Undertow
The stories pulling beneath the headlines
Narrative journalism that reveals the human side of AI developments. Undertow finds the stories that pull beneath the headlines.
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OpenAI shutters AI video generator Sora
OpenAI has shut down Sora, its AI video generation platform, discontinuing both the consumer app and developer API with no replacement or migration path announced.
OpenAI expands its record funding round above $120 billion
Meta may license Google's AI to power its own products while its flagship model falls behind
Meta has delayed its next AI model, codenamed Avocado, from mid-March to at least May 2026 after internal tests showed it underperforming rivals from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The company is now discussing whether to temporarily license Google's Gemini to fill the gap — a notable pivot for a company that built its AI identity around open-source independence.
Defense contractors quietly remove Anthropic's AI to protect Pentagon contracts
Major defense firms are purging Claude from their operations following the Trump administration's supply chain ban — not because they are legally required to, but because the alternative is risking their share of a trillion-dollar federal budget. The compliance cascade reveals how political pressure can outpace the law. Anthropic says it plans to fight the designation in court.
Hegseth gives Anthropic a Friday deadline to drop its AI safeguards
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until 5:01pm this Friday, February 28, to strip out the company's restrictions on military AI use -- or lose a $200 million Pentagon contract and face a designation that could cut Anthropic off from the broader federal contractor market. Anthropic says it will not comply.
AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raises $1 billion in new funding round
World Labs, the startup founded by the researcher widely credited with sparking the modern AI revolution, has closed a $1 billion funding round led by design software giant Autodesk. The raise signals that spatial intelligence -- AI that understands and generates three-dimensional space -- is becoming the next serious investment frontier after language models.