This Week in AI: Show Us The (AI) Money

Photo: Dan Ackerman

Earlier this month, on Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter were on the way. AI investors are in their own Groundhog Day, seeing the hype and investment cycle continue unabated. 

Anthropic just finished raising another $30 billion in funding, increasing its market value to more than $380 billion, according to Reuters. The move, CNBC reminds, is yet another sign that the largest checks continue flowing to the biggest AI startups. 

The move comes as Anthropic launched plugins for its Cowork product, which automates work using the company's Claude AI tools. Now, it was gaining capabilities for specific industries, including legal, finance and biotech research. Semafor wrote: "Obituaries for big law firms were written. Goodbye consultants." 

But some new jobs data suggests improvement, and researchers at Harvard University suggested one reason may be that AI tools consistently intensify work, rather than reducing it. "While leaders are focused on promised productivity gains, they may find themselves surprised by the complex reality." 

At the same time more executives continue to predict AI's spread. This time it's Microsoft, whose head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman, told the Financial Times that "White-collar work, here you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months."

T-Mobile brings live AI translation to calls

Many phones and even earbuds now have the ability to live-translate conversations or for us in person and over the internet, bringing us a step closer to that promised universal translator of Star Trek, or the famed Babel fish from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Now, T-Mobile says its network can provide translations too, through a new feature being tested this spring for any phone using the company's post-paid plans.

CNET reports that users will be able to turn on live translation during a call by typing star-eight-seven-star on their keypad, and that only one participant in the call needs to be a T-Mobile subscriber.

The feature can also detect if both speakers switch to the same language, and automatically stop acting as a go-between.

"We have done a lot of benchmarks for AI-powered translations," T-Mobile CTO John Saw said, according to CNET. "It matches the accuracy of all the established services."

ChatGPT ads are here

A week ago, Anthropic threw epic (and expensive) shade at OpenAI when it released a series of spots to play during the Super Bowl, highlighting that the ChatGPT maker had said it planned to bring advertising to its popular AI. The message was clear: OpenAI is looking for ways to actually make money off its technology.

A day later, OpenAI followed through, announcing it had indeed begun testing ads for logged-in adult users on "Free" and entry-level $8-per-month "Go" subscriptions in the U.S.

"Keeping the Free and Go tiers fast and reliable requires significant infrastructure and ongoing investment," the still-unprofitable company said, while reiterating promises that sponsors will be clearly labeled, and the program will not influence ChatGPT answers. "Ads help fund that work, supporting broader access to AI through higher quality free and low cost options, and enabling us to keep improving the intelligence and capabilities we offer over time."

A parody account dedicated to joking about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commented online, "We call it adsGPT."

Of course, the company added, "If you prefer not to see ads, you can upgrade to our Plus or Pro plans." Users can also change a setting in the free tier to reduce access each day in exchange for an ad-free experience.

It'll be interesting to watch how people respond to these ads, particularly after Anthropic made such a big deal about them in its Super Bowl spots. Researchers say OpenAI's subscription revenue isn't enough to make up for the costs of its AI, and competition from other companies including Google and Anthropic, is only intensifying.

Meanwhile, OpenAI's other bet on hardware may not arrive until next year. In a court filing reported on by Wired, OpenAI said it doesn't expect the fruits of its hardware development partnership with famed Apple Designer Jony Ive to arrive until 2027.

White House seeking data center pact

The Trump Administration is reportedly seeking ways to reduce the burden new data center construction is putting on community resources. AI's seemingly insatiable need for energy has already become such a hot topic that big tech companies are investing billions of dollars in new projects including nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, electricity rates in some communities have jumped and that trend will likely continue as data centers make up 40% of electricity demand growth, according to CNBC.

Last month, the White House signed a pact with several states to force tech companies to foot the bill for new energy plants. Politico says one draft includes provisions seeking to reduce strain on energy and water resources, in addition to anything else that might "undermine grid reliability."

We'll likely hear more about this in the coming months, as Axios reports a growing number of politicians intend to put AI regulation at the heart of their 2026 midterm campaigns in an effort to make it "a defining issue for the next Congress."

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Ian Sherr is a widely published journalist who's covered nearly every major tech company from Apple to Netflix, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more for CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and CNET.