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OpenAI faces a major shakeup with the sudden departure of several key figures. Co-founder and reinforcement learning pioneer John Schulman heads to Anthropic, President Greg Brockman takes a mysterious extended leave, Head of Product Peter Deng exits after a short tenure. Let's unpack...

Today’s Summary:

• 🔄 OpenAI sees leadership exodus

• 🍏 Test of new Apple AI features

• 🤖 Figure 02 AI robot

• 🧩 OpenAI structured outputs in API

• 📹 YouTuber sues OpenAI over scraping

• 🎬 Gen-3 Alpha Video AI new feature

• 2 new tools

TOP STORY

John Schulman and Peter Deng quit OpenAI, Greg Brockman takes extended leave

The Summary: OpenAI faces a leadership shakeup as two key figures leave and another takes an extended leave. Co-founder and research scientist John Schulman quits to rival Anthropic, while President and co-founder Greg Brockman takes an extended leave. Head of Product Peter Deng also exits after joining last year.

Key details:

• John Schulman, co-founder and scientific leader, known for inventing leading reinforcement learning algorithms, joins rival Anthropic citing desire to focus on AI alignment

• Greg Brockman, President and co-founder, takes an extended leave until the end of the year

• Peter Deng, Head of Product, from Meta and Uber, departs after a short tenure

Why it matters: These departures, following other high-profile exits like Sutskever and Karpathy, could challenge OpenAI’s ability to maintain its edge in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, and raise concerns about internal stability and leadership motivations.

APPLE

First look at new Apple AI features

The Summary: Early tests of Apple AI features in iOS 18.1 developer preview are showcasing useful capabilities, such as AI-generated summaries for emails and texts, priority detection, smart replies, focus mode enhancements, and audio transcripts. These features are impressing early testers with their seamless integration.

Key details:

• AI summaries appear on the lock screen for quick email previews
  

  

  Source: Android Authority

• Mail app gains AI-powered email thread summaries
  

  

  Source: Tom’s Guide

• Smart replies in Mail and Messages generate context-appropriate responses

• Voice recordings can be summarized in Notes.
  

  

  Source: Tom’s Guide

• Features work offline and are free

• Require iPhone 15 Pro or Mac M1+

• Public release expected in the fall

Why it matters: These new features could put Apple ahead of Google in smartphone AI functionality. By integrating AI deeply into core apps, Apple is bringing useful “invisible AI” into daily interactions with smart devices.

FIGURE AI

OpenAI-powered Figure 02 Robot Debuts

The Summary: Figure AI unveiled its advanced humanoid robot Figure 02, featuring speech-to-speech conversation powered by OpenAI, an onboard vision language model, and upgraded hardware. Figure aims to create the first commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot for use in factories and homes, targeting a market worth trillions.

Key details:

• Custom AI models enable speech-to-speech conversations

• Onboard vision language model for fast visual reasoning

• 4th gen hands with 16 degrees of freedom and human strength

• Battery pack increases energy capacity to 20 hours

• Six cameras provide advanced vision capabilities

Why it matters: Humanoid robots could transform labor markets and daily life. The first successful product could address workforce shortages and change how we handle undesirable jobs, leading to new possibilities in human-robot interaction and economic productivity.

QUICK NEWS

Quick news

• OpenAI introduces structured outputs in the API

• YouTuber files class action suit over OpenAI scrape of creators transcripts

• Gen-3 Alpha now supports using an image as last frame

TOOLS

🥇 New tools

• LangGraph Studio - The first agent IDE

• Me.bot - Turn your ideas into an AI life coach