OpenAI, Perplexity, and Grok

In this edition: some of the top news stories from the last month related to AI!

This is Q&AI, our blog series aimed at keeping you in the know on updates in the rapidly evolving world of AI. Sometimes, these will be quick updates on new developments in the field. Sometimes, they’ll be tips on tactics, features, or functionality.

If you haven’t met me yet, hi: I’m Jen Taylor, CI’s Director of AI Strategy & Implementation, and your (very human) AI BFF. AI is moving at the speed of light, so I’m here to let you know what matters most now. Have tactical questions for me? Ask in real time during my Intro to AI webinar on August 20!

Q: Aside from “America’s AI Action Plan,” what are some of the top news stories from the last month related to AI?

A: There is always so much! But these are the ones that stood out to me enough to share with my colleagues in Slack:

EDUCATION

Reported on July 9: Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic invested $23M in AI teacher training through the American Federation of Teachers. This validates CI’s commitment to training the arts sector on how to use these new tools!

THE INTERNET’S FRONT DOOR

Early July, Perplexity widely rolled out its first browser, Comet.

Late July, Microsoft added competition. They released Copilot mode for Edge. This tool is currently free for a limited time, but the expectation is that it may shift into a paid/subscription tier. So far, it looks like this will include complex searching (ex: find a place to paddle-board near work that has afternoon rentals), moving through pages (ex: skip the story about the recipe and take me right to the recipe), moving through video (ex: go back to that section of the video about how to add images), searching multiple tabs (ex: tell me which of these hotels, each open in a separate tab, is walking distance from the beach), and picking up where you left off (ex: choose from past searches, starting with a history overview).

Chrome has been a clear winner as the browser of choice for years now, but it will be interesting to see if these agentic tools can break into the market. This could change how we engage and take action on the web, and ultimately it could impact buyer journeys for all arts and culture organizations.

OpenAI is rumored to be working on its own browser, too.

MODELS

On July 9, Grok came out with their new model (Grok 4). Technically, it sounds like a very impressive model looking at benchmark performance. But I still can’t quite stomach the tool given its leadership and lack of guardrails. Leading up to the release, Musk was concerned the model was too ‘woke,’ in addition to some antisemitic incidents.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK,
Jen

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