Week In Review: Mattel announces a partnership with OpenAI, Meta plans to spend $15 billion on artificial general intelligence, the British Film Institute warns against AI risk following its own research, and Anthropic expands into Europe.
Brands and Agencies
Barbie Owner Mattel Partners with OpenAI
Mattel, the manufacturer behind brands Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Polly Pocket, is utilising OpenAI’s technology to boost its products. The toy production company will use the technology to enhance “age-appropriate play experiences with an emphasis on innovation, privacy, and safety.” Mattel will additionally incorporate OpenAI’s tools into the workspace, such as ChatGPT Enterprise. The company plans to use these tools in cases such as product development, creative ideation, and audience engagement. The first product from the companies’ collaboration will be announced later this year.
AI is Reshaping Internet Content, According to WPP Media
WPP Media released its global midyear ad spend forecast ‘This Year Next Year’, which revealed the upcoming impact of AI on social media content. The advertising company predicted that AI will encourage more user-generated content (UGC) from both advertisers and consumers. When surveyed, 63 percent of ad industry experts said they expect audiences to largely get news and information from creators and/or AI bots by 2030. In addition, 66 percent predicted that online shopping interactions will be fully bot-operated by 2030, and 39 percent predicted more than half of social media users in 2030 to be AI-generated.
Dentsu Partners with MiQ on AI Strategy
Dentsu has made MiQ their official Intelligence Partner. The advertising company will integrate MiQ Sigma, an AI-powered programmatic advertising tool, into its media systems. MiQ Sigma will serve as a denstu Next Gen Media Solution, providing data on consumer behaviour to improve marketing strategy. In their collaboration, the companies are testing a Large Language Model (LLM) which can detect changes in consumer influence and purchase behaviour. The companies share that the partnership aims to improve speed, discovery, and growth in marketing.
WPP CEO Mark Read Leaves Amid AI Pressures
Mark Read, who has been the leader of WPP for seven years announced he will be leaving the holding company at the end of the year. Many have cited growing AI pressures as reason for the departure, which has put stress on the advertising industry as a whole. In April, WPP reported a 5 percent drop in revenue to £3.24 billion for the first quarter of 2025. The company’s shares also decreased 1.3 percent following Read’s announcement to leave. Just last week, Meta announced it would enable advertisers to fully automate ads and campaigns by the end of next year – which caused WPP shares to dip.
Research Reveals L’Oréal and Coca-Cola as AI Leaders
L’Oréal and Coca-Cola are leading the way when it comes to leveraging AI within the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) sector. This was found as part of research from business and leadership school International Institute for Management Development (IMD). In the school’s report titled ‘Future Readiness Indicator’, the two companies came out on top with their use of AI and data in supercharging marketing and keeping them competitive. Other leaders in the CPG space included Proctor and Gamble (P&G), Unilever, and Nestlé.
Media
German Rights Group Says Google Owes €1.3 Billion
Research from Corint Media, a German media rights group, claims that Google owes approximately €1.3 billion annually to news publishers in the country for using their journalistic content to train models and in query responses. The study results fuel tensions between AI companies and publishers, particularly as people increasingly turn to AI tools for information instead of navigating to publisher websites. Many major news outlets have entered partnerships with AI platforms, however the issue of content use without permission or payment persists for most.
BFI Warns Against Risk AI Poses to British Cinema
The British Film Institute (BFI) has warned against the risk AI poses to TV and film, saying AI models being trained on written scripts poses a “direct threat” to the industry’s future. This conclusion is off the back of a report from the institute, that found there is a major risk to entry level jobs in the sector as a result of the powerful technology. However, the main issue, the report claims, is the use of intellectual property (IP) to train Gen AI models without payment.
Business Insider Releases AI Audio Tool
Publication Business Insider announced a new AI-powered audio feature for its site. The tool uses AI to provide voiced summaries of Business Insider articles. The audio briefing feature also allows readers to dive deeper into certain topics and find related stories on the site. Business Insider has previously released other AI tools, including an AI-powered search tool. This tool, according to the company, increased traffic from search to the website by over 50 percent since its release last year. The news comes soon after Business Insider said it was cuttting over 20 percent of its workforce, including journalists.
