Between 2023 and 2025, I authored Fortune's Eye on AI newsletter, packing each week's issue with sharp analysis of the latest news and research unfolding in the world of AI — and AI's impact on our world.
Together, the almost 100 issues chronicle the early, formative days of the AI boom. The complete collection, shared together here, explores startups and enterprises racing to find a place in the emerging AI market, governments around the world reacting (or not) to the technology, the technical evolution of AI technologies, what it means to be human in AI world, and the brewing tensions between Big AI and everyone else.
Highlights
AI’s big shift from ‘model-forward’ innovation to ‘product-forward’
DALL-E and was blown away’: How artists are using AI to create very offline art
ChatGPT’s ‘memory’ experiment offers a glimpse into what AI assistants will become
The Rabbit R1 is an example of the AI industry’s “test your products in the real world” ethos
Senate AI group punts on regulation while urging the government to spend billions on the tech ASAP
Complete Archive
A new wildfire prediction AI model shows why data rules EDITOR'S PICK DATA RESEARCH
OpenAI and Microsoft add new image generation and AI agent features—and showcase their platform advantage BIG AI
Some AI agent customers say reality doesn’t match the hype AGENTS ENTERPRISE
AI models take on EQ, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and mountain climbing HUMANS & AI ANALYSIS
Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet is the most secure model yet, an independent audit suggests. EXCLUSIVE SECURITY
Amazon’s new Alexa+ may be its last, best chance to catch up in AI—and show the world that an AI hardware device can be a hit with consumers HARDWARE ANALYSIS
The downfall of AI startup Humane reveals the perils of the AI ‘race’ STARTUPS AI RACE
People increasingly view chatbots as if they were friends, just not necessarily super-smart ones
Model ML, a financial research startup automating Wall Street’s grunt work, emerges from stealth
Google’s Gemini is helping hackers work faster but hasn’t unlocked new attacks—yet EXCLUSIVE SECURITY RESEARCH
The race to build more AI infrastructure dominates tech—and the U.S. presidential transition AI RACE ANALYSIS
Facial recognition systems are flawed and biased. Police departments are using them anyway. ETHICS INDUSTRY
Two misuses of popular AI tools spark the question: When do we blame the tools? EDITOR'S PICK ETHICS ANALYSIS
Cybersecurity leaders scramble to educate employees on generative AI threats EDITOR'S PICK SECURITY
— 2024 —
Bias in medical algorithms is one of AI’s long-running issues. Will new guidelines ignite action? INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
It’s ‘Fast and Furious’ meets ‘Groundhog Day’ in AI AI RACE ANALYSIS
Corpora.ai’s AI ‘research engine’ creates 8-page reports citing hundreds of sources in seconds EXCLUSIVE STARTUPS
The Rabbit R1 is an example of the AI industry’s “test your products in the real world” ethos
EDITOR'S PICK STARTUPS HARDWARE
Teens are using AI, but are worried about what it means for their futures HUMANS & AI MODELS
The next time you go under the knife, there’s a good chance a robot will hold the scalpel EDITOR'S PICK HARDWARE
Big Tech’s latest earnings show the AI spending spree isn’t over AI RACE NEWS
‘Can AI be an artist?’ A Sotheby’s auction tests the answer, while human artists protest AI training HUMANS & AI ANALYSIS
OpenAI is quietly pitching its products to the U.S. military and national security establishment ETHICS GOVERNMENT
Nobel win for Google DeepMind cofounder shows progress towards vision of ‘AI scientists’ RESEARCH NEWS
Big AI thins out the competition as startups quit the race to build large language models EDITOR'S PICK STARTUPS BIG AI
The furious pace of AI model releases underscores AI’s rapid progress, but sews confusion AI RACE ANALYSIS
Gavin Newsom’s desk overflows with AI bills as state leads the charge on regulation GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
Australian lawmakers force Meta to admit only regulation will force it to offer AI training opt-out GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
Anthropic joins OpenAI in going after business customers BIG AI ENTERPRISE
Generative AI is accelerating the spread of fake reviews and malicious apps EXCLUSIVE SECURITY RESEARCH
AI makes self-driving cars possible. So why is the industry keeping its distance? INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Microsoft’s AI Copilot can be weaponized as an ‘automated phishing machine,’ but the problem is bigger than one company SECURITY RESEARCH
Judges, courts, and lawyers are going wild for AI. Now the UN wants to rein it in ETHICS INDUSTRY
OpenAI settles into its VC era BIG AI STARTUPS
AI’s Olympic moment says a lot about the technology’s potential—and its perils ANALYSIS
DeepL, long a leader in translation tech, finally embraces LLMs STARTUPS MODELS
Gen-AI-powered textbooks are rolling out to over 1,000 universities as the tech stirs up education. INDUSTRY NEWS
