Jun 2, 2025 6:30:09 PM

Fambirai Monthly Newsletter – May 2025

AI took a giant leap in May, and the world noticed. Here’s what you missed, from Google’s Gemini to OpenAI’s bold hardware play.

Early in May, we ran a series of advanced ChatGPT training webinars and got some great feedback from attendees who were from a wide range of industries and countries. For those in New Zealand, Fambirai's Julianne Hickey is going to be running a series of training sessions in June - more info and registration here.

On with the show, here are May’s highlights (with images generated by AI) ...

Top Stories

- - Google I/O 2025 – major AI announcements
  - At Google I/O 2025, the spotlight was firmly on Gemini—Google’s next-generation AI system with AI now woven through nearly every product:
    - Gemini at the centre: The new Gemini 2.5 powers AI Mode in Search and Gemini Live, which can answer voice and camera queries in real time. It offers deeper reasoning, smarter Gmail replies, and new subscription tiers, including Gemini Ultra for faster, higher-capacity performance.
    - Creative tools supercharged: Creators now have Imagen 4 for sharper image generation, Veo 3 and Flow for building short videos or full storyboarded films within Vertex AI—making pro-level content creation more accessible.
    - Next-gen tech and translation: Project Astra enables real-time understanding in Gemini Live, while Android XR smart glasses and Google Beam hint at an AI-driven hardware future. Google Meet will soon offer live speech translation—breaking down language barriers in meetings.
    .. Read more
- OpenAI acquiring Jony Ive’s hardware startup
- OpenAI announced it will acquire Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup io (LoveFrom) in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal – OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date – as a major step toward developing physical AI products. Read more →
- Pocket-sized AI device coming: The mysterious device OpenAI is developing with Ive will be pocket-size, contextually aware, screen-free—and not eyewear. It’s designed to rethink how we interact with AI, with a launch expected in 2026.
- Read more →
- - Microsoft Build 2025 highlights
  - - - Some highlights from Microsoft's Build 2025 included:
        
        Copilot evolves into an autonomous agent: CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote showcased major upgrades to Copilot—shifting it from a helpful assistant to a fully autonomous agent. Microsoft also unveiled Copilot Studio for custom AI workflows, and multi-agent capabilities within Microsoft 365.
        
        AI tools for developers: Microsoft launched Windows AI Foundry to help developers build and deploy models locally, and introduced NLWeb, a new protocol enabling natural language interaction across the web.
        Read more
        
        New Researcher Agent in Microsoft 365: The Researcher Agent is now live in 365 Copilot. Provide a topic, wait 5–10 minutes, and get a full report.
        → Steps to enable
      - Alibaba’s Qwen3 closes the gap with U.S. AI giants
- Alibaba released Qwen3, a significant advancement in China's generative AI capabilities. This model features multilingual fluency, competitive benchmark scores, and more affordable operational costs, positioning Alibaba as a formidable global player.
- Read more →
Industry adoption & partnerships
Ethics, safety & legal
- US Copyright Office warns AI training may infringe and erode markets. Read more
- EU seeks enforceable opt-out to shield works from AI training. Read more
- Google embeds AI watermarks in the outputs from their new amazing Veo 3 model to identify deep-fake videos. Read more
- In other news
- AI models resist shutdown commands as Palisade tests show kill switch gaps. Read more
- OpenAI publishes Cookbook with safety guardrails and Agents API examples. Read more
- Stanford agents simulate human opinions across one thousand virtual people. Read more
- Lilian Weng maps AI reasoning linking test-time compute and human psychology. Read more
- Following a long wait, Apple Intelligence, a suite of on-device AI features focused on privacy and performance started rolling out. This includes local language models for Siri, Mail, and Notes, marking a major shift in consumer AI. Read more
May 2025 was a bit of a turning point. Generative AI didn’t just get smarter... it got everywhere. Google and OpenAI rolled out new multimodal models that raised the bar again, and Apple quietly pushed ahead with its on-device AI, keeping everything private and local. The tech didn’t just improve - it grew teeth. We're now seeing major jumps in productivity, especially in software and manufacturing, and a complete rethink in creative industries.

But with the pace picking up, the pressure’s on to get the guardrails in place. Regulators are in a bit of a scramble. There’s a lot of noise around copyright, ethics, and what to do when the content isn’t human-made. And the AGI debate? That’s heating up too. Mix in rising concern over job security and the skills mismatch, and it’s clear we’re in the middle of something far bigger than a tech upgrade. The flurry of deals and big-money moves we saw this month? That’s the market preparing for AI to be less of a tool and more of a battleground where geopolitics, ecosystems, and control start to blend.

That's it for this month - thanks for reading! We'd love to hear from you, so let us know by reply email:
- if you have any feedback on our updated newsletter content and format,
- your ideas for future webinar series topics you'd like to see, or
- if you need training for organisation.
Stay tuned for June’s edition and follow us on LinkedIn if you'd like to see updates when we find them!

– The Fambirai Team