WednesdAI // Week 06

Balancing Innovation and Caution in AI’s Expanding Reach!

Let’s get into it!
 
Welcome to WednesdAI – Pixel Dreams’ weekly update with top stories from the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence.

This Week’s News

DeepSeek Faces Breach and Rival Claims

China’s DeepSeek AI stormed onto the scene, racking up users before hitting a wall of controversy. Critics claim the model was built on stolen data, a debate that raged until DeepSeek paused signups due to a “large-scale malicious attack.” That attack exposed over a million log entries, housed in a publicly available database with no authentication, discovered by security researchers in minutes. Meanwhile, AI2 is now claiming its latest model outperforms one of DeepSeek’s top offerings, proving that in AI, there’s always a newer, shinier competitor waiting to take the crown.

For more, visit CNBC, TechCrunch, TechRadar, and MSN.

OpenAI o3-mini

OpenAI just dropped O3 Mini, a new “reasoning” model that’s smaller, faster, and cheaper than GPT-4 Turbo. The company says it outperforms GPT-3.5, targeting developers who want efficiency without sacrificing too much capability. No flashy release event—just a quiet blog post and API update. It’s a clear move to compete with lighter, budget-friendly AI models flooding the market.

Read the official news release at OpenAI and TechCrunch.

Microsoft is creating an “Advanced Planning Unit”

Microsoft is setting up a new AI research unit to study the technology’s societal impacts. The group will focus on AI’s economic, social, and ethical effects, though details on actual accountability remain vague. This move follows increasing scrutiny on AI’s role in misinformation, job displacement, and general existential dread. While Microsoft frames this as responsible innovation, it also positions the company as both the driver of AI progress and its chief watchdog. Businesses should note: AI ethics is becoming as much a branding strategy as it is a policy concern.

Check out MSN, Yahoo, and TechCrunch.

Google’s ‘Ask for Me’ feature

Google is rolling out “Ask for Me,” an AI-powered feature that calls businesses on your behalf to ask about services and pricing. It expands on the Duplex technology but focuses on practical inquiries instead of full-on appointment booking. Users type a question, and the AI makes the call, then summarizes the response. While convenient, it raises familiar concerns about AI impersonation and accuracy. Google insists it will disclose that the caller is AI, but businesses may not be thrilled about chatting with bots.

For more details, visit the full article from Mashable and TechCrunch.

US Approves Copyright for Human-Edited AI Work

The U.S. Copyright Office says AI-generated content can be copyrighted if a human edits it enough. The ruling clarifies that raw AI outputs don’t qualify, but meaningful human modifications might. This opens the door for creators to claim ownership of AI-assisted work while leaving plenty of room for legal battles over what counts as “enough” human input. As AI-generated content floods the market, expect more fights over intellectual property rights.

@aiforhumansshow The US Cooyright office says that AI enhanced work CAN be copyrighted which will immediately shift how people in creative work will view AI tools. #ai #aitools #breakingnews #techtok #ArtificialIntelligence #lawtok #filmtok @Gavin Purcell ♬ original sound – AI For Humans

Check out Yahoo and TechCrunch.

AI-Written Book Sparks Creative Fears

A book titled Tech-Splaining for Dummies, written entirely by AI, was given as a gift to BBC’s Zoe Kleinman. The book mimicked her writing style but was repetitive and had strange details, like fictional references to a pet she doesn’t own. The AI-driven company, BookByAnyone, creates personalized books by using open-source language models. These AI-generated books raise concerns about the ease of producing content under someone’s name, including celebrities, though safeguards are in place to prevent abuse.

Read them from Telegrafi, BBC, and MSN.

Videos of the Week

What’s exciting, a short statement about what’s exciting. Just a short sentence or two about what’s most exciting.
 

The images accompanying the news items in this article were generated in Midjourney using the following prompts:

A fusion of 1960s spy thriller aesthetics and exaggerated newsroom satire, portraying a chaotic newsroom where frantic journalists in wide-collared suits type furiously on massive typewriters hooked up to an absurdly oversized AI mainframe spewing ticker tape. The setting is a smoky, wood-paneled office with rotary phones ringing off the hook and an old-school television in the background showing a breaking news alert: DeepSeek EXPOSED – Database Open Like a Free Buffet! The composition focuses on a bewildered news anchor with an over-the-top quiff and a comically oversized microphone, as DeepSeek’s AI, resembling a giant glowing vacuum tube, attempts to hide behind an old filing cabinet. Warm, grainy film lighting with exaggerated halftone textures completes the scene.

A 1950s atomic-age propaganda poster mixed with mid-century modern advertising, showcasing a beaming, white-toothed businessman in a crisp suit holding up OpenAI’s O3 Mini like the answer to all of life’s problems. The setting is an overly perfect suburban office, where workers smile unrealistically while clunky old AI models explode in the background like failed science experiments. The composition has a deliberately staged symmetry, with perfectly balanced characters frozen in artificial happiness, while a bold sunburst highlights O3 Mini as the superior choice. The lighting is overly bright, evoking the sanitized optimism of mid-century ads, but with a tongue-in-cheek irony as competitors in the background scramble to fix their obsolete models.

A 1980s VHS workout tape mashed with corporate satire, featuring an overly enthusiastic AI ethics team in brightly colored spandex and sweatbands, leading a Responsible AI Training Routine with exaggerated aerobics moves. The setting is a glossy, neon-lit corporate gym where executives in power suits attempt to keep up with the AI ethics team’s bizarre regulatory exercises—jumping over ethical dilemmas, lifting metaphorical weights of responsibility, and dodging lawsuits rolling in like exercise balls. The composition is dynamic, with a freeze-frame moment of an exhausted CEO sweating profusely while the AI ethics chief does a flawless robotic dance. The lighting is saturated and overly bright, mimicking the artificial cheerfulness of vintage fitness tapes.

A vintage game show meets whimsical surrealism, where an overly excited AI assistant is standing behind a golden, glitzy podium, preparing to make a phone call while an applauding audience of confused business owners watches in suspense. The setting is a garishly decorated TV studio, complete with spinning prize wheels and flashing marquee lights, where each call determines whether the business will give an actual price or just hang up in frustration. The composition centers on the AI phone floating mid-air, glowing dramatically as a deep-voiced announcer introduces it like the latest breakthrough in communication. The lighting is absurdly bright and theatrical, emphasizing the exaggerated spectacle of something as mundane as asking about service prices.

A retro-futuristic paperback cover mixed with surrealist propaganda, showing a dramatic scene of a human artist and an AI with glowing eyes wrestling over a half-finished canvas, both trying to claim ownership. The setting is a dystopian art gallery filled with eerie statues of famous painters staring judgmentally. The composition is highly dynamic, with swirling colors exploding from the painting as both creators struggle for dominance, while in the background, shadowy copyright lawyers observe with comically oversized legal documents in hand. The lighting is moody and theatrical, casting long, ominous shadows that exaggerate the tension between human and machine.

A 1950s pulp horror magazine cover mixed with hyper-exaggerated golden age comic book aesthetics, featuring a terrified author clutching an AI-generated book as eerie, ghostly words spill out of the pages, forming a monstrous typewriter-headed creature. The setting is a dimly lit study filled with stacks of identical books, each with the author’s name stamped on them in bold, glowing letters. The composition is intense, with the book itself looming large in the foreground, seemingly growing teeth, while the author’s expression is frozen in comedic horror. The lighting is harsh and dramatic, with deep shadows accentuating the paranoia-inducing atmosphere.