Daily News: May 29, 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./ New York Times and Amazon Reach Landmark AI Licensing Agreement
The New York Times announced a multiyear licensing agreement with Amazon, granting the tech giant rights to use its editorial content, including news articles, NYT Cooking recipes, and sports coverage from The Athletic, across Amazon’s artificial intelligence platforms. This deal marks a significant shift for The Times, coming just two years after it sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement related to AI training data. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien emphasized the arrangement aligns with the company's commitment to valuing high-quality journalism, while Amazon plans to leverage the content to enhance its AI products and services, potentially including Alexa and AI model training.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/business/media/new-york-times-amazon-ai-licensing.html
2./ DeepSeek Releases Compact R1 AI Model That Runs Efficiently on a Single GPU
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek unveiled a smaller, "distilled" version of its advanced R1 reasoning model, named DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B. Built upon Alibaba’s Qwen3-8B, this compact model outperforms Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash in mathematical reasoning tests and closely competes with Microsoft's Phi 4 on rigorous benchmarks. Unlike its full-sized counterpart, which requires multiple powerful GPUs, the distilled DeepSeek model can run efficiently on a single GPU, significantly reducing computing demands and making it appealing for both academic research and commercial deployment.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/29/deepseeks-distilled-new-r1-ai-model-can-run-on-a-single-gpu/
3./ Meta AI Hits 1 Billion Monthly Users, Eyes Paid Subscription Expansion
Meta AI now reaches one billion monthly active users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Doubling from 500 million users since September 2024, Meta aims to deepen user engagement by enhancing personalization, voice interactions, and entertainment features. Zuckerberg hinted at future monetization possibilities, including paid recommendations or subscription-based services, setting the stage for Meta AI to directly compete with popular AI chat platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The milestone follows the recent launch of a dedicated Meta AI app.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/29/meta-ai-now-has-1b-monthly-active-users/
4./ Nvidia and AMD to Launch New AI Chips in China Amid US Export Restrictions
To comply with U.S. semiconductor export restrictions, Nvidia and AMD are preparing to introduce specialized AI chips for the Chinese market. Nvidia will sell a simplified GPU code-named "B20," while AMD will offer its Radeon AI PRO R9700 workstation GPU, with sales expected to begin in July. Nvidia, recently facing a $4.5 billion revenue charge from restricted AI chip exports, anticipates an additional $8 billion impact next quarter, prompting the introduction of these budget-friendly alternatives priced below existing offerings.
5./ Salesforce Cuts Engineering and Service Jobs as AI Boosts Productivity
Salesforce has revealed it is hiring fewer software engineers and customer service employees due to improved productivity from artificial intelligence, according to CFO Robin Washington. As AI assistants streamline internal processes, the company plans reduced hiring in technical roles, though it continues expanding its sales team by 22% this year. Salesforce’s shift highlights a broader trend where major tech firms, including Microsoft and Alphabet, increasingly rely on AI for coding and operational tasks.
Today's Takeaway
Today’s headlines confirm we're rapidly crossing from speculative promises about AI to tangible economic disruption. The New York Times' deal with Amazon signals a pragmatic shift by publishers from litigation to monetization, likely setting a precedent that reshapes how content creators engage with Big Tech's growing AI empires. Meanwhile, DeepSeek's efficient single-GPU model underscores a democratizing trend, where powerful AI tools become increasingly accessible, but also tougher to regulate. Meta hitting a billion users hints at a looming subscription-driven battleground where AI's enormous user base becomes the new digital goldmine, further cementing Big Tech’s power. Nvidia and AMD’s China-specific AI chips reveal how geopolitical forces are reshaping the tech landscape, forcing companies into creative compliance that skirts tightening export controls. Finally, Salesforce openly cutting jobs due to AI-driven productivity gains marks a watershed moment: automation-driven layoffs are no longer theoretical but here, accelerating industry-wide displacement. Collectively, these developments signal the arrival of a new economic reality: one where AI reshapes markets, employment, geopolitics, and culture at breathtaking speed.
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