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What’s Appening: Microsoft Build, Genius Act, NotebookLM, ChatGPT Codex
Newsletter
May 20, 2025
AGENTIC WAS THE KEYWORD OF THE KEYNOTE AT BUILD
👀 TLDR
In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the latest from Microsoft Build. CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote really drove home that the company is betting on agentic AI, but what does that mean for the rest of us? We also have news on the Genius Act working its way through the Senate, a new coding tool for ChatGPT, some shenanigans with Darth Vader on Fortnite, and YouTube’s big idea to stick even more ads into videos. Be sure to check out the latest from 3Advance, too.
🎬 Our Top Take
📱📵 Microsoft – Build 2025 Heralds the Dawn of Agentic AI
It’s developer conference season, with Google I/O 2025 starting today and Apple WWDC coming in a few weeks. Yesterday, it was Microsoft’s turn, kicking off Build 2025 with a keynote from the boss, Satya Nadella. You can get a full breakdown of what’s happened at Build through Microsoft’s Book of News here (it’s really, really extensive, so grab a coffee). But we can tell you that Build was all about AI agents – “agent” was mentioned 328 times in the Book of News – with tools to build, deploy, and govern intelligent agents across Microsoft 365, Teams, Azure, and GitHub. So why does this matter? Because agents represent a fundamental shift from AI that helps you passively to AI that acts on your behalf. Instead of just generating text, these tools can schedule meetings, file reports, talk to each other, join your team meetings, and more. We have covered AI agents before in What’s Appening, and their concept won’t be alien to regular readers, but the fact that there was such emphasis from Microsoft yesterday is significant: Nadella wasn’t announcing new features; he was signaling that the Microsoft platform is turning into an agentic operating system. Over to you, Google. #AgentNadella Read more here.
🗣️ Poll: Are AI Agents Game-Changers? |
📲 App of the Week: Google NotebookLM
We have touched on the incredible popularity of NotebookLM numerous times in past newsletters, but now you can try it for yourself with the new iOS and Android app. On paper, it’s a productivity app, but in practice, it’s so much more. Full of AI-powered features that are actually beneficial, it’s perfect for students, researchers, or anyone who needs to curate information. NotebookLM went viral last year due to its Audio Overviews Feature, which basically became a podcast generator, but there’s so much more stuffed into this mini-AI research assistant, although it feels like this early version of the app has room to grow. The NotebookLM app is free, but Google will prompt you to make in-app purchases. Get it for iOS here and Android here.
🧐 Stat of the Week: 1.1% Tokenised
📈📉 Genius Act – Bill to Regulate Stablecoins Faces Senate
It is estimated that 1.1% of all US Dollars are now used to back stablecoins (crypto tokens pegged to the value of real-world currencies). Sounds small, but we are talking about upwards of $240 billion. The statistic was published as the Genius Act makes its way through the Senate. The bill would regulate stablecoins, requiring 1:1 backing with USD equivalents, but it contains some controversial elements, too, not least the prospect that Big Tech companies like Amazon and Meta could launch their own stablecoins. #StableBill Read more here.
🗞️ Other Stories
👩🏽💻😎 OpenAI – ChatGPT Gets Impressive New Coding Agent
Vibe coding (using AI to generate code) has got another shot in the arm with the release of Codex, an AI coding agent available through ChatGPT. Thus far, vibe coding mostly consisted of autocomplete-type tasks. It also evolved to analysis, looking for bugs, deconstructing the codebase, and so on. With Codex, it’s all about independence. It’s been summed up as having another junior programmer on your team, heading off to do their tasks without needing your supervision. As ever in this era of an AI arms race, Codex isn’t the only game in town (Claude Code, Copilot Agent Mode), but it is generating a lot of buzz and proves OpenAI can still suddenly drop a new feature to turn our heads. #VibeCodex Read more here.
😮 Surprising: There’s a broad consensus that Gen-Z is terminally online, yet a wide study in the UK found that almost 50% of 16-21-year-olds say they’d prefer a world without the internet. More here. 🤬 Abuse the Force. A Fortnite AI feature that allows users to engage with an AI Darth Vader is under scrutiny as players are constantly making the Sith Lord use profanities. More here. | 🇲🇨 That’s Big. OpenAI’s planned new Data Center in UAE will be the size of the country of Monaco. While Monaco is a tiny nation, it’s still staggering when you think about it. Details here. 📽️ More Ads. YouTube is testing an AI feature that could place ads at the “peak engagement” moment of videos. Great. We are sure that users will be delighted. Story here. |
📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance
Haven’t heard about 30-for-30 yet? Check out Paul breaking it down in this quick video.
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