Sometimes AI-generated images are just so perfect people hate them. To avoid the “AI look,” ad firms are going older-school, and using such bygone tech as Photoshop to add in flaws to AI-generated images. The result? Sometimes it takes just as many people to work on an AI campaign as ones that relied on humans in the first place.
One of the barriers to people embracing AI in their daily lives is trust — making sure that the company that built the AI isn’t going to just spill your most sensitive info to advertisers and data brokers.
Google is announcing a new feature called Private AI Compute that takes a page from Apple to help assure users that Google will keep your AI data private.
In June 2024, Apple announced its Private Cloud Compute scheme, which ensures only the user can access data sent to the cloud to enable AI features.
While Apple’s AI tools have yet to fully materialize, Google’s new offering looks a lot like Apple’s. AI models on its phones process data in a secure environment, and when more computing is needed in the cloud, that security is extended to the cloud to be processed by Google’s custom TPU chips.
A press release said: “This ensures sensitive data processed by Private AI Compute remains accessible only to you and no one else, not even Google.”
In June 2024, Apple announced its Private Cloud Compute scheme, which ensures only the user can access data sent to the cloud to enable AI features.
While Apple’s AI tools have yet to fully materialize, Google’s new offering looks a lot like Apple’s. AI models on its phones process data in a secure environment, and when more computing is needed in the cloud, that security is extended to the cloud to be processed by Google’s custom TPU chips.
A press release said: “This ensures sensitive data processed by Private AI Compute remains accessible only to you and no one else, not even Google.”
Amazon says it has 315 million monthly active viewers for its Prime Video ads, according to Deadline, up from 200 million in April 2024. The number comes just a week after Netflix said it had 190 million monthly active viewers.
The self-reported numbers have different methodologies. Netflix counts the number of ad-tier subscribers who’ve watched at least one minute of ads per month and multiplies that by its estimated household size. Amazon’s number represents an unduplicated average monthly active ad-supported audience across its programming from September 2024 through August 2025.
The services themselves also aren’t exactly comparable. Netflix charges $7.99 a month for its ad-supported tier, while Prime Video comes bundled as part of Amazon Prime — and now automatically comes with ads unless consumers pay an extra $2.99 per month to remove them.
Chinese EV maker and Tesla competitor BYD could sell up to 1.6 million vehicles abroad next year, according to a new report by Citi published by Reuters. That’s potentially 60% more than the roughly 1 million vehicles BYD is expected to sell outside China this year. That’s also the same number analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla to sell in total in 2025.
Apple is delaying its next iPhone Air to the spring of 2027, from the fall of 2026, as it potentially rejiggers the model to include a second camera lens, according to The Information. Consumers have largely overlooked Apple’s latest, thinnest phone, choosing instead to buy the standard and Pro models, thanks in part to the Air’s single camera and relatively weak battery life. The preference caused Apple to greatly scale back production for its Air model.
