Catch up on select AI news and developments from the past week or so (in no particular order):
OpenAI taps Google in unprecedented Cloud deal despite AI rivalry. OpenAI has entered a significant cloud computing partnership with Google, moving beyond its exclusive reliance on Microsoft. This unexpected collaboration highlights the intense resource requirements for AI training and deployment, altering competitive dynamics within the AI sector. Google's cloud service gains substantial market presence, capitalizing on OpenAI's rapid growth and the success of ChatGPT, despite concerns about competition against Google's search dominance. Importance for marketers: This deal underscores the critical infrastructure shifts occurring in AI, signaling to marketers that changes in platform alliances could influence future AI tools, services, and strategies available for marketing technology.
ChatGPT's rapid growth intensifies competition with Google for search dominance. OpenAI's ChatGPT has rapidly accelerated its growth, capturing younger users and significantly impacting traditional search patterns. CEO Sam Altman positions ChatGPT as a central tool in next-generation search, explicitly challenging Google's historical dominance. OpenAI’s aggressive updates and strategic partnerships, including a recent cloud deal with Google itself, highlight this intensifying competition. The situation resembles the early dominance Google established decades ago, driven by extensive investment and innovation. Importance for marketers: The shifting landscape of AI-driven search necessitates adapting marketing practices, including SEO strategies and consumer engagement approaches, aligning with new user behaviors centered around AI interfaces.
Google’s AI-driven search tools drastically reduce traffic to publishers. Google's implementation of AI Overviews and chatbot features significantly decreases referral traffic to publisher websites. These AI-generated summaries provide users with direct answers, eliminating the need to click on external links, severely impacting news organizations reliant on web traffic for revenue. Major publishers, including The New York Times and The Atlantic, experience declining site visits, compelling them to explore new revenue streams, such as licensing agreements with AI companies or ad-sharing partnerships. Importance for marketers: Marketers relying on organic search traffic must reevaluate their content distribution and collaboration strategies to maintain visibility and effectiveness amid decreasing publisher referrals.
Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to advance superintelligence development. Meta is investing heavily in AI startup Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake and recruiting CEO Alexandr Wang for its AGI-focused "superintelligence" team. This major investment reflects Mark Zuckerberg’s strategic pivot to aggressively compete with Google and OpenAI in advanced AI capabilities, shifting resources previously dedicated to the metaverse towards AI advancements. Meta aims to leverage Scale AI’s expertise in fine-tuning large AI models. Importance for marketers: Marketers should anticipate enhanced AI capabilities across Meta’s platforms, affecting digital advertising, personalization, and customer engagement strategies through increasingly sophisticated AI tools.
Apple struggles with AI delays and regulatory threats at WWDC. At its annual developer conference, Apple faces technical setbacks delaying promised AI features, such as improvements to Siri, and increasing regulatory scrutiny over App Store fees. Meanwhile, rivals Google and Meta progress rapidly in the smart-glasses market. Analysts express concern about Apple's high-priced Vision Pro headset compared to more affordable, AI-integrated smart glasses from competitors. Apple’s stock performance also lags significantly behind AI-driven competitors like Microsoft. Importance for marketers: Apple’s challenges may affect the viability of AI-driven experiences and devices marketers plan for, especially in app development and platform-specific marketing strategies.
Meta launches advanced AI-driven video editing tool. Meta introduces a sophisticated AI video editor leveraging its Movie Gen technology. This tool offers transformative video effects, such as changing backgrounds, styles, and characters effortlessly. Initially providing over 50 preset options, future updates promise custom prompts, dramatically lowering the barrier to producing Hollywood-level visual effects. The new editing tool is rolling out across multiple Meta platforms, including Instagram. Importance for marketers: Marketers gain powerful, affordable creative tools for high-quality video content creation, significantly enhancing audience engagement potential through compelling visual storytelling.
