Business Articles - The Batch

Official letterhead displays Governor Newsom's signature on AI regulation bill establishing state oversight.

Business

California Builds AI Regulatory Regime: The U.S.’s biggest state by population and economy passed four AI transparency bills is less than one month

In the absence of national laws that specifically regulate AI in the United States, California moved to regulate the technology within its own borders, passing four bills in less than a month.

Close-up of a violin scroll and pegs, symbolizing precision needed in fine-tuning AI models.

Machine Learning Research

Fine-Tuning Simplified: Thinking Machines’ new Tinker API makes it easier to fine-tune models on many GPUs

The first offering from Thinking Machines Lab, the startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, aims to simplify — and democratize — the process of fine-tuning AI models.

Business

OpenAI Strengthens Ties With AMD: OpenAI’s latest multibillion-dollar chip deal would give it 6 gigawatts of computing power and up to 10 percent of AMD

OpenAI, strapped for processing power to drive a worldwide constellation of planned data centers, turned to Nvidia’s archrival AMD.

Icons for files, pictures, and shopping connect through nodes to a dollar sign, illustrating AI-driven profit pathways.

Business

OpenAI, Meta Diversify AI Product Lines: OpenAI and Meta launch social video apps while ChatGPT adds Pulse and Instant Checkout

OpenAI and Meta, which have been content to offer standalone chatbots or tuck them into existing products, introduced dueling social video networks and other initiatives designed to boost revenue and engagement.

Comparison table highlighting Claude Sonnet 4.5's top scores in coding and reasoning benchmarks, featuring improved capabilities.

Machine Learning Research

Claude Levels Up: Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5 and the Claude Agent SDK, and overhauls Claude Code for developers

Anthropic updated its mid-size Claude Sonnet model, making it the first member of the Claude family to reach version 4.5. It also enhanced the Claude Code agentic coding tool with long-desired features.

Robots with lighters attend a live concert, underlining AI's role in music creation and performance.

Business

Generating Music, Paying Musicians: Sweden’s STIM built an ecosystem for training AI models on copyrighted music and compensating original artists

A Swedish organization that collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and record companies has formed a technology-legal-business ecosystem designed to allow AI developers to use music legally while compensating publishers of recordings and compositions.

Aerial view of expansive data centers with orange roofs, representing massive AI infrastructure projects.

Business

OpenAI On the Road to Trillion-Dollar Spending: OpenAI partners with Oracle, Nvidia, Softbank, and more to build out 20 gigawatts of data center capacity

A flurry of announcements brought into sharper focus OpenAI’s plans to build what may amount to trillions of dollars of global computing capacity.

FanDuel mobile app screens showing live betting odds and AI-powered sports wagering tools.

Business

Sports Betting Goes Agentic: Gambling sites roll out AI tools that predict wins and track bets for sports fans

AI agents are getting in on the action of online sports gambling.

Central AI agent icon links to merchant, cart, and payment symbols, illustrating agentic payments process.

Business

Agents of Commerce: Google’s AP2 gives developers new tools to build agentic payments

Google launched an open protocol for agentic payments that enables agents based on any large language model to purchase items over the internet.

US map showing Nevada and Illinois highlighted in red, marking states that banned AI-driven mental health treatments.

Tech & Society

States Ban AI-Driven Treatments for Mental Health: Illinois follows Nevada, prohibiting certain uses of chatbots unless used by licensed therapists

Illinois became the second U.S. state, after Nevada, to ban AI applications that administer psychotherapy.

Andrew Ng and Greg Hart stand at Coursera Connect event with a colorful conference backdrop.

Letters

Knowledge Is Great, Skills Are Greater: Educators are shifting from teaching knowledge to teaching practical skills. A report from the Coursera Connect conference

This week, Coursera held its annual conference in Las Vegas. A major theme was the shift from knowledge- to skills-based education, which will help many individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.

Infographic showing Google antitrust ruling: must share search index, syndicate results, and allow non-exclusive deals.

Business

Google Must Share Data With AI Rivals: Google must share its search index, but can keep Chrome and Android

AI companies that aspire to compete with Google in search and other information-retrieval applications got a boost from the United States government.