🤖 Millions chat, few pay: OpenAI’s big problem

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Greetings! Your latest quick tech update is here:

☀️ On this day: On October 16, 2019, the city of Oslo celebrated World Browser Day by unveiling a blue historical plaque on the building where parts of two major web browser engines — Presto and WebKit — were developed. These technologies became the foundation for how billions of people experience the web today, powering browsers like Opera and Safari.

What’s happening:

• 🤯 OpenAI loses billions despite massive growth

• 🎬 Google launched its newest AI video model

• 🩺 Amazon rolls out virtual doctor visits for kids

• 🏦 New California law requires AI to tell you it’s AI

• 🧬 Google AI uncovers new way to fight cancer

• + 📊 Daily poll and results

• + 📈 Trending tools and resources

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Hand-picked news:

🤯 OpenAI loses billions despite massive growth ↗️LINK

• What: OpenAI made $4.3 billion in revenue during the first half of 2025 but still lost $13.5 billion. About 95% of ChatGPT’s 800 million users use it for free, even though it brings in 70% of the company’s recurring revenue. Despite this, OpenAI’s value has climbed to around $500 billion as it plans to spend more than $1 trillion on AI infrastructure over the next few years.

• Why: Huge costs for servers, chips, and partnerships with Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle are draining cash faster than subscriptions can replace it.

• Impact: OpenAI’s success shows how popular AI has become, but also how hard it is to make money from it. Without more paying users, the company risks building a trillion-dollar tech bubble.

🎬 Google launched its newest AI video model ↗️LINK

• What: Google just launched Veo 3.1, its newest AI video model, promising more realistic visuals, smoother motion, and better sound. It can now use up to three reference images to keep characters consistent, generate transitions between start and end frames, and build videos over a minute long by stitching scenes together.

• Why: After OpenAI’s viral Sora 2, Google is focusing on usability—giving creators tools to fine-tune, edit, and extend their videos instead of just showing off flashy demos.

• Impact: With Veo 3.1 rolling out across Flow, Vertex AI, and Gemini, Google is turning AI video into a real creative toolkit—not just a tech experiment.

🩺 Amazon rolls out virtual doctor visits for kids ↗️LINK

• What: Amazon’s One Medical has launched a new pay-per-visit virtual healthcare service for children ages 2 to 11. Message visits start at $29 and video calls at $49, covering issues like pink eye, rashes, bug bites, eczema, and medication renewals. No insurance or membership is needed.

• Why: The service is designed for quick, time-sensitive health needs that don’t require a full pediatrician visit, offering parents a faster, cheaper alternative.

• Impact: Amazon is steadily expanding deeper into healthcare with One Medical and pharmacy kiosks, aiming to fill gaps left by traditional retailers like CVS and Walgreens as they scale back their clinics.

🏦 New California law requires AI to tell you it’s AI ↗️LINK

• What: California has passed Senate Bill 243, requiring AI companion chatbots to clearly disclose when users are talking to a machine. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill on October 13, calling it the first law of its kind. Starting next year, chatbot developers must also report to the state’s Office of Suicide Prevention on how they handle users expressing suicidal thoughts.

• Why: Lawmakers say AI companions can mislead or emotionally manipulate users, especially children, without transparency and safeguards.

• Impact: The law sets a national precedent for AI accountability, pushing other states—and tech companies—to adopt similar disclosure and safety rules.

🧬 Google AI uncovers new way to fight cancer ↗️LINK

• What: Google and Yale researchers created C2S-Scale 27B, an AI model built on Google’s open Gemma family, that discovered a new cancer treatment pathway. The system reads cellular data like a language and identified silmitasertib, a drug not previously linked to immunity, as making tumor cells 50% more visible to the immune system.

• Why: The goal was to find compounds that activate immune responses only under specific biological conditions, something too complex for traditional research methods.

• Impact: This breakthrough shows that large AI models can drive real medical discoveries and accelerate how new treatments are found.

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Today’s Poll:

Vote and find out about the result tomorrow.

Yesterday’s Poll Result:

Do you think ChatGPT should really allow adult content?

• A) Yes, it’s about time - 32%

• B) No, it’s a bad idea - 68% 🏆

Reader’s opinions:

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