Digimasters Shorts - Amazon, Apple vs Samsung, Zuckerberg's Meta invests billions in AI, OpenAI unveils o3-pro, NVIDIA partners with EU for sovereign AI

Digimasters Shorts is your quick hit of the latest in the digital world. Hosted by Adam Nagus and Carly Wilson, this podcast keeps you up-to-date on groundbreaking tech developments, from Amazon’s new AI video ad tools to rivalries between tech giants like Apple and Samsung. Tune in as we discuss Meta’s strategic AI investments, OpenAI’s newest reasoning models, and Europe's efforts to build trustworthy, sovereign AI for public media. Whether you’re a digital enthusiast or industry insider, Digimasters Shorts delivers concise, insightful updates to fuel your tech curiosity.

Transcript

Adam N2: 0:05

Welcome to Digimasters Shorts, we are your hosts Adam Nagus

Carly W: 0:09

and Carly Wilson delivering the latest scoop from the digital realm. Amazon has made it easier for sellers to create generative AI video ads with its Video Generator tool, now generally available for free in the U.S. The tool can produce photorealistic video assets in five minutes or less, often with just a single click. New features include motion improvements that showcase products like watches and toys in action, rather than static displays. The Video Generator creates six different video options and allows brands to add their logos. Sellers can now produce ads with multiple scenes featuring humans, pets, text overlays, and background music, with videos running up to 21 seconds. The ads resemble traditional commercials more closely than other AI-generated clips. Additionally, a video summarization feature condenses existing footage into concise ad formats by extracting key moments. There is also a one-click image-to-video tool that creates short, GIF-style clips. With no cost to use and enhanced capabilities, Amazon sellers will likely adopt AI-generated ads widely. This development marks a significant advancement in automated video advertising on e-commerce platforms.

Adam N2: 1:19

At WWDC 2025, Apple introduced iOS 26 featuring Liquid Glass icons, a dynamic Lock Screen, Live Translation, and updated Camera and Gallery apps. Fans showed excitement, but Samsung quickly fired back on social media, mocking Apple's new features as long available on Galaxy devices. Samsung’s official U.S account tweeted sarcastic remarks like,"AI is coming to your watch? Cute," highlighting Galaxy's existing AI capabilities. They also joked about Apple's live translation feature, pointing out Galaxy phones have supported real-time translation for some time. Tweets emphasized familiar design elements, suggesting Apple’s Liquid Glass look resembled Samsung's One UI 7. This banter underscores the ongoing rivalry where Apple faces accusations of adopting Android features. Samsung’s playful criticism aims to position its devices as innovators rather than followers. The competition continues as both brands push premium, user-friendly technology. Such tech rivalries and digs are common in the smartphone industry. These exchanges keep the market dynamic and fans entertained. Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly willing to invest billions to persuade Scale AI C.E.O Alexandr Wang to join Meta, underscoring his frustration with the company's AI progress. Meta is finalizing a$14 billion investment in Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake in the data labeling startup, which supports major players like Open A.I, Google, and Microsoft. Rather than acquiring Scale outright, Meta follows rivals like Google and Microsoft by taking significant equity stakes to avoid regulatory backlash amid antitrust scrutiny. Wang, respected for both technical expertise and business acumen, is expected to lead a new AI research lab at Meta, joined by his colleagues from Scale. Scale AI has expanded into defense contracts, collaborating with Meta on Defense Llama, a specialized AI model for national security. Zuckerberg has shifted focus away from Meta's Fundamental AI Research unit toward the more product-focused Gen AI team following lukewarm reception of Llama 4 models. Meta postponed releasing its larger"Behemoth" model amid concerns it lagged behind competitors like Open A.I and DeepSeek. The restructuring of Meta’s Gen AI unit saw leadership changes perceived as a loss of confidence by Zuckerberg in some internal leaders. Wang's experience with AI competition between the U.S. and China aligns with Zuckerberg's view of an ongoing“AI war,” emphasizing the need for immense computational power. This strategic move signals Zuckerberg’s willingness to bring in outside talent to regain AI leadership amid intensifying global competition.

Carly W: 3:58

Open A.I has launched o3-pro, an advanced reasoning model designed to solve problems step by step in fields like physics, math, and coding. This new model replaces the o1-pro for Chat G.P.T Pro and Team users starting today, with Enterprise and Education users gaining access next week. O3-pro is also now available via Open A.I’s developer API, priced at$20 per million input tokens and$80 per million output tokens. Expert evaluations show o3-pro outperforms its predecessor in clarity, comprehensiveness, accuracy, and instruction-following across science, education, programming, business, and writing tasks. The model has access to various tools, including web search, file analysis, visual reasoning, Python use, and personalized responses through memory. However, it takes longer to generate responses compared to o1-pro and currently does not support temporary chats, image generation, or Open A.I’s Canvas feature. O3-pro has demonstrated superior performance in internal benchmark tests, outperforming Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro on a math test and beating Anthropic’s Claude 4 Opus in a PhD-level science exam. Open A.I highlights the model’s robust capabilities despite some current limitations while promising ongoing improvements. This launch marks a significant step forward in AI reasoning technology for professional and educational users. NVIDIA and the European Broadcasting Union(EBU) have announced a partnership to advance sovereign AI for European public service media. This collaboration aims to provide access to trusted cloud and AI technologies governed by European policies and values. Sovereign AI development will allow European countries to maintain cultural identity and enhance public trust by using local infrastructure and data. The project includes creating hybrid cloud architectures, leveraging the EBU's Dynamic Media Facility and Media eXchange Layer for scalable and efficient AI workflows. Tools developed will enable personalized media services with a focus on transparency and accountability. NVIDIA will support workforce development through its Deep Learning Institute, offering comprehensive AI training for media professionals. Investments will also be made in European data centers and advanced hardware to ensure secure and efficient AI training. Collaboration extends to software vendors and cloud providers to establish unified standards for sovereign AI. The initiative will facilitate dialogue with regulators to create practical, beneficial AI solutions. Leaders emphasize that this cross-industry partnership will foster trust, innovation, and resilience in the European media landscape.

Don: 6:36

Thank you for listening to today's AI and Tech News podcast summary... Please do leave us a comment and for additional feedback, please email us at podcast@digimasters.co.uk You can now follow us on Instagram and Threads by searching for@DigimastersShorts or Search for Digimasters on Linkedin. Be sure to tune in tomorrow and don't forget to follow or subscribe!