OpenAI’s Big Plans, Mind Maps With Superpowers, and One Million People Joining ChatGPT in an Hour (Whaaaat?!)

So, the folks at OpenAI just closed a snack-sized $40 billion funding round. Yup. Billion. With a B. That’s enough to buy like, ALL the pizza rolls on Earth and still have change left for a moon base. But instead of building a snack factory on Mars, they’ll be using the cash to power up their super-smart AI models and build big shiny data centers (which frankly sound just as magical).

And get this — OpenAI’s about to drop its first open source language model in ages! They’re calling it “open weights,” which is like giving us all the recipe to their secret AI sauce. Or, well... most of the recipe. They’re probably gonna blur out Grandma GPT’s special herbs and spices. 😏

But it doesn’t stop there! Sam Altman (that’s OpenAI’s head wizard) said their new model will have built-in reasoning skills and YOU could run it on your own computer — no cloud required! Aka: your laptop is officially about to feel way cooler than it actually is.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT added a million new users in just one hour. That’s more people than the entire population of Rhode Island joining at once. Turns out their new image generator was so good people couldn’t help but get in on the fun. Sam Altman even asked everyone to stop using it because the demand was melting their servers faster than a marshmallow in a microwave.

Runway’s Hollywood-Ready AI

Another superstar of the AI world — Runway — launched its Gen-4 video model! If you’ve ever made a video using AI and ended up with characters who magically change clothes, faces, or species mid-scene (yes, that happens), you’ll be happy to hear those weird glitches are gone. Gen-4 can now keep characters and backgrounds consistent like a pro movie director with a magical clipboard.

So now AI-generated movies actually look like... you know, movies. 🎬

Doctors, Drugs, and Digital Avatars

Some other major updates from the land of artificial intelligence:

Isomorphic Labs, backed by Google, raised $600 million to make AI-powered drugs. Not the illegal kind. The kind that could one day help cure diseases quicker than you can pronounce “pharmaceutical.”
Apple is cooking up a health coach called... well, basically iDoctor. It’s gonna snoop on your sleep, your snacks, and your steps to recommend ways you can be slightly less of a couch potato.
Amazon launched a shiny new AI model called Nova Act. It can browse the web and do stuff for you completely on its own. Basically it's like a really smart assistant who doesn’t complain about Mondays.

NotebookLM = Wild Mind Mapping Fun

Need help organizing your brain? Google’s NotebookLM can now whip up mind maps from a bunch of stuff you throw at it like PDFs, YouTube links, or your sleep-deprived ramblings in Google Docs. Click “Mind Map” after adding your sources and boom — you’ve got yourself a glorious bubble-o-ideas to explore. Like a visual treasure hunt for your thoughts.

Other Cool Things To Know Today:

Microsoft added fancy AI agents to their Fabric platform to help companies analyze data without needing a degree in math sorcery.
Apple’s Vision Pro headset now lets you rewrite texts or create selfies with emojis using your voice. Say goodbye to typing with your thumbs like a 2006 caveman.
AMD dropped nearly $5 billion buying ZT Systems in a move targeted at beefing up AI data centers. Because AI needs a lot of snacks—erm, servers—to stay happy.

2 AI Tools That Are Super Helpful (And Also Very Cool):

JuliusAI – Wanna talk to your spreadsheets and have them talk back (politely)? JuliusAI lets you ask questions of your data and builds quick, pretty charts without breaking a sweat. Great for people who find Excel more confusing than quantum physics.
Spiritme – Turn yourself into an avatar and record videos where the digital you communicates with charm, swagger, and zero hair out of place. Perfect for sales videos, birthday greetings, or convincing your boss that AI YOU should run the next team meeting.

So yeah, between funding booms, million-user stampedes and AI robots giving workout tips, it’s safe to say the future is arriving fashionably fast.