AI Daily: Senate strikes AI provision from GOP bill

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AI PROVISION: The Senate killed a controversial effort to prevent U.S. states from regulating artificial intelligence, marking a loss for the Silicon Valley leaders and White House officials who pushed the measure, Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum, Oma Seddiq, and Steven T. Dennis report. Senators voted 99-1 early Tuesday to strip the language out of President Donald Trump’s signature tax legislation during a marathon all-night voting session. The overwhelming opposition came despite widespread support for the pause on state AI legislation from GOP allies in Silicon Valley and White House technology advisers Michael Kratsios and David Sacks. The measure was the top priority for major technology companies including Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META), as well as venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, which back other powerful players, the authors note. Trump allies in Silicon Valley, including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, defense tech company Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) co-founder Joe Lonsdale all advocated for including the restriction.

NEW SIRI: Apple (AAPL) is weighing using AI technology from Anthropic or Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI to power a new version of its Siri voice assistant, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. The tech giant has spoken with both companies about using their large language models for Siri, asking them to train versions of their models that could run on the iPhone maker’s cloud infrastructure for testing, the author says, citing people familiar with the discussions.

GOOGLE IN-HOUSE CHIPS: Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI said it has no current plans to use Google’s (GOOGL) in-house chip to power its products, Reuters reports. This comes two days after Reuters and other news outlets reported the company’s move to turn to its competitors AI chips to meet demand.

CAPITAL RAISE: Surge AI, a data-labeling firm that competes with Scale AI, has hired advisors to raise as much as $1B in the first capital raising in the firm’s history, sources told Reuters, as it seeks to capitalize on growing user demand amid Scale AI’s recent customer exodus, Milana Vinn and Krystal Hu write. The company, founded by former Google (GOOGL) and Meta (META) engineer Edwin Chen, is targeting a valuation of over $1B, sources said. The funding would be a mix of primary and secondary capital that provides liquidity for the employees, the authors note.

AI CRAWLERS: Cloudflare (NET) announced it is now the first Internet infrastructure provider to block AI crawlers accessing content without permission or compensation, by default. Starting Tuesday, website owners can choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content, and decide how AI companies can use it. AI companies can also now clearly state their purpose – if their crawlers are used for training, inference, or search – to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow. Cloudflare’s new default setting is the first step toward a more sustainable future for both content creators and AI innovators. “If the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone – creators, consumers, tomorrow’s AI founders, and the future of the web itself,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “Original content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and it’s essential that creators continue making it. AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators, while still helping AI companies innovate. This is about safeguarding the future of a free and vibrant Internet with a new model that works for everyone.”