S1. Ep15 - AI Automation News: OpenAI Acquisition and Claude Updates

Katie: Welcome to the AI Automations for Business Podcasts. We're your hosts, Katie and Null, and we'll be discussing how you can use AI for your business along with the latest news, updates and automations to help you stay ahead of the curve, allowing you to grow and scale your business more efficiently. Please be sure to subscribe

Noel: and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Katie: Hello and welcome back to another episode. I'm Katie and I've also got Noel here with me.

Noel: Hello.

Katie: How are you doing?

Noel: Excellent, as always.

Katie: Good, good, good. So in this episode, we are going to be going through some of the newest update. So as we're recording this, it's the 27th of May 2025. And there's been big announcements from Open AI and from Anthropic. So that's what we're going to be talking about in today's podcast episode. So let's start with Open AI. So they have just brought in Johnny Ive, who is the guy who designed the iPad and was an iPod as well.

Noel: He designed so many iconic Apple devices. So he started out doing the first IMac, which had the coloured back to it.

Katie: Obsessed with that. Obsessed. Literally, I was so desperate to have one. Like, and I never got one. And I just really wanted. them to bring out that design again so I can have one.

Noel: Yeah. So yeah, that was that was his first big hit. Clearly you like that one.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: Then he moved on. He did the first iPod.

Katie: Uh-huh.

Noel: And then the big one would be the first ever iPhone. So that was all his work as well as the first MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air, sorry, the first ever iPad, the first ever Apple Watch. So, yeah, Yeah, he knows a thing or two about designing a good product. Yeah.

Katie: So Open A, I have bought Love From, which is Johnny Ives company, for $6.8 billion US dollars.

Noel: Massive.

Katie: That's a lot of money. So they're obviously bringing in Johnny for something quite exciting, don't you think? What are your thoughts on it, Noel? Like, what did you want to discuss about this?

Noel: So they released a video last week on Open AI's YouTube to announce this purchase. And basically it was just those two, Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI and Johnny Ive sat having a coffee. You know, so it was really informal. They didn't give anything away. So they were talking about like their relationship, how they sort of talking to each other and what's led up to this point of buying love from.

Katie: So how did they start talking about? to one another. So for those who haven't watched the video, like, give us some of the, like, brief, like, cliff notes, as it were.

Noel: Well, I think from what I recall, they met through, like, like a mutual friend. So Johnny is, he's born in the UK, now lives in San Diego. So, yeah, they kind of met through, like, a common circle, got chatting and they were, like, bashing that we get on really well. And that's been, like, for years. And then, you know, it's kind of, like, built up to this point. And obviously, Sam has gone and thought, Well, we could do with a few products.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: I know a guy and I've got a few quid to spend.

Katie: And can we just like pause for a second and just kind of like clarify and reiterate how important networking is when you are wanting to be in a business, whether, you know, you're, you know, a tiny fish in the sea or, you know, you want to take over the world. like whatever your ambitions or plans are networking is so important because you never know who you might be introduced to and I have found this within business and you know I've been able to help other people be like oh my goodness you need to go and talk to so and so like you two would be great together or you know go and talk to this person they might be able to help you with, you know, some ideals or, you know, be able to help you get your foot in the door or something like that. So, yeah, networking is so, so important. And I don't think a lot of people realize, like, how powerful that can be.

Noel: Yeah, it's huge, isn't it? Because even last week for me on LinkedIn, somebody was like, I'm looking to build AI agents. And they work for like a multi-million pound, you know, consultancy that I would never have thought to have talked to. too, but I've been connected with this guy for 10 years, and then now I'm like, ah, I could do that, you know, and then we're reconnected from there. So yeah, it's very powerful. Yeah. Okay.

Katie: So what else was said within that video, no?

Noel: So not a great deal. Other than they are planning to revolutionise how we integrate with AI as humans, which is a little scary. What I find, like, we're operating with AI currently, like we do with, like, ChatGPT or any similar app. So the speed in which we can type, kind of, that's the limitation. So if I can type faster than you, then I'm always going to get the response quicker. So if you're not saying you're a two-finger warrior on a keyboard, far from it.

Katie: I think if anyone's the better typist, it's me.

Noel: Thank you.

Katie: Thank you very much. I just like to point that out.

Noel: Yeah.

Katie: There's not many things that I can win with you when it comes to computers and technology. Touch type in there. Yeah, definitely.

Noel: I just had to have

Katie: that win.

Noel: You did, yeah. I'll let you off that one. Just that one.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: In tech. But that's kind of the limiting factor. And if you can't type very quick, then using AI tools can probably be quite frustrating. Whereas, like, speaking to something is kind of easier. And I know they've rolled that sort of thing out within Open AI and other platforms so you can just talk to it. But I think that's probably the line they'll go down. So something that will sit there and listen to you and then interact with you. I think that would be the first thing because that's an easy consumer product to start with.

Katie: But then none of us knew what Apple we're going to bring out to begin with.

Noel: You know,

Katie: just thinking back, like, I had an iPad nano. I mean, I've still got it somewhere. It's like a, you know, I had the green colour.

Noel: You know,

Katie: and to go from someone who grew up having a walkman and then a discman, a disman that you couldn't even fit in your pocket, can I just add? And like, if you had your discman on and you had, like, managed to have it somewhere where you could then also ride your bike, you couldn't go over any bumps. because your CD would skip. So to then go to like an iPod, an iPod, an iPod Nano, was just like mind-blown. Like there was no way that when I was cycling along with my disc moon, to think one day, you know, I'm going to have this really small device, you know, that actually fits my pocket. You know, and be able to listen to music. And then, you know, we've even kind of. come a long way since those days. So I don't think really any of us are probably quite prepared for what Sam Altman and Johnny Ives are going to create together.

