Daily AI Newsletter: Saudi prince launches AI venture as Trump, Musk, Altman, and Zuckerberg arrive for conference

In today’s email:

🇺🇸 Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report
🧐 ChatGPT may be polite, but it’s not cooperating with you
🍀 Google might replace the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button with AI Mode
🧰 13 new AI-powered tools and resources. Make sure to check the online version for the full list of tools.

Saudi Prince launches AI venture as Trump, Musk, Altman, and Zuckerberg arrive for conference

Key Takeaway: Saudi Arabia has unveiled Humain, a multibillion-dollar AI venture led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the centerpiece of its drive to become a global artificial intelligence powerhouse.

More Insights:

Humain, owned by the $940 billion Public Investment Fund, will both build and invest in AI infrastructure and technologies, including state-of-the-art data centers, and advanced Arabic language models.
The launch coincides with President Trump’s arrival in Riyadh and the presence of tech titans like Elon Musk and Sam Altman at a US–Saudi investment forum.
This initiative clarifies Riyadh’s previously diffuse AI strategy—complementing other PIF-backed projects such as Alat, which has pledged $100 billion by 2030 for hardware and infrastructure.
It underscores growing Gulf competition in AI: the UAE’s G42 and Qatar’s emerging ambitions are also securing major US tech partnerships and investments.

Why it matters: This bold pivot from oil to artificial intelligence not only accelerates Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification but also reshapes the global tech landscape—forcing traditional powers and rival Gulf states to recalibrate their AI and geopolitical strategies.

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OpenAI’s Stargate project struggling to get off the ground, thanks to tariffs

Key Takeaway: SoftBank’s ambitious $100 billion Stargate data-center project with OpenAI has been stalled as lenders balk at tariff-driven cost increases and economic uncertainty.

More Insights:

Stargate was unveiled in January to deploy $100 billion “immediately” and eventually scale to $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure.
Despite talks with banks like JPMorgan and asset managers like Apollo, no financing deals have closed amid market volatility.
Washington’s tariffs on server racks, chips and cooling gear could lift build costs by 5–15%, undermining return projections.
Rising competition from cheaper AI models and overcapacity concerns—exacerbated by cutbacks at Microsoft and AWS—are dampening investor appetite.

Why it matters: As trade policy see-saws collide with AI’s explosive growth, the fate of Stargate could determine whether the U.S. cedes ground in the global AI race or finds a path to resilient, home-grown AI infrastructure.

Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report

Key Takeaway: Shira Perlmutter, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, was abruptly fired by the White House two days after the Librarian of Congress was removed, following her office’s report warning that training AI on copyrighted works may infringe creators’ rights.

More Insights:

Perlmutter was notified of her termination via email from Acting Librarian Robert Newlen, just days after Carla Hayden’s unexpected dismissal in a rare overhaul of the Library of Congress leadership.
Her office’s 100-page AI report flagged that using copyrighted materials in generative AI development “implicates the owners’ exclusive rights” and questioned whether such uses could be deemed fair use.
The shakeup comes amid the new U.S. DOGE Service initiative—championed by Elon Musk’s xAI—to streamline federal data and potentially leverage AI to recommend program cuts, raising fears of politicized IP policy.
Lawmakers and unions slammed the move as a “brazen power grab,” warning it undermines copyright protections and could chill human creativity and fair regulation of AI.

Why it matters: This unprecedented intervention in intellectual property oversight signals a drastic shift in how AI and copyright will be governed, risking the integrity of creators’ rights and the independence of key cultural institutions.