How AI Changed This Summer

This summer was an extremely weird time in AI. On the one hand, there was the standard feeling of summer slowdown. So much of AI usage is driven by people at work, and people at work slow down in the summer, getting some much needed rest and r and r and vacation. At the same time, when it comes to the big issues surrounding AI, this summer was an absolute bonanza. We kicked off with Fable five and Mythos and then the Bannings, had a deep seek moment when Kimmy k three came out while Fable was still behind US government doors. We saw data centers become an even bigger issue, in fact one of the topics du jour for the upcoming US midterms. And the Hugging Face incident, where OpenAI agents escaped containment to hack into Hugging Face, is being broadly treated as a warning shot that reflects the very different phase of agents that we're headed into now. Yet with all of this, somehow it all feels like Prelude. So with all of this, as we head into the holiday weekend that traditionally ends summer in The United States, let's look back at what changed in AI this summer. The AI Daily Brief is a daily podcast and video about the most important news and discussions in AI. Alright, friends. Quick announcements before we dive in. First of all, thank you to today's sponsors, KPMG, Blitzy, Robots and Pencils, and HyperAgent. To get an ad free version of the show, go to patreon.com/aidailybrief, or you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To learn more about sponsoring the show, send us a note at sponsors@aidailybrief.ai, or you can just find it at the website at aidailybrief.ai. You can also find out about all the different things going on in the broader AIDB community, including Super Intelligent, which is offering executive training programs, the next of which starts the beginning of next week. As I mentioned in yesterday's episode, I am currently traveling, and so we are using that chance to catch up on some of the big picture themes. So let's dig in. Today, we are doing a bit of a retrospective. Summer tends to be a weird time for AI in that there are forces pulling in opposite directions at the same time. On the one hand, there is a natural work lethargy that takes hold, where knowledge workers and white collar workers around the world ease away from their desks a little bit and try to disconnect from the relentless pulse of new technology that's going to influence how they work. At the same time, progress in AI doesn't particularly care about vacation norms and hurdles forward. This year we had the added elements of the US midterm elections, which brought a whole different dimension to the AI conversation, and what you have in total is a fairly consequential period over the last few months that has certainly changed our expectations about how the next phase of AI …