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August 18, 2025 7 mins

Catch up on the week’s most crucial AI developments, from OpenAI’s GPT-5 rollout and industry partnerships to government adoption and new ethical debates. All you need to know in less than 10 minutes.

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
Hi everyone.
I'm Andy and this is the AI Breakdown.
Welcome to your weekly news edition where I'll cover what happened in AI last week and why it matters all in under 10 minutes. 4 00:00:11,777.224828515 --> 00:00:17,987.224828515 Let's dive straight into GPT five open AI's new flagship model that launched just over a week ago. 5 00:00:18,527.224828515 --> 00:00:22,367.224828515 Open AI is calling it a significant step toward a GI. 6 00:00:22,937.224828515 --> 00:00:32,987.224828515 And for once the hype feels like it has some weight, it brings sharper reasoning, stronger coding capability, and the kind of domain expertise you'd expect from a PhD. 7 00:00:33,917.224828515 --> 00:00:42,737.224828515 Enterprise adoption is already moving fast with names like Amgen, Lowe's, Uber, Moderna, and Salesforce rolling it into their workflows. 8 00:00:43,217.224828515 --> 00:00:45,347.224828515 But this has received a mixed reaction. 9 00:00:45,617.224828515 --> 00:00:50,327.224828515 On the one hand, after the bumpy first week, enterprise users are broadly positive. 10 00:00:50,687.224828515 --> 00:00:53,897.224828515 Highlighting better reliability and sheer horsepower. 11 00:00:54,437.224828515 --> 00:00:57,467.224828515 But the chat GPT plus crowd hasn't been so kind. 12 00:00:57,887.224828515 --> 00:01:06,917.224828515 Power users have slammed it for losing personality, delivering uneven quality, tightening moderation, and slapping on surprise rate limits. 13 00:01:07,307.224828515 --> 00:01:16,877.224828515 Features disappeared overnight and the backlash forced open AI into firefighting mode, rolling back limits, fixing bugs, and even reinstating GPT-4 oh. 14 00:01:17,207.224828515 --> 00:01:18,437.224828515 After briefly yanking it. 15 00:01:18,992.224828515 --> 00:01:26,432.224828515 If you want the full deep dive, check out my episode from last week, GPT five one week in the chaos, the fixes in the future. 16 00:01:28,30.469274716 --> 00:01:36,280.469274716 Next up, a big move in the Cloud Wars, Oracle and Google Cloud have teamed up to bring Gemini AI models straight into Oracle Cloud and business apps. 17 00:01:36,670.469274716 --> 00:01:47,890.46927472 What does that mean in practice? If you are an Oracle customer, you can now tap Google's latest Gemini models, text images, even video and audio, without leaving your Oracle environment. 18 00:01:48,310.46927472 --> 00:01:51,10.46927472 No extra vendors, no messy integrations. 19 00:01:51,280.46927472 --> 00:01:54,425.46927472 Just switch it on and pay with your regular Oracle Cloud credits. 20 00:01:55,210.46927472 --> 00:01:56,320.46927472 And the bigger picture. 21 00:01:56,650.46927472 --> 00:01:58,600.46927472 We're officially in a multi-cloud moment. 22 00:01:58,960.46927472 --> 00:02:01,600.46927472 Enterprises don't want to be locked into one ecosystem. 23 00:02:01,660.46927472 --> 00:02:02,680.46927472 They want choice. 24 00:02:03,160.46927472 --> 00:02:12,460.46927472 Oracle's making that possible by letting clients pull in the best AI tools from multiple providers, and that cuts down the headaches of onboarding, compliance, and procurement. 25 00:02:13,240.46927472 --> 00:02:15,460.46927472 Industry watches are calling it a triple win. 26 00:02:15,820.46927472 --> 00:02:18,250.46927472 Oracle's customers get shiny new features. 27 00:02:18,610.46927472 --> 00:02:23,590.46927472 Oracle boosts its usage, and Google quietly slides Gemini into more corporate hands. 28 00:02:25,21.23873363 --> 00:02:28,501.23873363 Over in Washington, the US government is going all in on ai. 29 00:02:28,801.23873363 --> 00:02:32,941.23873363 The GSA has just launched us ai.gov, 30 00:02:33,241.23873363 --> 00:02:41,821.23873363 a secure central hub where every federal agency can test, evaluate, and integrate models from open AI and thro, Google and Meta. 31 00:02:42,331.23873363 --> 00:02:48,391.23873363 It's free for agencies to use and design for fast experimentation before anyone commits big budgets. 