Big Tech Doubles Down On AI Funding While AI Godfather Launches AI Safety Lab

We don’t need to tell you that Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the way industries operate, innovate, and grow. We’re confident – no matter what industry you operate in—AI has influenced or affected some part of it.

Just this past week, major players such as OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon have doubled down on their previous AI successes, revealing bold plans that aim to reshape the future of business, work, and AI itself.

Meanwhile, the creation of a new AI safety lab reflects a rising focus on ensuring that the AI advances by Big Tech align with human values and long-term safety.

Let’s dive in and learn more about what’s happening in the world of AI!
 

OpenAI Expands ChatGPT's Enterprise Capabilities

OpenAI is boosting ChatGPT’s business features to expand its enterprise reach. A key update is the “record mode,” allowing ChatGPT Team users to transcribe meetings, brainstorming sessions, or personal notes. These transcriptions come with timestamped citations and actionable insights, streamlining the collection and organization of business information.

Additionally, ChatGPT now connects with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Available for Team, Enterprise, and Edu users—this feature lets users easily search and query stored documents and spreadsheets.


For instance, users can ask questions like, “What was my company’s revenue in Q1 last year?” or “How many times did I take the ferry on my Italy trip last year?” for quick answers. OpenAI assures that “ChatGPT will structure and clearly present the data — and respect your organization’s existing permissions on the user level—from those documents, with citations.”

These strategic upgrades showcase OpenAI’s commitment to secure the enterprise AI market. After the successful launch of ChatGPT Enterprise in 2023, which secured major clients such as Block, Canva, and PwC, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Team in January 2024 to serve smaller business clients.

Today, OpenAI’s rapid growth is clear, serving 3 million paying business users—up from 2 million in February. This expansion places OpenAI in direct competition with tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Anthropic, all vying for enterprise AI contracts in a market expected to exceed $1 trillion in revenue over the next seven years.

As OpenAI improves AI tools for businesses, the competition is heating up—leading to new advances from rivals like Meta.
 

Meta Aims To Fully Automate Ad Creation With AI-Powered Tools

Meta is making a bold bet on the future of advertising, with the ambitious goal of using AI to fully automate ad creation and targeting by the end of next year.

This vision is key to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy, as advertising made up over 97% of Meta’s 2024 revenue, funding its large AI infrastructure and advanced model investments.

While Meta’s ad platform already offers AI tools to generate ad variations and make minor tweaks for targeting on Facebook and Instagram, the company now aims to help brands create entire advertising concepts from scratch.

With these new tools, a brand can simply provide a product image and budget, and the AI will create the full ad—spanning videos, images, and text. It will also choose the best Instagram and Facebook audiences to target and suggest how to allocate the budget.


Meta is also working on AI-powered personalized ads that change in real time based on location. For example, a car ad might show the car driving up a snowy mountain if you’re in a cold region, but show it on a city street if you’re in an urban area.

These advanced AI tools will allow businesses to produce complete photo and video ads without the usual expenses of hiring production crews. Similarly, Google recently introduced an updated video-generation tool, Veo 3, to create short videos from simple text prompts.

Creating ads from scratch with AI will greatly benefit small and midsize businesses—the bulk of Meta’s advertisers—who often have limited budgets for ad production.

However, some big brands remain cautious about handing over control to Meta, worrying that AI-generated campaigns may miss the distinctiveness and creativity that human-made ads offer.

However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg articulated, “In the not-too-distant future, we want to get to a world where any business will be able to just tell us what objective they’re trying to achieve, like selling something or getting a new customer, how much they’re willing to pay for each result, and connect their bank account and then we just do the rest for them.” He called this a “redefinition of the category of advertising.”

While the tech industry is largely optimistic about AI-generated ads, some brands note that current technology can still produce distorted visuals, often requiring significant effort to refine.