Microsoft’s Copilot Vision integrates advanced AI directly into Windows. Microsoft's new Copilot Vision extends its AI assistant capabilities by visually interacting with Windows applications in real-time. Users can share their screens or specific apps, receiving guidance and insights directly from the AI, enhancing usability across complex software like Photoshop. This proactive AI-driven assistance aims to simplify task completion and enhance productivity, available freely to Windows 10 and 11 users. Importance for marketers: As AI integration deepens within everyday computing, marketers must anticipate more intuitive digital experiences, potentially reshaping user engagement and interaction strategies.
Disney and Universal sue Midjourney over AI copyright concerns. Disney and Universal Pictures file a significant lawsuit against Midjourney, accusing the company’s AI image-generation tool of infringing copyrights on iconic characters like Darth Vader and Elsa. The studios argue Midjourney’s AI reproductions fail fair-use standards, alleging clear instances of unlicensed duplication rather than transformative creativity. This case underscores growing tensions between creative rights and AI-driven content generation. Importance for marketers: This lawsuit may establish important legal precedents, influencing how marketers can use AI-generated content, particularly in campaigns involving recognizable intellectual properties.
Spain's Multiverse Computing secures $215M to shrink AI models for smartphones. Multiverse Computing raised substantial funds for CompactifAI, a novel technology compressing AI models dramatically without significant performance loss. Leveraging quantum-inspired mathematical methods, CompactifAI reduces AI model sizes and resource demands enough for smartphones, enhancing edge computing capabilities and opening broader AI application possibilities. This represents a major advancement for affordable mobile AI integration. Importance for marketers: Marketers can anticipate widespread availability of advanced AI-driven personalization directly on consumer devices, enabling real-time, localized marketing strategies.
Libraries offer vast historical datasets for AI training. Major libraries, including Harvard and Boston Public Library, release extensive digitized historical texts to aid AI model training, addressing data scarcity concerns. Supported by OpenAI and Microsoft, these datasets diversify AI training data with significant cultural and historical content. Importance for marketers: Enhanced data diversity enables more culturally nuanced and historically informed AI applications, benefiting global marketing strategies and content generation.
Kalshi airs fully AI-generated ad during NBA Finals at minimal cost. Betting platform Kalshi broadcast a fully AI-generated commercial created with Google's text-to-video tool Veo 3, costing only $2,000. The ad featured bizarre, attention-grabbing imagery designed entirely by generative AI, reflecting significant cost reductions versus traditional video production. Kalshi's approach demonstrates the potential of affordable AI-produced advertising content and rapid turnaround capabilities. Importance for marketers: This underscores AI’s growing effectiveness in reducing production costs and creating innovative marketing content quickly, prompting marketers to explore more widespread AI-generated content use for efficient and creative advertising campaigns.
Amazon’s Alexa+ AI assistant sees mixed early reviews from testers. Amazon’s new AI-enhanced assistant, Alexa+, is reaching a broader testing audience, now at one million users. Early reactions highlight its improved conversational capabilities, reduced robotic tone, and enhanced responsiveness to prompts, although some users criticize its voice as overly artificial. Despite mixed reviews, testers praise Alexa+ for nuanced comprehension of speech and clearer, detailed responses. Importance for marketers: Alexa+ highlights the growing importance of natural conversational interfaces, encouraging marketers to optimize voice-search strategies and enhance conversational marketing tactics for improved customer interaction via voice-enabled platforms.
Nvidia and Perplexity collaborate to enhance European AI models. Nvidia and Perplexity partner with European AI startups to improve locally developed language models through advanced synthetic data techniques. This effort addresses the limited availability of AI training data in languages other than English, enhancing the performance of regional AI solutions. Perplexity’s distribution channels will expand the reach of these refined models across European markets. Importance for marketers: Marketers operating in European and multilingual contexts gain access to regionally optimized AI tools, enabling enhanced localized campaigns and better culturally relevant engagement.
