#225: GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, Enterprise Agents, AI 2040 & Apple Sues OpenAI

**Mike Kaput** (0:00)
If you showed someone a recording of this five years ago, they'd be like, we have AGI. Like, it's not as smart as the models you're going to be interacting with on your computer, but you'd just be like, wait a second, this, you can have an actual real-time dynamic conversation with this thing? It's insane.

**Paul Roetzer** (0:16)
Welcome to The Artificial Intelligence Show, the podcast that helps your business grow smarter by making AI approachable and actionable. My name is Paul Roetzer. I'm the founder and CEO of SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute, and I'm your host. Each week, I'm joined by my co-host and SmarterX Chief Content Officer, Mike Kaput. As we break down all the AI news that matters and give you insights and perspectives that you can use to advance your company and your career. Join us as we accelerate AI literacy for all.
Welcome to episode 225 of The Artificial Intelligence Show. I'm your host, Paul Roetzer, along with my co-host, Mike Kaput. We are recording on Monday, July 13, about 9 AM Eastern Time. We had a slew of new models last week. We will get to those leading off with GPT 5.6, which stole the headlines for most of the week. I don't know, it was like a day-to-day thing, Mike. But we're going to focus on that.
I don't know we're getting any new models this week. I think Google could surprise us at any moment with Gemini 3.5 Pro. I saw this morning some possible leaks of some of the evals on 3.5 Pro. So it seems like it's fully cooked and just kind of like readying for release, maybe. So we'll see. See what the week brings us. All right, marketers, get a quick gut check. When's the last time someone found you through ChatGPT or Claude instead of a traditional Google search? That shift is happening fast, and most brands have no idea how they show up. SiteImprove is the agentic content intelligence platform that shows marketers how their content performs across traditional SEO and AI-driven search. Because good SEO and accessibility are still the foundation, they just aren't the whole picture anymore. Get your free AEO check at siteimprove.com/aipod.
So thanks to our friends and partners at SiteImprove for sponsoring today's episode. And today's episode is also brought to us by, assuming you're listening on July 14th. So hopefully you get in early, listen to the podcast early. Because July 14th is Maicon Day. So we created Maicon Day last year by asking a handful of community members, friends, team members and speakers to help spread the word about Maicon. This is our annual marketing AI conference that happens in Cleveland, October 13th to 15th. And so Maicon Day was designed to make the biggest registration day of the year. It was a huge success in 2025 So we're bringing it back in 2026 Hundreds of community members, speakers, sponsors, alumni, partners, friends, and registered attendees are helping us make Maicon Day even bigger this year. And we are incredibly grateful for everyone who's pitching in. If you've been thinking about joining us in Cleveland on October 13th, 14th and 15th, today is the best day. Again, if it's July 14th, you're listening to this. The best day to register. You'll save $200 on your pass with code MaiconDay26. That's M-A-I-C-O-N-Day26.
And you'll be entered for a chance to win exclusive prizes, including a VIP party pass, a VIP lounge pass, which was a huge hit last year, a complimentary on-demand upgrade, and $100 in Maicon swag bucks. I didn't even know we had Maicon swag bucks, so that's cool. I might enter to win. I'm going to register this today. The offer ends at midnight Eastern time, so don't wait. Visit maiconday.com, so that's maiconday.com.
If you need more information on Maicon before committing, a link on the Maicon Day website will take you to the event site. So thanks for being a part of this community. We hope to see everyone at Maicon this October in Cleveland. Okay, every week we start off with a recap of our AI Pulse Survey. This is an informal poll of our listeners on how they feel about topics that we covered in the previous episode. So last week we had Palantir's CEO claims AI Labs quietly absorb your company's data and competitive edge. Do you worry about this when using AI providers? 48% somewhat, but we accept the trade-off. 28%, yes, it's a serious concern for us. 11%, no, contracts and controls protect us.
That's kind of what we've always thought. I'm not so sure about that anymore. And 13% haven't thought about it. All right.
And then the second one was, what is AI actually doing to headcount at your company right now? 59%, no noticeable impact on headcount yet. So all the economic reports would support that as the majority right now. 30% were hiring less or slowing hiring because of AI. We are definitely seeing and hearing that. 9% were hiring more because of AI. That's great. Those are probably our high growth companies that we talked about last week. So you're growing and you're hiring as a result. And then a small percentage, not sure. All right. So Mike, we have, like I said in the opening, lots of model news to discuss this week. We're going to focus on what's new from OpenAI. And OpenAI had a very busy week last week, but we're going to start with the models.