#generative-ai

#generative-ai

Since launching Shorts, we've been listening closely to your feedback on how to improve the viewing experience. We've heard that you often use 'Dislike' and 'Not interested' interchangeably on Shorts, or aren't sure what the differences are. To address this, and to better match with how people typically interact with short-form video feeds today, we're experimenting with options where 'Dislike' and 'Not Interested' are merged into one 'thumbs down' icon behind the three dot menu.

The Well‑Architected Framework, long used by architects to benchmark cloud workloads against pillars such as operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability, now incorporates AI-specific guidance across these pillars. The expanded lenses reflect AWS's recognition of the increasing complexity and societal impact of AI workloads, particularly those powered by generative models.

I'm seeing more and more clients generate something approximating their desired outcome and essentially asking me to make 'something like this,' It sucks. This practice absolutely invalidates the entire creative process, in my opinion, and makes my job harder and more frustrating. The job of an illustrator or concept artist is to draw from their years of experience to interpret a brief in a creative way.

Of all the possible applications of generative AI, the value proposition of using it to write code was perhaps the clearest. Coding can be slow and it requires expertise, both of which can be expensive. Moreover, the promise that anyone who could describe their idea in plain text could create apps, features, or other value-adding products meant that innovation would no longer be limited to those with the skills to execute, but could be done by anyone with an idea.

The early web required that many newspaper journalists learn content management systems and repurpose their work for online spaces while maintaining their print duties. Social media platforms layered on demands to engage audiences where they gathered, to participate in every conversation as fast as possible, and make the news literally dance to new trends. Mobile technology untethered journalism from the desktop, creating an expectation of always-on availability and real-time responsiveness.

In 2026, the pace of generative AI innovation-alongside new models for content creation, curation, and monetisation-poses profound questions about the future of publishing. Should publishers see AI as a rival reshaping audience behaviour and value chains, or as an ally enhancing efficiency, creativity, and growth? To explore this tension, ExchangeWire convened an expert panel of industry leaders spanning publishing, ad tech, and AI innovation. Together, they shared their perspectives on how the relationship between publishers and AI will evolve over the next 12 months.

According to newly released research, two-thirds of high schoolers agree or strongly agree that using AI too much could make them overly dependent on the technology or less intelligent. This data reinforces how many students feel about AI: they are curious - and cautious. For all the handwringing about an "AI-fueled decline in learning," teenagers may actually understand the stakes better than adults think. What they want are more guardrails to help them use AI responsibly and fairly, and that's where schools need to catch up, quick.

The rise of generative AI is reshaping not just how we work, but how we think. In our experience, many leaders focus on productivity in generative AI deployment. Generative AI will indeed make many tasks easier and quicker to perform, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. But we think that one of the biggest promises of this technology lies elsewhere: in unlocking new forms of human creativity that can drive innovation and growth.

Google's at it again, once more insisting that AI is something people need or want more of in their lives. The latest move comes from YouTube Gaming, which announced an open beta for a project called Playables Builder. This allows select YouTube Creators to use a "prototype web app built using Gemini 3" to make bite-sized games, no coding required.

In late September, my social media feeds lit up with rumors that the annual Game Developers Conference, held every spring at the Moscone Center, was going to change drastically in its 2026 iteration. One source for this speculation was an official slide deck that promised a rebrand to the "Festival of Gaming," a simplified and more affordable ticket pricing structure, official events spread out across the city, and new talk

Generative AI (genAI) has passed the point of novelty. It's helping software engineers write code, lawyers draft contracts, and physicians summarize medical notes. It has quickly and quietly woven its way into the tools people use every day. The speed of genAI adoption has been staggering, but so has the uncertainty it has ushered in. As adoption continues to accelerate, one significant question looms: When will genAI transition from "experimental" to a truly "enterprise-grade" technology that we can trust with our data?

This trend ignited a "Humans vs. Machines" narrative where efficiency clashed with emotional connection. The public took to social networking platforms to slam the AI-driven campaigns for feeling "soulless" and lacking a human touch. For example, the use of a fully AI-created model in a Guess ad in Vogue was met with unease, raising questions about identity in the fashion world. Similarly, Coca-Cola's AI-generated holiday campaign with animated animals really fired up the online mob.

The pace of change in the burgeoning generative AI world is blisteringly fast. It's often hard to keep up with everything, even if it's your full-time job. Readers tell me that one area they find particularly confusing is the wide array of poorly-named AI models. What in the heck is the difference between GPT-5.1, Opus 4.5, Gemini 3, etc.? And why would you use one over the other?

There's general agreement that the rise of AI means technology has never been more important to the business. However, the central role of digital and data doesn't necessarily mean IT professionals have increased opportunities to rise into senior management positions. Experts are concerned that the increased capabilities of gen AI and agents could mean that many tasks previously fulfilled by professionals are automated.

The art of illustration is thriving in 2025, in defiance of a year where generative AI imagery skyrocketed in its pervasiveness. Taking the top spot is Angelica Frey's deep dive into the enduring influence of the 2000 game The Sims, where isometric dollhouses of quirky NPCs have inspired creatives for 25 years. Likewise, Luca Bjørnsten's crayon illustrations of 90s televisions, VHS tapes and computer screens has transported you all back to earlier days of home technology.

He says he can get projects done about twice as fast when he uses a chatbot to code with intention. Then one day, he fired off directions, and as he sat there while the bot's wheels turned, he realized he could have actively written what he was aimlessly waiting for the bot to do. "I was giving away a bit of my agency, and so I made a decision to be very conscious," he tells me.

Handling product and design together in my last job was a relentless game. At the point I got laid off, I was juggling five work streams at once. Without a dedicated engineering team and no designer other than myself, I was scoping, researching, analyzing data, designing, writing tickets, running alignment meetings, reviewing builds, and resourcing in relentless two-week cycles... for multiple projects. By this point, I wore the reality-altering (or "reality-checking") hat that saw design merely as one of many tasks to get through.

The guidance from the Office of Management and Budget states that agencieslooking to buy AI systemsmust determine whether the models comply with what it calls two "unbiased AI principles" - "truth-seeking" and "ideological neutrality." The information they have to obtain will vary depending on the company's role in the software supply chain and the relationship between the company and the model developer, according to the guidance. Generally, the closer the company is to the model developer the more information should be available.

Although it online before the announcement, Time magazine made its 2025 Person of the Year on Thursday morning: It's the "architects of AI."

The AGs have given Meta, Google, OpenAI, and others a deadline of January 16th, 2026 to respond to demands for more safety measures for generative AI, saying innovation is not "an excuse for noncompliance with our laws, misinforming parents, and endangering our residents, particularly children."

In 2026, generative AI stops being an experiment for software development and starts being an architectural liability. The initial rush to apply AI everywhere is hardening into a struggle with execution, where the primary hurdles are no longer capability, but control, cost, and security. We are already seeing the cracks in code integrity. As AI-assisted development becomes standard, the volume of code produced is outpacing human capacity to audit it. This "vibe coding" prioritises speed over structural soundness, creating a new category of technical debt.