AI Companies Are Hiring More

Today on the AI Daily Brief, the latest numbers on AI and jobs. Before that in the headlines, is OpenAI about to give 5% of the company to the US government? The AI Daily Brief is a daily podcast and video about the most important news and discussions in AI. Alright, friends. Quick announcements before we dive in. First of all, thank you to today's sponsors, KPMG, Rackspace, Blitsy, and HyperAgent. If you wanna get an ad free version of the show, go to patreon.com/aidailybrief, or you can subscribe in Apple Podcasts. And to learn more about sponsoring the show, head on over to a idailybrief.aai/sponsors or shoot a note at sponsors at a idalelybrief dot ai. Well, all those conversations about AI companies getting more tied up with the government are getting a lot more real. OpenAI has proposed handing over a 5% stake in the company to the US government. Now, obviously, there has been chatter about this for some time now. And, honestly, if you go way, way back in Sam Altman interviews from three or four years ago, it was clear at the very beginning of the project that he thought this sort of pursuit of AI was something that inherently should have government involvement from the very beginning. I can't find the exact interview, but I remember thinking that he almost seemed surprised that the US government wasn't interested in getting involved back then. Now coming back to the deal now, this potential 5% stake would be contributed to a sovereign wealth fund structured in a similar way to the Alaskan permanent fund, which collects oil and mining revenue for the benefit of citizens. At current valuations, the stake would be worth around $42,000,000,000, and it's unclear whether the administration would be purchasing the stake or whether it would be a gift to the American people. The other wrinkle is that OpenAI has proposed that all leading AI developers should contribute 5% of their equity. Beyond Anthropic, this might include Google, Meta, and others, and it's not clear that any of these other firms would agree with OpenAI's proposal or if they're participating in discussions. The Feet pointed to what many people assume is a pretty clear quid pro quo, writing, giving the government an ownership stake could help secure good relations with the administration and would mark an attempt to address political blowback by sharing the wealth generated by AI with the public. Now in terms of handicapping where these conversations are, sources said the discussions were still in the early stages, referring to them as, quote, conceptual. They also added that such a deal might require an act of congress to implement regarding this strange new era of tributary capitalism. Also on Wednesday, memory producer Micron agreed to invest 250,000,000 in Trump accounts, the government funded investment accounts for children that were introduced last year. On Truth Social, Trump declared Micron a, quote, truly great American company, one of the hottest anywhere in …