In today’s newsletter:

• News - 🎥 OpenAI’s Secret Video Tool Sora Leaked—Here’s How!

• Culture - 💻 Inside AI Sweatshops: Kenyan Workers Speak Out

🎥 OpenAI’s Secret Video Tool Sora Leaked—Here’s How!

A group calling itself “Sora PR Puppets” has leaked access to OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, to protest what it claims is “art washing” and unfair treatment of early testers. Using authentication tokens from Sora’s early access program, the group created a frontend on Hugging Face that allowed users to generate 10-second videos, showcasing Sora’s capabilities. They allege OpenAI pressures artists to spin a positive narrative about Sora while failing to adequately compensate them, framing the program as a PR stunt rather than genuine collaboration. OpenAI swiftly shut down the leaked access, but the group’s critique has ignited conversation around how the company balances creativity with corporate interests.

In response, OpenAI emphasized that Sora is still in research preview and credited artists for shaping its development, offering them grants and free access to the tool. The company stated that participation is voluntary and has no obligations beyond responsible use and confidentialityb during development. However, technical setbacks and competition in the video generation space have put pressure on OpenAI, with rivals like Runway and Stability gaining ground through high-profile partnerships. Despite this, OpenAI remains committed to perfecting Sora, focusing on safety, performance, and scalability to bring it to broader audiences.

🗞️ In Other News…

• Dell Technologies' stock dropped 12% after mixed Q3 results and a cautious forecast, with declining AI server revenue due to delays in Nvidia's Blackwell chips, though the company highlighted strong AI demand with a $20B pipeline and first shipments of advanced servers.

• Elon Musk's AI company xAI is reportedly preparing to release a consumer chatbot app similar to ChatGPT, following a funding round that could raise $5 billion and double its valuation to $50 billion.

• MIT scientists have developed a physics-reinforced generative AI tool, the "Earth Intelligence Engine," to create realistic, trustworthy satellite images of potential hurricane-induced flooding, aiming to enhance public preparedness and evacuation efforts.

• Uber is expanding into AI data labeling with its new Scaled Solutions division, recruiting gig workers globally to support internal projects and external clients like Aurora Innovation and Niantic.

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer inaugurated London’s first Google-funded AI Campus, offering 16-18-year-olds AI and machine learning resources, mentoring from DeepMind, and funding a UK-wide AI literacy program to empower over 250,000 students by 2026.

💻 Inside AI Sweatshops: Kenyan Workers Speak Out

Kenyan workers powering AI for tech giants like Meta and OpenAI are speaking out about exploitation, with low wages of $1.50–$2 an hour and no job security. Known as “humans in the loop,” they perform essential tasks like tagging data and moderating harmful content but face poor working conditions. Civil rights activists call these setups “AI sweatshops,” exploiting desperate workers in a country with soaring unemployment.

The mental toll is staggering—workers recount sifting through violent and explicit content, leaving many traumatized. Companies like SAMA, which outsourced for Meta, face lawsuits for unsafe conditions, while critics urge global accountability to ensure AI development doesn’t exploit vulnerable populations.

VC Fundraising Rounds

• Boosted.ai has raised $15 million to expand Alfa, its agentic AI platform that serves as a customizable co-worker for investment managers, monitoring and updating portfolios. (11/25/24)

• AI SPERA, a Korean cybersecurity company, has raised an additional 12 billion won (USD 8.5 million), bringing its total funding to 23 billion won (USD 16 million). (11/25/24)

• Biolevate, a French health-tech startup, has secured €6 million in seed funding, to advance the development of its AI-powered medical writing platform. (11/25/24)

• Lightning AI, a New York City-based developer of the PyTorch Lightning framework, secured $50 million in funding. (11/21/24)

• Wordware, a San Francisco-based startup aiming to simplify programming AI agents by enabling users to write in plain English, has announced securing $30 million in seed funding. (11/21/24)

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