Meta’s vision also demands strong computing power and custom AI models for each brand. With many brands already using third-party tools like Midjourney and DALL-E, Meta is planning to integrate them into its AI ad creation platform.

As Meta pushes the boundaries of advertising with AI, e-commerce giant Amazon doesn’t want to be left behind, highlighting its intention with a major investment.
 

Amazon's $10 Billion Investment For North Carolina To Boost AI Infrastructure

Amazon is investing $10 billion in North Carolina to grow its data center network, in one of the biggest economic deals the state has ever seen.

The expansion will boost Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and support AI growth, bring at least 500 high-skilled jobs, and fuel thousands more across the AWS supply chain.

Driven by the rising demand for generative AI, Amazon’s investment aims to cement North Carolina as a top innovation hub, with new data centers creating high-skilled roles in engineering, security, and operations, along with thousands of jobs in construction and local supply chains.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein remarked, “Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and innovate, and I am pleased that North Carolina will stay at the forefront of all that’s ahead as we continue to attract top technology companies like Amazon.”


David Zapolsky, Amazon’s chief global affairs and legal officer, added, “This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge technology, create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth. We look forward to partnering with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions to nurture the next generation of talent.”

Since 2010, Amazon has invested $12 billion in North Carolina, contributing around $13.1 billion to the state’s GDP and supporting 24,000 jobs directly, plus over 26,000 indirect jobs. This latest expansion adds to existing investments, including a Same-Day Delivery facility in Kannapolis and plans for four new last-mile centers.

Amazon has also invested heavily in renewable energy in the state, with two solar and wind farms expected to power over 76,000 U.S. homes annually once fully operational.

Amazon is also investing in North Carolina’s communities by partnering with schools and workforce programs to develop training for data center construction, operations, and broadband expansion.

Programs include Data Center Operations, Fiber Optic Technician training, and workshops for educators. For K-12 students, Amazon supports STEM initiatives like "We Build it Better" and provides free cloud computing curriculum for schools and learners.

This year, eight North Carolina high school seniors received Amazon Future Engineer Scholarships of up to $40,000 each, plus paid internships, to pursue computer science or engineering degrees.

Amazon is also launching the Amazon Richmond County Community Fund with an initial $150,000 commitment. Managed by the nonprofit ChangeX, the fund supports projects in STEM education, sustainability, economic growth, workforce development, and community well-being.

While these moves by Big Tech giants showcase the potential of AI, a key figure has taken a step back to highlight a rising concern: the lack of ethical AI governance. 
 

AI’s Godfather Yoshua Bengio Launches A Nonprofit AI Safety Lab

Highlighting the rising concerns regarding unethical AI development, Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio has launched LawZero, a nonprofit AI safety lab.

The organization’s core mission, as stated in an X post, is "to protect human joy and endeavour," striving for "safe-by-design AI."

LawZero has raised $30 million in donations from major backers like Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Open Philanthropy, and the Future of Life Institute.


The name "LawZero" itself is a deliberate reference to the science fiction concept of the Zeroth Law of Robotics, which prioritizes the protection of humanity above all else.

Bengio, often known as one of the "godfathers" of modern AI, is now a leading voice in AI safety. He backed California’s debated AI safety bill, SB 1047, which sought to prevent high-risk AI systems from causing serious harm.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Bengio questioned whether leaders like OpenAI and Google are truly prioritizing safety, raising concerns as both companies compete to build increasingly powerful AI systems.

The rise of AI ethics labs like LawZero shows a growing push to build safer and smarter AI systems. Many in the tech community are now turning their focus to the ethical use and development of AI systems, and Yoshua Bengio’s new startup will help businesses and consumers push for safer and more sustainable AI interactions.

These latest developments show just how much AI is shaping our world—boosting the economy, creating jobs, and sparking important conversations about using technology responsibly. As AI keeps evolving fast, balancing innovation and growth with ethics and sustainability will be more important than ever.

Do you think it is possible for AI businesses to keep innovating without risking safety?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below!