🎥 Lights, Prompt. .. Action
Montfort AI 3-60 Issue # 4: 4 April 2025
Welcome back. This week has seen new video generation with consistent characters, OpenAI’s promise to release its first open-source model in years, and AI-assisted focus groups. Let’s get stuck in.
In this week’s issue:
Putting the ‘Open’ in OpenAI
Lights, Prompt… Action
AI swarms for better meetings
Generative AI 3 Minute Lesson: learn about AGI and the alignment problem from Anthropic
Generative AI 60 minute Lesson: enrol in the OpenAI Academy
🔎 The Week’s Big AI News at a Glance
🔗 OpenAI says it will release an ‘Open Weight’ AI Model this Summer – OpenAI has committed to releasing an open weight model with reasoning this summer, its first since GPT–2 in 2019. We think: 🧠 This step has been anticipated for some time, with CEO Sam Altman observing that the company had perhaps ‘been on the wrong side of history’ regarding open source AI. However, with capable models from Meta and DeepSeek being provided on similar terms, commentators have questioned the long-term sustainability of OpenAI’s cost structure. Given the increasing focus by OpenAI on releasing products based on its foundation models of late, the company may be pivoting to a realisation that fine-tuned models, product market fit and applications are where its future lies.
🔗 Lights, Prompt… Action – Runway has launched its Generation 4 text to video model. New is the capability to retain characters and objects across scenes, extending the length of generated videos beyond a few seconds. We think: 🧠 The customisation and repurposing of media has been constrained by the same randomness that constrained image generation prior to the launch of native image generation in ChatGPT 4o and Gemini 2.0 Flash. Expect more convincing and creative content. Yet the potential for misuse remains and we as communications professionals will need to be even more on our guard.
🔗 March Madness - The ongoing ‘March madness’ basketball tournament in the US provided a great opportunity for the team at VentureBeat to explore conversational swarm intelligence technology where a group of AIs invigilate a human conversation and extract and summarise the best ideas. The result? Greater focus and clarity on the subject matter. In the case of VentureBeat, a pretty strong bracket for the tournament, but its application extends to focus groups, strategy and more. We think: 🧠 Looking beyond the headline, we can see value here in AI-augmentation of communications. As professionals, we are often required to canvas legal, operational, financial and strategic opinion which condition both what should and what can be said. The value here is less that of an 'AI minute taker' and instead that of a broker of knowledge across siloes. We'd nonetheless expect flaks’ creativity and interpersonal skills to still be required: the nose for a story, likely angles and the ability to get the best from experts.
⏲️ Spend 3 Minutes With… (Quick Wins)
🔗 Anthropic May Usher in a Nation of Geniuses in a Data Centre - Read this article about the exodus from OpenAI to found Anthropic and how its approach toward AI differs. While a very flattering piece to the leadership of Anthropic, this Wired piece nevertheless is an excellent primer in how AI labs research, test and deploy foundation models like Claude and think about alignment and AGI.
🕙 Spend an Hour With (Deeper Dives)
🔗 The OpenAI academy – Back to OpenAI with its recently launched academy. It’s a completely free collection of resources designed to help us all get more comfortable with using and engaging with AI. Resources are varied, but the ‘ChatGPT at work’ series is a good starter for ten and a nice way to build familiarity. For those looking to go further in unlocking AI for their day-to-day in comms, reach out to us about our workshop offering!
🚀 Final Thought
Our Research, Data, and Analytics team helps companies across sectors understand how to protect and enhance their reputations using advanced analytics and machine learning. We offer workshops for communications teams looking to get ahead, as well as tools and techniques to navigate AI’s impact on reputation. If you’re interested, get in touch at digital@montfort.london.