9to5.com : Court documents reveal OpenAI is coming for your iPhone


If you’re Apple, this is the kind of internal document that you knew existed, but still hits hard. Especially in the middle of a global antitrust reckoning and internal… whatever the heck is going on in there.
A recently unsealed OpenAI file outlines the company’s ambitions for ChatGPT. In short? They’re coming for Siri with everything they’ve got.

The super-assistant
Thanks to the DOJ’s ongoing case against Google, we now have a rare look at how OpenAI views its competition, and where it sees ChatGPT heading next.
The document (via The Verge), titled “ChatGPT: H1 2025 Strategy” and dated late 2024, describes a significant evolution of OpenAI’s LLM to turn it into a “super-assistant”:
“What exactly is a super-assistant? It’s an intelligent entity with T-shaped skills. It’s an entity because it’s personalized to you and available anywhere you go — including chatgpt.com, our native apps, phone, email, or third-party surfaces like Siri. It’s T-shaped because it has broad skills for daily tasks that are tedious, and deep expertise for tasks that most people find impossible (starting with coding). The broad part is all about making life easier: answering a question, finding a home, contacting a lawyer, joining a gym, planning vacations, buying gifts, managing calendars, keeping track of todos, sending emails. The deep part is about [REDACTED] — though as we reach less engaged users, we’ll need to keep an eye on [REDACTED].”

Contrary to Apple, OpenAI’s plan seems on track
If you have been keeping up with ChatGPT’s evolution, you know that this is exactly what OpenAI has been doing in H1 2025. From the recent rollout of cross-chat memory, to Operator, which gives ChatGPT agentic capabilities to directly manipulate platforms and interfaces, it’s all there.
In a nutshell, the document paints a future where ChatGPT isn’t just something you open in a browser or in an app, but something that’s always with you, always listening, and always ready to help. You know, like Siri (even with its ChaGPT integration) was supposed to be:
“One that knows you, understands what you care about, and helps with any task that a smart, trustworthy, emotionally intelligent person with a computer could do.”
The plan hinges on OpenAI’s new generation of models, combined with agentic tools for web browsing, code writing, and device control. It doesn’t specifically mention hardware, which is where the recently announced bombshell Jony Ive partnership would come in, but you know this is in there somewhere, under all that redaction.

The Siri partnership is not enough
However, the biggest competitive threat to Apple isn’t just how the technology works, but where.
OpenAI makes it clear that they want to challenge gatekeepers, specifically naming “powerful incumbents who will leverage their distribution to advantage their own products”. ChatGPT has been Siri’s fallback for almost a year now, but OpenAI obviously wants more:
“Real choice drives competition and benefits everyone. Users should be able to pick their AI assistant. If you’re on iOS, Android, or Windows, you should be able to set ChatGPT as your default. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta shouldn’t push their own AIs without giving users fair alternatives. The same goes for search engines: Google, Apple, Microsoft should offer users a choice for their default search engine and make their underlying indexes accessible to AI assistants, including ChatGPT.”
Their antitrust pitch to regulators seems pretty ready to go.
Meanwhile, Apple’s own AI roadmap is all over the place. Siri leadership was recently moved under Vision Pro executive Mike Rockwell, while Robby Walker, who previously ran Siri, is now leading a new internal project called “Knowledge.” That initiative is said to be Apple’s answer to ChatGPT. However, as Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman’s reported, “it’s already been plagued by some of the same problems that delayed the Siri overhaul.“

Hey Siri, what now?

FT : UK must spend £68bn to modernise military, defence review suggests

UK must spend £68bn to modernise military, defence review suggests
Drones and artificial intelligence will be needed to increase warfighting capability

The UK will need to spend about £68bn to prepare its armed forces for modern warfare, a long-awaited strategic defence review suggests, laying bare the budgetary pressures on Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

The review of weapons the UK will need to wage a sustained war against a rival nation recommends a greater use of drones, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence that will turn the British soldier into a “digital warfighter”.

However, it also argues the UK needs to spend significant sums on big-ticket items such as new nuclear warheads, submarines and fighter jets. The shares of major British defence companies rose on Monday.

“This is the most profound change to Britain’s armed forces in 150 years,” the review’s co-author General Sir Richard Barrons said.

