👩‍⚖️ Hochul Signs Sweeping New York AI Law
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the RAISE Act, setting broad safety rules for advanced AI models. The law requires risk plans, incident reporting within 72 hours, and penalties up to $3 million for repeat violations. It also creates a new oversight office within the state’s financial regulator. The move aligns New York with California as Congress struggles on federal standards.

🙎‍♂️ Nadella Takes Hands-On AI Role (Paywall)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is stepping in more directly to oversee AI products as Copilot adoption faces challenges, according to a report. He has become highly active with top engineers, criticizing gaps in Copilot’s performance compared with rivals like Google’s Gemini. Nadella has also shifted focus toward AI development, delegating other duties and running frequent reviews.

🙅‍♂️ Hassabis Rebuts LeCun on General Intelligence
Demis Hassabis pushed back against Yann LeCun’s claim that general intelligence does not exist. He argued LeCun conflates general intelligence with universal intelligence, noting brains are highly general despite practical specialization limits. Hassabis said humans and foundation models are approximate Turing Machines, capable of learning any computable task with enough data and time.

📦 NVIDIA Plans H200 China Shipments (Paywall)
NVIDIA aims to start shipping its H200 AI chips to China by mid-February, Reuters reported. Initial deliveries could total 5,000–10,000 modules, pending Chinese government approval. The plan follows a U.S. policy shift under President Trump allowing sales with a 25% fee. The H200 remains in high demand despite newer chips, and shipments would benefit firms like Alibaba Group.

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The Recap: The Economist reported that Saudi Arabia is pursuing a national strategy to host some of the world’s cheapest A.I. data centres by pairing vast desert land with ultra-low-cost solar electricity. Backed by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the effort is being coordinated through a new state-backed firm, Humain, which aims to undercut global rivals on the cost of running A.I. models. The bet: cheaper inference — the cost of generating A.I. outputs — can make the kingdom a competitive hub for global A.I. workloads within the decade.

Highlights:

Forward Future Takeaways:
Saudi Arabia is turning energy economics into A.I. strategy, using cheap solar power to compete where talent and research depth are harder to buy outright. If Humain can scale hardware access and sustain political backing, the kingdom could reshape where A.I. inference happens globally — even if becoming a full-fledged innovation hub remains a longer, riskier climb. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)

📈 Microsoft Deepens AI Push in India: Satya Nadella unveiled MahaCrimeOS for Maharashtra police and major IT partnerships, scaling Azure OpenAI tools while boosting adoption.

🤑 Alphabet to Acquire Intersect for $4.75B: The move is meant to boost data center capacity and power generation, especially for AI workloads. Intersect will keep its brand and leadership.

⏪ ChatGPT Gets a Spotify Wrapped: OpenAI launches “Your Year with ChatGPT,” a privacy-forward annual recap, rolling out to eligible users in select English-speaking markets.

🚖 Waymo Restarts SF Robotaxis After Blackout: Service resumed after a citywide outage stalled vehicles, highlighting how autonomous fleets handle infrastructure failures during disruptions.

🏷️ Instacart Halts AI Pricing Tests: The grocery delivery firm ended algorithmic price experiments after studies and regulators found shoppers paid different prices for identical items.

🚪 McKinsey Weighs Major Job Cuts (Paywall): Consulting giant plans thousands of layoffs as demand slows, signaling a broader industry downturn after years of rapid growth and aggressive hiring.

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Matthew Berman & The Forward Future Team

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