Listen : Watch : Read #24
Originally Posted: May 25, 2025 here
🎙️Listen 🎙️
This one is so good, I listened to it twice. From Google to Microsoft, Aparna Chennapragada is the Chief Product Officer at Microsoft sits down with Lenny Rachitsky on his podcast. Loads of great nuggests here, from her own chrome extension to ask her if AI can do what she is about to do, to her comment on 'demo's not memos'. Also the future of user experiences, NLX - (natural language experience), requiring deliberate design principles for conversational interfaces. [57 mins]
📺 Watch 📺
A big week for Google with I/O and some phenomenal announcements. Before this, All-In Podcast David Friedberg sat down with Sundar Pichai Alphabet Inc. Great discussion from Quantum to Constraints and a decade of innovation to free food, the 20% time and coddling employees! The impact and change in culture over time. Recreating the culture of labs and 10 person teams. The Dilema only exists if you treat it as such. [1hr 2mins]
Last week I talked about AI movies - this week Frank Wunderlich does it again with the help of HeyGen. In a week where Google released VEO3, more on that below! [25 seconds]
This one is proper geeky, Inside OpenAI Stargate Megafactory, Emily Chang, Bloomberg Originals takes a tour with Sam Altman around the new huge site in Abeline, Texas. A hugely impressive construction effort and bold ambition together with Oracle and SoftBank Investment Advisers
📚 Read 📚
With Veo3 dropping (hugely impressive), the Internet is having a moment. What's real and whats not! This from James Pero Gizmodo.com gives a good summary of where we are at, just a week on, with some very convincing AI examples!
Amrit Santhirasenan and friends over at hyperexponential released a great study on AI Maturity in the Global Speciality & Commercial Insurance with a particular focus on comparing the UK and US markets and highlighting differences.
Theres an obvious split between UK and US underwriters when it comes to confidence levels in successful AI Implementation. Almost 1 in 5 UK underwriters say they are 'not at all confident' in their organization's ability to deliver, compared to use 1 in 20 US underwriters.
I think this was written for me specifically, procrastination and distraction is a killer, and a challenge with an active mind! Lots in here including from David Allen, famous from getting things done.
“It’s a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on,”
I loved the closing statement, something I learned from Sarah Russell at Google. Enjoy!
You need nuance, persistence, flexibility, firmness, attention to detail—almost a love of the problem. You’ll have to become old friends before you can say goodbye
Thank's to Hélène Stanway for pointing this one out - something we spoke about recently with our own Jacqui Canney, our very own Chief People and AI Enablement Officer. A reminder that amazing AI technology is nothing without enablement and getting our internal and external folks to adopt it. Here, Isabelle Bousquette of the The Wall Street Journal highlight's how Moderna has Merged it's Tech and HR Departments. I expect to see a lot more of this going forward!
Marks and Spencer announced their results this week and highlighted massive losses post their severe cyber attack - estimated to be £300m! The Financial Times talks to being able to claim up to £100m on their Cyber policy with a suggestion of Allianz and Beazley potentially on the hook here. From a consumer perspective, things are still not back to normal (sample size 1 - my wife!)
There is no slow down in market activity, from PE to M&A. This week Acrisure announced a $2.1bn raise from Bain Capital - congrats John Tuttle Mark McIlquham Adrian Jones and all my friends at Acrisure! Exciting times ahead
Sticking with acquisitions, a monster of ones to close out this week, OpenAI is acquiring IO, the firm they helped fund a few years back for $6.5bn. Jonny Ive, the famed British designer of the iPhone. Io has a staff of around just 55 engineers, scientists, researchers, physicists, and product development specialists, per The Wall Street Journal, all of which will join OpenAI. Many of io’s employees are former Apple designers — including Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan — who helped build the firm’s most iconic products. Or as another headline in the The Independent put it - The man who created the iPhone could now kill it. Here’s what’s next
“Thrilled to be partnering with Jony, [in my opinion] the greatest designer in the world,” Sam Altman
👀 Quick bites 👀
Spanish mobile networks go dark - just four weeks after a huge power outage!
Builder.ai collapse exposes dangers of ‘FOMO investing’ in AI
Davies Secures New Credit Facility of £275m - led by Blackstone congrats Dan Saulter Matt Button Mark Grocott and all the team at Davies Group
And thats It! See you next week!