SF News Humpday Headlines: OpenAI Lawsuit Against Musk Moves Forward A judge has ruled that a lawsuit can proceed from OpenAI against Elon Musk; Air Canada says it will lock out striking flight attendants; and this Trump crime crackdown in DC already looks idiotic and dangerous.
Arts & Entertainment People Are Spotting That OpenAI Movie Being Shot at Locations Around San Francisco A Hollywood comedy about OpenAI’s firing and rehiring of Sam Altman as CEO is now being shot around San Francisco, and people are spotting big stars like Jason Schwartzman and Monica Barbaro in Dolores Park, the Marina, and SoMa.
Business & Tech Sam Altman Warns of Coming AI-Created 'Fraud Crisis' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a fairly dire warning about how some personal security apparatuses — particularly things we use to guard our bank accounts and the like — are highly vulnerable to AI-based fraud.
Business & Tech Meta's AI Efforts Include Huge Privacy Flub; Sam Altman Says Meta's Been Trying to Poach OpenAI Staff It looks like we're back to "move fast and break things" at Meta, with Meta.ai appearing to be off to a troubled start, exposing users' very private search queries in a bizarre public feed. And the company has reportedly been offering $100 million signing bonuses to OpenAI staff?!
Business & Tech OpenAI Lands Government Contract, Reportedly Might Want Divorce From Microsoft The tech world drama of the week comes via a new report about growing tensions in the relationship between OpenAI and its major backer Microsoft, and today we learn that OpenAI has just landed a $200 million government contract.
Arts & Entertainment Hollywood Making a Movie About That OpenAI Sam Altman Firing Drama, and It Will Be Partially Shot In SF The movie industry trade publications are buzzing that SF will be the backdrop of a forthcoming movie about Sam Altman getting fired and rehired at OpenAI, and it’s likely going to be a comedy starring Andrew Garfield.
Business & Tech Former Apple Designer Jony Ive's Secretive Startup Working on AI Hardware of Some Kind, OpenAI Acquiring It A big deal in the local tech world was announced Wednesday, as OpenAI is reportedly acquiring Johnny Ive's secretive hardware startup io for $6.5 billion.
Business & Tech OpenAI’s Latest Hire Is… 95-Year-Old Labor Activist Dolores Huerta? Yes, artificial intelligence company OpenAI just hired longtime rabble-rouser Dolores Huerta as a member of their temporary philanthropic advisory board, though it could be a PR move to butter up regulators as OpenAI restructures to a for-profit company.
Business & Tech OpenAI's Feud With Musk Escalates With New Court Filing OpenAI has asked a federal court to get estranged billionaire co-founder Elon Musk to stop publicly bad-mouthing the company — which, they say, is unlawful and is doing harm to the company.
SF News Saturday Links: OpenAI’s Viral Studio Ghibli Generator Takes Dark Turn With White House ICE Meme The White House used ChatGBT's Studio Ghibli generator to create a whimsical image of a real ICE arrest; there's a pronatalist matchmaking conference in Austin this weekend; and Canadian-Asian supermarket, T&T is coming to SF in 2026.
Business & Tech Sam Altman’s Other Startup Reportedly Looking to Lease 60,000 Square Feet In Mission Rock OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has another startup you may not have heard about called World that controversially collects biometric data, and it’s in talks to scoop up a reported two floors of a newly opened office building in Mission Rock.
SF News Medical Examiner's Office Says Autopsy Confirms That OpenAI Whistleblower Died By Suicide SF’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has submitted their autopsy report, and it says the November 26 death of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though this may not satisfy his family who have been convinced otherwise.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Bids to Buy OpenAI for $97.4 Billion, Sam Altman Laughs It Off A team of investors led by Elon Musk put in a bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, a fraction of the company’s value. OpenAI founder Sam Altman merely responded, “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
SF News Family of OpenAI Whistleblower Sues SFPD, Demands Access to Investigation Records While the SFPD ruled that the November death of SF engineer and OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was a suicide, his family has their doubts. And now they’re suing the SFPD for the release of the case’s investigative records.
SF News Day Around the Bay: OpenAI Says DeepSeek May Have Used Their Tech to Build Their AI Model OpenAI says DeepSeek may have improperly harvested data from their tech; a San Mateo man has filed suit against Amazon for secretly tracking customers; and the brother of Oakland rapper Too Short was killed in a shooting this morning.
Business & Tech Parents of OpenAI Whistleblower Don't Believe He Died By Suicide, Order Second Autopsy There is a bit more intrigue around the tragic death late last month of former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his Lower Haight apartment of an apparent suicide.
Business & Tech OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead In His SF Apartment Three months after publicly accusing his former employer, OpenAI, of infringing on copyrights when training its AI chatbot, 26-year-old Suchir Balaji was found dead in his Lower Haight apartment.
Business & Tech OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Sucks Up to Trump With $1 Million Inauguration Donation It’s a little awkward for incoming mayor Daniel Lurie that his top transition adviser is now a Donald Trump donor, as AI titan Sam Altman has donated $1 million to the Donald Trump inauguration, obviously hoping to curry favor.
SF Politics Daniel Lurie Names OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to His Mayoral Transition Team San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie named some heavy hitters to his transition team in a Monday morning announcement, and the heaviest of these hitters is none other than OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Business & Tech OpenAI Raises All-Time Record Largest VC Round Ever, But Still Hemorrhaging Money Like Mad Is it a “success” when your company rakes in an all-time record $6.6 billion venture capital round, but expects to lose nearly that same amount of money this year? Welcome to SF’s new AI economy, where OpenAI just raised the largest VC round of all time.
Business & Tech Some Upheaval at OpenAI as Company Announces Plan to Become a For-Profit Enterprise OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made some public comments at a conference in Italy on Thursday indicating that the company intends to restructure and let go of its nonprofit structure, but he said the departures of several key executives a day earlier were unrelated.
SF Politics President Biden to Host Global AI Safety Summit In San Francisco In November In late November, when, god willing, we will have a new president-elect whose name is not Trump, President Joe Biden will be gathering AI experts together in San Francisco for a global AI safety summit.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Another OpenAI Co-Founder Has Taken Their Leave A cause of death has been revealed in the murder of a 25-year-old woman found in the Santa Cruz Mountains; Contra Costa County recommends masking up again; and one OpenAI co-founder has taken a leave of absence while another has decamped to a competitor.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Flips Out Over Apple's Deal With OpenAI, Threatens to Ban All Apple Devices In his ongoing quest to convince the world that OpenAI is up to no good and that only he can build the world's best and most ethical generative AI models, Elon Musk sounded off on Xitter Monday in the wake of Apple's announcement that it is partnering with OpenAI.
Business & Tech Nvidia Stock Rally Made the Company More Valuable Than Apple This Week, But Government Antitrust Probe Looming Santa Clara-based chipmaker Nvidia briefly toppled Apple as the second most-valuable company in the US after a market rally on Wednesday, but the feds may have Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI in their sights for an antitrust investigation.
