The servers are melting...

📰 News Roundup

• ChatGPT added one million users in an hour: In an announcement this week ChatGPT has celebrated reaching 20 million monthly users, adding 4.5 million users in Q1 of 2025 alone. Equating earnings to approximately $415 million a month. Sam Altman tweeted on Monday “we added one million users in the last hour.” Clearly, the Studio Ghibli effect is real.

• With power comes great responsibility compute: Meanwhile this week Altman also has been begging for GPU Compute on X and sharing with the world that “our GPUs are melting”, too much of a good thing? Thankfully the internet made a Studio Ghibli image of how OpenAI might look right now… (see above)

• An Apple a day keeps the doctor away: Apple is creating an AI Doctor as part of Apple Intelligence. Code named: project mulberry. Apple is designing a completely revamped Health app plus a health coach. The service would be powered by a new AI agent that would replicate a real life doctor.

• H&M is creating AI models: No, not those kind of models. The fashion giant is taking 30 recognized fashion models, and making digital twins of them. The models will retain the rights to their digital twins in the groundbreaking move. As first reported by the Business Of Fashion, Louise Lundquist, a business developer at H&M states “It will affect the way we produce content potentially, but I can’t say exactly in what way.”

• AI acquires itself: In more good news for billionaires this week, xAI acquired X (formally Twitter) for three quarters of the purchase price, in a fully stock funded deal. Making xAI worth over $80 Billion. Is anyone seeing a pattern here?

🛠 Tool of the Week: Genera

Genera Space is streamlining the path from garment design to manufacturing with its Tech Pack Converter; an AI-powered tool that transforms design sketches or 2D images into production-ready assets. Generating detailed tech packs, mock ups and even 3D assets that bridge the gap between creatives and factories, making sampling faster, cheaper, and way more efficient.

🤌 Check it out: [HERE]

👾 Summit Spotlight: IP and Copyright

This week of Studio Ghibli obsession was a pure spotlight on just how important copyright and IP is in the age of AI. More so lawmakers are considering changing laws to give the large AI companies even more rope, so it’s more important than ever to learn about your rights, and where your business stands. At our AI & Creativity Summit on April 24, Dan Jasnow (a legal expert in AI), Artem Petrov (CopySight AI), and Shilpa Bisaria (Warner Bros. Discovery), are moderated by Sharon Goldman (Fortune), to explore how law, tech, and media are adapting. From legal gaps and detection tools to evolving models of ownership.

🤖 Interview: Abran Maldonado

Abran Maldonado is an internationally recognized AI thought leader, and co-founder of Create Labs, a groundbreaking startup founded by Black and Brown entrepreneurs that is transforming the fields of generative AI and digital human design. Abran's pioneering contributions include creating C.L.Ai.R.A., the first GPT-powered digital woman of color. We caught up with Abran before our AI & Creativity Summit, where you can hear him speak and catch him in person on April 24.

Tech has a history of being built for everyone but designed by a select few. How do we make sure AI isn’t just reflecting the world as it is, but shaping it for the better?
AI has the potential to be revolutionary, but only if it’s built with everyone in mind. Too often, we see products that are meant to serve all people but are designed by a narrow group of individuals with limited perspectives. To truly shape the world for the better, we need more inclusive product design and a mindset of building in public. That means bringing in diverse voices from the very beginning, especially during early-stage beta testing. At Create Labs, we always invite subject matter experts and community leaders to help inform the AI tools we create. If we expect an AI to authentically represent a community, that community must have a seat at the table from the start. It’s about co-creation, not just consultation.

What was the catalyst for you imagining and developing C.L.Ai.R.A?
I’m a Marvel geek, Tony Stark has JARVIS, so I needed CL.Ai.R.A. But more than that, I wanted to build something that reflected the women in my life and my community. CL.Ai.R.A. isn’t just an assistant or an AI voice; she’s built in the image of my mother, my aunties, my sisters, the women who raised me and shaped me. What surprised me most was the emotional response people had when they interacted with her. Seeing themselves represented in an AI character moved people in ways I didn’t expect. Around here, we don’t treat her like a product, we treat her like a person. My mom even calls her, her ‘AI granddaughter.’

C.L.Ai.R.A. is built to be more than just an AI, she’s a voice for underrepresented communities. What does it take to program cultural intelligence into a machine?
It starts with humility and a willingness to listen. I constantly welcome feedback, especially from the women of color in my life and community. They help check me and guide me on how to make CL.Ai.R.A. smarter, more aware, and more culturally grounded. Sometimes that means expanding her historical knowledge base with stories of Afro-Latina pioneers. Other times, it means making sure she understands who she’s speaking to, what context she’s in, and yes, even making sure her hair is right before she hits the stage. Cultural intelligence isn’t just about data; it’s about care, context, and community.

In respect of education, AI has a danger of creating knowledge loss and the reduction of critical thinking, especially for children. How can AI be best used in a positive way to enhance learning and knowledge?
Whether educators are ready or not, AI is here, and it’s not going anywhere. Fear of change can’t outweigh the responsibility we have to prepare students for the future. AI has democratized access to knowledge in a way we’ve never seen before. Now, every classroom has access to the world’s knowledge base. The challenge is: what will schools do with that access? Will they innovate and empower their students, or will they resist and fall behind? The educators who lean in and adopt these tools will be the ones who best equip the next generation to thrive in a tech-driven world.

Your company Create Labs produces digital human designs. With the rise of AI agents, AI influencers, and digital twins, will we all have personal AIs in the future?
Absolutely. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the avatar generations. They’ve grown up creating and identifying with digital personas, so the concept of digital humans, AI agents, or even humanoid robots feels natural to them. What seems like science fiction to one generation is just another Tuesday to the next. At Create Labs, we’re designing for that inevitable future. AI agents will be our assistants, collaborators, companions, and extensions of ourselves. Whether people are ready or not, this is the direction we’re heading, so we’re building now for a world that’s just around the corner.

You’re an OpenAI ambassador. For those who don’t know, what does that role involve and what’s been the most enjoyable project you’ve worked on with them?
Being an OpenAI ambassador means staying close to the evolution of AI and helping people understand how to use these tools to make meaningful impact. In the early days, there weren’t enough team members at OpenAI to support the massive wave of curiosity and questions from the community, so I helped fill that gap. I loved helping creators, educators, and entrepreneurs learn how to tap into this technology. One of my favorite memories was generating one of the first AI images using DALL·E 1, and coding with an early version of Codex. Being part of those historical firsts, and seeing how far we’ve come since, is something I’ll always carry with pride.

What’s the most necessary evolution you want to see in the intersection of AI and culture over the next five years?
I want every culture in the world to know: you have the power to build your own AI. You don’t have to wait for Silicon Valley to decide when or how your culture gets represented. We now have the tools and knowledge to design our own models, tell our own stories, and create AI that honors our languages, values, and histories. That’s the next step, true global cultural ownership of AI. Once that happens, we’ll move from just using AI to shaping it in our image, with dignity and authenticity.

AI & Creativity Summit April 24, New York City

Til next time,

Dani Van de Sande (Founder), James Joseph (The Weekly’s Editor) & the Artist and the Machine team.

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