NEW LAUNCHES

The latest features, products & partnerships in AI

• Showrunner by Fable Studio: AI-Powered Platform Lets Users Create Animated TV Episodes

• SAP launches cloud-based business suite for improved CRM, supply chain management and more

• Telegram launches AI sticker search, new video features

• Google’s powerful new AI research agent now available on iPhone

• Hugging Face boosts file transfers for AI repos with new chunking system

• New AI monitoring system to protect historic sites from natural disasters, war

• Google I/O 2025 dates confirmed: Here’s what to expect

• ‘Knife Hunter’ AI tool hopes to cut down on UK knife crimes

IMPLEMENTATION

Announcements, strategies & case studies

• Educational institutions grapple with how and whether to use DeepSeek

• Oregon, Arizona and Florida most AI reliant, survey on American AI adoption finds

• AI-powered tech in California higher education raises concerns for faculty, students

• AI missteps to avoid for business survival in 2025

• AI in workplace gains widespread European support, survey finds, though privacy concerns aired

AI MODELS

Deployment, research, training & infrastructure

• Grok 3 nears launch, surpasses rival chatbots, claims Musk

• Flagship freebie: Baidu’s top AI model Ernie free to use come April

• OpenAI to streamline product lineup amid user confusion

• AI transforms insurance, from risk reduction to operational efficiency

IN OTHER NEWS

Compelling stories beyond the usual categories

• AI chips race heats up as DeepSeek gives Chinese chipmakers a boost

• Scarlett Johansson urges AI regulation after fake celebrity video spreads

• Cloud AI innovation expands beyond AWS, Azure and Google, to include IBM, Alibaba and others

• Cisco boosts revenue forecast, shares surge

• Reddit posts strong revenue results as data sales take off

What’s happening in AI right now

Data owners win the AI race?

Reddit's transformation into an AI data powerhouse marks one of the most remarkable pivots in recent tech history. The company's first profitable quarter in Q3 2024, driven by strategic AI partnerships, signals a broader trend: the real value in artificial intelligence may not lie where most expect it.

Market movements

While much attention focuses on model development and compute infrastructure, this week's developments suggest power is shifting toward data owners and regional partnerships. Alibaba's stock jumped 8.6% following news of a potential partnership with Apple to implement AI features for iPhones in China. The deal highlights how regional compliance requirements are reshaping the competitive landscape, creating unexpected winners and losers.

Meanwhile, Cisco exceeded market expectations in its fiscal second quarter, with AI infrastructure orders topping $350 million. The company's successful integration of Splunk drove security unit revenue up 117% to $2.11 billion, demonstrating how established tech players can leverage acquisitions to capture AI-driven growth.

Data as the new moat

Reddit's success particularly stands out because it challenges conventional wisdom about AI business models. Its monthly active users have nearly tripled from 430 million in 2019 to 1.21 billion by the end of 2024, but the platform's true value lies in its massive repository of authentic human conversations - precisely the kind of data needed to train next-generation AI models.

AI development costs

SoftBank's recent results - a $2.4 billion loss in Q3 despite a $4 billion profit for the nine-month period - reflect the volatile nature of betting on AI's future. The company's ambitious Stargate project, with potential investments up to $500 billion, suggests that major players see AI development as increasingly crucial.

Looking forward

These developments point to three emerging trends:

1. Data ownership becoming more valuable than model development

2. Regional partnerships reshaping global AI competition

3. Established tech companies finding ways to monetize AI infrastructure

The question isn't just who will build the best AI models, but who owns the most valuable data and can navigate regional regulatory frameworks most effectively. For investors and business leaders, this suggests looking beyond the obvious players to identify companies with unique data assets or strategic positions.

This week's events remind us that in technology, the most profitable position isn't always the most obvious one. The real winners might not be those building the biggest models, but those who own the right data and forge the right partnerships.

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