AI & Tech This Week: Insights from Sedgemoor Business Expo and Major Industry Developments
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This week was a busy and exciting one for me in the world of AI and technology — both locally at the Sedgemoor Business Expo, where I had the pleasure of offering free 15-minute one-to-one sessions for businesses on tech, automation, and AI, and globally with some major announcements and shifts shaping the future of our industry.
Sedgemoor Business Expo: Meeting Local Businesses Face-to-Face
It was really nice to meet so many businesses face-to-face at the Expo, hearing their questions about technology, automation, and AI. These free 15-minute sessions gave business owners a chance to talk directly about their tech challenges, and hopefully I was able to point them in the right direction for making their operations more efficient.
I also took part in a panel discussion with Digital Somerset — where I’m a board member — alongside other experts. We tackled a wide range of questions about digital transformation and how local businesses can prepare for an increasingly tech-driven world. Staying informed and adaptable really is key, though it’s not always easy to keep up with everything changing so fast.
Major AI & Tech Developments This Week — What Caught My Eye
While working locally, some landmark events unfolded globally that are worth unpacking if you want to stay ahead in this fast-moving AI landscape.
1. The Longest ChatGPT Outage Yet — Nearly 10 Hours
Tuesday saw the longest and most significant ChatGPT outage to date. It wasn’t completely offline, but several key AI models were unavailable for almost 10 hours during critical UK business hours.
We were running a class on how to use ChatGPT at the time, so it was quite the challenge. Luckily, the GPT 4.1 mini model and some other tools still worked well enough for us to muscle on through. This outage really highlighted how much demand there is on AI infrastructure, and it raises questions about system resilience as AI scales.
2. OpenWeights Release Delayed After a Major Discovery
On Wednesday, Sam Altman shared that the much-anticipated OpenWeights — an open-source version of ChatGPT designed to run locally — would be delayed. This is a disappointment to many developers eager to have local control, but the reason is intriguing: OpenAI apparently stumbled on a significant breakthrough that could reshape AI development and deployment.
Could this be linked to Tuesday’s outage? Maybe the experiments required more compute than expected. Either way, it’s a development to watch closely.
3. Quantum Computing Is Closer Than We Thought
Also on Wednesday, NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang did a complete about-turn from his statement in January. After recent breakthroughs, he now believes quantum computing is poised to solve complex problems within two years. He described this as reaching an inflection point — a real change that could revolutionise computing and AI as we know it.
Quantum computing is complicated, and we don’t know the full details of what he’s seen, but it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
4. Sam Altman’s The Gentle Singularity — Have We Crossed the Event Horizon?
Wednesday evening also saw Sam Altman publish a rare blog post titled The Gentle Singularity. He proposed that humanity might already have crossed the technological “event horizon” — a tipping point where AI’s intelligence growth accelerates beyond human understanding or control.
Read Sam Altman’s Blog Post Here
Now, I don’t think we’re at a point of fully autonomous AI breakthroughs yet. We use AI all the time, and it’s a fantastic tool that makes smart people even smarter — but it’s fallible and still needs human guidance.
In fact, a recent Apple AI paper showed that AI’s reasoning isn’t really intelligence; it’s a series of programmed operations. Break those parameters, and AI doesn’t really know what to do. This underlines why human oversight remains crucial.
5. OpenAI Teams Up with Google Cloud — Rivals Collaborate
In a surprising move, OpenAI announced a partnership with Google Cloud to access their massive computing resources. Despite being competitors, the scale of AI’s demand is pushing companies to collaborate.
Is this a response to Tuesday’s outage and capacity issues? Possibly. Either way, it shows how big AI’s infrastructure needs have become.
6. New AI Model Release: o3-Pro
OpenAI also launched o3-Pro, their most advanced reasoning model so far, offering Pro and Enterprise users improved performance on complex tasks. It’s a reminder that AI models are constantly evolving to become smarter and more reliable.
7. Perplexity AI Levels Up Meeting Intelligence
If you haven’t tried Perplexity AI yet, go and give it a whirl — I guarantee you won’t search the internet the same way again.
They’ve recently partnered with Fireflies.ai, a tool that can silently join your Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet calls to transcribe and capture meetings. Now, with Perplexity involved, you can actively ask Fireflies questions during meetings — like, “Hey, what did we decide 20 minutes ago?” — and it will respond. Imagine having an AI teammate summarising your calls in real time.
Plus, Perplexity introduced Tasks — letting you schedule research prompts or automate repetitive queries, freeing you from manual searching.
8. Manus AI Adds Chat Mode
Manus AI, a powerful agent that can handle big projects like building websites or apps, now offers a chat mode. This lets you interact naturally with the AI, boosting productivity and making complex AI tools easier to use.
9. Runway AI Introduces Chat Mode for Creative Control
Runway AI, popular for video and image generation, has added chat mode. Instead of submitting a prompt and waiting for the result, you can now talk to the AI to tweak and adjust outputs on the fly. For creators, this is a game changer in dynamic control over AI-generated media.
10. AI Hardware Gets Much More Efficient
Behind all this, new AI-specific chips and hardware are dramatically reducing energy use compared to older machines. This focus on efficiency is crucial to making AI sustainable and scalable as it grows.
What This Means for You and Your Business
The pace of AI and tech development is relentless, and businesses that don’t keep up risk falling behind. Whether that’s understanding how outages might affect your operations, exploring cool tools like Perplexity, or just staying aware of big shifts like quantum computing, knowledge is your best asset.
Events like the Sedgemoor Business Expo and ongoing learning opportunities give us chances to prepare and leverage these technologies responsibly and effectively.
If you want to dive deeper into any of these topics or explore practical ways to apply AI and automation to your business, feel free to reach out or follow my blog for regular updates. Trying to keep on top of AI is almost a full-time job, but hopefully this helps keep you informed and ready for what’s next.
That wraps up this week’s AI and tech roundup. I’ll speak to you soon!