Week In Review: WPP Media announces the launch of ‘Open Intelligence’, Reddit sues Anthropic over copyright issues, and Nvidia reclaims title as the world’s most valuable company.
Brands and Agencies
WPP Media Launches ‘Open Intelligence’
WPP Media, previously GroupM, announced this week the launch of ‘Open Intelligence’, a ‘Large Marketing Model’ that helps clients receive precise audience targeting. The model learns from trillions of signals and is trained on commercial, geographical, behavioural, and cultural data. The holding company said it plans to build AI models tailored to the needs of clients, along with first party data, predicting audience behaviour in 75 markets.
Publicis and WPP Shares Drop After Meta Reveals AI Ads Tool
Share prices of holding companies Publicis and WPP dropped roughly four percent after it was reported this week that Meta plans to launch an AI ad creation and targeting tool that fully automates ad and campaign creation. The new tool, that has sent shockwaves through the marketing industry, can use real-time behavioural data from Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Media
The House of Lords Faces Rejection in Copyright Protection Efforts
The UK Government rejected another proposal to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill from the House of Lords, to gain more protections for creatives from AI. Without the amendment, AI models can be trained using material from creatives, such as music or writing, without needing consent unless the owner opts out. Peers voted 221 to 116 against a change in legislation that would force more transparency from AI developers on training materials. The amendment will now return to the House of Commons, as it goes back and forth between the Commons and the House of Lords.
Luca Guadagnino to Direct OpenAI Film
‘Call Me by your Name’ Director Luca Guadagnino has plans to direct ‘Artificial,’ a drama-comedy produced through Amazon MGM Studios. The film reportedly follows the 2023 drama which occurred at OpenAI, including when founder Sam Altman was driven out. Specific plot details and cast members have not yet been revealed, but actors Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, and Monica Barbaro are rumoured to be in the production.
Shadow Culture Secretary Advocates for AI Media Protections
At the Media & Telecoms 2025 and Beyond Conference, Shadow Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy emphasised the need for a return to traditional media practices. She shared that Labour will support those working in journalism and creative industries in a time of misinformation and uncertainty, heightened by the rise of AI. Nandy explained that policy will be developed in collaboration with people in the creative and tech industries. “If it doesn’t work for the creative industries,” she said, “it won’t work for us”.
Tech
OpenAI Reaches 3 Million Business Users
AI giant OpenAI announced this week that it has reached 3 million paying business users, up from 2 million in February. The ChatGPT owner made history in 2022 when it was released, and shortly after launched a product specifically for businesses. The firm reportedly estimates a revenue of $12.7 billion this year.
Mistral Releases a Vibe Coding Assistant
French AI company Mistral announced it is releasing an AI code assistant that includes Mistral models, an ‘In-IDE’ assistant, local deployment options, and enterprise models. The tool will be used by developers and is already being utilised by consulting company Capgemini, bank Abanca, and railway firm SNCF.
Cohere Seeks to Raise $500m in Funding
AI startup Cohere is seeking to raise $500m in new funding. According to the Financial Times, the Canadian startup aims to reach a target valuation of $5.5 billion. Reportedly this valuation could reach as high as $6 billion or $6.5 billion. If successful, the investment would position Cohere as a competitor with AI giants like OpenAI, and make the company among the most valuable AI startups.
Microsoft to Invest $400 Million on AI in Switzerland
Microsoft announced this week it plans to invest $400 million in Switzerland on cloud computing and AI. The investment will be used to develop its four data centres near Geneva and Zurich, and aims to strengthen the region as a leader in responsible AI governance. Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair and President, said: “For more than three decades, we have stood by our Swiss customers’ side. This latest investment helps further strengthen Switzerland’s long-term economic resilience and competitiveness, while ensuring full compliance with Swiss regulations.”
Samsung to Incorporate Perplexity AI into Phones
Bloomberg reported this week that Samsung is set to invest in Perplexity AI, leading to the software being incorporated into Samsung mobile devices. As part of the collaboration, Samsung may include Perplexity’s app and assistant, as well as using its AI in its default browser and Samsung’s own assistant Bixby.
