Musk vs OpenAI

PLUS: Thousands of humanoid robots are entering real warehouses

Author

Barsee
29 Apr

Together with

howdy, it’s Barsee again.

happy wednesday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.

here are the biggest things worth knowing today:

  • Musk sues OpenAI, calls Altman’s shift “looting” a charity

  • Researchers train an AI that thinks like it’s 1930

  • Thousands of humanoid robots are entering real warehouses

  • Anthropic has now surpassed OpenAI in revenue

  • Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

SOFTR

Courtesy: Softr

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Think client portals, internal tools, CRMs, and more. No code required.

*This is sponsored

THROUGH THE VALLEY

1/ Musk sues OpenAI, calls Altman’s shift “looting” a charity

Elon Musk says he’s suing OpenAI over its shift from nonprofit to for-profit, arguing it turned a public mission into private gain. He claims his early funding and reputation helped build the company, only for it to abandon its original principles. Musk warned this could set a precedent for “looting every charity in America,” while OpenAI argues the lawsuit is just an attempt to weaken a competitor.

Why this matters:

This is really about who controls AI labs once big money is involved. If courts side with Musk, “mission-first” structures lose credibility fast. If not, investors are backing companies where control and ownership don’t fully align.

2/ Researchers train an AI that thinks like it’s 1930

Researchers trained a 13B model, Talkie, only on data from before 1931, using books, newspapers, and public domain records. To make it conversational, they used old etiquette guides and cookbooks. Despite never seeing modern code, it can still write working Python by adapting patterns.

Why this matters:

The model didn’t “know Python.” It likely saw older programming patterns (math notation, early code, structured logic) and learned how to combine them. So when asked for Python, it’s not recalling syntax, it’s guessing a modern format that fits those patterns. Sometimes that guess is good enough to run. But it’s not reliable, and it breaks more easily than models trained on real code.

3/ Thousands of humanoid robots are entering real warehouses

RobotEra is deploying humanoid robots in 10 logistics hubs, handling sorting and package movement in real operations. The company has raised $400M+ and is already running across 10+ facilities, with robots reaching ~85% of human efficiency while operating continuously. Japan Airlines is also testing humanoids for baggage handling and aircraft cleaning at Haneda Airport starting in May, pointing to growing adoption driven by labor shortages and rising travel demand.

Why this matters:

At ~85% efficiency, robots don’t need to be perfect, just cheaper over time. Warehouses are built for humans, so humanoids can plug in without redesign. If this works here, it spreads fast to similar industries.

4/ Anthropic has now surpassed OpenAI in revenue

Anthropic has reportedly reached ~$30B ARR, ahead of OpenAI’s ~$24B, after scaling from ~$1B in about 15 months. The growth is driven by enterprise, not consumers, with 1,000+ companies spending over $1M annually on Claude. OpenAI, meanwhile, serves a massive user base but carries higher infrastructure and training costs.

Why this matters:

This is shaping into two different AI business models. OpenAI is optimizing for reach, building a massive user layer. Anthropic is optimizing for revenue density, extracting more value per customer. If enterprise demand continues to dominate, depth of integration may matter more than distribution, which changes how the next wave of AI companies are built.

PRESENTED BY ADOBE

Courtesy: Adobe

Now live in the app, Adobe just turned Firefly into a true all-in-one creative AI studio with its new Firefly AI Assistant. It works like an agent. You describe the outcome, and it plans and executes multi-step workflows across apps like Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, and more, while you stay in control of the creative direction.

Beyond that, Adobe upgraded Firefly’s editing stack. Video gets studio-quality sound, advanced color controls, and Adobe Stock integration, while images get more precise tools like Precision Flow and AI Markup.

It also now supports 30+ top AI models, including Kling 3.0 (and Omni), Veo 3.1, Runway Gen-4.5, and ElevenLabs Multilingual v2, giving creators far more flexibility in how they create.

TRENDING TOOLS

  • Remio > Set up once. Remio captures everything and gets the work done — docs, emails, slides, reports (sponsored)

  • Lovable > Build full-stack web apps straight from your phone using natural language

  • Talkie > Researchers unveil a 13B “vintage” language model trained to mirror 1930s-era language and style

  • Claude > Expands creative workflows with new connectors, including Adobe tools and Affinity by Canva

WHAT I'M CONSUMING

THE VALLEY GEMS

What’s trending on social today:

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

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