Welcome to Prompt & Circumstance – your weekly deep dive into the evolving world of Generative AI and its impact on marketing and communications.   

Like this newsletter? Share this with colleagues who would find it useful. They’ll thank you later 😊. 

AI’s Summer Power Plays: GPT-5, Disney’s Lawsuit Blitz, and Meta’s Billion Dollar Scramble 

For anyone who missed last week’s Generative AI (Gen AI) headlines, we’ve got you covered. While OpenAI’s CEO announced their next model release, Disney continued to feud with Midjourney in court and Amazon and Apple made risky moves to try to stay caught up in the AI race.  

Here is what stood out and some key takeaways for marketing and comms: 

GPT-5: The Summer Upgrade and a New Monetization Test 

Last week, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman confirmed, on the company’s new podcast, that GPT-5 will arrive this summer. He didn’t give an exact date but promised big improvements over GPT-4. Early testers say it is a clear step up in reasoning and consistency. Users can also expect fewer confusing model options as OpenAI has hinted at streamlining how people interact with its models, with smarter orchestration behind the scenes and a simpler, more unified interface. Cheers to that!  

One detail got less fanfare: Altman said he is open to putting ads in ChatGPT. He insisted that tampering with answers to favor advertisers would betray user trust, but suggested the company might test ads alongside the chat experience.  

Disney vs Midjourney: A New Front in the Copyright Wars 

Disney and Comcast filed a lawsuit accusing Midjourney of mass copyright infringement, claiming its AI generates unauthorized images of protected characters like Darth Vader, Shrek, and The Simpsons. The lawsuit demands up to $150,000 per infringement. 

Midjourney has exploded in popularity by turning any prompt into an eye-catching visual, often using existing characters. Recently, it launched a video feature, letting users animate still images into short clips. While the video tool likely wasn’t the only trigger, it landed just as Disney and other IP giants were already gearing up to draw a line in the sand. 

Interestingly, Disney is not anti-AI. It uses AI voice tools for games and movies; however, they are demanding changes from those who profit from their iconic characters.  

The bigger challenge is how Gen AI models handle copyright in practice. Midjourney may not deliberately infringe on copyright, but when a user uploads an image and prompts the model to recreate or remix it, that’s one vector for infringement to take place. So, who’s responsible, the tool or the user?  

Some companies are adding guardrails and filters to catch obvious misuse, but prompt engineering tricks often slip through. It’s turning into an endless cat and mouse between creators, platforms, and rights holders. 

For marketing folks, don’t assume free-for-all AI content is risk-free.

Brand trust and legal headaches can collide fast when copyrighted characters or likenesses sneak into generated visuals and campaigns. Remember, your prompt and your intent matter. If you’re using Midjourney (or any AI tool) to create an image of Darth Vader, you’re inviting trouble. This Disney lawsuit also signals more challenges ahead for other AI platforms. Take Google’s new VEO 3 video model as an example. Some creators are already generating video content using copyrighted material and building entire channels around it. For example, StormTrooperVlogs on YouTube, who are monetizing AI-generated Storm Trooper content and growing a fan base.  

These instances raise a big question: how will Google and others manage the line between user creativity and copyright compliance moving forward?  

Generative AI Goes to Court... Literally 

Outside corporate boardrooms, Gen AI is already reshaping legal systems. Judges in the United States use tools like ChatGPT to help write and fact-check opinions. Some people represent themselves with AI’s help, sometimes with embarrassing results. In one recent case, two law firms were fined over thirty thousand dollars for filing paperwork riddled with hallucinated citations (in other words, fake case law that the AI invented). 

Another moment made big headlines back in May: a murder victim’s family in Arizona created a deepfake video avatar of the victim to address the courtroom during sentencing. The judge accepted it, calling it authentic and powerful. It will not be the last time AI ghosts appear in court. Expect more AI-generated testimony in future cases, but also expect new debates on ethics, consent and how far we trust digital proxies to speak for the living (or the dead).  

Transparency and permission will become non-negotiable if you want to stay trusted.

For marketing and comms teams, as AI-generated avatars and voices become more realistic, brands must tread carefully when recreating people’s likenesses or quoting synthetic versions of real humans. Always ask: Do we have clear rights and approvals? Are we disclosing when something is AI-generated? These questions will only get more critical as deepfakes blur the line between real and fake, especially in customer interactions, campaigns, or crisis comms. Better to build guardrails now than risk a trust crisis later. 

Amazon Downsizes; Apple Goes All in On One Chip  

In Amazon news, the CEO told staff last week to brace for a smaller corporate workforce as AI automates more tasks. He encouraged employees to learn AI, experiment, and help invent new ways to serve customers with leaner teams. 

That push is backed by a tidal wave of spending. Since January, Amazon has committed roughly $10 billion to new data center projects in each of North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Mississippi, plus another $20 billion on two complexes in Pennsylvania. All of it fuels its plan to stay ahead in AI cloud services, streaming, and Alexa’s next generation. 

Apple is taking a different but equally aggressive route. Instead of pouring money into data centers, it’s using Gen AI to speed up custom chip design for its devices. This is classic Apple: own the hardware, squeeze out middlemen like Intel, and keep tight control over performance. It’s the same big-bet approach that paid off in 2020 when Apple shifted the Mac to in-house silicon with no backup plan. But, so far, Apple is the big loser in the AI wars, so any progress is good progress.  

Meta’s AI Strategy Shift 

Meta turned heads last week by buying nearly half of Scale AI and hiring its founder for an astonishing $14.3 billion. Scale quietly supplies critical training data for OpenAI, Google, OpenAI, and dozens of other leaders. By snapping up such a big stake, Meta gains an inside track on how competitors build their models, which is bold enough to make Google, Scale’s biggest customer, immediately start backing away to protect its own secrets. 

The big picture here is Meta clearly feels it’s falling behind Google and OpenAI. Scale is just one example. OpenAI’s CEO said that Meta had dangled $100 million signing bonuses to lure top AI talent away. These bold moves raise a new question too: will Meta stick with its open-source strategy? Its model development has not kept up with the likes of the large AI labs, so only time will tell.  

Europe Continues to Play Gen AI Catchup 

Last week, new figures from the EU Science Hub highlighted how Europe, despite strong Gen AI research, still trails far behind the US and China in converting breakthroughs into patents and commercial wins. The EU accounts for about 7% of global Gen AI activity, compared to China’s 60% and the US at 12%. Limited venture capital and slow funding mean top ideas often move abroad or get outpaced by faster competitors. While the EU has announced new plans to close this gap, including fresh funding for startups and talent programs, the clock is ticking.  

For marketing and comms teams, this gap means that companies working in Europe might see slower rollouts of cutting-edge Gen AI features compared to teams in the US and China. Staying globally competitive will require keeping a close eye on regional policy changes, local AI providers, and how fast European startups can catch up, so teams aren’t caught flat-footed when deploying new AI-powered content or campaigns. 

That’s All for Now!

Want to get more out of Gen AI? Schedule a call with us. We are happy to help kickstart your Gen AI journey! And, if you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s the time. Sign up, share with a colleague—because in the world of AI, sharing is caring. 

Stay tuned for more Gen AI headlines!