4A's Noteworthy News - 17th Edition
NOTE: this post originally appeared on LinkedIn here.
Apple kicked off the week with its annual iPhone reveal, announcing new hardware including Apple Watch Series 10, new airpods, and the iPhone 16 lineup. Apple Intelligence featured prominently throughout the event, including a new “Visual Intelligence” feature, which is one of several features leveraging 3rd party services. Some reviewers are less than impressed with Apple Intelligence, but regardless - the rollout is bound to introduce a wide audience to a new set of AI features leveraging hardware and software integration, built right in at the OS level to your most personal device.
OpenAI, which is of course one of the other 3rd parties enabling AI features on iPhone, also made headlines this week. The Information reported on Tuesday that OpenAI’s next model, the long-rumored Strawberry, was due to be released in the next couple of weeks. This new model has been rumored to focus on reasoning, taking time to “think” before responding - making it potentially a better performer for complex queries that may have taken multiple prompts for ChatGPT-4o to accomplish.
Seems like The Information was onto something. Yesterday, a blog post revealed OpenAI o1-preview. This is actually a series of models, including the main o1 LLM, and a smaller version called o1-mini. Both models have a renewed focus on safety and security, following on the heels of OpenAI’s recently formalized agreements with the U.S. and U.K. AI Safety Institutes. o1 apparently “performs similarly to PhD students on challenging benchmark tasks in physics, chemistry, and biology.”
More updates are in the works of course, but this release promises to improve ChatGPT’s ability to solve complex problems, which could prove useful for common agency challenges like budget allocation, detailed audience segmentation, deep personalization, campaign optimization, and more. It is not a replacement for ChatGP- 4o, which will likely continue to perform better for some use cases. o1 is not multimodal, for example. And it is more expensive for API access. The advanced reasoning capabilities may also require different prompting strategies to unlock full potential.
OTHER INTERESTING AI NEWS FOR AGENCIES:
Several new regulations on privacy and AI cleared hurdles in California last month. 4A’s members can review our Government Relations summary here.
The Drum covered Adobe’s new GenAI video capabilities, including comments from me.
Marketing Profs has a nice infographic highlighting 57 AI tools for marketers.
OpenAI now claims ChatGPT has 11 million paying users.
Amazon is testing ads on Rufus, its AI-powered shopping search engine, marking a bold new frontier in how consumers interact with ads during online AI-assisted shopping.
AdAge reveals the results of a survey studying consumers’ reactions to AI-generated ads. It’s a mixed bag at best.
VCs and accelerators continue their love affair with AI startups - Three-quarters of founders in the latest Y Combinator cohort are working on AI startups
Reckitt CMO: AI is already making marketers better and faster
Per McKinsey, Gen AI is moving from employee experimentation to full-scale organizational transformation, pushing companies to rethink how they integrate AI into their operations for lasting impact.
The U.S. has signed a legally enforceable AI treaty, marking a significant step in regulating the global development and use of artificial intelligence.
RECENT CASE STUDIES, EXAMPLES AND USE CASES:
Brandtech has unveiled a new ethical Gen AI package designed to accelerate and de-risk the integration of responsible AI in marketing practices
Vitaminwater's "Paint Your Rent" campaign gives consumers the chance to win free rent for a year and custom interior design services. Participants can submit photos of a Vitaminwater flavor in a room they want to redecorate. Five winners will receive the rent prize and work with Havenly designers to create vibrant, flavor-inspired spaces. AI-generated mood boards showcasing colors like kiwi-strawberry and acai blueberry pomegranate help guide the designs.
