In partnership with
Last week in AI was a cocktail of billion-dollar bets, content paradigm shifts, geopolitical snags, and ethical flashpoints. GlobalFoundries committed another $16 billion to U.S. fabs—clear signals the AI-infrastructure arms race is accelerating. On the other hand, The New York Times and Amazon quietly inked a licensing deal that may reshape how publishers monetize content in the AI era.
Yet the tempo wasn’t all triumph. Apple’s AI rollout in China stalled under regulators, reminding everyone that AI isn’t just tech, it’s geopolitics. Meanwhile, a tragic deep-fake sextortion case and a U.S. government report riddled with hallucinated data highlighted how far we are from responsible systems. Bottom line: AI’s evolution isn’t just fast—it’s foundational.
🧠 Top 2 AI Moves to Watch:
The New York Times signed a multi-year deal letting Amazon’s AI (Alexa, etc.) license NYT news, cooking, and sports content, while the paper sues OpenAI/Microsoft for unauthorized use.
Why it matters: Quality training data is now a paid asset. Expect publishers to copy-paste this playbook.
Apple’s plan to ship iPhone AI features via Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 model hit a wall as regulators stalled the release, leaving Apple behind local rivals like Huawei.
Bigger picture: AI is as political as it is technical. National policy can decide which models consumers see and may fragment the global market.
🛠️ Tool(s) of the Week:
Google AI Edge Gallery – Run LLMs on-device, offline. Big win for privacy & low-bandwidth regions. (Alpha)
Mistral Codestral Embed – Code-focused embedding model that underprices OpenAI/Cohere at $0.15/M tokens.
DeepSeek R1-0528 – 685 B-parameter open model with top-tier reasoning, MIT license, already in Huawei products—signal of China’s open-source ambitions.
💼 Market Moves
$40 billion – OpenAI raise (largest private tech round ever).
$16 billion – GlobalFoundries U.S. fab expansion (backed by AMD, Apple, SpaceX).
Rumored U.S.–UAE AI Data-Center Deal – Another Gulf-backed infra bid.
📈 Strategy Tip: Build AI Literacy Now
Microsoft is rolling out org-wide AI education; NY State is training public-sector workers. AI fluency is becoming baseline.
Start simple: teach prompt-engineering across roles, promote internal AI “translators,” and reward experimentation.
Companies that invest in culture, not just tools, build real defensibility.
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt at Axios AI+ Summit:
“It’s not punk rock to scrape creators’ work without paying them.”
Creators are organizing. Expect more licensing deals…and more lawsuits.
“AI won’t replace people. It will replace people who don’t use AI.”
— Jeffrey Katzenberg, WndrCo co-founder, ex-Disney Chairman
🔥 Trending
Deepfake Sextortion Tragedy: A U.S. teen died by suicide after scammers used AI-generated nudes. Lawmakers push the “Take It Down Act.”
Hallucinated Gov Report: U.S. Health Dept. retracted an AI-written report with fake stats, reigniting calls for human-in-the-loop checks.
🤔 Question to Ponder
Should AI firms pay creators whose data trains their models? If yes, who sets the price, and who enforces it?
Until tomorrow, stay curious.
— The First AI Movers Pro Team
Turn AI Hype Into Business Impact
AI is more than just using ChatGPT.
It’s about understanding how the technology works—and applying it in practical ways to solve real business problems.
The AI for Business & Finance Certificate Program from Wall Street Prep + Columbia Business School Exec Ed helps you move beyond the hype.
You’ll demystify today’s most important tools and learn just enough Python to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and make smarter decisions.
No coding experience needed—you’ll get step-by-step guidance from world-class faculty.
👉 Save $300 with code SAVE300.