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Perplexity Paying Millions to Publishers, Musk against Apple and OpenAI & Microsoft drops VibeVoice
And everything else you need to catch up on that happened this week yet!
What's Up in AI
August 26, 2025
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Welcome Back, AI Geeks!
It’s time to stay updated with What’s Up in AI.
Perplexity is putting $42.5M on the table to pay publishers whose work fuels its answers. Musk is dragging Apple and OpenAI to court, claiming their iOS deal is a monopoly move. And Microsoft dropped VibeVoice, a TTS model so good it can run a whole podcast.
In today’s issue:
🤯 Perplexity Paying Millions to Publishers
🧠 Musk’s lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI
📈 Microsoft drops VibeVoice
⚡ 5-4-3-2-1 hits you just can't miss
😂 Your AI-Powered Laugh
Read time: 5 mins
Learn from this investor’s $100m mistake
In 2010, a Grammy-winning artist passed on investing $200K in an emerging real estate disruptor. That stake could be worth $100+ million today.
One year later, another real estate disruptor, Zillow, went public. This time, everyday investors had regrets, missing pre-IPO gains.
Now, a new real estate innovator, Pacaso – founded by a former Zillow exec – is disrupting a $1.3T market. And unlike the others, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.
Pacaso’s co-ownership model has generated $1B+ in luxury home sales and service fees, earned $110M+ in gross profits to date, and received backing from the same VCs behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
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LATEST IN AI TODAY📎
Perplexity launched a $42.5M revenue-sharing program for publishers whose content powers its AI results.
A new $5/month Comet Plus plan gives outlets 80% of proceeds, minus compute costs.
Publishers earn when their content appears in search, Comet browser, or AI tasks.
The rollout comes as Perplexity faces lawsuits and cease-and-desist orders from major media houses.
While it’s a rare AI-publisher payout, critics argue the economics still look like pennies for struggling outlets.
xAI filed a Texas lawsuit accusing Apple of antitrust violations over ChatGPT’s iOS integration.
Musk claims the deal locks out rivals like Grok and manipulates App Store rankings.
The lawsuit seeks billions in damages, calling the Apple–OpenAI partnership an illegal moat.
Apple defended its App Store as “fair and unbiased”, while OpenAI dismissed it as Musk’s harassment.
If successful, the case could reshape AI market competition just as adoption surges.
Microsoft released VibeVoice, a 1.5B parameter text-to-speech model for 90-minute conversations.
It supports up to four unique voices, keeping natural tone and turn-taking intact.
Major breakthroughs cut audio compression by 80x, enabling use on consumer devices.
Built-in watermarks and disclaimers allow verification of AI-generated audio.
The leap means AI can now produce full podcast-style panels, not just short clips.
BRAIN BOOST 🧠
If you could use Microsoft’s new VibeVoice (realistic AI voices for 90-minute convos), where would you want it most? |
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QUICK HITS 💥
It’s time for some quick hits that you’ll love. Let’s go in…..4-3-2-1 👇️
5- TOP AI TOOLS OF THE DAY
🕵️ Leania.ai
Scan workflows, find inefficiencies, and automate smarter
🐾 Unblur Image
Sharpen portraits, group shots, and pet photos instantly
📘 Workbookly
Turn YouTube lessons into interactive worksheets and workbooks
🗂️ Renamer.ai
Bulk-rename, auto-organize, and declutter files with AI
📅 Cobot
Highlight emails, prep meetings, and simplify scheduling
4-AI JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Databricks - Director, Emerging Enterprise
Harvey - Senior Analytics Engineer
Notable - Technical Program Manager
Deepmind - Data Scientist, GeminiApp, Verticals
Want us to search for tech related jobs in your country/city ? Post a request 🔍
3-THINGS IN TREND
Researchers created a social media network with AI bots. The bots ended up at war with each other.
A builder built a completely local voice AI with no internet on a MacBook M1 with only 16GB RAM.
Facebook is allegedly rolling out AI characters like “Russian girl.“
2-USEFUL LINKS
1-TOP ROBO NEWS
Chinese company Kaiwa has announced a life-sized humanoid with an artificial womb capable of carrying a fetus for ten months and delivering a baby. Dubbed the world’s first “robot surrogate,” it’s slated for a 2026 launch and is aimed at people looking to bypass the physical demands of pregnancy.
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN AI 📰
⚖️ Musk’s $97B OpenAI Bid
Court filings show Elon Musk asked Mark Zuckerberg to help fund a $97.4B takeover of OpenAI, but Meta declined.
🔓 xAI Open-Sources Grok 2.5
xAI released Grok 2.5 as open source, with Grok 3 set to follow in about six months.
💻 xAI Launches MacroHard
Elon Musk’s xAI unveiled MacroHard, an AI-only software company designed to rival Microsoft with agent-driven simulations.
🧠 Meta FAIR Debuts DeepConf
Meta researchers introduced DeepConf, a deep thinking method hitting 99.9% on AIME benchmarks with open-source models.
🎥 Baidu Unveils MuseStreamer 2.0
Baidu rolled out MuseStreamer 2.0, boosting image-to-video generation with better character coordination, synced audio, and lower costs.
Funding 💰️
Zenline AI Raises $1.6 Million in Funding
GET AN AI-POWERED LAUGH 😁
One day we will humanize the robot so much that it’ll have to go to therapy 😂
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