Google DeepMind has hired philosopher Henry Shevlin to help deal with the ethical questions around advanced AI.
He will focus on topics like machine consciousness, how humans interact with AI, and how to prepare for artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Allbirds, the wool sneaker brand once valued at more than $4 billion at its IPO, just announced it is leaving the footwear business to become an AI compute company.
The company is selling its brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group, which will keep operating Allbirds as a shoe label.
The original company has secured a 50 million dollar convertible financing facility and plans to rename itself NewBird AI, with a long term goal of becoming a fully integrated GPU as a Service provider.
Investors reacted immediately. Shares of BIRD jumped more than already 300% just because of the announcement.
The pivot fits a wider pattern on public markets, where struggling consumer companies have seen sharp rallies after rebranding around AI or compute infrastructure. But yeah, it's quite a wild pivot.
From wool runners to GPU runners in one press release.