|
Welcome to another edition of the Fambirai Monthly Newsletter! Each month, we'll keep you informed on all things AI—from the latest innovations to groundbreaking research, and everything exciting or controversial in between. August has been absolutely remarkable, with major launches like GPT-5, Google's Veo and fascinating developments in AI governance, enterprise adoption, and creative applications.
We're thrilled to share some exciting news from our own work! Congratulations to Hutt City Council in New Zealand, who have just won the prestigious Innovation Award at the Te Hāpai Hapori/Spirit of Service Awards 2025 for their groundbreaking AI-Volution initiative. Our Co-founder, Senior Strategist and AI Trainer, Julianne Hickey, was instrumental in developing the strategy and training leaders, managers and staff at Hutt City Council throughout their AI journey. AI-Volution is Hutt City Council's bold leap into digital transformation, embedding GenAI tools to boost agility, reduce inefficiencies, and improve public service — reclaiming 44,000 staff hours per year with 15 custom-built AI assistants and 300 licences rolled out at speed. This recognition demonstrates that local government can indeed be daring, agile and future-ready.
Don't miss our upcoming webinars where we'll share insights from this award-winning success story and dive deeper into practical AI implementation for local government in Australasia. We'll explore the strategies that made Hutt City Council's transformation so effective, providing practical insights to help your organisation thrive in the AI era. [ Register your interest here]
Whether you're intrigued by the latest AI breakthroughs in healthcare, curious about new policy developments, or excited about creative AI applications, there's something here to keep you updated and inspired.
August has been particularly eventful with major releases from OpenAI, Microsoft's bold new in-house AI strategy, and significant policy developments across multiple regions, so let's jump right into this month's AI highlights!
Top Stories
-
Google Launches Veo 3 and Nano Banana
 -
In August, Google rolled out major updates to its generative media tools. Veo 3, its most advanced video-generation model, now powers image-to-video creation across Google Photos, Gemini, and the Vids editor, enabling users to turn static images into dynamic clips with native audio and cinematic realism. Simultaneously, Google introduced "Nano Banana" — the codename for Gemini 2.5 Flash Image — a viral AI image editor that rivals Photoshop with natural language editing, multi-image blending, and character consistency. Over 200 million images have already been created using Nano Banana
Read more →
-
GPT-5 Launch
 -
OpenAI released GPT-5 on August 7, its most advanced AI model combining reasoning capabilities with fast responses in a unified system. The model achieved state-of-the-art performance on math, coding , and multimodal understanding. GPT-5 is 45% less likely to contain factual errors than GPT-4o and reaches 700 million weekly ChatGPT users.
-
Read more →
-
Microsoft Launches In-House AI Models
 -
Microsoft unveiled MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview, marking its first proprietary AI models developed entirely in-house. MAI-Voice-1 generates a full minute of high-quality audio in under one second on a single GPU, whilst MAI-1-preview represents Microsoft's first end-to-end foundation model trained on 15,000 H100 GPUs. The move signals Microsoft's strategy to reduce reliance on OpenAI.
Read more →
-
-
AI Designs New Antibiotics
 -
MIT and McMaster scientists used generative AI to create novel compounds killing drug-resistant bacteria including MRSA. The AI screened over 30 million hypothetical molecules, discovering completely new antibiotic structures with unique mechanisms.
