AI round-up: Week of May 12, 2025

Gather round, kids. Gramps is gonna tell you a story about the first AI-generated commercial – it was for Pepperoni Hug Spot.

Ah, those were the good ol’ days of 2023 when AI was a novelty that was hilarious to watch and think, ‘nice try, AI…you’ll never be as good as us!’

We didn’t have any of this fancy Google Veo, Suno, 11Labs, Adobe Premiere…

You have to watch this, even if you don’t remember Pepperoni Hug Spot…

Knock knock. Who’s there? Pizza magic.

Alright. Story time’s over. Let’s get to it.

First things first: want to see me talk AI?

You have two chances in the next week:

• You can still register for the lunch and learn PRSA Cleveland is hosting (Friday at noon). This one’s virtual – no drive time!
• You can still RSVP for the Akhia Roundtable, in person, on May 22 from 2:30 – 4:30 in Hudson.

You won’t hurt my feelings but I can’t say that others will be as forgiving if you’re not there.

The Heavy Stuff

Story 1: Now hiring people. Attention, we need people. (Bloomberg)

Well, that backfired a little bit. Turns out Klarna, in its quest to be OpenAI’s “favorite guinea pig” may have errored in its comments from a year ago in which its CEO said they were going to only use AI for its customer service agents.

Story 2: Shhhh. The billionaires are talking. (Financial Times)

So, this is a big deal. Microsoft and OpenAI are ‘talking’ about renegotiating/resetting their relationship/partnership. If you’ve been listening to Paul Roetzer for the past three years, you know that this has been an agreement that largely benefitted both sides equally. OpenAI received the equipment they needed and Microsoft had access to the products and technology. However, the second it discovered AGI, that partnership would cease or be reset.

So…not saying that’s the reason for this discussion now, but interesting to track nonetheless.

Story 3: The pope has an AI warning. (CNN)

Enough already, Pope Leo. When do we get the puffer coat image??

Story 4: You’re fired! For talking about copyright protection. (CBS News)

President Trump fired the director of the U.S. Copyright office.

One day after that office filed a report questioning/raising concerns about AI being allowed to train on copyrighted materials.

All of this seems odd, no, given we have been tracking Sam Altman’s feelings that the government shouldn’t restrict LLMs when it comes to copyrighted material. What’s next, OpenAI is going to be creating tools for government offices to use?

Story 5: FDA appoints its first chief AI officer. (Fierce Biotech)

Who saw that coming?

Story 6: That didn’t take long. (Bloomberg)

Seems like tariffs are impacting a lot more than (some) people thought. Stargate, the very expensive, very powerful AI infrastructure is now in jeopardy as SoftBank, one of the largest investors/backers, along with OpenAI and Oracle, slowing its roll with talk of investing.

Story 7: Oh my. (Shelly Palmer)

Did a quick check before I published this and wow is this story from Google pretty incredible. It’s using Gemini AI on YouTube to drop an ad at the maximum moment of engagement, i.e., the last spot you want to see an ad.

The not-so-heavy stuff

Story 1: Four things ChatGPT and Gemini can learn from each other. (Digital Trends)

As someone who loves both of these, I agree with these takes…

Story 2: AI is helping kids become LEGO master builders. (Ars Technica)

Is nothing sacred?! And could it build….this?!?

Story 3: Notion AI wants to be better than the ‘Otter’ transcription service. (Engadget)

The ‘Otter’ service…get it?! Get it?

A few that don’t fit in either category

Story 1: Some people don’t want to use AI! The nerve.

This story, in the BBC, was a really interesting read. I’m sure we can all recognize ourselves in their reasons and hesitations. I was a little surprised by the first one, being a communications agency, because it seemed to center solely on AI=job loss v. AI=business growth. But I can respect where she’s coming from.

Story 2: How to combat Deepfake candidates and hiring scams in the age of AI.

A solid read from Dan Schwabel’s newsletter you may want to hold onto. His perspective on this topic we’ve been talking about is a good one. HR pros: your job is hard enough. Hopefully you can draw on this for some support as these new challenges emerge.

Story 3: Do you have a JSON?

Better question is…what is a JSON and why do you need it? All three of the questions are answered in the Shelly Palmer piece that I had no idea about.

Final note

A brand new LinkedIn follow for me, Kyle Lacy, is talking about something that has been worrying me these past few months as I have talked to new grads looking to start their career journey.

He’s talking about AI decreasing the need for junior roles…increasing the need for senior roles…with no path to help ‘junior’ roles become ‘senior’ roles.

The post is smart, and the questions are solid. What’s your take on this? What skills will you try to keep top-of-mind as you counsel your team and network on growing and developing? And what about yourself? Because let’s be honest, regardless of title you should never want to stop learning. Or helping others learn how to learn…

Happy Friday!

-Ben