Thought #36 - From Local Data to Global Drama

Hi lovely humans,

A week that felt both futuristic and faintly familiar. OpenAI has struck deals with the UK government and PayPal, launched knowledge databases, and reorganised its own structure - all while ChatGPT officially lands in Slack. Microsoft, meanwhile, is giving its AI assistant a face (yes, really). Elsewhere, regulators, researchers, and even the NHS are testing what AI can do - and what it might be distorting.

With Amazon replacing 14,000 jobs through automation and a BBC study showing AI assistants often distort the news, it’s been a week that highlights both the reach and the risks of relying on these systems.

A cheeky little ask from me (again - final day 29th October) - if you haven’t already (and massive thanks to those who have),

Could you vote for Taught by Humans please? We’ve been shortlisted for the Rising Star as part of the SETsquared Partnership Community Awards.

Our Week in AI

Website Rejigging

We have a new shiny homepage – www.taughtbyhumans.com
And I will say, Claude was very helpful.

I was able to screenshot other website sections I liked, and say, “Can we have something like this for Taught by Humans?” - then provided all the detail.

There was still a lot of back and forth to get it right, but even sending screenshots of what didn’t quite look right really seemed to speed things up.

Sort of Helpful Grant Writing

We applied for one of the CivTech challenges - which means writing a lot of 250–1,000 word answers (not my strong suit). I will say ChatGPT (using our Taught by Humans projects, with all our info and other applications) did a good job drafting the answers for me.

Although Carys did find a spelling mistake: bit-sized instead of bite-sized, which definitely wasn’t me (maybe it was making a pun?).

But my biggest gripe was the word counts, which these AI tools just don’t get:

ChatGPT: “Here is your 998-word answer.”
L: “That’s 443 words…”

AI New Releases

OpenAI introduces company knowledge databases - A new feature allowing organisations to centralise internal information directly in ChatGPT, turning it into a searchable, conversational knowledge base. A smart move though it might raise a few data management eyebrows (but potentially better than everyone uploading random files).

ChatGPT officially lands in Slack - Slack users can now use ChatGPT directly within their workspace for summarising conversations, drafting replies, and pulling context from channels. A big step towards AI woven into daily workflows.

Microsoft introduces “Mico” a new Clippy with a face - Microsoft’s new AI assistant, Mico, combines Copilot’s capabilities with a personality and facial expression interface. Opinions so far range from “delightfully nostalgic” to “deeply unnecessary.”

Claude adds live financial data - Anthropic’s new partnership brings real-time Moody’s data into Claude for Excel, positioning it as a serious contender for financial analysis.

Google launches “vibe coding” in AI Studio - A new collaborative feature designed to make prompt and model building feel more creative and team-driven less code, more conversation.

AI News

Education

Cambridge University’s “Prompt the Future” report - Calls for education that develops the whole person, builds change collaboratively, and empowers teachers as agents of change.

Business & Economy

OpenAI and PayPal team up for instant checkout and agentic commerce - Users will soon be able to make payments directly within ChatGPT — a major move towards AI-driven transactions.

OpenAI simplifies its corporate structure - The non-profit now directly controls the for-profit entity, giving it a clearer line to resources while keeping the “benefit everyone” mission intact.

NVIDIA invests $1 billion in Nokia - A strategic chip move, as NVIDIA strengthens its European hardware base.

Amazon to lay off 14,000 workers - The company says the roles will be “replaced by AI” to improve efficiency — reigniting debate about automation and employment.

Ex-Intel boss launches Christian AI project - Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s new venture aims to use AI to promote Christian values and community engagement.

Government & Policy

OpenAI expands UK data hosting - A deal with the Ministry of Justice will allow data to be stored locally for the first time, potentially saving 240,000 staff days a year through automation.

UK Government launches AI Growth Lab call for evidence - The Lab aims to help organisations deploy AI-enabled products responsibly across the economy.

Turing Institute launches new science and innovation programme - Focused on AI for security and defence resilience, reinforcing the UK’s ambitions to lead in “trustworthy AI.”

Health & Society

NHS to offer same-day prostate cancer diagnosis using AI - A practical use case: the AI system could cut diagnosis times from weeks to hours.

BBC study finds AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time - Alongside a new News Integrity Toolkit, it’s a reminder that even the smartest systems struggle with nuance.

Not Quite News, But Worth a Read (or Listen or Watch)

• Bill Gates reflects on AI’s risks and rewards - Gates warns of bubbles and job disruption, while still calling AI “the biggest technical thing of my lifetime.”

• 48 Hours Without AI - New York Times experiment - A slightly absurd but revealing piece on how deeply these systems have crept into daily life.

LinkedIn AI Poll

This week’s poll

With OpenAI launching their company knowledge database in ChatGPT, we’re back on our data privacy questioning - are you happy with OpenAI having that much data on your company?

Final Thoughts

As always we hope this was helpful!

Feel free to share this with anyone who might find it useful.

Next week, here’s to a calmer one with some more human use cases of AI.

Laura
Always learning