Government agencies are rapidly expanding their use of AI tools, led by OpenAI’s new “OpenAI for Government” initiative, which offers ChatGPT-based services to U.S. agencies through a $200 million pilot contract with the Department of Defense. At the same time, G7 leaders have pledged to accelerate AI adoption in public services and small businesses, while Pope Leo XIV has called for a global treaty to address AI-related risks to human dignity and labor. In the private sector, Meta is rolling out smart glasses under Oakley and Prada brands, and Amazon is embracing AI at scale, with CEO Andy Jassy signaling job cuts as automation replaces white-collar roles.
The upcoming CDAO Government 2025 summit in Washington, D.C. will bring together public sector leaders to explore the role of AI in data governance, citizen services, and national transparency efforts. As AI continues to influence industries from pharmaceuticals to public administration, organizations across sectors are moving swiftly to scale implementation, manage risks, and capture economic value.
Plus, AI infrastructure, research, and investment continue to accelerate across sectors. Companies are developing new tools, raising major funding rounds, and launching ventures to scale AI applications and turn scientific advances into commercial products.
Industry & Enterprise
New ‘OpenAI for Government’ Program Delivers AI Technology to Government Agencies
OpenAI has launched OpenAI for Government, unifying federal work and giving U.S. agencies access to ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Gov and custom national-security models. The program consolidates projects with the National Labs, Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, NIH and Treasury, and opens with a pilot contract worth up to $200 million through the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. (AI Insider)
Amazon’s Sharp Shift to AI Will Mean Job Cuts, CEO Says
Amazon plans to reduce parts of its corporate workforce in coming years as generative AI tools increasingly automate tasks across customer service, logistics, and retail, according to CEO Andy Jassy. The company has deployed over 1,000 generative AI applications, including internal systems and customer-facing tools like Alexa+, Lens, and automated product listings, with more under development.(Amazon)
Meta and Luxottica to Release Oakley and Prada Smart Glasses
Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan to expand their AI-powered smart glasses line with new models under the Oakley and Prada brands, CNBC reports. The Oakley glasses, aimed at athletes, will launch June 20, while the Prada partnership marks Meta’s first move into high-fashion wearables.(CNBC)
WEKA Introduces NeuralMesh Storage Fabric for Exascale Agentic AI
WEKA has introduced NeuralMesh, a software-defined storage architecture the company says links data, compute and AI services in a self-healing, containerised fabric that becomes faster and more resilient as capacity grows from petabytes to exabytes, rebuilding failed hardware in minutes. (AI Insider)
Research & Innovation
MIT Researchers Tackle Problem of LLM Bias
MIT researchers have developed a theoretical framework explaining why large language models (LLMs) prioritize the beginning and end of input sequences over the middle. The team found that architectural choices—like causal attention masking and positional encodings—amplify this “position bias,” with additional attention layers compounding the issue, potentially impairing LLM performance in tasks like legal or medical data retrieval. (AI Insider)
Policy & Governance
G7 Leaders Issue Outline for AI
G7 leaders issued a joint statement at the 2025 Summit in Kananaskis pledging to accelerate AI adoption in government services and small businesses while addressing risks to energy systems and economic inequality. The plan includes a Canada-led GovAI Grand Challenge, a G7 AI Network for public-sector collaboration, and an AI Adoption Roadmap aimed at helping SMEs access tools, infrastructure, and talent. (AI Insider)
Pope Leo XIV Pledges Vatican Campaign on AI Risks, Urges Global Treaty
Addressing cardinals, Pope Leo XIV reportedly said the Church will draw on “two millennia of social teaching to respond to another industrial revolution and to innovations in AI that challenge human dignity, justice and labor.” Echoing namesake Leo XIII, who defended factory workers during the Gilded Age, the American pontiff is pressing for a binding international AI treaty. (AI Insider)
Startups & Capital
AI-Powered Finance Platform Developer Ramp Closes $200M Series E at $16B Valuation
Ramp has raised $200 million in a Series E round led by Founders Fund, bringing its valuation to $16 billion and total equity raised to $1.4 billion, as it continues scaling its AI-driven financial operations platform. Serving over 40,000 companies and powering $80 billion in annualized purchase volume, Ramp’s tools span corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, procurement, travel, and treasury. (AI Insider)
AXL Launches Venture Studio with $15 Million to Build 50 AI Companies in Canada
AXL, a new Canadian venture studio, launched with a $15 million CAD fund to create 50 AI-powered companies over five years, aiming to commercialize domestic AI research and retain talent. Co-founded by Daniel Wigdor, who previously sold Chatham Labs to Meta, AXL is backed by high-profile Canadian tech leaders and entrepreneurs supporting homegrown innovation. (AI Insider)
AI-Driven Drug Discovery Company Insilico Medicine Completes Oversubscribed Series E
Insilico Medicine has closed an oversubscribed $123 million Series E round led by Value Partners Group to advance its AI-driven drug discovery pipeline and enhance its Pharma.AI platform. The funding will support clinical validation of proprietary drug programs, expansion of Insilico’s automated lab, and continued development of AI models and algorithms to streamline pharmaceutical R&D. (AI Insider)
Upcoming Events
CDAO Government 2025
June 25 – 26, Washington D.C., CDAO Government 2025 returns for its thirteenth year as the leading gathering for senior data and analytics leaders in U.S. government agencies. The event will spotlight public sector strategies for AI, data governance, and ethical data use to improve transparency, citizen services, and security. (CDAO Government)
