Do OpenAI’s models dream of copyrighted content?

Sunday, April 6, 2025 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments

Sunday, April 6, 2025

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To what extent has OpenAI trained its models on copyrighted content? And is that training protected as fair use?

These are big questions that will be debated as the company faces lawsuits from authors, publishers, and other rights holders. But a new study co-authored by researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Copenhagen, and Stanford may at least shed some light on the issue, according to Kyle Wiggers.

The researchers argue that by asking GPT-4 to guess words that are "high surprisal" (namely, uncommon in the context of a larger work), they found evidence that the model has been trained on popular fiction e-books, as well as New York Times articles.

Keep reading to see what else TechCrunch is covering this weekend.

Weekend news and opinion

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Is San Francisco bouncing back? The city's new mayor, Dan Lurie, spoke at our StrictlyVC San Francisco event, where he highlighted his administration's efforts to make sure SF stays at the center of the startup ecosystem, particularly when it comes to AI.

Flexport CEO still sees opportunity for global trade: Also at StrictlyVC, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen discussed the Trump administration's tariff plans and made the case for remaining optimistic (at least in the long term) about international trade.

All the latest tech layoffs: Layoffs hit a broad swath of tech companies in March, from Block to HelloFresh to Sequoia Capital — to say nothing of the big cuts at government agencies like NASA. To help readers stay current on these changes, we've updated TechCrunch's comprehensive layoff tracker.

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What else we're reading 📗

Politico takes a broader look at how Silicon Valley is reacting to Elon Musk's work with the Trump administration. Apparently a number of (largely anonymous) sources say the industry's liberal-leaning corners remain fearful of criticizing Musk's efforts to dismantle huge swaths of the federal government.

Also, Defector looks at how we're littering Earth with space trash.

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Before you go 🎬

They made a "M3GAN" sequel, and it looks very dumb (in a good way).

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Meta says goodbye to its fact-checkers

Friday, April 4, 2025 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments

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By Dominic-Madori Davis

Friday, April 4, 2025

Happy Friday, y'all. I'm back with the afternoon rundown. We have news of President Trump extending the deadline for the TikTok ban and some new AI developments from Microsoft and Google. Let's dive in.

TechCrunch Top 3

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😭 Well, the end has come: Meta is officially getting rid of its U.S. fact-checkers come Monday. The company previously announced it would get rid of fact-checks back in January, when it also said it would loosen rules around content moderation.

🤳 In some not-quite-shocking news: President Trump announced an extension to the deadline for the TikTok ban by 75 days. He announced the deadline extension via his Truth Social account, stating that he would sign an executive order to give more time for a deal to finalize.

🚀 Turbine takeoff: Debt platform Turbine raises $22 million in a round co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital to give limited partners access to funds using fund stakes as collateral.

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Afternoon must-reads

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🛑 Usage caps: GitHub Copilot might get pricey for some users. It announced on Friday a limit on actions that can be taken for new models without having a subscription.

🎫 Speaking of a Copilot: Microsoft is teaching its Copilot to peruse the web for users and complete tasks such as making reservations or booking tickets. It can also remember things about its users, just like ChatGPT.

📈 Prices go up: Google announced API pricing for its Gemini 2.5 Pro, making it a bit more expensive for developers compared to Google's other AI models.

☁️ Obsessed with Bluesky? Well, we have the rundown of other consumer-facing apps seeking to give users more control over their social media and personal data. Many of these apps are built either on top of Bluesky or its underlying protocol.

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Around the web

💰 Tariff troubles: The impact of Trump's tariffs is being felt around the nation. Klarna and Medline, which were both looking to IPO this year, have postponed their public offering debuts as the tariffs rock the global markets, according to the Financial Times. Those companies aren't the only ones taking a pause.

🏞️ Pondering parks: Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Elon Musk is looking to build a park in Austin, featuring everything from walking trails to a playground and tennis courts. His footprint down in Texas has been growing, the outlet said, as he funds schools, buys houses, and tries to incorporate a city.