Noel: Yeah, it's going to be interesting. But they did mention it would come out next year. So they would announce more next year, whether or not they release it. It's another thing. Hopefully it's not an Elon Musk brain implant. I'm not into that.

Katie: Yeah. We're hoping it's going to be along the line. of, you know, what Apple brought out, it's the watch, it's the phone, it's the iPad.

Noel: Yes, hopefully.

Katie: The iPod.

Noel: Yeah, because there's no tech support if your brain implant goes wrong and then all of a sudden I just speak French full time.

Katie: I mean, I have been trying to learn French for absolute years, so I mean, that would be quite handy.

Noel: Yeah, but there's no tech support in the world that can reprogram a human brain if you break it. So, yeah. No, we're not ready for that.

Katie: Not that, you know, now Dr. Eric Shepard from Grey's Anatomy is being killed off. Do you know what I mean?

Noel: No, no, definitely not.

Katie: Amelia Shepard's just not up to, up to it, do you know what I mean?

Noel: Was it Drake Ramora? From friends? Yeah, yeah. Neurosurgeon. Oh, excellent. Those guys.

Katie: Amazing. Okay, so that's really exciting, isn't it? And I'm really looking forward to seeing what those two create together.

Noel: Yeah, I think people like Apple might be a bit worried.

Katie: Yeah, yeah, I think I probably would be if I was Apple.

Noel: Yeah.

Katie: Okay, so then the other big thing that was talked about last week was the release of Claude for opus and for Sonnet. So, Noel. Yeah.

Noel: What could you tell

Katie: us about that?

Noel: I mean, last week was a C of new AI models and products. Google had a massive event as well. So we are going to skirt over that because I looked at their blog post and it was like, here's a summary of 100 things we released. And it's like, I haven't got time to

Katie: go through and

Noel: test all of that and talk about it.

Katie: But the one that have. Not this week. Not this week.

Noel: Oh, good. No, definitely not. But one thing I have used a lot since it was released is the new Claude models and they are excellent. I have to say, C.S. they're not that expensive, but they're incredibly powerful when it comes to writing creative content. So I'd say they easily beat any open AI model for that currently. Obviously, that could all change this week. I'm sure it probably will. But yeah, it's also really good at understanding instructions as well. So if we plug that into like an AI agent, you know, it's far, far better. But what I'm finding is like the content side is brilliant. You know, I give it a brand voice and it understands it, which is what you want, really.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: Whereas sometimes opening, I can be, with their models, it's a bit hit and miss.

Katie: Yeah, I find you've got a reminder quite a few times. It always says like it's updated the memory and then it spits out something and then you're like, like, if I've forgotten to like say, this must be using my brand voice and my tone of voice, like I have to like it then spits like something and I'm like, God's sake.

Noel: Yeah, it's hard, isn't it? Yeah. Because I have a project in chat GPT with the brand voice for make automations and all that sort of stuff's all in there. So I can like have a chat and come up with ideas and stuff like for content or whatever. And even that was getting a bit trying. But I put that straight into Claude's projects, the same two files and said, right, create me some post ideas. And straight away, I was reading through it and I was like, yeah, I would have written that. Yeah, I would have written that as well. you know, it's like really, really good, how that all works. And yeah, I wouldn't say it breaks the bank either with the pricing. So if you were using it in an automation, obviously price is one thing you need to watch out for. But yeah, I would say, well, Sonnet is the same price as 3.7 Sonnet with the previous model. So that hasn't, you've got like a better model for the exact same price. And you can't argue with that.

Katie: No.

Noel: Opus for, yeah, Open AI has. have some really horrible model names and they're really hard to follow. Whereas Anthropic make it quite easy. So like Opus is their, you know, their flagship model. It's always going to be the best. And they skip that for three. So all of the three releases, they didn't bother with an opus. And I was like, well, where is it? And now it's arrived. It's really good.

Katie: Yeah, they were busy working on for.

Noel: Yeah. Yeah, they thought, I will park that. Whereas, yeah, people like Open AI, they release GPT 4.5 and then two weeks later it released 4.1 and then retire 4.5. It's like, I don't know what it means. Yeah. Okay.

Katie: That release is, so it's much better at copywriting.

Noel: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Katie: Following and creating instructions.

Noel: Yes. Great for agents.

Katie: Great for using with AI agents, anything else, Noel, to summarize that one? I mean,

Noel: if you're anyone that's interested in coding, these models are also excellent at that. And that's all they really focus on. So it's quite hard for me to like, go, well, what can I use it for? Because I don't really care about how good it is at Python.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: I'm not doing any software work. So yeah, yeah, they're excellent at coding. So if you ever get stuck with that, then yeah. Anthropics are the way forward and clawing. Amazing.

Katie: Well, those were the two biggest updates that we wanted to share with you this week. If anyone's got any questions that they would like us to answer on the podcast, then just let us know you can find us in our LinkedIn group, which is AI Automation's business. And yes, we're in there. So feel free to just come in and pop in a question. And yes, it's free and it's open to anyone who is interested in AI in AI Automations. business. So thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, please give it a like or leave a review. That really, really helps us. And if you feel like you've got a friend that would enjoy listening as well, please share the link with them. We would appreciate it so much. And we will catch you next time for another episode very soon.