Model training continues to hit new lows in terms of cost, a phenomenon known as the commoditization of AI that has rocked Wall Street. An AI reasoning model created for under $50 in cloud compute credits is reportedly performing comparably to established reasoning models such as OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek-R1 on tests of math and coding aptitude. Called s1-32B, it was created by researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington by customizing Alibaba’s Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct, feeding it 1,000 prompts with responses sourced from Google’s new Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental reasoning model. Read more

Spotify and Warner Music Group have entered into a new multi-year agreement covering recorded music and publishing that will see the companies “work together to shape the future of audio-visual streaming and enhance the value of music.” The news followed Spotify’s Q4 earnings report that included the company’s first annual profit, with net income of $1.18 billion. Paid subscriptions were up 11 percent for the quarter, closing the year with 263 million premium users and record engagement growth overall, with 35 million new monthly active users for the quarter. Moving forward, the company is looking to new subscription tiers and content bundles. Read more

Google has initiated a flurry of AI activity following the recent collection of Chinese AI releases. The Alphabet company has launched an experimental version of a new flagship AI model, Gemini 2.0 Pro. Its premiere coding and complex questions model is now available in Google AI Studio, Vertex AI and the Gemini Advanced app. The company has also made its general-purpose “workhorse” model, Gemini 2.0 Flash, available in general release via the Gemini API in AI Studio and Vertex. This follows last week’s announcement that Gemini 2.0 Flash is powering the Gemini app for desktop and mobile. Read more

Snap has created a lightweight AI text-to-image model that will run on-device, expected to power some Snapchat mobile features in the months ahead. Using an iPhone 16 Pro Max, the model can produce high-resolution images in approximately 1.4 seconds, running on the phone, which reduces computational costs. Snap says the research model “is the continuation of our long-term investment in cutting edge AI and ML technologies that enable some of today’s most advanced interactive developer and consumer experiences.” Among the Snapchat AI features the new model will enhance are AI Snaps and AI Bitmoji Backgrounds. Read more

Apple Invites is a new app that helps iPhone users create and share custom invitations, send RSVPs, and add information to calendars. The app also facilitates contributions to shared photo albums and Apple Music playlists. Users can download Apple Invites from the App Store or access it on the web through icloud.com/invites. An iCloud+ premium subscription is necessary to create and send invitations, but anyone can RSVP and share in group activities, regardless of whether they have an Apple account or use iOS or Android. Additionally, the Invites app integrates with Apple Intelligence. Read more