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Image generated with Gemini’s “Nano Banana” feature (Google)
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This is bananas! Google’s Gemini has booted ChatGPT from the top of the iOS App Store

A surge of interest in Gemini’s popular Veo 3 video generator and Nano Banana image generator has rocketed the app to the top of the iOS App Store, dethroning ChatGPT from its long-standing perch atop the leaderboard.

Jon Keegan

Google’s Gemini chatbot has rocketed to the top of Apple’s app store, claiming the No. 1 spot on the Top Apps leaderboard and dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has enjoyed a solid run as the most popular app for months.

Two new popular features have provided the rocket fuel to take Google’s humble app to such heights: the Veo 3 video generator and Nano Banana, a powerful new image generation model.

Veo 3 was added to the iOS version of the Gemini app on August 27, which sent it from 66th place to 38th overnight.

On September 3, Google released an update to Gemini that noted, “Gemini now has updated image editing capabilities (Nano Banana).” In the weeks following the release, social media buzz surrounding the new feature pushed the app to the top of the charts.

Veo 3 lets users generate short cinematic videos from a text prompt.

Nano Banana lets users alter photos with a text prompt, like imagining your pet as different characters, trying on different Halloween costumes, or rendering yourself as an action figure.

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Rani Molla

NHTSA expands Tesla FSD probe, focusing on whether system can detect when cameras can’t see the road

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is expanding its probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system into an engineering analysis covering about 3.2 million Teslas, a majority of its vehicles that are on the road in the US, Reuters reports.

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

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Rani Molla

Apple is behind the rest of Big Tech when it comes to developing its own AI, but that hasn’t stopped it from cashing in on the AI boom. The iPhone maker stands to bring in more than $1 billion in App Store fees this year from other companies’ generative-AI apps, mostly from ChatGPT, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing data from App Magic.

Unlike rivals pouring hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, Apple’s spending has been relatively modest, with its overall capital expenditure actually declining last quarter. Its lucrative App Store model lets Apple profit from AI as a gatekeeper without fully joining the expensive race to build it.

Multicolor Sticks

OpenAI is shipping everything. Anthropic is perfecting one thing.

The two AI titans are in a race to grow revenues, but they have very different strategies for releasing products. And one approach appears to be winning out.

Jon Keegan18h
73%
Rani Molla

Here’s another sign Anthropic’s enterprise tools are killing it: the AI firm now captures 73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, Axios reports, citing data from Ramp, a fintech company that provides corporate cards and expense management software. That’s up from 50% in January, when it was tied with OpenAI.

As we’ve noted, Big Tech is pivoting from experimentation to revenue — and enterprise is where that shift is playing out.

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Rani Molla

Microsoft considers suing Amazon and OpenAI over $50 billion deal

Microsoft may be about to take its biggest AI partner to court, the Financial Times reports.

Microsoft, a longtime backer of OpenAI, is weighing legal action over the latter’s $50 billion deal with Amazon tied to its new Frontier AI product, arguing it could violate a key clause in their exclusive cloud deal requiring OpenAI’s models to run through Azure. Amazon and OpenAI say they’ve found a workaround. Microsoft executives disagree.

“We know our contract,” a source told the FT. “We will sue them if they breach it. If Amazon and OpenAI want to take a bet on the creativity of their contractual lawyers, I would back us, not them.”

OpenAI, which is eyeing an IPO this year and under pressure to generate more revenue, is trying to loosen Microsoft’s grip as it scales, while Microsoft increasingly sees OpenAI as both a partner and competitor.

Microsoft weighs legal action over $50bn Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal

Microsoft weighs legal action over $50bn Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal

“We know our contract,” a source told the FT. “We will sue them if they breach it. If Amazon and OpenAI want to take a bet on the creativity of their contractual lawyers, I would back us, not them.”

OpenAI, which is eyeing an IPO this year and under pressure to generate more revenue, is trying to loosen Microsoft’s grip as it scales, while Microsoft increasingly sees OpenAI as both a partner and competitor.

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