Duels & Deals 🤺🤝

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover several brewing arguments across the AI and tech sectors. Perplexity has been accused of data scraping without permission by Cloudflare, but it’s not taking those accusations lying down. Meanwhile, Anthropic is not happy with OpenAI, kicking the latter of its Claude API. Apple, too, is feeling truculent, suing Apple Cinemas for copyright infringement. But there is some positivity this week as details emerge of Amazon’s AI deal with the New York Times. Oh, and ChatGPT is celebrating several milestones, as well as a new Study Mode.

🔥 Vibe & Validate with 3A: Workshop, Prototype and Roadmap in ONE Week 🔥

🎬 Our Top Take

🤺🤝 AI – An Eventful Week of Fallouts & Deal-Making

You may recall from previous newsletters that we covered Cloudflare’s attempts to block AI data scrapers – or at least give website owners the choice to block them. Well, Cloudflare has now named the worst culprit – Perplexity AI. It accused Perplexity of engaging in underhanded tactics to take websites’ data, even when permission has been denied. Perplexity shot back, though, denying the charges and claiming that Cloudflare – which has made a big bet on being a data gatekeeper – created this row as a means of marketing its services. They weren’t the only companies to fall out this week, as Anthropic decided to kick OpenAI off its Claude API for “violating terms of service.” Yet, we did have some harmonious news in the sector: The New York Times, a long-standing critic of AI companies accessing data without permission (or payment), has finalized a deal with Amazon for content access for AI training. The deal was first pitched in late May, but the Paper of Record will now receive up to $25 million per annum from Amazon for data that could be used, among other things, to train the AI version of Alexa+. #Duels&Deals Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Google Translate

It’s not often we highlight a 15-year-old app in this section, but our Senior Server Developer Matt Stevens brought Google Translate to our attention this week. The app has, of course, been updated with AI features in recent years, and Matt, who was on vacation in Southeast Asia, was able to effortlessly use the app for real-time translation via camera and voice. If you haven’t got Google Translate – we are talking about the standalone app here, not the tab on your browser - check it for Android here and your iPhone here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 5% & 6%

📈📉 Meta – AI Is Keeping Us Scrolling for Longer on Socials

Many of us may recoil at AI-generated content and slop on social media, but Meta has crunched the numbers and says that AI is making us spend more time on social media, with Facebook up 5% and Instagram up 6% last quarter. The key, according to Mark Zuckerberg, is using AI to create more relevant timelines. All well and good, but we’d be willing to bet that the average user hasn’t noticed. #AISocial Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Affirmations are powerful. When we face obstacles, it’s important to keep reminding ourselves that we have so much to look forward to, to have faith in ourselves and keep moving forward. That’s exactly what our client, Jeffery Bradley, set out to do when he envisioned SelfSpeak. He wanted to solve a problem for himself, and he did. We’re proud to share that SelfSpeak is now live on the App Store and Google Play. It’s an app that seamlessly combines lifelike voice cloning with automated, goal-driven affirmation generation – all played back in your own voice. Whether you’re cooking a meal or taking a stroll, you can now reprogram your mind with affirmations spoken in your own voice, anytime, anywhere.