Original sins and dirty secrets: GenAI has an ethics problem. These are the three things it most urgently needs to fix EDITOR'S PICK HUMANS & AI
Generative AI is coming to the emergency room INDUSTRY NEWS
Anthropic calls for AI red teaming to be standardized MODELS NEWS
A UN Report on AI and human rights highlights dangers of the AI revolution—and our own power to prevent substantial harms EDITOR'S PICK HUMANS & AI ANALYSIS
AI companies are competing for talent with more than pay packages and GPU access. Their position on AI safety may be starting to matter too AI RACE ETHICS
Amazon readies Alexa for its second act—but it has an uphill battle HARDWARE ANALYSIS
Senate AI group punts on regulation while urging the government to spend billions on the tech ASAP
Connecticut swings big on AI regulation—and strikes out GOVERNMENT NEWS
LLMs walked so LAMs can run MODELS ANALYSIS
AI for drug discovery draws a $1 billion launch—and a lot of hope STARTUPS NEWS
U.S. tech companies dominate the generative AI boom—and the cost of model training explains why, a new Stanford University report shows BIG AI I RESEARCH
‘I discovered DALL-E and was blown away’: How artists are using AI to create very offline art EDITOR'S PICK HUMANS & AI
Musicians are up in arms about generative AI. And Stability AI’s new music generator shows why they are right to be ETHICS ANALYSIS
Good luck keeping up with the whirlwind of new AI regulation GOVERNMENT NEWS
Can AI hype fuel an IPO resurgence? ANALYSIS
The EU AI Act passed. Now the real work begins GOVERNMENT NEWS
AI watermarks aren’t just easy to defeat—they could make disinformation worse SECURITY ANALYSIS
Vimeo launches new AI video tools to help employees breeze through meetings. Will it usher in the golden age of asynchronous work? EXCLUSIVE ENTERPRISE
OpenAI’s Sora has left AI experts either enthused or skeptical. It’s left most everyone else terrified EDITOR'S PICK MODELS HUMANS & AI
ChatGPT’s ‘memory’ experiment offers a glimpse into what AI assistants will become EDITOR'S PICK HUMANS & AI
Generative AI is increasingly being used to defraud businesses of big money and no one is prepared SECURITY
Microsoft reaps its AI rewards. Its customers? Not so much BIG AI ENTERPRISE
AI’s big shift from ‘model-forward’ innovation to ‘product-forward’. MODELS ANALYSIS
Samsung says its latest smartphone marks a new dawn for mobile AI, but the reality doesn’t quite match the hype HARDWARE REVIEW
Lawmakers declare war on deepfakes that threaten to upend this year’s presidential election GOVERNMENT
Attention AI experts: The White House wants you GOVERNMENT HUMANS & AI
— 2023 —
2023’s most pleasant surprise: U.S. Senators and AI experts’ productive discussions. GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
AI’s top research conference morphed into a recruiting extravaganza, summing up a wild 2023 RESEARCH
Multimodal AI puts on quite a show, but it’s still in its infancy MODELS ANALYSIS
Meta and IBM’s new AI Alliance wants to redefine the ‘open’ debate that’s fracturing the AI community BIG AI
AI was at the top of the agenda at the African Union’s summit. GOVERNMENT
Upended overnight, the red-hot generative AI market is suddenly up for grabs BIG AI ANALYSIS
OpenAI’s next big bet: Custom GPTs for everyone. MODELS ANALYSIS
Cops are falling in love with AI, and it’s much deeper than facial recognition. ETHICS
The ‘World Cup’ of AI policy kicks off GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
The hottest thing in AI is something called RAG. DATA
AI’s big players all flunked a major transparency assessment of their LLMs MODELS
The truth about how the AI sausage is being made in Washington. GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
The promise, and perils, of generative AI’s visual realm are coming into focus MODELS ANALYSIS
ChatGPT plugs into the internet’s real-time data firehose—again DATA ANALYSIS
Will U.S. states figure out how to regulate AI before the feds? GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
AI’s leap from the cloud to your laptop could fix some of the technology’s weak spots SECURITY ANALYSIS
The not-so-subtle self-interest behind tech warnings not to ‘stifle innovation’ BIG AI ANALYSIS
The U.S. government is getting serious about understanding AI, but it’s limiting who’s in the conversation. GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
ChatGPT’s move to lure businesses into the AI waters gets mixed reactions BIG AI ENTERPRISE
The AI industry confronts life after data scraping EDITOR'S PICK DATA ANALYSIS
Meet Apollo, your new humanoid coworker HUMANS & AI HARDWARE
The ugly truth about ‘open’ AI models championed by Meta, Google, and other Big Tech players BIG AI ANALYSIS
Biden’s executive order on China shows why AI is so different from other technology GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS
Generative AI’s hallucination problem has companies contemplating if they want to ‘move fast and break things’ yet again EDITOR'S PICK ETHICS
A deadly Uber self-driving car crash 5 years ago exposed AI workplace issues that businesses still need to resolve ETHICS HARDWARE