AI News Today – 31 August

AI is no longer something happening in a corner of the tech industry.

It is changing how the world’s biggest companies make money, spend billions and even choose their leaders.

Today, OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT’s advertising business has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days.

That is a striking number for a product that did not even show ads until this year, and it raises a bigger question about what ChatGPT is becoming.

There is plenty more happening across AI today, but we have picked out the biggest stories worth knowing.

Here is the AI news you need to know today.

ChatGPT Ads: How Did OpenAI Reach $1 Billion So Fast?

OpenAI only began testing ads inside ChatGPT earlier this year.

Now ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, meaning its current pace of sales would produce roughly $1 billion over a full year if maintained.

OpenAI says it reached that level in under 200 days and now works with tens of thousands of advertisers.

Starting today, businesses across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa can also buy ads directly through OpenAI’s Ads Manager.

The scale matters because ChatGPT now has more than 1 billion weekly users.

Advertising gives OpenAI another way to fund free access while putting it into more direct competition with Google and Meta.

The bigger question is whether ChatGPT becomes not just a place to ask questions, but somewhere companies pay to reach people while they are deciding what to buy or do.

Nvidia MediaTek Deal: Why Is Nvidia Investing $3.5 Billion?

Nvidia is spending another enormous sum to make its technology harder to avoid.

The company has invested $3.5 billion in convertible bonds issued by Taiwan’s MediaTek, a major chip designer whose technology appears in phones, computers and cars.

The companies are also expanding their partnership across data centers, personal computers and vehicles.

MediaTek will use Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion technology, which helps different chips connect inside powerful AI systems.

The strategy is straightforward.

Nvidia does not just want to sell the expensive chips used to build AI.

It wants chips made by other companies to connect easily into Nvidia’s systems too.

If that works, Nvidia becomes harder to avoid across a much wider part of the AI industry, even when another company designs the main chip.

Tim Cook’s Last Day: Why Does Apple’s New CEO Matter for AI?

Today marks the end of Tim Cook’s 15-year run as Apple CEO.

John Ternus takes over September 1, while Cook becomes executive chairman.

Ternus inherits one of the world’s most valuable companies, but also one of its clearest challenges.

Apple has spent the past few years trying to catch rivals in AI, with Siri and Apple Intelligence facing questions over whether they can keep pace with ChatGPT and Gemini.

Ternus takes control just as AI is becoming central to the future of the iPhone, Mac and wider Apple ecosystem.

His first major Apple event arrives on September 9 with Apple expected to reveal the first folding iPhone, so the new era begins almost immediately.

The Bigger Technology Shift Apple’s New CEO Is Walking Into

Apple’s handover shows how far this shift has already gone.

AI is changing business models, billion-dollar spending decisions and leadership priorities at the world’s biggest companies.

Similar changes are building across robotics, energy, biotech and blockchain.

That is why we created The $5 Trillion Signal.

It is a completely free, beginner-friendly report covering five technologies we believe could reshape the global economy, why they matter and what could become important next.

It takes just a few minutes to read.

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