According to METR, AI might reach "month-long human task" capabilities by 2029, but right now it only gets things right about half the time—and that’s in clean, scoped test environments, not the messy, high-stakes reality of real work. 

Cool demos aside, mistaking that for full job replacement isn’t a forecast—it’s fiction.

So… who’s actually doing something interesting with AI right now?

📈 How are companies using AI?

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➜ Google’s Ad Purge. Google used AI to block over 500 million scammy ads in 2024. That’s half a billion fewer fake crypto giveaways, miracle weight-loss pills, and “you won a free iPhone!” spam. Bless. 

Finextra

➜ AI-Powered Pay Later. Alipay dropped an MCP Server to help AI agents initiate payments. It’s infrastructure-level stuff—but critical if we’re heading toward a future where bots buy things on your behalf. 

FF News

➜ The AI Glow-Up.  L’Oréal’s is teaming up with Google to roll out generative AI tools for marketing content. Think: AI-generated copy, visuals, and product pages. Beauty meets bandwidth. 

Retail Dive

➜ Finance Gets Smarter. Xceptor and OnCorps AI joined forces to bring next-gen automation to financial ops. It’s all about reducing manual processes, flagging errors, and—yes—saving a ton of cash. 

Financial IT

➜ What’s On TV? Netflix is testing AI-powered search on iOS using OpenAI tech. Imagine asking “that show with the blind assassin and the neon panda” and actually finding it. We’re listening.  

The Verge

💡 What are the nerds up to?

➜ The Smart Investor. Investing.com launched a financial research tool powered by AI. It’s called WarrenAI (yes, really)—and it can dig through market data and spit out analysis like a caffeinated Wall Street intern. 

Rochester First

➜ AI Builder Mode Activated. Figma is testing an AI app and site builder. You describe it. It designs it. Developers and designers: rejoice (or panic). 

The Verge

➜ Image Processing Enhanced. Midjourney’s latest update brings better realism, hands, and multi-subject control. Translation: fewer cursed fingers, more photo-quality magic. 

X

➜ Fighting Fire with Data. Wikimedia Foundation has partnered with Kaggle to release a structured, machine-readable dataset tailored for AI training. A cleaner, more efficient alternative to scraping, reducing server load and ensuring the sustainability of the platform.

New Scientist

➜ AI to Replace… Everyone? An AI researcher launched a startup with a modest mission: replace all human workers. Not exactly subtle—but the company’s already getting attention (and side-eyes). 

TechCrunch

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