This week, tech and media saw legal battles, new AI tools, safety concerns, and TV show production decline. In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Dentsu's revenue dipping, Paramount's latest strategy plans, and a new AI feature from Google. 

Elon Musk doubled down on his rivalry with Big Tech this week, as xAI prepared to sue Apple over alleged antitrust violations in App Store rankings, a dispute that pits Grok against ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. That fight over AI dominance came alongside Musk’s plan to inject ads directly into Grok’s chatbot answers, signalling a new bid to revive X’s ad revenue.

The week also saw mounting pressure on Meta, as US senators urged the company to shut down Instagram’s map feature, warning it could endanger children by revealing users’ locations for up to 24 hours. 

Meta has however turned its focus to ad integrity, introducing bulk scam-ad reporting across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while Google deployed AI to better detect invalid traffic from bots, accidental clicks, and malicious actors.

And in the midst of all this, Havas Media Network UK launched its own AI-powered monitoring system, Brand Insights AI, giving marketers a way to see how their brands appear across the leading large language models in the very arena where the week’s first battle lines were drawn.

Meanwhile, the six largest global platforms cut scripted TV commissions by nearly a quarter in the first half of 2025, with sharp drops in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific offset only by modest growth in Latin America. Analysts say economic caution, heavier reliance on licensed content, and looming production taxes are all slowing the pipeline of originals.