Older adults across the country are turning to AI companions to help deal with loneliness. We visited a senior care facility in the Bronx and spoke with residents about their experience speaking to AI bots. With @richardjnieva https://t.co/PVzCtw1HAK

Scoop from @_IainMartin, @RashiShrivast18 and me: Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable is in talks to raise at a $6 billion valuation.

NEW: Mira Murati's startup Thinking Machines Lab is in early talks to raise a new round of funding at a valuation of roughly $50 billion, more than 4x valuation from a few months ago. w/ @EdLudlow https://t.co/W67trhGKOE

Vibe Coding Startup Lovable In Talks To Raise At $6 Billion Valuation

NEW: Cofounders of AI coding software Cursor are newly minted billionaires. Michael Truell, Aman Sanger, Sualeh Asif and Arvid Lunnemark are each worth at least $1.31 billion, according to Forbes' estimates. https://t.co/Kk5VeON6zX

The World’s Youngest Self Made Billionaires Just Slashed These Workers Wages By A Third

AI language learning app Speak has crossed $100 million in annualized revenue. Founded by former Thiel fellows @connorzwick and @adhsu in 2016, the company is up against better-known rival Duolingo as it enters the U.S. market. https://t.co/EzAq1eaapC

Have you been using Sora? Some back-of-napkin math suggests #OpenAI is spending more than a quarter of what it’s making to power its AI slop factory. There are a couple of potential silver linings (more training data + future tax savings). My latest for @Forbes:

@richardjnieva @_pheebini We spoke to experts who pointed out that chief dealmaker Altman, who has claimed he has no stake in the company, doesn’t have much to lose. “He can commit to as much as he wants... Either he uses it, he renegotiates it, or he walks away.”

@richardjnieva @_pheebini One likely scenario is that the AI company pays for and utilizes only a portion of the compute it has booked said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. “They don't want OpenAI to go bankrupt, so their incentive is to renegotiate,” he told Forbes. https://t.co/7EmCFpz6xl

OpenAI has gone wild with compute deals this year, committing to spend far more than its balance sheet can currently sustain. So who takes the fall if it can’t pay? With @richardjnieva and @_pheebini. https://t.co/7EmCFpyyHN

New: I profiled Sierra, the $10B AI customer service startup from Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, which wants to make AI agents the primary way businesses interact with customers. For the piece, I talked to their old bosses, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai

It was so much fun talking about AI reporting at the Haymaker Media Summit. Thanks @JJColao for having me!

1/ NEW deep dive: Trump’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is leaving the public vulnerable to abuses:

.@ericzelikman & 7th Googler @gharik are raising $1b for an AI lab called Humans&. I'm told Eric's paper STaR was an inspiration for OpenAI's reasoning models, and that he was also one of the star AI researchers labs fought over.

NEW: Former xAI researcher Eric Zelikman is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation to build AI models that are better at collaborating with humans. The startup is called Humans&. With @annatonger and @_IainMartin. https://t.co/W3rHfP3efV

New: With Mercor’s new fundraise and $10 billion valuation, its founders become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires at age 22, younger than Mark Zuckerberg was when he hit that status at age 23 two decades ago.

Sources: legal AI startup Harvey raised $150M led by a16z at an $8B valuation, up from a $5B valuation in June, bringing its total raised to over $1B (@_iainmartin / Forbes) https://t.co/DWD1OWMkaB https://t.co/VxNgfCytfn 📫 Subscribe:

Sources: Synthesia, which helps companies generate videos with AI avatars, raised $200M led by GV at a $4B valuation, up from a $2.1B valuation in January (@rashishrivast18 / Forbes) https://t.co/MQtj91zv6g https://t.co/bOrPVlOADb 📫 Subscribe:

A scoopy day at @Forbes. Another one from @_IainMartin and me— buzzy legal AI startup Harvey has closed a $150 million funding round, nabbing a $8 billion valuation. https://t.co/I7d0Q3Emkv

Scoop: AI video company Synthesia has raised $200 million at a $4 billion valuation in a round led by GV (Google's venture arm). With @annatonger and @_IainMartin. https://t.co/1GLhGqCEy7