Hello and welcome to Sync #502!

In this week’s issue, we take a closer look at OpenAI’s Economic Blueprint, which outlines policy proposals preferred by OpenAI for how the US can maximise AI’s benefits, bolster national security, and drive economic growth.

Elsewhere in AI, Mark Zuckerberg said that AI could soon do the work of Meta’s midlevel engineers, Elon Musk wants courts to force OpenAI to auction off a significant ownership stake, and President Joe Biden issued an executive order to accelerate the domestic construction of AI infrastructure.

Over in robotics, OpenAI is taking robotics seriously again and is looking for people to join its newly reformed robotics team. We also have another video of a humanoid robot, and how soft robotics can help create more flexible, quieter, and adaptable robots.

In other news, Neuralink announced that its brain-computer interface has been implanted in a third patient. We also look at how AI is helping archaeologists read ancient texts, meet a startup planning to bury micro-nuclear reactors to power data centres and explore the future of nanotechnology.

Enjoy!

The car was not invented in America—it was invented in Europe. This invention promised to revolutionise the world and completely reimagine every aspect of our lives—how we work, how we do business, and how we live our everyday lives. It promised to unlock new ways of living and new opportunities for economic growth.

However, not everyone saw cars and the emerging automotive industry as an opportunity. Many countries introduced laws and regulations that hindered cars—this new, exciting technology—from reaching their full potential. Meanwhile, America seized this opportunity and transformed the automotive industry into one of the pillars of its 20th-century economy. While individual states invested in the necessary infrastructure and business incentives for the automotive industry to thrive, the federal government funded the massive highway system that connected the country.

This is the story that OpenAI opens its recently released Economic Blueprint and argues that history repeats before our eyes. However, instead of cars, this new vehicle of innovation, opportunity, and economic growth is AI. In this 15-page document, OpenAI outlines its preferred AI policies and how these can ensure shared and responsible AI benefits while fostering US leadership in AI development. It urges US policymakers to fully embrace AI, much as the country did a century ago with automobiles, and to create a fertile environment where the AI industry can thrive and become the new engine of economic growth.

OpenAI’s Economic Blueprint and the proposed policies are organised into three sections: Competitiveness and Security, Rules of the Road and Infrastructure as Destiny.

In the first section, OpenAI focuses on policies aimed at maintaining US leadership in AI and emphasises the need for the United States to lead in AI development through clear, consistent rules that promote innovation, ensure national security, and prevent misuse. It advocates aligning AI development with democratic values, such as free-market competition and user freedom while holding developers and users accountable for responsible use.

OpenAI warns of the risks posed by adversarial misuse of AI, including authoritarian governments using it for control, industrial espionage, novel cyber threats, and unchecked global investments flowing to nations like China.

To counter these risks, the blueprint calls for federal leadership to develop a cohesive strategy for AI. This includes prioritising the development of state-of-the-art frontier models with robust safeguards, streamlining regulations, and promoting collaboration with international allies. OpenAI also advocates for deeper collaboration with national security organizations (the company highlights here its partnerships with agencies like Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory, as well as recently the announced partnership with defence startup Andruil), to develop best practices for deploying AI securely and addressing emerging threats.

Export policies should securely share AI advancements with partner nations to strengthen their AI ecosystems while restricting access for adversaries. OpenAI also emphasises the need for an international coalition to establish shared safety standards and prevent regulatory fragmentation.

OpenAI highlights the importance of establishing clear and practical guidelines to ensure AI is developed and used responsibly while maximising its benefits for society. It emphasises that AI, like past transformative technologies, requires thoughtful governance to unlock its full potential. By setting these rules early, OpenAI argues, the US can lay the foundation for the rapid and widespread adoption of AI and empower users across the country.

OpenAI advocates for robust safeguards to prevent the creation of harmful AI-generated content and calls for stronger collaboration between AI companies and law enforcement. To build public trust in AI, it proposes using provenance data to trace AI-generated content back to its source. OpenAI also emphasises empowering users with control over their AI tools, including how personal data is used and the ability to personalise AI to their preferences.

