Apollo says AI has paid off nowhere outside tech; Replit moves $100M+ of AI spend to OpenAI; Kimi's launch faces a creator-disclosure allegation; Block's Dessa voice model; Utopai hits $1B.
Today Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok wrote that AI has delivered "zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech": revenue per worker and margins are flat for the S&P 493, and token spend is increasingly treated as a cost. The Information reported that Replit moved most of its AI spend from Anthropic to OpenAI after a 30%+ discount on a $100M+ a year contract. Moonshot's Kimi K3.1 Pro launch faces an unverified allegation of undisclosed paid creator promotion. Block unveiled Dessa, a voice model trained only on human speech that runs on a MacBook Pro. And AI film studio Utopai raised $60M at a $1B valuation.
Today's stories:
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