#generative-ai

#generative-ai

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.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over Google search results, transformed how we see em-dashes, run rampant on human mental health, and even led to new vocabulary with "AI slop," a term coined to describe meaningless content byproduct. The main entities excited about AI seem to be, by far, tech companies and CEOs. However, plenty of people are already sick of generative AI and the way it's wormed its way into our lives.

AI is no longer just identifying suspected criminals from behind a camera; now it's rendering photorealistic images of their mugs for cops to blast out on social media. Enter ChatGPT, the latest member of the Goodyear Police Department, located on the outskirts of Phoenix. New reporting by the Washington Post revealed that Goodyear cops are using the generative AI tool to pop out photos of suspects in place of pen-and-paper police sketches.

Despite the significant investments that many organizations have put into generative artificial intelligence, most are not seeing the productivity gains that they expected. Simply adopting new technologies is no longer enough to drive productivity gains, if it ever were. In today's rapidly evolving digital workplace, leaders face the ongoing challenge of translating digital investments into tangible business outcomes. Information technology leaders responsible for AI in the digital workplace can accelerate value realization by helping workers build relevant skills and ambition, equipping teams with targeted hands-on training, and encouraging employees to apply AI beyond administrative tasks by recognizing creative and innovative applications.

"The future of American warfare is here, and it's spelled A-I," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on X. Driving the news: The Defense Department said Tuesday it will deploy Gemini for Government through the new GenAI.mil platform so employees can use it on their work computers. Pentagon employees can use Gemini in the new platform to "conduct deep research, format documents and even analyze video or imagery in unprecedented speed," Hegseth said in the video.

Over the last five years, the business world has undergone a more dramatic transformation than it did in the entire decade before. Just as companies were adapting to permanent shifts in workplace dynamics, consumer behavior, and global economics - all sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic - generative AI emerged. This delivered a shock to business comparable to the internet revolution of the 1990s.

"We had a clear choice - be the last airline built on legacy technology or be the first built on the platforms that will define the next decade of aviation," said Adam Boukadida, chief financial officer of Riyadh Air. "With IBM, we've stripped out 50 years of legacy in a single stroke. Riyadh Air isn't just built for today; it's built for the future and creating a pathway for many airlines to follow in the years to come."

Large language models are already transforming the way consumers find and buy products, letting them ask questions in natural language to get more tailored recommendations than what they typically receive from traditional keyword searches. That's just the start. In September 2025, OpenAI announced deals with Shopify and Etsy to let shoppers buy from their platforms directly through ChatGPT, while Google and Perplexity have unveiled agents that can complete purchases on a shopper's behalf.