Enlarge (credit: Reddit )

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Reddit has signed a contract allowing an unnamed AI company to train its models on the site's content, according to people familiar with the matter. The move comes as the social media platform nears the introduction of its initial public offering (IPO), which could happen as soon as next month.

Reddit initially revealed the deal, which is reported to be worth $60 million a year, earlier in 2024 to potential investors of an anticipated IPO, Bloomberg said. The Bloomberg source speculates that the contract could serve as a model for future agreements with other AI companies.

After an era where AI companies utilized AI training data without expressly seeking any rightsholder permission, some tech firms have more recently begun entering deals where some content used for training AI models similar to GPT-4 (which runs the paid version of ChatGPT) comes under license. In December, for example, OpenAI signed an agreement with German publisher Axel Springer (publisher of Politico and Business Insider) for access to its articles. Previously, OpenAI has struck deals with other organizations, including the Associated Press . Reportedly, OpenAI is also in licensing talks with CNN, Fox, and Time, among others.

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 Pro. (credit: Samuel Axon)

According to a report in Bloomberg , Tang Tan, vice president of Product Design, is leaving Apple, and his departure heralds a shuffle of executives heading up some of the company's most important products.

Sometimes, you might wonder just how much a specific executive influences the grand scheme of things, but the report claims that people within Apple see Tan's departure as "a blow," clarifying that he "made critical decisions about Apple's most important products." His team reportedly had "tight control" over the look and functionality of those products.

Tan oversaw major aspects of iPhone and Apple Watch design, and he was the executive overseeing accessories and AirPods, as well. He reported to John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, who is likely a more widely known name.

Enlarge / Thirst for the ".ai" domain has put Anguilla on the global technology map. (credit: Getty Images )

Anguilla, a tiny British island territory in the Caribbean, may bring in up to $30 million in revenue this year thanks to its ".ai" domain name, reports Bloomberg in a piece published Thursday. Over the past year, skyrocketing interest in AI has made the country's ".ai" top-level domain particularly attractive to tech companies. The revenue is a boon for Anguilla's economy, which primarily relies on tourism and has been impacted by the pandemic.

$30 million from domains may not sound like a lot compared to the billions thrown around in AI these days, but with a total land area of 35 square miles and a population of 15,753, Anguilla isn't complaining. Registrars like GoDaddy must pay Anguilla a fixed price—$140 for a two-year registration—and the prices are rising due to demand.

Bloomberg says that Anguilla brought in a mere $7.4 million from .ai domain registrations in 2021, but all that changed with the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT last year. Its release spawned a huge wave of AI hype, fear , and investment. Vince Cate, who has managed the ".ai" domain for Anguilla for decades, told Bloomberg that .ai registrations have effectively doubled in the past year. "Since November 30, things are very different here," he said.

Enlarge / The 2022 iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

Apple's iPad Pro is set to get its biggest redesign since 2018, according to a new report. Slated for a launch next year, it will seek to turn around recent years' slow tablet sales.

The information comes from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman —as you probably could have guessed by now. Gurman claims to have knowledge of Apple's plans, stating that the new iPad Pro will have everything from a new chip to a new screen technology, a different design, and a revamped keyboard accessory.

The new chip is obvious—that has been the standard minimum for any new iPad Pro refresh. The current iPad Pro has the M2 chip, and the new one will predictably have the M3 chip. Expect some notable performance gains—not that the M2 was too slow for most people using the iPad Pro already.

Enlarge / The Apple Watch (seen here in its current iterations) is set to get a new look. (credit: Corey Gaskin )

Annual updates to the standard Apple Watch have been almost too small to mention for the past few years, and it looks like that trend will continue with the new wearables Apple plans to debut next month. But, according to a Bloomberg newsletter , a major Apple Watch overhaul is coming as soon as next year.

Dubbed "Watch X," it will be the 10th edition of the Apple Watch that was originally announced in 2014 and released in 2015. To commemorate the occasion, Apple is planning the most significant redesign of the Watch yet apart from the recently launched Ultra, which is more of a spinoff than a direct follow-up.

Of course, that's not saying much. Each year's update has typically brought one small change—like a slightly bigger screen, a modest CPU speed bump, or a new health tracking feature aimed at one specific ailment—such that there's little reason to upgrade even once every two or three years, much less annually.

Enlarge / Pictured: Apple's 2022 Studio Display. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

In the subscribers-only section of his weekly newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman (who has reported accurately on new Apple hardware in the past) claims that Apple will introduce an external Mac monitor that can act as a smart home display when a Mac goes to sleep or is shut down.

The feature would be available on at least one monitor in an upcoming lineup that will likely include successors to Apple's Pro Display XDR and Studio Display. The newsletter didn't go into much detail about the upcoming displays beyond the smart home feature.

Like the Studio Display, a new monitor with smart home capabilities would run on a chip first seen in the iPhone. The Studio Display contains Apple's A13 chip—the same seen in the iPhone 11 line of smartphones. The upcoming smart display could potentially run on the A16 seen in the iPhone 14 Pro, since that device introduced a similar always-on display feature to Apple's smartphone lineup.

Enlarge / A fake AI-generated image of an "explosion" near the Pentagon that went viral on Twitter. (credit: Twitter)

On Monday, a tweeted AI-generated image suggesting a large explosion at the Pentagon led to brief confusion, which included a reported small drop in the stock market. It originated from a verified Twitter account named "Bloomberg Feed," unaffiliated with the well-known Bloomberg media company, and was quickly exposed as a hoax. However, before it was debunked, large accounts such as Russia Today had already spread the misinformation, The Washington Post reported .

The fake image depicted a large plume of black smoke alongside a building vaguely reminiscent of the Pentagon with the tweet "Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C. — Inital Report." Upon closer inspection, local authorities confirmed that the image was not an accurate representation of the Pentagon. Also, with blurry fence bars and building columns, it looks like a fairly sloppy AI-generated image created by a model like Stable Diffusion .

Before Twitter suspended the false Bloomberg account, it had tweeted 224,000 times and reached fewer than 1,000 followers, according to the Post, but it's unclear who ran it or the motives behind sharing the false image. In addition to Bloomberg Feed, other accounts that shared the false report include “Walter Bloomberg” and “Breaking Market News," both unaffiliated with the real Bloomberg organization.