OpenAI encourages states to serve as testing grounds for AI innovation, particularly in education and healthcare, fostering local AI ecosystems while increasing public confidence in the technology. By implementing these “rules of the road,” OpenAI believes the US can establish a secure, innovative, and user-centric AI ecosystem that benefits all Americans.

OpenAI underscores the critical role of infrastructure in securing US leadership in AI and fostering economic growth. Drawing parallels to the transformative impact of the automobile industry, OpenAI emphasises the need to develop the foundational resources—chips, data, energy, and talent—necessary for the AI industry to thrive. OpenAI argues that timely investment in these areas could catalyse a “reindustrialisation” of the US, creating widespread economic opportunities and bolstering global competitiveness.

To meet the growing demand for AI compute and energy, OpenAI proposes initiatives such as AI Economic Zones to fast-track infrastructure projects, increased investment in new energy sources, and a National AI Infrastructure Highway to connect regional power and communication grids. It also advocates digitising public data to support US AI developers of all sizes. In return, OpenAI suggests, developers using this data could collaborate with the government to generate insights that inform the development of better public policies.

The document envisions the creation of AI research labs aligned with local industries. As an example, the blueprint suggests Kansas could establish a hub dedicated to applying AI in agriculture, while Texas or Pennsylvania could develop hubs focused on integrating AI into power production and grid resilience.

The section also warns of the risks of inaction, such as allowing global AI investments (which OpenAI estimates at $175 billion) to flow to adversaries like China, and emphasises the importance of policies that ensure AI is built on democratic foundations. By investing in infrastructure and fostering the growth of AI ecosystems, OpenAI envisions a future where the US remains at the forefront of innovation while unlocking economic opportunities across the country.

In essence, OpenAI’s Economic Blueprint brings together what OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, have been advocating for for the last two years. It calls on the US government to take decisive action to establish a federal legal framework that sets clear rules for the AI industry. At the same time, OpenAI urges the US government to step in and support the development of infrastructure necessary for an AI-powered economy — from creating new energy sources to investing in the chip industry and education.

With these policies in place, OpenAI argues, the US can win the AI race. In fact, OpenAI goes even further and says the US must win this race. The document suggests that if these policies are not implemented, it will be China—not the US—that benefits most from AI and dictates the course of the technology. This “us versus them” rhetoric appears throughout the document, aiming to use patriotism or nationalism to rally support for OpenAI’s proposed policies. OpenAI frames AI development as a critical battle for technological leadership and security between democratic nations like the US and authoritarian adversaries like China—a framing reminiscent of the Cold War.

With the new Trump administration set to take power soon, OpenAI might find greater success in convincing the White House and the US government to adopt its preferred AI policies.

By using the car industry as an analogy to the AI industry, OpenAI references one of the industries that defined the 20th-century United States. The car and the automotive industry redefined what America is and transformed how people work, conduct business, and live. OpenAI argues that AI will play a similarly transformative role in the 21st century. However, for history to repeat itself, decisive actions must be taken, according to OpenAI. Otherwise, AI will not be associated with the US, and the benefits of AI will be reaped by someone else.

The full Blueprint is available here⁠.

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Musk Says Neuralink Implanted Third Patient With Brain Device
Speaking at an event in Las Vegas, Elon Musk announced that Neuralink’s brain-computer interface has been implanted in a third patient. “We’ve now got three humans with Neuralinks implanted, and they’re all working well,” said Musk, adding that the company plans to carry out about 20 to 30 more implants in 2025.

▶️ It’s not fair having 12 pairs of legs (9:58)

I’ve recently been reminded about this TED Talk by Aimee Mullins from 2009. While her talk focuses on redefining disability and turning it into a superpower, it is also about how people react to someone who changed their body beyond what most will ever encounter. The story Mullins shares about someone telling her it’s unfair that she can choose her height offers insight into how people might respond if—or when—radical human augmentation becomes a reality.

