AI Axe Falls On Tech, Anthropic’s Lightspeed Raise, Firefly Video, Anduril Takes On Army’s …

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AI Axing so-called ‘underperformers’ at Google and Meta. The pain is spread worldwide and will affect several thousand employees, many of whom earn mid-six figure salaries. While technology jobs are among the first impacted by AI-powered workforce reduction, these workers still have their pick of repalcement jobs. AI makes good programmers great programmers. And great programmers do the work of two or more people.

Anthropic to Raise $60 B. The Amazon-backed AI startup known for its Claude chatbot, is in advanced discussions to raise $2 billion, potentially valuing the company at $60 billion. This new funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, would significantly increase Anthropic’s valuation from $18 billion in 2024. The company projects revenues of $2.2 B in 2025, with expectations to reach $12 billion by 2027.

Adobe launches the public beta of its Firefly Video Model, an AI-powered tool for generating commercially safe video content. Integrated into the Firefly app and Adobe Premiere Pro, it allows creators to generate videos from text prompts or images, control camera angles, and craft custom motion elements. Firefly Video supports 1080p resolution, with 4K pro-level capabilities coming soon. Major brands like Deloitte, IBM, Mattel, and PepsiCo are already testing it. Adobe offers Firefly Standard ($9.99/month) for 20 five-second videos and Firefly Pro ($29.99/month) for 70 five-second videos, along with audio and vector generation.

Oculus Founder’s Defense Company Anduril is Taking Over Microsoft’s Military AR Headset Project. Palmer Luckey’s defense company, Anduril Industries, is set to assume control of Microsoft’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program for the U.S. Army. Pending Department of Defense approval, Anduril will oversee production, future hardware and software development, and delivery timelines. Microsoft Azure will serve as Anduril’s preferred cloud for AI workloads.

Snap Inc. has introduced an AI text-to-image model optimized for mobile devices. This advancement builds upon Snap’s previous AI initiatives, including a text-to-Lens generator unveiled in September 2024, which allowed users to create Snapchat Lenses through descriptive prompts. The new AI model enhances user experience by enabling rapid, on-device image generation without relying on cloud-based processing.

AI and XR Featured in Super Bowl Ads. For me, the best of them was OpenAI’s black and white homage to the pixel. It’s graphic. It’s surprising. It arouses curiosity. I had no idea it was an ad for OpenAI until the end.

Let’s ridicule and humiliate pretentious snobs who like art. Meta brought in Kingsman director Matthew Vaughan to direct movie stars Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth, who play clueless, accidental art gallery vandals. The movie stars are the stars of these spots, instead of the product, which is good and deserves better.

Google Gemini ‘Dream Job.’ Young stay-at-home Dad prepares for a job interview using Google Gemini AI while caring for his baby. Childcare is a hard and undervalued job. Dad’s tired. Baby’s hungry. He’s losing confidence. Ooof. A little too real and sad for me.

Cinematic AI

Native Foreign is releasing Critterz: Remastered, a shot-for-shot remake of its AI-assisted animated short, using OpenAI’s Sora video generation model. The project revisits the original Critterz, which debuted in April 2023 as an early test of AI-driven animation with DALL·E 2. Writer-director Chad Nelson, now at OpenAI, and Native Foreign CEO Nik Kleverov rebuilt the film entirely with Sora, demonstrating AI’s rapid advancements. The remaster moves from 2D animation to fully realized 3D, with improved character movement and emotion. OpenAI will showcase a side-by-side comparison of both versions, highlighting two years of progress in generative filmmaking.

The Best Star Wars Movie in Years is Made With AI. Filmmaker Kavan Cardoza, who goes by his social media handle, Kavan the Kid, has released The Ghost’s Apprentice, a stunning AI-generated Star Wars fan film. Using Google Veo, Midjourney, and Runway, he created the 11.5-minute short in just 14 days, pushing AI tools to their limits. His previous AI-generated Batman short drew Warner Bros.’ legal attention, and Star Wars may follow suit. But instead of shutting him down, Hollywood should be learning from him. Cardoza’s Phantom X studio is already attracting interest from major brands and studios.

This is scary. “In this latest AI short film/vignette,” says filmmaker Davide Bianca of Shifting Tides, “I wanted to experiment with the idea of building tension through silence, and see if I could create something truly eerie and unsettling, not through jump scares or heavy exposition, but through subtle characterization and minimal dialogue.” Extensive performance capture was done with Runway Gen3 Act 1 and an iPhone, and prompted performance in Kling 1.6, to create a sense of heightened awareness between the characters. Every glance, every subtle movement, and every moment of stillness had to carry weight. The challenge was to make the characters feel hyper-aware of each other without relying on excessive dialogue.”

This column is also a podcast hosted by its author, Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and co-founder of Red Camera, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap. This week our guest is Ann Hand, CEO of Superleague. We can be found on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.

What We’re Reading

How An AI Might Take Over a short story by Joshua Clymer (52 minute read)

The AI Blindspot That Will Kill Hollywood (Shelly Palmer blog)