March 14, 2025 News
Google to Replace Assistant with Gemini Across All Devices
Google has announced plans to phase out Google Assistant on Android and replace it with Gemini across mobile devices, tablets, cars, and connected accessories over the coming months. The company is enhancing Gemini with previously Assistant-exclusive features like music playback, timers, and lock screen functionality, presenting it as a more advanced successor with greater capabilities.
Skynet Chance (+0.03%): The widespread deployment of more advanced AI assistants across multiple device categories represents a significant expansion of AI's presence in daily life, creating more dependency on these systems. This mainstreaming of more capable AI increases the potential surface area for unexpected behaviors or misaligned incentives at scale.
Skynet Date (-1 days): Google's aggressive timeline for replacing Assistant with Gemini indicates confidence in deploying more advanced AI systems to consumers rapidly, suggesting technological readiness is progressing faster than expected for widespread integration of advanced AI capabilities.
AGI Progress (+0.04%): While the replacement itself doesn't represent a fundamental breakthrough, Google's confidence in Gemini's superior capabilities across diverse contexts (phones, cars, TVs, speakers) suggests meaningful progress in creating more general-purpose AI systems that can handle varied tasks across different domains.
AGI Date (-1 days): The rapid deployment of Gemini as a replacement for Assistant across Google's entire ecosystem indicates that more advanced AI capabilities are being integrated into consumer products faster than might have been expected, potentially accelerating the timeline for increasingly general AI systems.
Chinese Government Increases Oversight of AI Startup DeepSeek
The Chinese government has reportedly placed homegrown AI startup DeepSeek under closer supervision following the company's successful launch of its open-source reasoning model R1 in January. New restrictions include travel limitations for some employees, with passports being held by DeepSeek's parent company, and government screening of potential investors, signaling China's strategic interest in protecting its AI technology from foreign influence.
Skynet Chance (+0.05%): Increased government control over leading AI companies raises concerns about alignment with national strategic objectives rather than global safety standards, potentially accelerating capability development while limiting international oversight or safety collaboration. This nationalistic approach to AI development increases risks of unaligned advanced systems.
Skynet Date (-2 days): China's strategic protection of DeepSeek indicates an intensification of international AI competition, with governments treating AI as a national security asset, which is likely to accelerate development timelines through increased resources and reduced regulatory friction within national boundaries.
AGI Progress (+0.01%): While the news doesn't directly relate to technological advancement, the increased government interest and resource protection for DeepSeek suggests the company's R1 model represents significant progress in reasoning capabilities that are considered strategically valuable to China's AI ambitions.
AGI Date (-2 days): The Chinese government's protective stance toward DeepSeek suggests intensified national competition in AI development, which typically accelerates progress through increased resource allocation and strategic prioritization, potentially bringing forward AGI timelines.
OpenAI Secures $11.9 Billion Computing Deal with CoreWeave
OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9 billion contract with cloud provider CoreWeave to secure AI computing resources, while also acquiring a $350 million equity stake in the company. This significant investment comes as CoreWeave prepares for an IPO and maintains deep connections with Microsoft, potentially reshaping the dynamics in the AI cloud computing sector.
Skynet Chance (+0.06%): The massive scale of investment ($11.9 billion) in computing infrastructure signals unprecedented resource allocation toward developing increasingly powerful AI systems, significantly increasing the capability ceiling for future models. This accelerating arms race in compute acquisition suggests development priorities may outpace safety considerations.
Skynet Date (-3 days): OpenAI's enormous compute acquisition represents a dramatic acceleration in the resources available for training advanced AI systems, potentially removing a key bottleneck that had previously constrained development timelines for the most capable AI systems.
AGI Progress (+0.1%): Access to vastly increased computing resources has been consistently correlated with major advances in AI capabilities. This unprecedented $11.9 billion compute investment will likely enable significantly more powerful models and training approaches that directly advance progress toward AGI.
AGI Date (-4 days): The scale of this computing investment ($11.9 billion over five years) represents a dramatic acceleration in the resources being allocated to advancing AI capabilities, likely removing a key limiting factor in the timeline toward developing AGI.