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Top stories today:
- OpenAI board eyed Anthropic merger, Ilya deposition reveals
- Google pulls Gemma after senator alleges false misconduct claims
- Humans& ā led by ex-xAI researcher ā said to be raising $1B at $5B
- Human Interest, offering 401(k) platform, raises $100M at $3B
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Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing todayās newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. OpenAI board eyed Anthropic merger with Dario Amodei as CEO, Ilya deposition reveals
Representational image generated using ChatGPT.
Nov. 2023: The board reached out to Anthropic with a merger proposal, former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever said in his deposition.
This came shortly after firing Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
Altman repeatedly demonstrated a āpersistent pattern of lying,ā Sutskever alleged.
He even pitted Daniela Amodei against Mira Murati, Sutskever claimed.
Dario Amodei wanted Brockman fired and himself in charge of all research, Sutskever said.
OpenAI is covering Sutskeverās legal bills, he acknowledged.
Sutskeverās deposition, part of the Musk v. OpenAI lawsuit, lasted ~10 hours.
Sam Altman and Elon traded fresh jabs over OpenAI
ā[N]ow you have a great AI company and so do we,ā Altman wrote on X, responding to Elon Muskās Sat. comments.
Altman earlier posted about trying to cancel a Tesla order.
2. Google pulls Gemma from AI Studio after Sen. Blackburn alleges false misconduct claims
Gemma fabricated sexual misconduct allegations against her, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said.
Hallucinations are a known issue, and Google is āworking hard to mitigate them,ā Googleās VP for Government Affairs and Public Policy Markham Erickson responded.
Gemmaās fabrications are ānot a harmless āhallucinationāā but rather āan act of defamation produced and distributed by a Google-owned AI model,ā Blackburn said in her letter.
āWe never intended this to be a consumer tool or model, or to be used this way,ā Google said.
Gemma models are still available through the API.
The new $100K visa fee is shaking up U.S. hiring.
For enterprises relying on global talent, it means higher costs, slower hiring, and growing skill gaps. The smartest teams are adapting fast, building distributed squads across Latin America that match U.S. quality, align on time zones, and skip visa friction.
The H-1B Talent Crunch 2025 report breaks down whatās changing, whoās most affected, and how to stay ahead with smarter global hiring.
*Disclaimer: We have equity in Athyna.
4. Humans& ā led by ex-xAI researcher ā said to be raising $1B at $5B valuation
