AI's Big Bang Week

Ollie Carter

G’day and welcome back to The AI Intelligence Podcast, with thanks for Advancer, The AI Agency —your weekly deep-dive into the wild, ever-accelerating world of artificial intelligence. I’m Ollie Carter here in Brisbane, and as always, I’m joined by Llew Jury. How’s it going, mate?

Llew Jury

Hi Ollie! It's great to be back, and what a week—as if last episode’s billion-dollar capital flows and boardroom shakeups weren’t enough! Now it feels like the whole industry’s had another growth spurt. Where do you want to kick off?

Ollie Carter

Look, let’s start with Microsoft. I reckon it’s the biggest story in the “AI independence” narrative—so, they’ve launched MAI-Voice-1 and this MAI-1-preview model. Finally breaking away from always being tied at the hip with OpenAI. I don’t know if people really get how huge that is, Llew?

Llew Jury

Yeah, big, big move. And as someone who’s lived through that old “should we build or buy?” from way back in the early SaaS days to now, this is Microsoft planting their flag. MAI-Voice-1 is just lightning fast. A full minute of speech in under a second on a single GPU, right? Makes the stuff we used in uni sound like dial-up.

Ollie Carter

Oh, dial-up Internet flashbacks—not pleasant. And the MAI-1-preview, that’s the mixture-of-experts, trained in-house from scratch. Apparently, they used around 15,000 NVIDIA H100s. I can’t imagine even getting a quote for that on AWS!

Llew Jury

Back in my first startup Alfresco, you’d celebrate getting a grant for a new server. Now it’s “pfft, just throw another billion at GPUs and hire… what, fifty researchers from DeepMind” or whatever. Shows just how much the scale has shifted; government money for foundational AI research used to be a pipe dream. Now we’ve got the U.S. National Science Foundation dropping billions into Integrated Data Systems for AI research infrastructure. Kinda makes the old R&D tax credits seem puny, right?

Ollie Carter

Absolutely. And while Microsoft’s chasing speed and scale, you’ve got a different angle popping up too—environmental impact. Saw that new ultra-low-power image generator? Claims it can generate images using basically no power. I think the stat was, what, orders of magnitude less energy? Finally, someone’s trying to make generative AI greener—which, let’s be real, was overdue.

Llew Jury

You know we’ve banged on about this in past episodes. AI’s energy bill was getting outta hand; so, yeah, hats off to those researchers. And on the image front, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash—bit of a mouthful, but that’s their image-editing model rolling out fast edits across the Gemini app. Meta, though, going in another direction entirely—apparently mixing in Gemini or even OpenAI models into their own stack. Didn’t think we’d see Meta and Google in the same team huddle, did ya?

Ollie Carter

Not in a million years. But I guess that’s the AI game now, right? Cooperate where you gotta, compete everywhere else. Alright, how about we flip over to where the money’s landing this week, and the wild management moves spinning off from all this new tech?

Llew Jury

Yeah, spot on. Let’s talk about FieldAI—$405 million for robotics in construction tech. That’s not pocket change. I was reading, over a billion in total AI funding this week. I remember my first fundraise for Sprint VC, I had to do two hundred coffees just to get initial support from a few early investors. Now it’s billion-dollar weeks, like it’s no big deal!

Ollie Carter

I mean, EliseAI raked in $250 million for that healthcare and housing automation platform—Series E. That’s a unicorn valuation right there. And what’s interesting to me is you’re seeing new breed CRMs popping up too. Attio, Aurasell—AI-native from the ground up, right? It’s not bolted on features, it’s just AI baked straight into the workflow.

Llew Jury

Yeah, yeah! Reminds me of chat we had in Episode 8—instead of retrofitting old software, now we’re seeing this “AI first, everything” mentality. The CRM market’s not hot usually, but suddenly every VC wants a bit of that AI-native pie, don’t they?

Ollie Carter

Couldn’t have said it better. Now, management wise—Meta AI’s the big drama. Alexandr Wang steps up, reorgs the whole division, Superintelligence Labs gets shuffled less than two months in. That’s fast even for Silicon Valley! And this trend—we’ve got Lululemon, Salesforce, iCIMS, even—appointing Chief AI Officers. Not just CIOs. Just proves AI’s not some backroom IT project anymore; it’s at the main table.

