigm in AI.

••• SoftBank to invest $500mn in OpenAI https://www.ft.com/content/b1efdc2a-4dbc-40cc-920e-2cf389d261e8
••• In California, no AI bill is safe https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/in-california-no-ai-bill-is-safe
••• Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14160

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