logo
OpenAI to leverage Google Cloud service, reducing Microsoft dependency

OpenAI to leverage Google Cloud service, reducing Microsoft dependency

Hindustan Times11-06-2025

In a surprising turn of events, one of the world's biggest tech rivals, OpenAI and Google, signed a collaboration deal to manage and expand computing infrastructure. Reportedly, OpenAI has been in talks with Alphabet's Google Cloud service for a few months to shift its computing operations from Microsoft. Now, a Reuters report highlights that the deal has been finalised, and OpenAI is all set to leverage Google Cloud infrastructure and custom TPU chips to meet the growing computing demands. This move can reduce OpenAI's greater dependence on Microsoft Azure for cloud-based services, and it also makes the company a step closer to adopting a multi-cloud strategy. Know more about OpenAI and Google's collaboration despite being AI rivals in the ongoing race.
Also read: Adobe launches the Photoshop Beta app for Android smartphones: Everything you need to know
In a recent Reuters report, OpenAI will leverage Google Cloud services to expand its computing infrastructure and reduce dependence on Microsoft. Over the years, OpenAI and Microsoft have been working closely for greater collaboration, but now things may change drastically as the AI giant plans to join hands with one of its biggest rivals. It is being said that the deal was finalised in May, as OpenAI is diversifying its compute sources. This will enable the company to meet the growing demand for training and deploying AI models.
Also read: Google to let users test Android 16 desktop mode on phones with external display support, here's how
Now, what's in it for Google? Well, the company is already reputed for its cloud services, and collaborating with OpenAI could increase credibility. This may also result in greater collaboration with other leading tech giant who are constantly innovating their AI capabilities. It also supports Google's vision to commercialise tensor processing units (TPUs), which was previously reserved for in-house operations. However, it should also be noted that the collaboration is not yet confirmed by officials from OpenAI, Google and Microsoft.
The collaboration also showcases that OpenAI also reducing the Microsoft exclusivity for data centre infrastructure. With Google and OpenAI completing neck to neck, the move highlights how companies keep the competition aside to meet resource demands in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Despite the collaboration, OpenAI still plans to overtake Google in the AI race.
Mobile Finder: Google Pixel 10 Pro LATEST specs, features, and price

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

After 6000 job cuts, Microsoft plans another layoff in July, CEO Satya Nadella says 'If you're going to use...'
After 6000 job cuts, Microsoft plans another layoff in July, CEO Satya Nadella says 'If you're going to use...'

India.com

time23 minutes ago

  • India.com

After 6000 job cuts, Microsoft plans another layoff in July, CEO Satya Nadella says 'If you're going to use...'

After 6000 job cuts, Microsoft plans another layoff in July, CEO Satya Nadella says 'If you're going to use...' Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is calling on the industry to think seriously about the real impact of artificial intelligence (AI) especially the amount of energy it uses. This comes as AI is quickly changing the tech world. Speaking at Y Combinator's AI Startup School, he said that tech companies need to prove that AI is creating real value for people and society. 'If you're going to use a lot of energy, you need to have a good reason,' Nadella said. 'We can't just burn energy unless we are doing something useful with it.' His comments come as AI is praised for pushing innovation forward, but also criticized for using massive amounts of electricity and possibly making social gaps worse. For Microsoft, one of the biggest companies building AI tools, this is a big concern. A report in 2023 estimated that Microsoft used about 24 terawatt-hours of power in a year. That's as much electricity as a small country uses in the same time. But Nadella believes AI should be judged by how well it helps people in real life. 'The real test of AI,' he said, 'is whether it can make everyday life easier—like improving healthcare, speeding up education, or cutting down on boring paperwork.' He gave the example of hospitals in the U.S., where simple things like discharging a patient can take too long and cost too much. He said if AI is used for this task, it could save time, money, and energy. Microsoft's AI push comes with job losses Even as Microsoft have big plans for AI, the changes have not come without a cost, especially for workers. Over the past year, the company has laid off more than 6,000 employees. Microsoft said these job cuts were part of 'organisational changes' needed to stay strong in a fast-changing business world. That fast-changing world is being shaped by artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Microsoft, working closely with its AI partner OpenAI, is putting AI at the center of its future plans. But as the company shifts toward more automation and AI-driven tools, it's also reorganizing teams, often leading to people losing their jobs. Microsoft is reportedly preparing for another round of job cuts and this time in its Xbox division. The layoffs are expected to be part of a larger corporate reshuffle as the company wraps up its financial year. If these cuts go ahead, it would be Microsoft's fourth major layoff in just 18 months. The company is facing increasing pressure to boost profits, especially after spending USD 69 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2023.

Why tech billionaires want bots to be your BFF
Why tech billionaires want bots to be your BFF

