August 14, 2025 News
U.S. Government Considers Taking Stake in Intel to Boost Domestic Chip Manufacturing
The Trump administration is reportedly in discussions to take a stake in Intel to help expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, including Intel's delayed Ohio factory. This follows political pressure on Intel's CEO over alleged China ties and represents a strategic government intervention in critical technology infrastructure.
Skynet Chance (-0.03%): Government stake in critical semiconductor infrastructure could improve oversight and control over AI chip production. This represents increased institutional control rather than decreased oversight of AI-enabling hardware.
Skynet Date (+1 days): Government bureaucracy and political interference may slow Intel's manufacturing expansion and chip development. Delays in advanced semiconductor production could marginally decelerate AI capabilities progress.
AGI Progress (-0.03%): Political turmoil and government intervention at Intel could disrupt semiconductor innovation and manufacturing efficiency. Delays in advanced chip production may hinder the computing infrastructure needed for AGI development.
AGI Date (+1 days): Government stake and political interference may introduce bureaucratic delays and reduce Intel's agility in chip development. Manufacturing delays, particularly the Ohio factory setback, could slow availability of advanced computing hardware needed for AGI research.
Multiverse Computing Releases Ultra-Compact AI Models for Edge Device Deployment
European AI startup Multiverse Computing has released two extremely small AI models called SuperFly (94M parameters) and ChickBrain (3.2B parameters) that can run locally on smartphones, IoT devices, and laptops without internet connection. The models use quantum-inspired compression technology called CompactifAI to achieve high performance despite their tiny size, with ChickBrain even outperforming the original Llama 3.1 8B model on several benchmarks.
Skynet Chance (-0.03%): Local AI deployment reduces dependency on centralized systems and gives users more control over their AI interactions. This distributed approach could make AI systems less prone to single points of failure or centralized control issues.
Skynet Date (+0 days): While this advances AI deployment capabilities, it focuses on making existing models smaller rather than creating fundamentally more powerful or autonomous systems. The timeline impact on potential AI risks remains negligible.
AGI Progress (+0.01%): The compression technology demonstrates significant advancement in AI efficiency and deployment capabilities. Making powerful AI models accessible on edge devices expands the practical applications and accessibility of AI systems.
AGI Date (+0 days): By making AI models more efficient and widely deployable, this technology could accelerate the development and adoption of AI capabilities across more devices and use cases. However, the impact on AGI timeline is modest as it's primarily an optimization rather than a fundamental breakthrough.
Cohere Appoints Former Meta AI Research Head Joelle Pineau as Chief AI Officer to Compete with OpenAI
Canadian AI startup Cohere has hired Joelle Pineau, Meta's former VP of AI research who helped develop Llama models, as its new Chief AI Officer to revamp its AI strategy. The hire comes as Cohere seeks $500 million in funding while competing against well-funded rivals like OpenAI, focusing on enterprise AI applications rather than AGI development. Pineau will oversee research, product and policy teams as the company emphasizes practical AI solutions for businesses and government agencies.
Skynet Chance (-0.03%): Cohere's explicit focus on practical enterprise applications rather than AGI development, along with emphasis on private deployment and security, slightly reduces concentration of risk in frontier AI development. The shift away from AGI-focused research toward controlled enterprise solutions provides marginal risk mitigation.
Skynet Date (+0 days): The talent shift from Meta's AGI-focused research to enterprise-focused applications may slightly slow overall AGI timeline progress. However, the impact is minimal as this represents talent reallocation rather than fundamental capability reduction in the broader AI ecosystem.
AGI Progress (-0.03%): This represents a strategic pivot away from AGI development toward narrower enterprise applications, with a key researcher moving from frontier AI research to practical implementation. The explicit rejection of the "singularly focused on AGI" approach suggests reduced resources dedicated to AGI advancement.
AGI Date (+0 days): The reallocation of top-tier research talent from AGI-focused work at Meta to enterprise-focused applications at Cohere modestly slows AGI timeline. While individual impact is limited, it reflects broader industry fragmentation of AGI research efforts.