Starmer declined to give a firm date on Monday for when Britain’s defence spending would rise to 3 per cent of GDP, the government’s target level, as he vowed the UK’s slimmed-down armed forces will reach “warfighting readiness”.

The government has pledged to increase spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027, an increase of about £6bn a year.

Matthew Savill of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said: “Given the existing pressures in the budget, and the need to rebuild the foundations of defence, it’s very unlikely that the increase . . . would be enough without other cuts.”

The SDR report released on Monday said the goal is to “increase national warfighting readiness so that, if needed, the UK can transition to, scale for, and sustain a war against a ‘peer’ adversary”.

Britain “should also learn from Ukraine’s extraordinary experience in land warfare, drone, and hybrid conflict to develop its own modern approach to warfighting”, the report added, referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

“The threats we face are more serious and unpredictable than at any time since the end of the cold war,” defence secretary John Healey told MPs.

“Our adversaries are working more in alliance with one another while technology is changing how war is fought. For too long our army has been asked to do more, with less.”

Recommendations in the SDR report cost at least £67.6bn through to the late 2030s, according to previously detailed costings and estimates from industry experts of new announcements.

The 62 SDR recommendations — all accepted by the government — include a £15bn investment in new nuclear warheads, and up to 12 new attack submarines developed by the Aukus partnership with the US and Australia by the end of the next decade: the equivalent of a new boat every 18 months.

Sid Kaushal, a naval warfare expert at Rusi, said the programme could cost roughly £2.6bn per boat, based on the equivalent US Virginia class block V guided-missile attack submarines.

The SDR also recommended procuring new F-35 stealth fighters and the Global Combat Aircraft Programme, a 6th-generation fighter to be produced by the UK, Italy and Japan.

Justin Bronk, a Rusi expert on air power, said the GCAP warplanes were likely to cost the UK at least £10bn to £12bn to develop, while a second tranche of 27 new F-35s on top of 48 already purchased could cost £100mn per aircraft.

Rather than increase the size of the army beyond the current target of 73,000, the SDR report said smarter technology could allow a “10-fold increase in lethality”.

It added that “much of the army’s capabilities — including Challenger 2 tanks, AS90 artillery, and ammunition — have recently been gifted to Ukraine”, and had not been refreshed since the 1990s.

“As the army rebuilds, investment must be paired with changes to how it is organised, operates and is equipped . . . it can deliver a 10-fold increase in lethality by harnessing precision firepower, surveillance technology, autonomy, digital connectivity and data,” the report said.

Despite the 73,000 target for army numbers, “there remains a strong case for a small increase in regular numbers when funding allows”, while reserve troops must be rapidly expanded.

The SDR report also said £1bn should be spent on a digital targeting platform, as well as creation of a national cyber and electronic warfare command.

One infantry combat veteran criticised the focus on technology saying “there appears to be no notion as to the reality of modern war — in terms of mass, in terms of casualties”.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank estimated Starmer’s commitment to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2027 would force the government to keep public investment in other areas flat from this year up to 2029-30.

If the government wanted to increase military spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade, it would need to find an additional £17bn in 2030, IFS researchers said.

Ben Zaranko, associate director at the IFS, said: “That’s more than 10 times what the government is saving by means testing winter fuel payments. You are going to have to do 10 winter fuel payment reforms, and that seems challenging.”

FT : Sizewell C nuclear project to get go-ahead during Anglo-French summit

Sizewell C nuclear project to get go-ahead during Anglo-French summit
UK ministers hope to sign up private sector investors for new Suffolk power plant later this month

The new Sizewell C nuclear power station is expected to get the final go-ahead during an Anglo-French summit in London next month, as UK ministers edge towards securing billions of investment from the private sector.

The UK government — which owns the Sizewell C project alongside French state-owned energy company EDF — is keen to begin construction at the Suffolk site, the second in a proposed fleet of new nuclear reactors to help boost Britain’s supplies of low-carbon electricity.

Darren Jones, a Treasury minister, told the Financial Times earlier this year that the final investment decision for Sizewell C, where shareholders formally commit to the investment, would be “at the spending review” on June 11. 

Ministers are expected to reaffirm the government’s intention to invest in Sizewell in or around the spending review, according to people close to the situation, with details expected on how much they could allocate in taxpayer support for the project.