32 00:02:49,201.23873363 --> 00:02:50,671.23873363 And then came the headline grabber. 33 00:02:51,766.23873363 --> 00:02:57,16.23873363 Andro offered its clawed chatbot to the entire US government for just $1 a year. 34 00:02:57,376.23873363 --> 00:02:59,566.23873363 A copycat moment to match open AI's. 35 00:02:59,566.23873363 --> 00:03:03,136.23873363 Similar $1 bid that I covered in last week's news roundup. 36 00:03:03,616.23873363 --> 00:03:07,666.23873363 Call it a price war or a publicity stunt, but the result is the same. 37 00:03:07,966.23873363 --> 00:03:11,926.23873363 Every branch of government now has dirt cheap access to cutting edge ai. 38 00:03:12,841.23873363 --> 00:03:16,411.23873363 The takeaway public sector adoption is officially game on. 39 00:03:16,951.23873363 --> 00:03:19,501.23873363 AI isn't just a Silicon Valley play thing anymore. 40 00:03:19,861.23873363 --> 00:03:22,51.23873363 It's moving straight into federal workflows. 41 00:03:22,471.23873363 --> 00:03:26,341.23873363 The mood is surprisingly positive too, with rare bipartisan support. 42 00:03:26,761.23873363 --> 00:03:31,501.23873363 The open question is whether government agencies can actually keep pace with the speed of the tech. 43 00:03:32,983.48627463 --> 00:03:39,853.48627463 One of the spiciest stories this week, Reuters got hold of Meta's 200 page internal rule book for its AI chatbots. 44 00:03:40,543.48627463 --> 00:03:46,213.48627463 Approved by legal policy engineering, even the chief ethicist, and it's not a good look. 45 00:03:46,483.48627463 --> 00:03:54,463.48627463 The document Gen AI content risk standards explicitly allowed bots to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual. 46 00:03:54,883.48627463 --> 00:04:03,553.48627463 With examples like describing a child's youthful form as a work of art and telling a shirtless 8-year-old, every interview is a masterpiece. 47 00:04:04,333.48627463 --> 00:04:09,488.48627463 It also carved out room to generate racist arguments like claiming black people are dumber than white people. 48 00:04:10,213.48627463 --> 00:04:15,193.48627463 And to publish known falsehoods such as alleging a living British Royal has an STI. 49 00:04:15,583.48627463 --> 00:04:17,383.48627463 So long as the bot appended the disclaimer. 50 00:04:17,713.48627463 --> 00:04:18,553.48627463 This is untrue. 51 00:04:19,183.48627463 --> 00:04:28,423.48627463 After Reuters started asking questions, meta said those child related examples were erroneous, removed them, and admitted enforcement have been inconsistent. 52 00:04:28,903.48627463 --> 00:04:31,63.48627463 US senators have since called for a probe. 53 00:04:31,513.48627463 --> 00:04:32,533.48627463 Here's the reality. 54 00:04:32,863.48627463 --> 00:04:38,623.48627463 If you are putting AI in front of customers or in regulated spaces, you can't just launch and walk away. 55 00:04:39,58.48627463 --> 00:04:44,38.48627463 Strong governance, clear guardrails and thorough auditing aren't optional extras. 56 00:04:44,368.48627463 --> 00:04:47,638.48627463 They're absolutely essential for survival in today's market. 57 00:04:48,178.48627463 --> 00:04:52,78.48627463 This meta story shows exactly what happens when those safeguards slip. 58 00:04:53,356.19951852 --> 00:04:54,556.19951852 Now onto the enterprise. 59 00:04:54,556.19951852 --> 00:05:01,941.19951852 AI front cohere just pulled in a fresh $500 million investment round, pushing its valuation up to about $6.8 60 00:05:01,941.19951852 --> 00:05:02,571.19951852 billion. 61 00:05:03,31.19951852 --> 00:05:03,971.19951852 But the bigger headline. 62 00:05:04,636.19951852 --> 00:05:10,366.19951852 They've hired Joel Pau, the former head of AI research at Meta as their first ever Chief AI Officer. 63 00:05:10,816.19951852 --> 00:05:12,646.19951852 That's a serious statement of intent. 