The Imagination Age Weekly News Roundup: May 4-10, 2025
Start your week right! A curated roundup of the top AI news shaping the industry.
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Imagination Age: Weekly News Roundup, where we explore the evolving role of AI in reshaping creativity, culture, and commerce.
This week’s stories spotlight real life use cases where creators, designers, software engineers, and lawyers are using AI not to replace their roles, but to amplify their potential and refocus their human efforts where they matter most.
Creators are streamlining content pipelines while preserving the authenticity of their voice. Designers are scaling visual identity and unlocking new monetization models. Engineering leaders are rethinking how skills and roles are prioritized in AI-augmented teams. And legal professionals are automating routine tasks to spend more time on strategy and client service.
Across every example, AI is becoming a co-pilot, helping professionals strike a new balance between scale and substance, automation and artistry.
And in a signal of what’s next, OpenAI has named Instacart CEO Fidji Simo as CEO of Applications, where she’ll lead the charge in translating frontier research into globally deployed products, a clear bet on AI’s commercial potential.
Let’s get into it!
👩💼 OpenAI Appoints Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to Lead Applications Division
OpenAI has named Fidji Simo as CEO of Applications reporting directly to Sam Altman.
Simo, who joined OpenAI’s board last year, will now lead a consolidated group overseeing how the company’s research becomes consumer-facing products. Her appointment comes as OpenAI enters its next phase of growth, with Altman shifting more of his focus toward research, compute, and safety systems.
She’ll remain Instacart’s CEO for a transition period and later serve as board chair. Her track record includes guiding Instacart through a successful IPO and scaling it beyond its pandemic-era boom. Her role at OpenAI signals a more aggressive push into productization and global deployment of generative AI applications.
Simo’s appointment underscores OpenAI’s intent to commercialize AI at scale while maintaining its leadership in foundational research. (CNBC)
🎙️ How Creators Are Using GenAI in Podcasts, Videos, and Newsletters
Creators are embracing generative AI to speed up content creation across podcasts, YouTube, and newsletters, but not everyone’s convinced.
Steven Bartlett’s media company FlightStory is testing AI-generated shows, complete with cloned voices and AI animation, on Spotify. YouTuber Bennett “Money Mind” Santora uses a mix of ElevenLabs, HeyGen, and Poppy AI to clone his voice, script videos, and auto-generate visuals. Meanwhile, newsletter writers like Lauren DeVane use AI to generate 70% of their posts, carefully edited for tone, audience, and originality.
Advertisers are cautiously optimistic. While they welcome increased output and niche targeting, they also raise concerns around authenticity, disclosure, and creative quality. Brands want reassurance that the “human touch” still matters, and that AI-enhanced content aligns with their values and safety standards. (Digiday)
🎬 Netflix Rolls Out ChatGPT-Powered Conversational Search
Netflix has officially debuted its generative AI-powered search tool, offering users a more natural, conversational way to discover content.
Built on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the tool lets subscribers ask for recommendations using everyday language like “I want something scary but not too scary, and a little bit funny.” The feature is rolling out this week to iOS users as an opt-in beta, following earlier tests in Australia and New Zealand.
This move positions Netflix alongside other streaming platforms like Amazon and Tubi experimenting with GenAI search, though Tubi later sunset its own version due to low engagement. Netflix is betting big that AI can make content discovery more intuitive and personalized, and may extend the tech to other experiences like multilingual title cards. (TechCrunch)
📰 GenAI in Media: From Protest to Productivity
Across the media industry, generative AI is both a creative catalyst and a source of deep concern.
Creators are pushing back against UK laws that allow AI firms to train on copyrighted material unless explicitly opted out. The “Make it Fair” campaign gained momentum with front-page newspaper takeovers and a silent protest album by musicians like Kate Bush.
Yet behind the scenes, media companies are experimenting. Reach is using an internal AI tool (“Gutenbot”) to lightly rewrite press content with human oversight. The Financial Times is integrating AI into investigative workflows—analyzing government data to spot trends like Tesla’s phantom braking issues. Their team emphasizes GenAI’s strength in classification, automation, and scale, not storytelling.
Meanwhile, platforms like Fiverr Go let illustrators train AI on their own portfolios and retain control, offering an income model built on reuse. And Berlin-based agency Imagine uses GenAI to generate sonic branding assets, while paying human composers royalties every time their work is algorithmically remixed. (ComputerWeekly)
💼 GenAI Reshapes the Role of Software Engineering Leaders
Generative AI is transforming not just how software is built—but how teams are led.
In a new Q&A, Gartner analyst Haritha Khandabattu explains that GenAI is not a replacement for engineers—it’s a force multiplier that enhances productivity, automates repetitive tasks, and frees up talent for higher-value work. A 2024 survey showed that nearly half of engineering teams already use GenAI tools to augment development workflows.
Beyond code, GenAI is changing recruiting and onboarding too—writing job descriptions, summarizing interviews, and streamlining new-hire training. Leaders are urged to upskill teams in prompt engineering and LLMs while aligning GenAI efforts with business value.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 70% of all software engineering leadership roles will require oversight of GenAI. This means leaders must embed continuous learning, establish cross-functional ethics policies, and guide their teams through the evolving responsibilities of AI-augmented development. (Gartner)
🌍 OpenAI Launches “Democratic AI” for Global Expansion
OpenAI announced “OpenAI for Countries,” a new initiative to help nations build localized, public-service-focused versions of ChatGPT, with early emphasis on education and healthcare. CEO Sam Altman emphasized the importance of aligning AI development with democratic values, viewed by some as a strategic counterbalance to China’s AI influence. (Axios)
💼 IBM Doubles Down on AI and U.S. Investment
IBM revealed plans to expand its AI agent ecosystem and allow enterprises to build their own agents using its Granite foundation models. The company also committed $150 billion in U.S. investment over 5 years, supporting AI infrastructure, quantum computing, and domestic manufacturing. (Reuters)
⚖️ Top Australian Law Firms Go All-In on GenAI
Elite firms like Ashurst and Gilbert + Tobin are using generative AI for tasks like contract analysis, discovery, and document drafting with human review still required. Data security and ethical oversight remain central as firms lean into custom models and strict compliance. (The Australian)
🎨 Artist Dahlia Dreszer Uses AI as a “Supercharger”
In her exhibition Bringing the Outside In, photographer Dahlia Dreszer merges traditional photography with generative AI. She frames AI not as a threat but as a new tool that expands what’s creatively possible, saying it allows her to “paint with pixels.” (TIME)
📱 Apple in Talks to Replace Google Search in Safari
Internal testimony and reports revealed Apple is exploring AI-driven search engines like Perplexity to replace Google as its default. Safari saw its first-ever decline in usage in 22 years, prompting a reassessment of how users want to discover information in the AI era. (The Verge)
📈 GenAI Becomes #1 Tech Budget Priority
According to an AWS-commissioned global survey, 45% of IT leaders now rank generative AI as their top tech spending priority, surpassing cybersecurity for the first time. The shift signals a deeper enterprise commitment to long-term AI integration. (GeekWire)
🏛️ California Begins Deploying GenAI in State Agencies
The state of California has begun official deployments of generative AI to improve public service workflows. Officials cite goals like enhanced citizen support, reduced wait times, and better use of staff time through automation. (YouTube)