However, the final go-ahead is not expected until an announcement by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron during the Franco-British summit in London between July 8 and July 10, according to people close to the talks in Britain and France.

By then the government and EDF will have received final bids from several private investors who have been given a deadline of late June, allowing the formal final investment decision to proceed.

Groups expected to bid for a stake in Sizewell include insurer Rothesay, backed by the Singaporean infrastructure fund GIC, the Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Amber Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, pension fund USS, Schroders Greencoat and Equitix, people close to the talks have said. 

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has also confirmed that it is in talks to invest in the project.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s chief executive, told the FT last week that he wanted to get a “reasonable return, cap on exposure to overruns in terms of cost and schedule, and a sensible cash injection profile which sees the money going in over time. If we get that, we will be a very happy investor”.

One potential investor said terms were “generous”. Another potential investor who declined to be named said the government had “gone a long way to make it attractive”.

The project remains controversial, however, given that it will be paid for by higher energy bills during construction.

“Any private investors that came on board at the eleventh hour will have been bribed by generous terms at the expense of consumers,” said Alison Downes of the Stop Sizewell C campaign.

Sizewell’s management has rejected industry claims that its final cost could ultimately come close to £40bn but has refused to offer their own estimate. 

Sizewell C is set to be only the second new nuclear power plant built in a generation in Britain, following Hinkley Point C, which EDF is building in Somerset but is heavily delayed and well over budget.

EDF has tried to get Sizewell C off the ground for years. Its efforts were further complicated when the British government forced out EDF’s former partner, China General Nuclear Power Corp, on security grounds in November 2022. 

Sizewell C was meant to get an investment sign-off in late 2024 but the project’s timescale has slipped. In 2022 the British state said it would co-invest directly with EDF on the project and has steadily increased its ownership of the project.

As of December 31, the UK government’s stake was 84 per cent, compared with EDF’s 16 per cent. A person familiar with the situation said EDF has since lowered its stake further.

Schroders Greencoat, Brookfield, GIC, Amber, Rothesay, CDPQ and Equitix declined to comment. A government spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on speculation.”

EDF declined to comment. USS had not responded to a request for a response at the time of publication.

FT : Private credit could ‘amplify’ next financial crisis, study finds

Private credit could ‘amplify’ next financial crisis, study finds
Industry may become a ‘locus of contagion’ during market upheaval, report from US officials and bankers says

Private credit is now so intertwined with big banks and insurers that it could become a “locus of contagion” in the next financial crisis, a group of economists, bankers and US officials has warned.

Researchers from Moody’s Analytics, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a former top adviser to the Treasury Department found private credit funds have become enmeshed with the banking system, creating “new linkages [that] introduce new modes of systemic stress”.

“Their opaqueness and role in making the financial network more densely interconnected mean they could disproportionately amplify a future [financial] crisis,” the group said on Tuesday in a study published by Moody’s Analytics.

Private credit has boomed in recent years as regulations put in place following the 2008 financial crisis prompted banks to tighten their lending standards. Funds, which generally lend to riskier companies with significant debt loads, are subject to looser oversight than banks — something that has prompted concern as the sector has grown.

The report, written by Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics, Samim Ghamami of the SEC, and former Treasury adviser Antonio Weiss, is one of the most comprehensive analyses to date on how private credit would affect the broader financial system during a period of market upheaval.

The researchers relied on financial reporting and the stock prices of publicly listed middle-market corporate lenders, known as business development companies, as their proxy for the otherwise opaque private credit industry. They found that during recent moments of market stress, business development companies had become more tightly correlated with the turmoil in other sectors than they were previously.

“Today’s network of interconnections in the financial system is more distributed, with a denser web of connections than it had pre-crisis, when the system operated more like a ‘hub and spoke’ model with banks at the centre of the network,” the report said, noting that private credit firms, other speciality financial groups and insurers have taken a greater role in lending.

Private credit firms maintain they are better at lending than banks because they rely on capital from institutional investors with longer time horizons and not subject to “runs” such as bank deposits, which can lead to broader contagion in moments of panic.

