Altman Challenges Musk’s Neuralink

Welcome to another edition of AI PlanetX.

Altman backs Merge Labs in a direct challenge to Neuralink; Perplexity shocks with a $34.5B bid to buy Chrome; Skywork unveils Matrix-Game 2.0, enabling minutes of playable AI-generated video at 25 FPS.

• Hottest AI News

• Top AI & SaaS Tools: 7 Life-time Deals You Shouldn’t Miss

• Top AI & Tech News

• AI Art Spotlight

• Prompt of the Day: Prompt for Studio Level Commercial

• AI Video Tutorial

• F-R-E-E AI Course of the Day: Generative AI for HR

Hottest AI News

Tech Titans & AI

Sam Altman Backs Merge Labs to Challenge Neuralink

The AI power struggle between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is moving from chatbots to brain chips. OpenAI's CEO is reportedly launching a direct competitor to Neuralink, marking the latest escalation in their increasingly bitter rivalry.

Details:

• Altman is co-founding brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs, with potential funding from OpenAI’s ventures team at an $850M valuation. Talks are early and terms may change. The startup is partnering with Alex Blania of Tools for Humanity, Altman’s eye-scanning ID project

• Merge Labs would compete with Musk’s Neuralink, valued at $9B after raising $600M in June. Neuralink is testing brain implants with paralyzed patients to control devices by thought, a breakthrough that could reshape human-computer interaction

• The rivalry stems from past conflicts and opposing tech visions. In 2017, while Musk was at OpenAI, Altman wrote about “The Merge,” predicting humans would design their own descendants. After Musk left in 2018, relations collapsed — this week they traded public insults on X

This brain-computer interface race could shape humanity’s future. Both chase “the singularity” — AI surpassing humans or merging with machines. With Altman unwilling to let Musk dominate, this rivalry could redefine our fate.

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Perplexity

Perplexity Makes Surprise $34.5 Billion Cash Bid To Buy Chrome From Google

Perplexity AI has made a bold 34.5 billion cash bid to buy Google’s Chrome browser, despite raising 1.5 billion so far. The offer follows U.S. antitrust rulings pushing Google to sell Chrome after being found to have illegally maintained a search monopoly.

Details:

• Perplexity’s bid keeps Chrome’s Chromium engine open source, adds 3 billion, and keeps Google as default search. The offer is 20 times what it’s raised and nearly double its 18 billion valuation

• Chrome holds 68% of the market, but DuckDuckGo’s CEO once valued it at 50 billion, making this bid seem cheap. Google hasn’t responded and is still fighting the antitrust ruling plus another DOJ adtech case. The court may decide remedies this month

• This fits Perplexity’s expansion, including last month’s “Comet” browser launch and a reported TikTok merger bid. It signals a challenge to Google’s dominance, but financing is uncertain

While Google resists selling Chrome and fights in court, Perplexity’s bold bid underscores the high stakes in the AI-driven search race. Its success hinges on legal rulings and securing unprecedented funding for a potential David-versus-Goliath acquisition.

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Top AI & Tech News

• Skywork released Matrix-Game 2.0, an open-source interactive world model (similar to Genie 3) that can generate several minutes of playable interactive video at 25 FPS

• Anthropic will offer Claude to all three branches of the U.S. federal government for just $1, matching a similar move from OpenAI

• OpenAI’s GPT-5 dropped the single “model router” plan and currently offers modes (“Auto,” “Fast,” “Thinking”) while restoring legacy models (GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o3)

• A Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology study found that endoscopists who regularly used AI assistance for colonoscopy performed worse when the AI was unavailable

AI Art Spotlight

Model: Midjourney V7

Prompt:

Japanese Anime, create an illustration inspired by Wicked City 1987 directed by Kanou Seisaku, a beautiful model and a handsome model hate each other, their expression are arrogance, more narrow, sharp, stern-looking eyes, great pose, high fashion, elegant, wearing earring. --ar 2:3 --raw --v 7

Prompt of the Day

Prompt for Studio Level Commercial

This post showcases a viral thread of one‑tap, studio‑quality AI video ads generated from JSON. It includes 10 copy‑and‑paste prompts (Pepsi, Apple Watch, Dior perfume, and more) that you can run in Veo 3 for similar results, and you can quickly tweak them with ChatGPT‑4o to swap products or styles.

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Top AI Video Tutorial

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