Good Sunday Morning ... it's time for my speedy roundup of the key AI happenings of the week:
Interesting Model News
๐น ๐๐๐-5 is officially on track for a summer launch โ OpenAI says it's โmaterially betterโ than GPT-4
๐น ๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ debuts its first text-to-video model, taking on Sora and Runway
๐น ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ข๐น ๐1 goes open-source under Apache 2.0 โ lower compute, high performance
๐น ๐๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ญโ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ท๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ญ fuels open-source dev tools innovation
๐น ๐๐ช๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ง๐ต ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ช๐ญ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฃ โ open protocol for embedding AI on websites
๐น ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ท๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด โ you can now vibe code and and host your app in Claude
๐น ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด โ bolstering research and productivity features (reports, slideshows etc.)
Big Bets, Startups & Market Moves
๐ฐ ๐๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌโ๐ด โ๐๐ณ๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅโ: $1T AI + robotics hub planned in Arizona
๐ฐ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ชโ๐ด ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ข๐ฃ raises $2B at $10B valuation
๐ฐ ๐๐ฆ๐ต๐ข wild attempts to grab top talent, plans $65B in AI infra spending
๐ฐ ๐๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ & ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ต๐บ rumours persist - search redefined for apple
Trends Shaping the Future
๐ง ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด like OpenAIโs โo3โ shift focus from compute to data
๐ญ ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐๐: $758B global market this year โ $3.68T by 2034
๐ค ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐๐: More autonomous task-completing models popping up everywhere!
๐ ๏ธ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ-๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ฎ: Devstral, MiniMax M1, Qwen3, NLWeb signal rapid democratization
Global Policy & AI Thought Leaders
๐ก ๐๐ฆ๐ช-๐๐ฆ๐ช ๐๐ช: Human-aligned AI a boon for for health & sustainability
๐ก ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐๐จ: Practical AI wins in the near term
๐ก ๐ ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฉ๐ถ๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฐ: Pause big models until safety improves
๐ก ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฌ: Warns of risksโpredicts human-level AI by 2026
Other Headlines
โก ๐๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฑ๐ด ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ $20๐ ๐ช๐ฏ 60 ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ด is the new normal
๐ฅThe U.S. FDA launched its first agency-wide AI tool, โINTACT,โ
๐ฅ ๐๐ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ & ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ด accelerating beyond expectations
๐ฅ ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐บ: New research suggests AI can demonstrate responses perceived as empathetic, sometimes outperforming humans, with implications for therapy and customer service
The AI world is in overdrive, with agentic systems, reasoning models, open innovation, and eye-watering investments pushing boundaries fast.
Exciting, but the call for responsible AI has never been louder.
Carpe Diem. With Guard Rails.
Mark Ruddock
Thoughts of an internationally experienced growth stage CEO and Board Member.
Thoughts of an internationally experienced growth stage CEO and Board Member
Mark Ruddock
Thoughts of an internationally experienced growth stage CEO and Board Member.
Experienced international CEO with three exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC-backed technology and fintech startups. I've founded companies and come in as a later-stage CEO to help existing companies scale. My experience spans multi-country online financial services, mission-critical enterprise software and consumer-focused mobile applications.
Currently CEO of Kontent.ai, the industry's first CMS with native AI capabilities, kontent.ai helps the world's leading organizations generate an unparalleled return on their content by enabling them to create, manage, distribute, and optimize their content at scale with unprecedented speed oversight, and security.
Before that, I was CEO of Nuula (formerly known as BFS Capital), which Nav acquired. At Nuula, we believed there was a better way to help run your small business โ so we built it. Nuula is a mobile application that gives small business owners instant access to critical business metrics and innovative financial products anytime, anywhere. It provides small business owners with the tools, content, and capital they need to be successful in a modern, competitive market.
Prior to that interim CEO of 4finance. Agreed to take on an interim role to help clarify strategy, accelerate the critical transformation of the business and set the company on a course for the next growth phase.
Before that, I was Managing Director, International at Wonga, responsible for overseeing all businesses outside of the UK, including consumer lending businesses in Canada, Spain, Poland and South Africa and our eCommerce and product financing business BillPay in Germany. Prior to that was CEO of Wonga Canada.
Prior to that, I was EO Viigo. When Viigo was acquired by Blackberry in 2010, the company had hundreds of partners, won numerous awards, including โPC Magazineโs Editors Choiceโ, the โMost Promising New Company of the Yearโ from the CNMA, and the โWireless Leadership Awardโ from RIM, signed marquee enterprise customers such as Oppenheimer, UBS, BAT and Scotts and been downloaded over 3MM times, becoming one of the most popular BlackBerry apps of all time.
I started my career as the Founder and CEO of INEA. A software company that was a strategic partner to many of the world's leading financial institutions, INEA had deployments in over 44 countries. Backed by RBC, Ventures West, APAX and Edgestone, the company was acquired in June 2005 by Cartesis. Cartesis was subsequently acquired by Business Objects in 2007, which was later acquired by SAP.
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