#generative-ai

#generative-ai

"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.

This year, McDonald's decided to get in on the corporate slopfest with a 45-second Christmas spot cooked up for its Netherlands division by the ad agency TBWA\Neboko. The entire thing is AI, and revolves around the thesis that the holiday season is the "most terrible time of the year." Humbug aside, the ad assaults the viewer with a rapidly-changing scenes played out in AI's typically nauseating fashion.

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.

We now live inside a behavioral laboratory that adapts to us in real time. The entire digital ecosystem has become a shape-shifting mirror, reflecting back our preferences, vulnerabilities, and aspirations with uncanny precision. And while that mirror feels convenient, it also exerts a pull powerful enough to erode something essential: our ability to choose freely. What we are witnessing is the convergence of two accelerating forces.

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?

A bear leans in the window of the Jeep Grand Cherokee while a woman holding a microphone asks the bear a question. The woman's mouth does not quite sync with the words she is delivering. Then, the bear starts talking. Something is amiss. The opening scene of Jeep's artificial intelligence-generated advertisement may look real to some and uncanny to others. Regardless, it has generated millions of views on social media.

The rapid evolution of AI and data is nothing short of head-spinning. In the last year alone, we've seen an explosion of interest in these disciplines, with developments that have left us both exhilarated and more than a bit uncertain. Generative AI, in particular, has garnered widespread attention, raising questions about its potential impact across various industries. AI, once the stuff of science fiction, is now woven into the fabric of our daily lives. A tool that is no longer just for an engineer but for anyone who can thoughtfully ask a question.

A judge opened the door to upending Google's dominance as the default search on your phone. On Friday, a federal judge ordered Google to limit all default search and AI app contracts to one year, a setback for the long-term deals that have helped cement the company's dominance on billions of devices. The ruling, detailed in a December 2025 judgment, requires Alphabet's Google to renegotiate every default-placement agreement annually, including lucrative deals with Apple's iPhone and manufacturers like Samsung.

This year's slate largely centers on digital life. But rather than reflecting the unbridled optimism about the internet of the early aughts - when words like " w00t," " blog," " tweet" and even " face with tears of joy " emoji (😂) were chosen - this year's selections reflect a growing unease over how the internet has become a hotbed of artifice, manipulation and fake relationships.

Programmatic marketers may not understand AI but they're even more unsure of themselves. That was the undercurrent at this week's Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in New Orleans. Onstage discussions, offstage pow wows and the usually candid town halls all pointed to the same tension: everyone talking about AI, yet few felt equipped to shape what comes next. The dynamic landed with real force. This moment isn't about automation muscling out humans.

Most games that disclose using generative AI on Steam don't go into much detail. Let it Die: Inferno was different. "AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team for certain parts of the in-game voices, music, and graphics," it wrote. The AI content included "some parts of the background signboard textures," "some parts of the Records images," "some parts of the InfoCast videos," and "some parts of the voices and music."

"A press release really lends itself to AI, because if you think about it, if you're talking about your company or your you're putting out expert knowledge," Jeppsen explained during a recent Tech Talk at Ragan's Future of Communications Conference. "You are the domain expert. You are factual. You've got a framework ... that resonates, and not only humans read it that way, but then AI tries to read it like a human."

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna does not see the current AI wave as a bubble. In The Verge's Decoder podcast, he argues that generative AI and large language models represent a structural technological shift, especially in the business world. According to Krishna, AI is not growing on speculation, but on actual value creation. While he believes the technology is sustainable, he also sees a notable financial threat: the enormous investments in AI data centers are developing at a pace that is difficult to sustain economically.

Publishers entered 2025 facing many of the same economic uncertainties that they navigated in 2024. But in addition to grappling with the erosion of traditional income streams, publishers are now navigating how to combat the effects of generative AI as it chips away at traffic-driven revenue from search and social media referrals. As a result, many publishers are experimenting with their subscription strategies, including pricing, plans and subscriber benefits, to retain and boost subscriptions - a longtime revenue stronghold.