Read more →
AI governance and policy
- GSA launches USAi platform, GSA, 14 August 2025. The U.S. unveiled a secure platform enabling all federal agencies to experiment with generative AI for chat, code, and document tasks at scale. Read more
- EU AI Act takes effect, European Commission, August 2025. Requirements for general-purpose AI models are now in force, mandating greater transparency about training data and copyright protection. Read more
- Washington State embraces AI without guidelines, OPB, 31 August 2025. Local officials use ChatGPT for routine tasks, though often without formal policies, acknowledging the need for comprehensive guidelines. Read more
- Pennsylvania expands government AI use, Spotlight PA, August 2025. State government broadens use of generative AI with new guidelines prohibiting AI from making final decisions. Read more
- China unveils global AI governance plan, ANSI, 1 August 2025. Premier Li Qiang announced a 13-point Action Plan aiming to shape international AI rules on standards, ethics, and infrastructure. Read more
Enterprise and investment
- Nvidia reports record sales, TechCrunch, 27 August 2025. Quarterly revenue hit 46.7B dollars (up 56 percent year-on-year) with data-centre sales surging to over 41B dollars. Read more
- Claude expands context window, TechCrunch, 12 August 2025. Update allows processing of 750,000 words or 75,000 lines of code with 1 million token capacity. Read more
- OpenAI eyes 500B dollar valuation, Reuters, 6 August 2025. ChatGPT-maker in talks for employee stock sale at 500B dollars, up from 300B dollars earlier this year. Read more
- Meta acquires WaveForms AI, SiliconANGLE, 8 August 2025. Meta purchased startup developing AI models for voice recognition and generation with ex-OpenAI and ex-Google talent. Read more
- Cohere raises 500M dollars at 6.8B dollar valuation, Reuters, 14 August 2025. Toronto-based enterprise AI startup more than doubles valuation, hires former Meta AI Research head as Chief AI Officer. Read more
- Anthropic offers Claude to government for 1 dollar, Anthropic, August 2025. All federal agencies get Claude AI access for just 1 dollar for one year under strict security controls. Read more
Creative and media
- Wizard of Oz gets AI makeover, Reuters, 21 August 2025. MSG's Las Vegas Sphere uses AI to transform 1939 film into panoramic 360-degree experience with 2,000+ creatives. Read more
- SAG-AFTRA secures AI protections, Game Developer, August 2025. Actors' union ratifies agreement guaranteeing consent and pay for any AI use of voices or likenesses. Read more
- AI films hit IMAX theatres, AI Plain English, August 2025. Ten short films from Runway's AI Film Festival 2025 showcase potential and limitations of AI artistry. Read more
- Excitement-driven AI sports commentary, IBM, August 2025. IBM develops AI-generated tennis commentary using computer vision to vary tone based on crowd reaction. Read more
FYI
- Zoom clarifies AI training policy, 7 August 2025. Won't use customer content for AI training without consent after user backlash.
- OpenAI launches ChatGPT Enterprise, August 2025. Unlimited GPT-4 access and advanced privacy for companies.
- Mistral AI releases Mistral-7B, August 2025. Lightweight open-source model outperforming larger competitors.
- GitHub Copilot X with GPT-4, August 2025. Generally available, writing entire functions on voice command.
- Boston expands AI traffic lights, August 2025. Citywide rollout after 18 percent reduction in idling times.
- Google's Med-PaLM 3 scores 85 percent, August 2025. On the US Medical Licensing Exam.
- Steam bans AI-generated games, August 2025. Using unlicensed art training data.
- NHS begins AI breast cancer trials, August 2025. AI screening alongside radiologists.
Good news
- Teachers save 6 weeks per year using AI, Walton Family Foundation, August 2025. Weekly AI tool users save 5.9 hours per week, equivalent to six weeks over the school year. Read more
- Tougher plastics through AI, MIT News, 5 August 2025. Machine learning identifies iron-based crosslinkers that strengthen materials under stress, potentially reducing waste. Read more
- AI accelerates quantum computing, Nature, August 2025. Chinese team uses AI to assemble 2,000+ atoms in 60 milliseconds, 10× faster than previous methods. Read more
- AI enhances music creativity, European Journal of Education, August 2025. Students show significant improvements in vocal skills (3.5 to 4.5) and creativity (2.9 to 4.1) with AI-powered training. Read more
Thanks for catching up with us this month! AI continues to redefine industries and transform how we live and work, from teachers saving weeks of time to breakthrough antibiotics designed by AI. The pace of innovation remains breathtaking, and it's inspiring to see both the technological advances and the thoughtful governance approaches emerging worldwide.
If there's something specific you'd like us to cover next month, or if you have any feedback on this edition, please let us know - we'd love to hear from you! We're always looking to make these updates more useful for our community.
Also, don't forget to check out our upcoming AI training sessions designed to help teams and organisations harness these powerful tools effectively.
Stay tuned for next month's insights as we continue tracking the AI revolution together.
The Fambirai Team
|
Feedback Form