Omi, a competitor to Friend, wants to boost your productivity using AI and a ‘brain interface’
Meet Omi, yet another AI-first device revealed at CES 2025. Similar to other devices in this category, such as Rabbit, Humane, and Friend, this AI wearable offers functions like answering questions, summarising conversations, creating to-do lists, and scheduling meetings. Like its predecessors, it features a sleek, futuristic design. However, unlike its predecessors, Omi is positioned as a complementary device to smartphones rather than a replacement or AI companion. Additionally, it includes a built-in brain interface to detect user commands without requiring a wake word.I have some doubts, but let’s wait for independent reviews, which are expected in Q2 2025 when the device is planned to be shipped.

▶️ Nanotechnology: The Future of Everything (36:48)

In this video, Isaac Arthur takes a closer look at nanotechnology—exploring its origins, the challenges and risks of engineering at the nanoscale, and the enormous potential this technology holds for manufacturing, medicine, and many other areas. Arthur compares the current state of nanotechnology to that of artificial intelligence a decade ago—when the AI we have today seemed like science fiction. The same, Arthur argues, could happen to nanotechnology and massively transform our lives.

Mark Zuckerberg says AI could soon do the work of Meta’s midlevel engineers
In a conversation with Joe Rogan, Mark Zuckerberg revealed Meta’s plans to automate the work of mid-level software engineers by 2025. Meta aims to have all coding for its apps eventually generated by AI, potentially making coding a fully automated skill which could lead to significant cost savings.

Biden opens federal land for AI data centers, sets rules for developers
President Joe Biden issued an executive order to accelerate the domestic construction of AI infrastructure and address national security risks associated with the technology. The US Department of Defense and Department of Energy are authorised to lease federal sites for gigawatt-scale AI data centres. The order also issued guidelines for AI developers using the sites to not only build, operate, and maintain the leased centres at full cost, but also to deliver clean energy resources to match their capacity needs to prevent increases in electricity costs. The move aligns with efforts to keep AI development onshore and reduce reliance on foreign resources. Agencies will now select federal sites for AI data centres, after which developers can submit lease proposals.

Elon Musk wants courts to force OpenAI to auction off a large ownership stake
The battle between OpenAI and Elon Musk continues. According to a report by the Financial Times, Elon Musk’s lawyer has urged the attorneys general of California and Delaware to force OpenAI to auction a significant stake in its business. OpenAI plans to convert into a public benefit corporation, with its nonprofit retaining shares—a move Musk has legally challenged, arguing it undervalues the nonprofit’s assets and unfairly consolidates power. OpenAI defends the conversion as a means to fund its mission better, while Musk and allies, including Meta, continue to voice concerns over governance, transparency, and potential monopolisation.

AI researcher François Chollet founds a new AI lab focused on AGI
There is a new AI lab focusing on AGI on the block. It’s called Ndea and was founded by François Chollet—a well-respected AI researcher, the author of Keras (a popular deep learning framework) and the co-creator of the ARC Benchmark and ARC-AGI Prize—and Mike Knoop, the founder of Zapier. As Chollet writes in his tweet, Ndea will focus on researching deep learning-guided program synthesis, a promising new method of building AI systems, which the team hopes will eventually lead to AGI.

How AI is unlocking ancient texts — and could rewrite history

AI is revolutionising archaeology by helping decipher ancient texts, reconstruct incomplete documents, and analyse vast historical archives. Recent projects include the Vesuvius Challenge, where AI revealed text from carbonised Herculaneum scrolls, and the Ithaca model, which restores missing words and dates Greek inscriptions. AI has also translated Korean royal archives and made strides in decoding rare scripts like Linear B. By combining machine learning with human expertise, researchers are uncovering hidden knowledge and making new discoveries about the ancient world.