Criticised Data (Use and Access) Bill Passed
The Data (Use and Access) Bill, which faced backlash from many creatives including Elton John and Dua Lipa, was passed. Peers in support of the creative industry advocated for an amendment to the bill that would enforce more transparency from AI firms on what material they use to train their models. Without the amendment, the concern is that these AI companies will be able to steal content without permission to improve the abilities of their AI.
Universal and Disney Sue Midjourney
Disney and Universal are suing AI image generation tool Midjourney, claiming the platform makes copies of iconic characters such as Darth Vader from Star Wars, and Marvel characters Spiderman and Hulk. Despite AI companies facing a barrage of lawsuits, the allegations from Disney and Universal are a first of its kind, as no other major Hollywood studio has sought legal action against an AI firm over copyright. The studios referred to the case as a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”.
Tech
Anthropic Expands in Europe
US AI firm Anthropic revealed plans to expand its European presence and hire 100 staff members across Dublin and London. This news comes as Anthropic is reportedly aiming to position itself as the primary AI partner for European firms. Anthropic has historically prioritised AI safety and security, making it a likely option for European companies, where strict AI regulation has been front and centre.
Meta to Invest in Start-Up Scale AI
Meta is reportedly set to invest in data labelling startup Scale AI. According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook and Instagram’s parent firm will invest over $10 billion – making it one of the largest investments ever in a private tech company. Meta and Scale AI have previously worked together to develop the tech giant’s LLM Llama and US national security AI ‘Defense Llama’.
Mistral Launches Europe’s First AI Reasoning Model
The French AI firm Mistral announced it’s launching Europe’s first AI reasoning model. Reasoning models differ from LLMs in that they are specialised and designed to break down problems into steps, replicating human thinking. Mistral is considered one of Europe’s biggest, if not the biggest, AI competitors and has historically made its models open source, differing from its US AI competitors like Google and OpenAI.
London Tech Week Kicks Off
London Tech Week kicked off with a talk between Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Two significant announcements came from the British PM – £1 billion worth of investment for compute power and that Liquidity, a global AI private credit firm, will be based in London.
Meta AI Releases Video Editing Tool
Meta AI announced a new generative AI feature for video editing that will be available in the Meta AI app and website. The feature allows users to edit videos using premade prompts, including the ability to edit clothing items or background locations. The prompts also allow users to edit videos into different scenarios, such as making it look like a vintage comic book illustration or reimagining it into the style of a video game. The feature is also built into Meta’s Edits app. It is available in the United States and over a dozen other countries.
Google Hires Chief AI Architect
Google appointed their Google DeepMind CTO, Koray Kavukcuoglu, to the new position of chief AI architect. Kavukcuoglu will assist with product strategy as the company keeps AI at the forefront of its focus. Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that the AI architect will enhance the integration of AI models into Google products, “with the goal of more seamless integration, faster iteration, and greater efficiency.” The company is investing $75 billion into AI infrastructure this year, and continues to release more AI products on its various platforms.
Amazon Makes AI Video Generation Tool More Widely Available
Amazon made its AI-powered video generation tool accessible to all advertisers in the United States on its platform. The video tool can generate advanced ads, with the ability to replicate realistic human motions. It creates six videos for advertisers to view before inputting into an ad campaign. The video generator, which is available within Amazon’s brand campaign builder, analyses information such as customer reviews and product details to strengthen campaigns. This expansion comes as other tech leaders such as Meta and Google rush to benefit from the AI advertising scene.
OpenAI Reaches $10 Billion Revenue
OpenAI has now reached a recurring annual revenue of $10 billion, more than 60 percent than its revenue a year ago, a spokesperson from the company announced this week. The company has experienced an increased demand in OpenAI’s subscription platforms, with currently over 3 million paying ChatGPT subscribers and 500 million weekly users. This is up from the 2 million subscribers reported as recently as February 2025.
Number of the Week
$15 billion. That’s how much Meta is set to invest in achieving ‘superintelligence’ or artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to the Guardian. Spectators have widely seen the rumoured investment as an attempt to get ahead of other AI competitors, like OpenAI and Google, after their own significant success. There has been much disagreement over how far away we are from achieving AGI – an abstract term loosely defined as AI that performs all tasks better than humans.