“Banks are increasingly involved in private credit and other non-bank financial institutions through partnerships, fund financing and structured risk transfers that allow them to maintain economic exposure to credit markets while shifting assets off balance sheet,” the Moody’s Analytics study said.

The Boston Federal Reserve last month had similarly warned that banks were exposing themselves to new channels of risk by lending to private credit funds and other similar groups.

Fitch Ratings this week said that private credit’s “evolving products and asset classes requires close monitoring, with many untested through market cycles”.

The Moody’s Analytics report said the private credit sector should be required to share more public data on its lending, and for financial regulators to emphasise private credit in their overall “systemic risk monitoring”.

“The objective is not to stifle the beneficial innovation that private credit provides but to shine a light on its risks and linkages so that a rapidly growing part of corporate finance, and potentially other sectors, does not become a blind spot.”

TechCrunch : Tesla files new ‘Robotaxi’ trademark applications after prior attem

Tesla files new ‘Robotaxi’ trademark applications after prior attempt stalls

Tesla has filed trademark applications for the term “Tesla Robotaxi,” after the company’s previous attempts to secure trademarks for its planned self-driving vehicle service hit roadblocks.

The company originally applied in October 2024 for the trademark of the words “Robotaxi” and “Cybercab.” The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) told the company last month it needed more detail in order to allow a trademark for “Robotaxi,” a term that is used by a number of other companies like Waymo, as TechCrunch first reported last month. The USPTO halted Tesla’s application for “Cybercab” outright due to the number of other companies trying to trademark various uses of the term “Cyber.”

Tesla submitted the three new applications for the more specific “Tesla Robotaxi” phrase as it looks to begin testing in Austin, Texas, later this month. It’s looking to attain the trademarks to be used in reference to Tesla’s planned autonomous ride-hailing service, the related mobile app, and the vehicles themselves.

It’s unlikely the applications will be reviewed in time for that test; trademark applications typically sit for months before they are assigned to an “examiner.”

Tesla also has applications pending for trademarks on the phrases “Robobus,” “Robus,” and “Cyberbus,” presumably for the van-like concept vehicle it showed off last October when it revealed the Cybercab prototype. During that event, CEO Elon Musk referred to that vehicle as the “Robovan.” But Estonian robotic delivery company Starship already owns a trademark for that term.

WSJ : Universal, Warner and Sony Are Negotiating AI Licensing Rights for Music

Universal, Warner and Sony Are Negotiating AI Licensing Rights for Music
The talks with AI startups concern how the labels—and their artists—would get paid for music’s use in generative AI models

Major music companies are negotiating licensing deals with two startups that could set a new precedent for how songs are used and artists are paid for remixes generated by artificial intelligence.

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group WMG -1.33%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Sony Music Group want to be compensated by startups Suno and Udio when music by artists they represent is used to train generative AI models and produce new music, according to people familiar with the talks.

To determine how much artists and labels should be paid, the companies want the startups to develop fingerprinting and attribution technology—similar to YouTube’s content ID—to track when and how a song is used, the people said.

In addition, the music companies want to be active participants in the music-related products that the AI companies release, including having a say in which products are developed and how they work.

The companies represent some of the most popular artists, such as Taylor Swift, Drake and Ed Sheeran. News of the negotiations was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

The negotiations are a sign of how record labels, like movie studios, book publishers and news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal’s owner News Corp, are trying to protect against the threat that generative AI poses to their business while creating new revenue streams.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry’s trade group, filed a lawsuit last June against Suno and Udio, alleging the firms were infringing on artists’ and labels’ copyrights.

Suno said its technology was creating new content and not memorizing or regurgitating pre-existing music. Udio said the goal of its training was to develop an understanding of musical ideas that aren’t owned by anyone, and that it has filters to ensure its model doesn’t reproduce copyrighted works or artists’ voices.

Both the labels and startups are now eager to come to terms on licensing rights given a more uncertain regulatory environment and investor pressure to develop commercial frameworks for the use of music in generative AI products.

The Trump administration’s firing of U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter last month especially raised concern in the music business that the White House would favor tech companies in disputes over AI and copyright.

Each label is negotiating with the startups individually, and the talks are at different stages of progression, the people said.

A hurdle for the labels is how to come to commercial terms to license their catalogs at scale in a way that not only protects artists’ work but also garners broad support among musicians, some of whom may be wary.