Llew Jury

Absolutely. Execs are starting to treat AI like it’s M&A or legal, not some shiny side project. You know what else? The United Nations finally launching its first Global Dialogue on AI Governance. That’s a big deal. Global frameworks for AI—long overdue, but you can feel the momentum building.

Ollie Carter

Yeah, although down at the state level, it’s as messy as ever. Colorado delays its big AI law—bit of déjà vu for anyone who’s pivoted a startup because the rules just changed overnight. California’s trimming back on their AI pricing rules too. Just goes to show: AI governance, it’s still a bit spaghetti, isn’t it?

Llew Jury

Classic policy lag. I dunno—sometimes, regulation sprints ahead, sometimes it can’t get outta its own way. Meanwhile, capital just keeps pouring in. It’s hard yards leading an AI startup now, but it’s never been a better time to be raising, if you’re even vaguely in the space. Mind you, tough if you’re not—lots of capital, but only for the “hot” categories, right Ollie?

Ollie Carter

Yeah, exactly, and—well—it’s all fueling these next big questions around where AI’s shaping not just companies, but, like, workforce, art, how we work and live. Let’s get into the cultural and job changes next.

Ollie Carter

Right, culture and jobs—this is where the friction’s really starting to show up. You’ve got AI challenging the idea of creativity, right? Who “owns” art, music, writing now that AI can make them? Some reckon the AI-made stuff might flood out the human-made, but others—maybe we’ll see a backlash, like, “real humans only” becomes premium. What’s your take, Llew?

Llew Jury

Honestly, we talk about this every time a new tool drops. Remember Episode 1—fashion, music, TikTok AI-lipsyncs—even then, some folks wanted nothing to do with it, others were using it every day. Now, with AI so embedded, it’s not just about tech anymore; it’s about what value society puts on the authentic. And the great irony? The bigger the deluge of AI content, maybe the more people will crave the handmade, the quirky imperfections.

Ollie Carter

Totally. And in the workforce? Big swings there too. New research shows employment for young workers in roles exposed to AI dropped 6%. Could be entry-level graphic designers, junior copywriters—those sort of “first job” gigs, especially. But here’s the kicker: if you’re AI-savvy, starting salaries are up 12%. I actually know of grads landing high level and wild AI operations role at various firms—no one saw it coming. They learned nothing but prompt engineering and a bit of scripting, and suddenly, they’re in demand everywhere. Mad world, hey?

Llew Jury

Classic case of “adapt or be automated.” But it’s not all about job risk. There’s some genuinely profound good, like in healthcare. MIT’s built AI tools for flu vaccine strain prediction—crazy important for public health. UNC, they’ve launched reproductive health chatbots. That’s direct benefit, that’s not just tweaking a spreadsheet. That’s real public good. And, honestly, every week now there’s something new in medtech.

Ollie Carter

Couldn’t agree more. Hard not to feel like we’re living through one of those moments where everything’s shifting, right? The job market, creativity, healthcare—even how we think about what tech is good for. Anyway, let’s wind up—Llew, final thoughts?

Llew Jury

Mate, if this week proves anything, it’s that AI’s not just speeding up—it’s weaving itself into every part of our world, for better or worse. I’ll keep saying it: learn fast, stay curious, and don’t get comfy. Next week’ll probably be twice as wild! And before we go, a shout and thanks to the great team and our sponsor Advancer. Advancer are the AI experts providing real world AI and Automation strategy, AI products and customised AI solutions for your business. Check them out at Advancer.com.au! Thanks, Ollie—always a ripper of a chat.

Ollie Carter

Cheers, Llew—always is! And thanks to everyone for tuning in. Don’t forget to check the show notes for all the links and extra details. We’ll be back next week with more of the big stories—until then, keep questioning, keep learning, and catch you soon on The AI Intelligence Podcast. See ya, Llew!

Llew Jury

See ya, Ollie! And see ya, listeners—take care.