🌍Who Owns AI’s Influence?
👋 Welcome! As the week wraps up, AI is shifting from pure technology to cultural power. It’s no longer just faster code—it’s about who writes the rules of tomorrow. Culture, politics, and power are all in play. Read on!
AI & TECH
TIME Names AI’s Top 100 – TIME has unveiled its 2025 TIME100 AI list, highlighting the leaders driving artificial intelligence into the mainstream. Featured are Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, OpenAI’s Joanne Jang, actress-turned-AI entrepreneur Natasha Lyonne, and AI safety pioneer Stuart Russell. Beyond honoring individuals, the list underscores how artists, technologists, and policy advocates are shaping AI’s future—showing the debate isn’t just technical, but cultural and political.
Japan Uses AI to Simulate Fuji Eruption – Japan has unveiled AI-generated videos simulating a violent eruption of Mount Fuji to mark Volcanic Disaster Preparedness Day. The simulations show ash blanketing Tokyo within hours, crippling transport and food supplies for 37 million residents. Officials stress there are no signs of imminent eruption—the goal is public readiness. Still, some residents voiced anxiety, while others rushed to stock emergency supplies.
IBM and AMD Bet on Quantum – Two tech giants are joining forces to blend quantum and high-performance computing. IBM brings its quantum expertise while AMD contributes CPUs, GPUs, and accelerators. Together, they plan hybrid workflows, open-source platforms, and a demo later this year to accelerate breakthroughs from drug discovery to supply chain optimization.
OpenAI, Anthropic Swap AI Safety Tests – Rival AI labs OpenAI and Anthropic conducted rare cross-evaluations of each other’s models. Anthropic flagged sycophancy and misuse risks in GPT-4 systems, while OpenAI found Claude strong against hallucinations and jailbreaking. The collaboration comes as safety concerns and legal pressures intensify around advanced AI tools.
CAREER & WORK
AI Steps In for Overworked 911 Dispatchers – Emergency call centers face severe staffing shortages, with dispatchers often pulling 12- to 16-hour shifts in one of America’s highest-turnover jobs. To ease pressure, agencies are adopting AI voice assistants that field non-emergency calls, freeing human dispatchers to focus on urgent crises while finally getting a break themselves.
Blizzard’s Diablo Team Unionizes Amid Layoffs – Over 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard voted to unionize with the Communications Workers of America, joining a growing wave of organizing at Microsoft studios. Designers, engineers, and artists say mass layoffs drove the push, reflecting a wider industry movement as game workers fight instability and demand stronger protections on the job.
MathGPT.ai Expands as Classroom Assistant – More than 50 colleges now use MathGPT.ai, an AI tutor designed to prevent shortcuts while supporting real learning. The tool guides students through Socratic questioning and helps professors with grading, assignments, and course design. As workloads mount, it’s becoming both a digital teaching assistant and a career-shaping classroom ally.
ECONOMY & FINANCE
AI Surge Lifts Nvidia Revenues – Nvidia posted $46.7B in quarterly revenue, up 56% year-over-year, as demand from AI-hungry tech giants like Meta and OpenAI surges. Despite after-hours share dips and U.S.–China trade friction, investors still view Nvidia as the core supplier powering global AI infrastructure and market growth.
U.S. GDP Revised Up on AI Investment – Second-quarter GDP was upgraded to 3.3%, boosted by stronger consumer spending and business investment in AI and equipment. While tariffs cloud the outlook, profits rebounded $65.5B. Economists warn growth may cool later this year, but AI-driven spending is cushioning weakness elsewhere.
Netstock’s AI Boosts Business Efficiency – Inventory software firm Netstock is introducing AI tools that generate real-time supply recommendations, saving customers significant costs. By helping smaller firms cut errors and optimize operations, the company positions AI less as hype and more as a measurable driver of financial performance in logistics and retail.
VC & FUNDING
Framer Hits $2B With Series D – No-code website builder Framer secured $100M in fresh funding, pushing its valuation to $2B. Backed by Meritech and Atomico, the Amsterdam startup is expanding enterprise features and AI tools, reporting $50M ARR and eyeing $100M next year as demand for dynamic websites grows.
Maisa AI Raises $25M Seed – Enterprise automation startup Maisa AI secured $25M led by Creandum to address the 95% failure rate of generative AI pilots. Its “Maisa Studio” platform builds accountable digital workers through a process-driven approach, already attracting clients in banking, manufacturing, and energy sectors.
BIG THINK
When AI Icons Become Cultural Compass Points
This week, TIME’s annual AI list didn’t just celebrate the usual tech titans. It elevated a wider cast of creators, educators, and policy shapers—reminding us that artificial intelligence is no longer just about code, but about culture, power, and the future we want to build. The message is clear: the real contest isn’t over algorithms, but over the values that will govern them.
What is striking—and urgent—is that this list places influence over innovation at its center. Editors note that AI’s trajectory is no longer a matter of code, but of human choices. Choices about how we govern compute investments—now racing at rates multiple times GDP—and choices shaping who leads. These decisions could rival historical feats of coordination like the Manhattan Project, even in scale.
Yet provocation demands balance. On one hand, honoring policy advocates and global voices—from Pope Leo XIV to Cynthia Breazeal—suggests a richer, more inclusive vision of AI’s future, one that includes human connection and education for the next generation. On the other, it raises a tough question: beyond symbolism, are we empowering structures that represent all voices—not just the powerful few? The stakes are geopolitical and personal.
This isn’t mere tech pageantry—it’s a cultural reckoning. As global investment swells and competition intensifies (think researcher free agency), we must ask: Will AI reflect the best of us, or magnify our flaws? The TIME100 AI list invites us to see that those named are signs—compasses guiding whether AI becomes a force for empathy, equity, and shared purpose, or becomes untethered ambition in silicon.
If this moment means anything, it’s this: The future of AI rests not on circuits, but on values. And now is the time for all of us—citizens, creators, regulators—to step into that conversation. Because shaping AI culture isn’t an elite activity—it’s our collective responsibility, and a source of real hope.
Actionable Insights
Demand values in code and leadership—advocate for AI decision-makers who talk not just innovation, but ethics, equity, and accountability.
Elevate diverse influence—support platforms and policies that amplify global, creative, and civic voices as much as technical luminaries.
WEEKLY TECH SPOTLIGHT
Plesk is one of those platforms you may not notice, but it powers a huge part of the internet—running on hundreds of thousands of servers and supporting millions of websites and mailboxes across the globe. It’s the go-to WebOps tool for simplifying the heavy work of hosting.
For developers, small teams, or side-hustlers, Plesk takes care of the messy behind-the-scenes jobs—like domains, email, backups, and security—so you don’t have to burn hours learning server management. Think of it as a digital co-pilot keeping your projects online, safe, and running smoothly.
Our Take: For the Every Path community, Plesk matters because it removes barriers between ideas and execution. Whether you’re testing a project, building your first site, or scaling something bigger, it’s the quiet support system that lets your creativity lead while the tech stays out of the way.
JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES
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SkillBridge RF Technician Internship | Full Time | Colorado Springs, CO | In person
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Full Stack Software Developer | Volunteer | Temporary | Virtual
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THE NUMBER:
letters fill Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, making it the longest novel ever written—a monumental labyrinth of detail and reflection unmatched in literary history.
WISDOM
“Peace is not the absence of war—peace is the absence of fear”.