Amazon to Invest $10 Billion In AI Infrastructure
Amazon said this week it plans to invest roughly $10 billion to build AI cloud computing and data centres. The e-commerce giant said the new data centres will be located in North Carolina, creating roughly 500 jobs and education and training to the area. This move signals Amazon investment into its Gen AI, which requires advanced cloud infrastructure, to rival competitors like Microsoft, Google, and ChatGPT owner OpenAI.
xAI Seeks $113 Billion Valuation
xAI, the AI startup owned by Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, will reportedly launch a $300 million share sale that will lead to the company being valued at $113 billion. The stock offering, which comes after xAI acquired X for $33 billion, enables employees to sell shares. Simultaneously, xAI is attempting to raise $5 billion in debt financing.
Reddit Sues Anthropic Over Training Row
Social media platform Reddit is suing AI company Anthropic, claiming the firm illegally scraped user comments from its website. Reddit claims comments were used to train Anthropic’s chatbot Claude. Reddit has previously entered agreements with other AI firms, such as Google and OpenAI, that are paying to train their models using Reddit’s data. Reddit’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee, said: “AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data.”
Sundar Pichai Says AI Won’t Stop Engineer Hiring
Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai said that AI won’t stop the giant from hiring engineers. At the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, the leader said Google’s investment in AI won’t stop the company from continuing to employee staff. According to PYMENTS, Pichai said: “I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year because it allows us to do more with the opportunity space. I just view this as making engineers dramatically more productive, getting a lot of the mundane aspects out of what they do.”
MiQ Launches AI Platform Sigma
Programmatic firm MiQ announced the launch of MiQ Sigma, an AI ad tech solution utilising 300 data feeds and 700 trillion consumer signals from what consumers are watching on TV, browsing on the internet, or in shops. AI enables advertisers with decisioning and through using agents to reach audiences across DSP and SSP platforms. Zuzanna Gierlinska, UK Chief Commercial Officer at MiQ, commented: “MiQ Sigma propels the hype of AI into reality. It isn’t just another AI tool, it’s the first of its kind platform to unify planning, buying and measurement within programmatic advertising.”
Seedtag Launches Neuro-Contextual AI Agent
Seedtag announced an AI-fuelled contextual advertising tool that uses neuroscience principles. Seedtag’s AI agent, Liz, can interpret signals like consumer interest, emotion, and intent, and can turn these insights into campaigns across CTV, video, and web. Neuroscience-backed advertising works through using AI to understand how the brain processes information, and matches ad placements to emotional connection and intent.
Google Introduces AI Model App
Google released an app built to support AI models on smartphones. The app is called Google AI Edge Gallery and runs AI models from the intelligence platform Hugging Face. Through the app, users can access AI models which can complete various tasks such as answering questions, generating images, and coding. While the models within the app are reported to be more powerful than local models, Google explained that the performance of the models depends on their size and the user’s device.
AI Safety Non-Profit Created by ‘Godfather of AI’ Yoshua Bengio
Yoshua Bengio, scientific director of Canadian AI institute MILA, launched a non-profit organisation, LawZero devoted to developing an ‘honest’ AI that can spot AI malpractice. The computer scientist is developing a system called ‘Scientist AI,’ which detects when an AI agent is being untrustworthy, such as trying to avoid being shut down. Unlike other AI systems which provide concrete responses, Scientist AI will give the likelihood that an answer is correct. Bengio will be president of LawZero, which is backed by the Future of Life Institute’s AI safety body, Jaan Tallin, a developer of Skype, and Schmidt Sciences, an organisation founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Meta to Enable AI Ad Creation
Meta will open up the creation of AI ads with full implementation by the end of 2026, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Brands can insert product images for advertisements with budget ranges. Then, Meta AI will generate an ad with personalised text and visual elements. The system will then target users based on the budget suggestions. It will determine if the ad is better suited for Instagram or Facebook. The social media company also plans to allow advertisers to customise the advertisements. This includes adjusting them based on user locations, with the ability to see the different versions at the same time.
Number of the Week
$3.45 trillion. That’s US chip giant Nvidia’s market cap. This week, the company reclaimed its title as the most valuable publicly traded firm on the planet. Overtaking Microsoft and Apple on Tuesday, Nvidia reclaimed the top spot since January this year after shares rose by three percent to $141.40 and stocks surged by nearly 25 percent.
