AI Gets Creative: Hollywood & Drug Discovery

In a surprising move, Google DeepMind and film studio A24 announced a “first-of-its-kind” research partnership. While details are scarce, the collaboration aims to explore how AI can support the creative process in filmmaking, potentially in areas like animation or visual effects. This marks a significant foray for a leading AI lab into the arts. Source

Meanwhile, the application of AI in hard science is accelerating. Pharmaceutical giant Takeda signed a deal potentially worth over $600 million with AI biotech firm Insilico Medicine. The partnership will use Insilico’s AI platform for early-stage drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas. This massive deal underscores the growing financial and industrial belief in AI’s potential to revolutionize R&D. Source

Not to be left out, Anthropic is also targeting science with the launch of Claude Science, a new AI workbench designed to consolidate research tools and datasets. The company is leveraging NVIDIA’s BioNeMo platform to accelerate computational life sciences research within the tool. Source | Source

The Hype Check: Progress vs. Promotion

Amidst the ambitious announcements, several stories served as a reality check. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told staff that the development of sophisticated AI “agents” hasn’t progressed as quickly as he had hoped, highlighting the ongoing technical challenges. Source

The pervasiveness of AI hype was satirically underscored by news that even sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s mentioned “AI” in its IPO documents, a sign of the term’s obligatory use to attract investor interest. Source

Furthermore, Midjourney’s showcase of a futuristic medical scanner left many observers skeptical. A behind-the-scenes video of the ultrasound device raised more questions than it answered, with scant evidence of practical, working technology. Source

Business & Policy Moves

On the corporate strategy front, Anthropic is in talks with Samsung to develop a custom AI chip, following OpenAI’s similar recent announcement with Broadcom. This signals a deepening race for proprietary, efficient hardware. Source

Microsoft launched a new AI deployment company with a $2.5 billion commitment, joining other tech giants in creating dedicated units to implement AI solutions for enterprise clients. Source

In a bold policy proposal, OpenAI’s Sam Altman has reportedly suggested donating 5% of the company’s equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. The move is framed as a way to let the public share in AI’s financial gains and potentially ease regulatory tensions, including with the Trump administration. Source | Source

Odds & Ends

• Meta quietly launched “Pocket,” an experimental app that uses AI to let users generate and share simple games via text prompts. Source
• An Indian tech entrepreneur is betting $30M of his own money to build an AI-powered alternative to Microsoft Office. Source
• In a bizarre twist, a developer is using AI agents (via OpenClaw and Claude) to automate dating outreach on Instagram. Source
• Security researchers identified “PamStealer,” a sophisticated new macOS malware, highlighting that AI’s rise is accompanied by increasingly clever cyber threats. Source

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Editorial Take: Today’s news paints a picture of AI at a crossroads between profound potential and pervasive puffery. While landmark deals and research pushes into science and creativity show the field’s expansive ambitions, simultaneous admissions of slower-than-expected progress and examples of gratuitous hype reveal a growing maturity—or at least a growing awareness of the gap between vision and execution. The most significant thread may be the emerging political economy of AI, as seen in OpenAI’s unprecedented equity-sharing proposal, suggesting the winners of the AI race are now seriously considering how to manage their power and public perception.