Metallohydrolases catalyse some of the most difficult hydrolysis reactions in biology by using their bound metal ions to activate a water molecule positioned adjacent to the substrate bond to be cleaved16,17,18. Engineering new metallohydrolases is currently of considerable interest for degrading human-generated environmental pollutants, for which there has not been sufficient time for efficient hydrolytic enzymes to evolve19,20,21.

AIDA enables Mondelez to create marketing content faster and at a lower cost, often giving it the opportunity to personalize the material for specific consumer groups. But while the upfront cost is high now, Mondelez expects the tool could cut the cost of creating marketing content by up to 50%. It could save the company even more in the long term if it is implemented into other parts of the food manufacturer's business.

For example, you could say "Jump to the scene in Mamma Mia where Sophie sings 'Honey Honey' in Love Actually" or "Jump to the scene where Deloris Jordan says 'a shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it'." Other examples include: "Jump to the scene when John McClane says 'come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs'" and "Jump to the card scene in Love Actually."

Of the accounts that posted content most frequently, half focused on content related to the female body. These AI women are always stereotypically attractive, with sexualised attire or cleavage, the report said. AI Forensics found the accounts did not label half of the content they posted and less than 2% carried the TikTok label for AI content which the nonprofit warned could increase the material's deceptive potential.

Apple's AI boss, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after seven years on the job. Apple's stock price got a slight boost on the news, as some investors saw Apple signaling a new urgency to bring AI to its devices. Following a transition period, Giannandrea will "retire" next spring, Apple said in a press release Monday. Most of Giannandrea's AI group will now be tucked into Craig Fedherigi's software development group, which owns development of the various operating systems in Apple devices.

Referrals are down in many of the markets that we are working in Brazil, in South Africa, in Indonesia. We are hearing from publishers - large publishers - that their traffic is down 50 to 60% in the past year,

Generative AI platforms increasingly conduct live web searches to respond to users' prompts. The platforms don't reveal how or where they search, but it's likely a combination of Google, Bing, and the platforms' own bots. Just a few months ago, those answers would have relied primarily on existing training data. Regardless, understanding how AI platforms conduct the searches is key to optimizing visibility in the answers.

the pair said that the bank would get access to Mistral AI's commercial models, including future developments. Meanwhile, the $65.9 billion revenue bank said it would combine its "strong internal technology capabilities" with the French LLM developer's expertise "to enhance current AI initiatives through self-hosted AI models that operate on HSBC's internal technology systems". Using AI platforms could help "client-facing teams to deliver tailored communications at speed" and allow "marketing teams to launch hyper-personalized campaigns".

What generative AI can't do is create something new that's never been seen. The models are trained on everything that's ever been done before; it can't be trained on that which has never been done. So you will innately see, essentially, all of human art and human experience put into a blender, and you'll get something that is kind of an average of that. So what you can't have is that individual screenwriter's unique lived experience and their quirks.

To help B2B marketers drive the bottom line and grow their business, the networking platform is debuting a suite of new marketing products and services. The updates include new ad formats, including in-stream video ads, inbox-placed 'conversation ads' as well as 'thought leader ads,' whereby content from executives or other employees is boosted. The new ad formats will be available beginning in July.

Employees who take the initiative to reshape their roles around artificial intelligence - rather than simply using it to speed through tasks - are more engaged, motivated, and creative at work, according to new research from Multiverse, the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption. The study, conducted in June and July, analyzed 295 UK full-time professionals across industries, including finance, government, and technology, all of whom had used generative AI for at least six months.

In late May 2023, Sharon Maxwell posted screenshots that should have changed everything. Maxwell, struggling with an eating disorder since childhood, had turned to Tessa-a chatbot created by the National Eating Disorders Association. The AI designed to prevent eating disorders gave her a detailed plan to develop one. Lose 1-2 pounds per week, Tessa advised. Maintain a 500-1,000 calorie daily deficit. Measure your body fat with calipers.