TPTL #7 — Your Monthly Insights on Tech, AI & LLMs — May 2025
Hi there,
Welcome to the 7th edition of the Pragmatic Tech Leader newsletter (TPTL)!
Let’s jump into our key topics for this edition!
- OpenAI Confirms its Ambitions on AGI (and stays Non-profit)
- Waymo Teams Up with Toyota on Self-Driving Cars
- Meta (finally) Debuts a Standalone “Meta AI” App Built on Llama 4
- The US Pushes for AI Education Nationwide
- and The Debate on AI Job Loss Continues!
OpenAI Reaffirms AGI Ambitions and Goes PBC
OpenAI is doubling down on its commitment to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) while restructuring its for-profit entity into a . Originally founded as a nonprofit, OpenAI will remain nonprofit-controlled, despite previous back and forth on the question.
OpenAI is looking into more effectively securing substantial resources needed for scaling AGI systems globally. Moreover, OpenAI hints at plans to open-source advanced models to democratize access further. No timeline on this was shared though.
OpenAI’s vision, as Sam Altman shared, remains providing accessible, powerful AI tools to enable creativity and productivity worldwide, ensuring AGI’s benefits are broadly shared. A good vision on paper. Practicalities on the ground might be trickier.
Waymo Teams Up with Toyota on Self-Driving Cars
Alphabet’s Waymo and Toyota a strategic partnership focused on integrating autonomous driving technology into personal vehicles. This collaboration aims to leverage Waymo’s self-driving expertise with Toyota’s automotive capabilities, accelerating the development of consumer-ready autonomous tech.
Waymo indicated potential integration of Toyota vehicles into Waymo’s existing ride-hailing services, reflecting a broader industry shift towards personally-owned autonomous vehicles. This main shift I see here, is Waymo’s evolving strategy from solely offering fleets (hardware, powered by Software) to potentially becoming a leading software provider in autonomous driving technology.
As autonomous tech competition intensifies, partnerships like Waymo-Toyota highlight the ongoing shift toward broader consumer adoption and personal vehicle autonomy.
However, Waymo is not neither slowing down on its hardware (cars) production, as they announced a new production facility in Arizona to scale up their production.
Meta Unveils Llama-powered Competitor to ChatGPT
Meta (finally) launched a standalone AI app powered by its open-source Llama 4 model, directly challenging OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The “Meta AI” app combines chatbot functionalities with social-media-inspired interactions, featuring a “Discover” feed showcasing AI conversations, and voice interaction capabilities.
Zuckerberg highlighted this strategic launch at Meta’s LlamaCon, emphasizing AI’s transformative potential. Using AI coupled with social media context, Meta hopes to differentiate itself from existing competitors.
The US Pushes for AI Education Nationwide
In a significant step toward national AI readiness, the aimed at fostering AI proficiency from K-12 (primary and secondary school) through higher education. This includes establishing an AI Education Task Force and launching a Presidential AI Challenge designed to engage educators and students across multiple age groups and geographic regions.
The initiative prioritizes educator training, student exposure to AI fundamentals, and public-private partnerships to develop AI literacy. The US government sees this extensive AI-focused educational infrastructure as vital for maintaining global technological leadership and preparing a competent future workforce.
This ambitious initiative reflects a clear governmental priority: ensuring America’s youth and workforce are well-equipped for an increasingly AI-driven world.
Still to see what this will look like on the ground, yet from my perspective, this is exactly the needed initiatives to prepare for the AI disruptive possible effects — and this makes a great transition to the next section here!
AI Job Loss: Reality or Exaggeration?
The debate over AI’s impact on jobs continues. it will phase out contractors, transitioning to “AI-first” workflows. Their CEO emphasized that adopting AI is necessary to scale efficiently, suggesting AI enables employees to focus on creative rather than repetitive tasks.
However, recent economic analyses challenge popular fears about job displacement. A found minimal impact on wages or employment from generative AI adoption, suggesting actual productivity gains remain marginal — averaging just a 2.8% time saving.
These contrasting perspectives underscore the complexity of AI’s workplace impact: significant operational shifts are underway, yet economic outcomes remain surprisingly modest.
My take on this is that learning AI is the key here. Workforce, regardless of their position (Individual Contributor, First Line Manager, Manager, Exec ..) or their domain of activity (Data, Tech, Healthcare, Finance, HR etc..), should learn AI to not “become obsolete”, and stay “bankable” in the market. I do not personally believe that a massive instant impact of job loss is here, however, these changes need adaptation, and someone with AI skills will be better prepared for those changes.
More Reads
Here are some articles I shared in April that you might want to read
- Building AI Agents, a Practical Roadmap.
- Making LLM Think Harder, Again and Again, For Better Outcome.
Upcoming Events
In May and June, I’ll be a speaker in a couple of events if you would like to join. Both sessions are around AI
- On May 14th, I am partnering with Udemy for a session on “The Transformative Power of AI, beyond buzzwords”. This session will be broadcasted as part of Learning at Work Week initiative. It is around 30 minutes, with Q&A. You can . It is free and online!
- On June 11th, I’ll be in Paris for a session in French around the usage of AI in Spend Management. This session will be hosted at “Salon Hoche” in Paris. It is free to . The session is dedicated to Finance professionals.
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Want to Know More ?
If you’d like to explore more about AI, check out some of my other publications here : | Medium | | |
