GZERO AI
Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers
A low-angle view of a video camera.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
January 14, 2025
4: Social media creators are selling their unused video footage to AI companies hungry for content to train their generative AI models. OpenAI, Google, and others are reportedly paying up to $4 a minute to license this footage.
300 million: The private equity giant Blackstone invested $300 million in an AI data company called DDN, valuing the firm at $5 billion. DDN provides specialized data analytics for businesses developing and running AI models, helping them process and store large amounts of data.
32 million: The defense tech startup Overland AI raised $32 million in venture capital as the Pentagon ramps up demand for artificial intelligence. The company’s OverWatch software specializes in “ground autonomy” to help unmanned vehicles navigate off-road terrains.
10,000: Adobe’s new AI suite, called Firefly, can perform edits on 10,000 images at once. For example, it can resize tons of pictures or replace their backgrounds in one fell swoop.More For You
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In this "ask ian," Ian Bremmer breaks down the rapidly unraveling situation following the US announcement of “Project Freedom” and why tensions with Iran are escalating again.
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Participants and protesters hold posters opposing Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration and her policies on constitutional revision and military expansion during a Constitution Memorial Day rally in Tokyo, Japan, May 3, 2026.
REUTERS/Issei Kato.
Will Japan rewrite its rules of war? Europe meets (again) to shape its own defense destiny, US to “guide” ships through Hormuz
Putin is increasingly paranoid, according to a Financial Times report out today. Security has been tightened, more time is being spent in underground bunkers, and the vast majority of his attention is being absorbed by Russia’s war with Ukraine. One reason of his concern is said to be Ukraine’s drone capabilities, which have demonstrated an ability to strike Russian airfields thousands of miles from Kyiv.
- YouTube
There are signs AI could ripple through the economy much faster than past innovations. At the 2026 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis asked Microsoft's Vickie Robinson what it will take to prepare economies for the age of AI and how quickly it needs to happen.
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