12 May 2025
As 2025 unfolds, artificial intelligence continues to revolutionise industries, spark innovation and open exciting new opportunities. Dive into this month’s highlights curated for the engineering community.
New Zealand’s AI trailblazers
Allsite.ai, a pioneering New Zealand startup, is transforming construction site management with AI. Its platform automates documentation and integrates predictive analytics, enabling engineers to operate more efficiently and safely. The tool is now in use across major infrastructure projects nationwide.
Collaborative Robotics in Action: Human-AI Integration at University of Auckland
Explore how the University of Auckland's Industrial AI Research Group is pioneering the integration of intelligent cobots (collaborative robot) in manufacturing, fostering seamless human-robot teamwork.
AI Global
What Is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?
This McKinsey article provides a clear explanation of AGI, distinguishing it from narrow AI. It explores AGI’s potential impact on society and the significant technological challenges that must be overcome to realise its promise.
Future of AI: Emerging Trends and Insights
A forward-looking summary of key AI trends for 2025 and beyond, covering developments in automation, generative AI, and the growing influence of ethics on AI governance and product design.
AI Agents for Scientific Discovery
FutureHouse has launched four AI agents to help researchers search, summarise, and plan faster. Designed to speed up scientific discovery, the platform is now open for exploration.
Ethan Mollick explores how generative AI tools are increasingly capable of not just producing content, but tailoring their tone, style, and personality to influence audiences effectively. This piece offers valuable insights into how AI’s persuasive power is evolving, and what that means for communication and decision-making in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Algorithmic Management in the Workplace
This OECD publication examines the increasing use of AI to manage employees’ tasks, schedules, and performance. It raises crucial questions about workplace surveillance, fairness, and transparency in algorithm-driven systems.
China Tests Firefighting Robot Dogs
Agile quadruped robots with 60m-jet water cannons and live video streaming are being trialled for firefighting and emergency response in hazardous conditions.
MyoStep: Soft Robotic Exoskeleton Boosts Gait in Children with CP
This lightweight exoskeleton uses artificial muscles and smart textiles to support more natural, energy-efficient walking in children with cerebral palsy.
AI tools and software advancements
No-Code AI App Building with Sandra Djajic
This podcast episode explores how non-technical users can now build sophisticated applications using no-code AI tools. Sandra Djajic shares insights into how this trend is broadening access to software development.
Elon Musk says Grok 3.5 will provide answers that aren't from internet sources
In an interview reported by Tom's Hardware, Elon Musk discusses how Grok 3.5 generates responses that are not directly sourced from the internet. While this capability is exciting, it also raises concerns about accuracy and traceability.
Google’s NotebookLM Audio Overviews adds more than 50 languages
Google’s research assistant tool, NotebookLM, has added audio overview capabilities that support over 50 languages, improving accessibility and usability for global researchers. Audio Overviews, launched in September 2024, turn your sources into engaging, podcast-like conversations
Claude takes research to new places
Anthropic’s Claude AI continues to advance as a research tool, offering deeper contextual understanding and sophisticated document analysis to support complex investigative tasks.
Give it a go
Try Deep Research with no paid subscription
OpenAI has released a “Lite” version of its Deep Research tool for free. It’s a great way to explore powerful AI analysis, just with a few limitations. Read this article to find out more.
Crafting the most effective prompt can be complicated, try out this practical, hands-on tutorial to craft better prompts for language models like ChatGPT. Learn strategies to improve the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated responses through effective prompt design.
Our ChatGPT prompt experiment
Our “give it a go” this month was to put ChatGPT’s Deep Research mode to the test with the question “What engineering AI advances have occurred in the last month?”
While deep research gave a comprehensive answer, a summary of the top developments appears in the table below. We’re curious to see how the answers evolve when we run the same prompt again next month.
Top 10 AI & Engineering Developments (April 2025)
Software Engineering
- OpenAI releases GPT-4.1 Improved coding abilities, 1M-token context length (April 14 2025)
- OpenAI launches o3 & o4-mini Models with full tool use integration (April 16 2025)
- Meta unveils Llama 4 (Scout & Maverick) Open-source multimodal AI models (April 7 2025)
- Google DeepMind debuts Gemini 2.5 Pro Multimodal model with 1M-token context and advanced reasoning (April 16 2025)
Electrical / Hardware Engineering
- NVIDIA announces $500 B AI Supercomputer Plan Focus on building US-based chip & system factories (April 14 2025)
Chemical Engineering
- Orbital Materials pilots AI-designed carbon capture sorbent Utilises waste heat from data centers (April 11 2025)
Aerospace / Defense Engineering
- Blue Water Autonomy introduces 100ft crewless warship 100-ton USV with long-range autonomous capability (April 11 2025)
Industrial Engineering
- Universal Robots unveils UR AI Accelerator Toolkit For smarter collaborative robots (cobots), showcased at Automate 2025 (April 25 2025)
Biomedical Engineering
- Isomorphic Labs raises $600 M DeepMind spin-off developing AI-driven drug discovery platforms (April 2025)
Electrical Engineering
- TAMU researchers develop neuromorphic AI chips Designed for tiny, brain-like drones with energy-efficient autonomy (April 3 2025)