The labels are seeking provisions for artists to be able to opt out of certain use cases.

Any licensing agreements would likely involve a settlement of the suit between the two sides, and require some amount of damages paid for the use of music so far. Agreements would also likely involve the music companies taking stakes in the AI companies.

Music companies often take stakes as part of licensing agreements with startups. Universal, Warner and Sony had stakes in Spotify when the music-streaming service launched.

>>> US After Hours Summary: MLTX +26.2% surges on FT report that MRK held acquis

After Hours Summary: MLTX +26.2% surges on FT report that MRK held acquisition talks; CRDO +10.4% sharply higher on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: CRDO +10.4%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: MLTX +26.2% (MRK held talks for a potential acquisition of MLTX, according to FT.com), CURB +2% (provides investment update), WEX +1% (Chair/CEO Melissa Smith bought 3721 shares), BUSE +0.7% (increases share repurchase program by 2 mln shares), INVH +0.7% (acquisitions update and launch of developer lending program), CRDF +0.6% (data from onvansertib trial), PSNL +0.4% (new clinical results from the PREDICT DNA and SCANDARE studies) HCI +0.4% (completes its catastrophe reinsurance programs), UBER +0.2% (names new COO), BILL +0.1% (names new CFO)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: None.

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: TRVI -3.4% ($100 mln share offering), DCI -1.1% (names new COO), SNOW -0.1% (to acquire Crunchy Data), MPW -0.1% (files mixed securities shelf offering)

FT : Bristol Myers Squibb signs $11bn cancer drug deal with BioNTech

Bristol Myers Squibb signs $11bn cancer drug deal with BioNTech
US-German partnership hopes BNT327 will compete with Merck’s bestseller Keytruda

Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a partnership worth up to $11bn to develop a BioNTech cancer drug that has the potential to beat the world’s bestselling medicine Keytruda.

The US drugmaker will co-develop and commercialise the medicine, known as BNT327. The deal is one of the largest-ever pharma partnerships and the biggest for Germany’s BioNTech, which is best known for its Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer.

BioNTech worked for three years on the drug with Chinese group Biotheus, which originally discovered it, before buying the company for nearly $1bn late last year. 

The drug, which is in more than 20 trials including two late-stage studies, has shown potential to beat Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda, which was the bestselling drug in 2024 with $29.5bn in sales.

Uğur Şahin, BioNTech’s chief executive, said it wanted to work with BMS because it was an “established pioneer with vast experience in the field of immunoncology” — using the immune system to tackle cancer.  

“The potential of the opportunity is bigger than we can deliver alone,” he added. BioNTech estimates the drug could be used to treat up to 3mn patients.

BNT327 is a “bispecific” engineered antibody that can bond to two sorts of cancer cell receptors at once, unlike natural antibodies. This allows it to simultaneously work in the same way as Keytruda — enabling the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells — and to inhibit a key protein that promotes tumour growth.

Şahin said the drug so far showed longer-lasting efficacy and could offer opportunities for treating many different types of cancer. 

BMS is trying to boost its pipeline in the face of upcoming patent expirations for key drugs including cancer medicine Opdivo — which works in a similar way to Keytruda — and anti-blood-clotting drug Eliquis. 

Christopher Boerner, chair and chief executive of BMS, said the new drug had “significant potential for transforming the standard of care for patients with solid tumours”.

The company has been preparing for patent expiries by cutting costs and striking deals, including the $14bn acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics for its schizophrenia drug. Earlier this year, Boerner said business development was the group’s top “capital allocation priority” in 2025. Its shares are up 15.6 per cent over the past 12 months.

BioNTech has been investing the proceeds from its Covid vaccine into building oncology expertise.

It is pursuing using the mRNA technology developed for its Covid vaccines to create personalised shots to treat individual tumours. It has also been adding other technologies such as BNT327 and a more targeted version of chemotherapy, called antibody drug conjugates, and is exploring how to combine various drugs.

BMS and BioNTech will share the cost of most of the clinical trials of BNT327 equally and target commercialisation in all global markets.

BMS will pay BioNTech $1.5bn upfront, followed by up to $2bn of additional payments until 2028. BioNTech will be eligible to receive up to $7.6bn in further milestone payments.