China’s Rednote releases open-source large language model. Chinese social media giant Rednote (Xiaohongshu) released its open-source large language model dots.llm1, joining other Chinese companies pursuing open-source strategies. This contrasts US firms like OpenAI that often keep advanced models proprietary. Rednote's move aims to foster global developer communities and demonstrate technical prowess amidst US tech restrictions. Importance for marketers: Open-source models offer marketers flexible, cost-effective AI tools for developing custom applications, allowing more independent control and innovation in consumer engagement strategies.
Mattel and OpenAI partner for AI-powered toy innovation. Toy company Mattel partners strategically with OpenAI to integrate AI technology into its product lines, enhancing creativity, play experiences, and innovation. This partnership also leverages AI internally for product development and operations, emphasizing privacy, security, and safety. The collaboration signals Mattel’s leadership in AI-driven consumer products. Importance for marketers: This partnership illustrates growing opportunities in AI-enhanced consumer goods, underscoring how marketers can leverage AI innovation in products to attract customers and differentiate brands effectively.
Apple study questions AI models' complex reasoning capabilities. Apple researchers released a study evaluating large reasoning models (LRMs), revealing significant limitations in solving complex, systematic problems. Popular AI models exhibited poor performance on tasks requiring extended reasoning or original problem-solving, casting doubt on the robustness of current AI evaluations. Researchers advocate broader, reasoning-centric evaluation methods. Importance for marketers: Marketers relying heavily on AI for strategic insights and decision-making must recognize current limitations, ensuring expectations and applications align realistically with AI’s capabilities.
AI researchers convene on ethical and societal AI risks in San Francisco. Prominent researchers and philosophers discussed potential consequences of AI surpassing human intelligence at a symposium near San Francisco. Discussions centered around ethical concerns, translating human values into AI systems, and challenges posed by rapid AI advancements, underscoring the urgent need for responsible AI development. Importance for marketers: Ethical AI concerns highlight marketers' increasing responsibilities around responsible data use and transparent AI-powered personalization, directly impacting brand trust and consumer relationships.
Browser Company launches Dia, an AI-centric web browser. The Browser Company's Dia browser integrates an AI assistant directly into web navigation, allowing interactions based on browsing context and history. This approach uses personalized AI skills to help users perform complex tasks easily within browsing sessions. Dia aims for deep personalization through continuous learning from browsing behaviors. Importance for marketers: Marketers must anticipate shifts towards more personalized browsing experiences, potentially requiring new strategies around AI-driven content and targeted digital interactions.
Google Gemini introduces Scheduled Actions, boosting AI assistant productivity. Google’s Gemini AI assistant adds Scheduled Actions, automating routine tasks such as reminders and personalized updates across Google services, enhancing productivity significantly. This feature positions Gemini competitively against ChatGPT by deeply integrating into Google's ecosystem for seamless task automation. Importance for marketers: Automation enhancements in AI assistants highlight opportunities to engage consumers through personalized, proactive marketing interactions that anticipate user needs.
Salesforce restricts rival AI apps from Slack data. Salesforce blocks rival software companies from indexing or storing Slack data through recent API policy changes, prioritizing data privacy amid increasing scrutiny around AI model training practices. This decision limits third-party integrations, emphasizing Salesforce's commitment to data control. Importance for marketers: Data privacy trends are driving platforms toward stricter controls, requiring marketers to reconsider data-sharing partnerships and customer engagement strategies reliant on third-party integrations.
Meta's Zuckerberg assembling AGI-focused AI team. Mark Zuckerberg forms an expert team within Meta dedicated to artificial general intelligence (AGI), fueled by frustration over performance of recent AI models. This initiative reflects intensified competition in the AGI space, following substantial investments across the industry. Importance for marketers: The move signals increasing investment and focus in AI capabilities within Meta's platforms, preparing marketers for significant enhancements in targeting and personalization capabilities.
You can find the previous issue of AI Update here.
Editor's note: GPT-4.5 was used to help compile this week's AI Update.