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics Need an Update for AI
For decades, Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics have been shaping the discourse on AI and robotics ethics. Times, however, have changed, and we now live in a world flooded with deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation. To address the rise in AI-generated misinformation and deepfakes, this article proposes a fourth law: A robot or AI must not deceive a human by impersonating a human being, and suggests how this fourth law could be implemented.

It’s Time to Move Past AI Nationalism
”AI nationalism depicts AI as a battle to be won, rather than an opportunity to be harnessed,” writes Verity Harding in this article calling to stop viewing the AI race from a nationalistic point of view, to not view AI through a competitive and nationalistic lens, influenced by geopolitical tensions, and to embrace diplomacy and collaborative frameworks in managing AI’s global impact. As Harding notes, there are signs that this shift is happening.

AI Brad Pitt dupes French woman out of €830,000
Here is yet another example of AI is being used by scammers. A 53-year-old French woman was conned out of €830,000 by scammers posing as actor Brad Pitt. For over 18 months, the scammers used AI-generated photos, videos, and fabricated news reports to convince the woman that she was interacting with the real Brad Pitt. When she realised it was a scam, the woman contacted the authorities and later publicly shared her story. While mockery dominated online responses, some posts and media highlighted the need for empathy and greater awareness of modern digital scams.

Transformer²: Self-Adaptive LLMs
Researchers from the Japanese AI lab Sakana.ai present Transformer²—a new approach to developing large language models that can adjust their own weights dynamically and adapt to new knowledge. The results presented in the paper look promising. Researchers hope this new approach will eventually lead to models embodying “living intelligence” that continually learn, evolve and adapt over time.

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New OpenAI job listings reveal the company’s robotics plans
After dismantling its robotics team in 2021, OpenAI is now taking robotics seriously again and is looking for people to join its newly reformed robotics team. Caitlin Kalinowski, who leads OpenAI’s robotics efforts, recently tweeted that the company has open job listings for robotics engineers to develop “general-purpose,” “adaptive,” and “versatile” robots capable of human-like intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. The company is looking to recruit engineers experienced in designing systems for high-volume manufacturing (1M+ units), hinting at potential plans for “full-scale production” of robots. While there are no further details on the type of robots OpenAI intends to build, rumours suggest that humanoid robots may be on the table.

▶️ Unitree G1 Bionic: Agile Upgrade (1:06)

Another week, another video of a humanoid robot. This time, the Chinese company Unitree showcases how its humanoid robot, G1, can navigate challenging terrain, such as stone-laden surfaces, running up and down hills, and climbing stairs.

▶️ How we can make robots more human-like (12:50)

In this talk, Robert Katzschmann, Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich, shares his vision for soft robotics, which takes inspiration from nature to create more flexible, quieter, and adaptable robots. Katzschmann explains how these robots differ from traditional robots and demonstrates one on the stage. He also showcases his latest research project—a robotic leg powered by artificial hydraulic muscles—and its potential to revolutionise robotics for everyday life.

Illumina, Nvidia Launch AI-Based Genomics Partnership
Nvidia and Illumina announced a partnership to apply genomics and AI technologies in drug discovery, clinical research, and human health. The partnership will focus on developing biology foundation models, integrating Nvidia tools like RAPIDS and BioNeMo with Illumina’s multi-omics analysis tools, with production-ready solutions expected before the end of the year.

Nuclear startup Deep Fission plans to bury micro-reactors to power data centers
The growing demand for greater computing power has spurred interest in nuclear power and brought attention to the emerging ecosystem of startups focused on nuclear energy. One such startup is Deep Fission, which recently signed a deal with data centre developer Endeavour to deliver 2 gigawatts from its small modular reactors (SMRs) buried in boreholes one mile deep, using depth as a substitute for extensive concrete shielding. Deep Fission’s reactors are designed to be affordable, targeting electricity costs of 5–7 cents per kilowatt-hour, significantly lower than current nuclear power costs. The company aims to activate its first reactor by 2029.

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