Daily News: May 1, 2025
AI news that pops: daily insights, fast takes, and the future right in your inbox
Hey there friends👋! In today’s edition, you’re getting 5 🆕 news item and my take on what it all means. That’s it — delivered to your inbox, daily.
Subscribe to LawDroid Manifesto and don’t miss tomorrow’s edition:
Today's News
Here are the top 5 recent news items on artificial intelligence:
1./ Judge Warns Meta’s AI Could ‘Obliterate’ Market for Original Works
A federal judge in San Francisco expressed skepticism over Meta Platforms’ claim of “fair use” in using copyrighted books by authors like Junot Diaz and Sarah Silverman to train its AI language model, Llama, suggesting that such use could “obliterate” the market for original works. During the first court hearing addressing fair use in the context of AI training, Judge Vince Chhabria questioned Meta’s assertion that it could create countless competing products without licensing original content, highlighting the significant potential market impacts on authors. While Meta argued its AI training was transformative and justified, plaintiffs countered that it threatens authors’ livelihoods by flooding the market with competing content. The judge emphasized the unique nature of the case, noting that although the AI use might be transformative, its ability to generate infinite competitive products raises serious concerns about its fairness and legality.
2./ AI’s Time Savings Offset by Additional Tasks Created, Study Finds
A recent study analyzing the Danish labor market in 2023 and 2024 found that while generative AI tools like ChatGPT were rapidly adopted in workplaces, their overall impact on employment and wages was minimal. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Copenhagen found that although 64 to 90 percent of workers using AI tools reported saving time, an average productivity gain of only 2.8 percent resulted, largely offset by new tasks created for 8.4 percent of workers, such as reviewing AI-generated content or monitoring students’ AI use. The findings suggest that real-world jobs often include tasks that AI cannot fully automate, limiting immediate productivity gains and economic benefits, although the longer-term implications of AI adoption remain uncertain.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/time-saved-by-ai-offset-by-new-work-created-study-suggests/
3./ Visa Wants to Let AI ‘Agents’ Use Your Credit Card for Automated Shopping
Visa is partnering with major AI developers, including Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, IBM, Stripe, Samsung, and France’s Mistral, to enable AI-powered digital assistants to directly access users’ credit cards, allowing them to autonomously make purchases such as groceries, clothing, or airline tickets based on user preferences and budgets. Visa’s Chief Product Officer, Jack Forestell, said the integration could be as transformative as the advent of e-commerce itself. Pilot projects are beginning now, with broader implementation planned for next year; Visa aims to handle transaction security and disputes, while consumers retain control over spending limits and preferences, opening the door for a new era of AI-driven commerce.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-5dfa1da145689e7951a181e2253ab349
4./ Claude AI Exploited in Global Influence Campaign, Powering Over 100 Fake Political Personas
AI company Anthropic disclosed that unknown actors exploited its Claude chatbot in a sophisticated, financially-motivated “influence-as-a-service” operation involving over 100 fake political personas across Facebook and X. Leveraging Claude not just for content creation but also to orchestrate when accounts interacted with real users, the campaign systematically promoted political narratives favorable to interests in Europe, Iran, UAE, Albania, and Kenya. The operation uniquely employed a structured, scalable framework to mimic authentic human engagement and even responded strategically with humor to avoid detection. Anthropic also reported misuse of Claude for password scraping and malware creation, warning of increased risks as AI continues lowering barriers for malicious actors.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/claude-ai-exploited-to-operate-100-fake.html
5./ Goodbye, ChatGPT-4: AI Model That Sparked a Tech Revolution Retires
OpenAI officially retired ChatGPT-4 today, replacing it with newer models such as o3, o4-mini, and ChatGPT-4.5, ending one of the most groundbreaking two-year innovation periods in AI. Launched in March 2023, ChatGPT-4 transformed AI chatbots from mere information providers into convincingly human-like conversationalists. It introduced groundbreaking features such as image inputs, plug-ins, and integration with the DALL-E image generator, and marked the first consumer-level paid subscription service from OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman acknowledged ChatGPT-4’s legacy, stating it “kicked off a revolution” and promising to preserve its data for historical purposes as OpenAI continues its ambitious journey towards artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Today's Takeaway
These stories underscore just how rapidly AI is reshaping society, often in ways we aren’t fully prepared to handle. The judge’s warning to Meta highlights my deepening concern about AI’s impact on creativity, intellectual property, and the economic livelihoods of creators, making clear we must balance innovation with fairness. Meanwhile, the Danish study feels particularly sobering; it suggests that AI’s productivity gains might be overstated, potentially just creating new, hidden forms of labor. Visa’s move toward AI-driven automated shopping unsettles me most: it risks eroding consumer autonomy and raises troubling questions about privacy, security, and accountability. The misuse of Claude AI for large-scale political manipulation further emphasizes how urgently we need better regulation and oversight to prevent AI from destabilizing democracies. Finally, the retirement of ChatGPT-4 symbolizes how quickly AI evolves, reminding us that without careful management, even positive advancements can trigger unpredictable social disruptions. Collectively, these developments send a clear message: we urgently need thoughtful governance and ethical accountability, or we risk losing control over how AI reshapes our world.
Subscribe to LawDroid Manifesto
LawDroid Manifesto, your authentic source for analysis and news for your legal AI journey. Insightful articles and personal interviews of innovators at the intersection of AI and the law. Best of all, it’s free!
Subscribe today:
By the way, as a LawDroid Manifesto premium subscriber, you would get access to exclusive toolkits, like the Missing Manual: OpenAI Operator; a new toolkit released every month…
With these premium toolkits, you not only learn about the latest AI innovations and news items, but you get the playbook for how to use them to your advantage.
If you want to be at the front of the line to get first access to helpful guides like this, and have the inside track to use AI as a force multiplier in your work, upgrade to become a premium LawDroid Manifesto subscriber today!
I look forward to seeing you on the inside. ;)
Cheers,
Tom Martin
CEO and Founder, LawDroid