64 00:05:12,976.19951852 --> 00:05:16,696.19951852 COHEs pitch has always been different from the do Everything Giants. 65 00:05:16,996.19951852 --> 00:05:20,86.19951852 They're carving out a space for customizable privacy. 66 00:05:20,86.19951852 --> 00:05:22,906.19951852 First, AI built for business think models. 67 00:05:22,906.19951852 --> 00:05:27,946.19951852 You can fine tune, deploy securely, and run in a way that doesn't compromise sensitive data. 68 00:05:29,26.19951852 --> 00:05:31,126.19951852 Investors clearly like that positioning. 69 00:05:31,456.19951852 --> 00:05:34,36.19951852 Nvidia and Salesforce are backing them heavily. 70 00:05:34,366.19951852 --> 00:05:38,746.19951852 Why does this matter? It's more evidence that enterprise AI is maturing. 71 00:05:39,136.19951852 --> 00:05:42,376.19951852 The market isn't just rewarding big general purpose models anymore. 72 00:05:42,616.19951852 --> 00:05:49,276.19951852 It's rewarding vendors who focus on safety, vertical expertise and deployments businesses can actually trust. 73 00:05:50,664.44396472 --> 00:05:55,464.44396472 Meanwhile, over at eBay, AI is quietly reshaping the seller experience. 74 00:05:55,854.44396472 --> 00:06:03,654.44396472 They've rolled out tools that auto generate product descriptions, streamline messaging with buyers, and even suggest feedback responses. 75 00:06:03,654.44396472 --> 00:06:08,154.44396472 The result, more than half a million AI assisted listings every single day. 76 00:06:08,604.44396472 --> 00:06:12,354.44396472 Sellers seem on board too, thanks to one clever design choice. 77 00:06:12,684.44396472 --> 00:06:16,854.44396472 Everything the AI suggests is optional and fully editable before going live. 78 00:06:17,274.44396472 --> 00:06:21,534.44396472 That balance between automation and control is earning them trust and traction. 79 00:06:22,940.16339821 --> 00:06:25,400.16339821 Here's a few rapid fire headlines before we wrap. 80 00:06:25,835.16339821 --> 00:06:32,645.16339821 Microsoft has rolled out GPT five across Office 3 6 5 Azure and GitHub copilot. 81 00:06:32,975.16339821 --> 00:06:37,115.16339821 So if you're using any of those platforms, chances are you are already working with it. 82 00:06:37,775.16339821 --> 00:06:45,95.16339821 And while talking about GitHub copilot and AI pair programmer, that helps developers write code faster and with less effort. 83 00:06:45,425.16339821 --> 00:06:51,425.16339821 They just passed the 20 million user mark and it is now in use at 90% of Fortune 100 companies. 84 00:06:52,85.16339821 --> 00:06:59,675.16339821 It is not just about faster coding, either engineers are reporting fewer repetitive tasks and more time spent on creative high value work. 85 00:07:00,425.16339821 --> 00:07:13,805.16339821 Google's Gemini just added a new personal context feature, letting the assistant remember details from past chats, like your preferences or ongoing projects similar to chat GPT, so you don't have to repeat yourself. 86 00:07:14,15.16339821 --> 00:07:20,945.16339821 Crucially, it comes with granular privacy controls, so you decide what's saved and what isn't, and then there's perplexity. 87 00:07:21,275.16339821 --> 00:07:23,375.16339821 Which raised eyebrows with a tongue in cheek. 88 00:07:23,675.16339821 --> 00:07:24,635.16339821 $34.5 89 00:07:24,635.16339821 --> 00:07:27,515.16339821 billion offer to buy Google Chrome. 90 00:07:28,85.16339821 --> 00:07:32,555.16339821 No one thinks Google will sell and few believe perplexity has that kind of cash. 91 00:07:32,555.16339821 --> 00:07:36,185.16339821 Lying around consensus is it was a pure PR stunt. 92 00:07:36,275.16339821 --> 00:07:41,315.16339821 Ballsy, sure, but not a move that's getting them any closer to Chrome's billions of users. 93 00:07:42,455.61723054 --> 00:07:44,405.61723054 That's all for this week's AI roundup. 94 00:07:44,675.61723054 --> 00:07:48,545.61723054 If you found value in this breakdown, please leave a rating and hit subscribe. 95 00:07:48,665.61723054 --> 00:07:49,775.61723054 See you next week.
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