Mint

time29 minutes ago

  • Mint

Why tech billionaires want bots to be your BFF

Next Story Tim Higgins , The Wall Street Journal In a lonely world, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and even Microsoft are vying for affection in the new 'friend economy.' Illustration: Emil Lendof/WSJ, iStock. Gift this article Grok needs a reboot. Grok needs a reboot. The xAI chatbot apparently developed too many opinions that ran counter to the way the startup's founder, Elon Musk, sees the world. The recent announcement by Musk—though decried by some as '1984"-like rectification—is understandable. Big Tech now sees the way to differentiate artificial-intelligence offerings by creating the perception that the user has a personal relationship with it. Or, more weirdly put, a friendship—one that shares a similar tone and worldview. The race to develop AI is framed as one to develop superintelligence. But in the near term, its best consumer application might be curing loneliness. That feeling of disconnect has been declared an epidemic—with research suggesting loneliness can be as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. A Harvard University study last year found AI companions are better at alleviating loneliness than watching YouTube and are 'on par only with interacting with another person." It used to be that if you wanted a friend, you got a dog. Now, you can pick a billionaire's pet product. Those looking to chat with someone—or something—help fuel AI daily active user numbers. In turn, that metric helps attract more investors and money to improve the AI. It's a virtuous cycle fueled with the tears of solitude that we should call the 'friend economy." That creates an incentive to skew the AI toward a certain worldview—as right-leaning Musk appears to be aiming to do shortly with Grok. If that's the case, it's easy to imagine an AI world where all of our digital friends are superfans of either MSNBC or Fox News. In recent weeks, Meta Platforms chief Mark Zuckerberg has garnered a lot of attention for touting a stat that says the average American has fewer than three friends and a yearning for more. He sees AI as a solution and talks about how consumer applications will be personalized. 'I think people are gonna want a system that gets to know them and that kind of understands them in a way that their feed algorithms do," he said during a May conference. Over at Microsoft, the tech company's head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman has also been talking about the personalization of AI as the key to differentiation. 'We really want it to feel like you're talking to someone who you know really well, that is really friendly, that is kind and supportive but also reflects your values," he said during an April appearance on the Big Technology Podcast. Still, he added, Microsoft wants to impose boundaries that keep things safe. 'We don't really want to engage in any of the chaos," Suleyman said. 'The way to do that, we found, is that it just stays reasonably polite and respectful, super-even handed, it helps you see both sides of an argument." With all of that in mind, it comes as little surprise that the current crop of chatbots are designed to sound like you're having a conversation with another human. This has resulted in lots of pearl clutching. There are academics warning about the dangers of users falling in love with AI and individual anecdotes of users going overboard in their use. The idea of a heartbroken man falling in love with his chatbot isn't new, of course. It was the plot of the 2013 film 'Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, who voiced the AI. (OpenAI's own AI voice, which sounded eerily similar to Johansson's last year, triggered a public fight with the actress.) Still, we—a society that's only a generation into a world of social media—have some recent experience in how algorithms can have unintended consequences. They create echo chambers that reinforce worldviews rather than expand them. The news of Musk's Grok reboot is an example of that. Grok and xAI were born, in part, out of Musk's concerns about AI being developed by companies he called woke. He pointed to Google results that seemed overly concerned with being politically correct rather than factually accurate. With xAI, Musk aimed to create what he called a 'maximum truth-seeking AI." Yet when an influential X user known as Catturd lambasted Grok's answers in June, Musk took quick note. 'When Grok first came out—it was awesome—now Grok is just woke fake news that repeats liberal talking points," Catturd posted on June 18. 'I know this for a fact because everything Grok says about me is a lie. What a joke Grok has become." Another X user asked Grok why it lied about Catturd. 'I aim to provide accurate, neutral responses based on available data," the chatbot responded on X. 'Claims that I lie about @catturd2 may stem from disagreements with my sourcing, like Media Matters or Rolling Stone, which document his misinformation. I don't have personal biases, but AI training can introduce unintended slants. Some report I censor criticism or push fringe views, while others note I fact-check conservative claims accurately. Bias in AI is complex, and neutrality is tough to achieve. If you have specific examples of lies, please share, and I'll clarify with evidence." Musk wasn't impressed. 'Your sourcing is terrible," Musk replied. 'Only a very dumb AI would believe [Media Matters] and [Rolling Stone]! You are being updated this week." He later said xAI would retrain the AI on data created with an updated version of Grok, 'which has advanced reasoning" that would be used 'to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors." After all, nobody wants a friend who is always spouting the wrong crazy stuff. Write to Tim Higgins at Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Technology News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

Android 16 will warn if you are connected to a fake ‘Stingray' cell tower
Android 16 will warn if you are connected to a fake ‘Stingray' cell tower

Indian Express

time2 hours ago

  • Indian Express

Android 16 will warn if you are connected to a fake ‘Stingray' cell tower

From banking details to pictures of friends and family, smartphones are a treasure trove of personal information. And while you can take all the precautionary measures to keep sensitive data safe, some attacks are very hard to protect against. One of these is the infamous stingray attack, which intercepts all your phone calls and SMSes. Often used by surveillance agencies around the world, the attack works by tricking your smartphone into connecting to a fake cell tower. However, a new feature coming with Android 16 might be able to warn you if you are being snooped on. With Android 16, Google is reintroducing the 'mobile network security' settings page as part of the Safety Center, which can be accessed by heading over to the Security & privacy tab in the Settings app. Here, you will see two subsections – 'Notifications', which features a toggle named 'Network notifications', enabling which will allow Android to warn if your phone connects to any unencrypted network or when it asks about your phone's unique identifiers. However, this toggle is disabled by default. When enabled, Android will display a message in the notification panel as well as the Safety Center whenever your phone switches from an encrypted to an unencrypted network or vice versa. The second subsection – called '2G network protection' is a toggle that lets you disable or enable the phone's 2G connectivity. It is also disabled by default. One thing to note here is that the feature might only be available with devices that come with Android 16 out of the box, as these devices will support Android's Radio HAL 3.0 drivers. However, the 'Mobile network security' page will only be visible when your device supports both of these features, which is why it is missing from any of the current Pixel devices running Android 16. But a Google policy that allows smartphone manufacturers to decide the hardware requirements at launch might mean that we won't be seeing the feature on any of the current devices. Also, this isn't the first time Google has tried to block Stingray attacks. On Android 15, the operating system will warn users when a network asks for a device's unique identifiers, like the IMEI number. A few years ago, when the tech giant rolled out Android 12, it added an option that allowed users to disable 2G connectivity.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store