Good morning, AI enthusiasts. AI’s fair use debate just got its first major answer — and it’s both a win and a warning for AI companies.

With a judge green-lighting Anthropic’s use of legally purchased data but slamming them for using over 7M pirated books, the split decision might be a strong (but costly) precedent for AI’s legal woes.

Reminder: Our next live workshop is today at 3 PM EST — join and learn how to build production-grade AI agents that combine context, reasoning, and actions with Gumloop. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Anthropic scores win over AI ‘fair use’ claim

• OpenAI’s Workspace, Office competitor

• How to automate content strategy with scheduled tasks

• LinkedIn co-founder bets on AI ultrasound helmet

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ANTHROPIC

📚 Anthropic scores win over AI ‘fair use’ claim

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: A federal judge just ruled that Anthropic's AI training on legally purchased books qualifies as fair use, but rejected any defense for 7M pirated copies in its digital library in the company’s class action lawsuit filed by a group of authors.

The details:

• The judge called AI training "spectacularly" transformative, comparing Claude to aspiring writers learning from established authors rather than copying them.

• The authors failed to demonstrate that Claude could generate outputs resembling their original works, weakening core claims about competitive harm.

• The filings revealed that Anthropic legally spent “many millions” to purchase print books, scanning them into digital files for use in AI training.

• However, Anthropic also downloaded millions of books from pirate sites, storing them permanently, which the court said violated authors’ rights.

• The company will face trial in December for willful infringement of the pirated works, with potential damages potentially reaching $150,000 per book.

Why it matters: AI labs get a green light to train on legally obtained data, which could provide one of the first precedents for countless cases currently levied against tech companies. However, given the lack of clarity around how many copyrighted materials get into training data, this is still just one battle in what looks like a very long legal war.

TOGETHER WITH H COMPANY

🤖 The AI agent that completes tasks for you

The Rundown: Backed by a historic $220M seed round, H Company just released their flagship Runner H AI agent that lets you automate entire tasks in a few seconds — now available in beta.

Some examples of tasks you can delegate to Runner H:

• Reading your important emails and drafting (or even sending!) replies

• Creating a Google Sheets with trending ad ideas and sharing it with your team on Slack

• Finding job opportunities and applying for you

Offload some work to Runner H today — try it now for free.

OPENAI

📊 OpenAI’s Workspace, Office competitor

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly building productivity tools for ChatGPT that mirror Google Workspace and Microsoft Office — with features like real-time document collaboration and multi-user chat.

The details:

• OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil reportedly first showcased collaboration designs last year, though development stalled until the Canvas interface launch in October.

• The Information reports that OpenAI has built but has yet to release multiuser chat, allowing teams to communicate about shared work directly in ChatGPT.

• OpenAI also recently rolled out a record mode for transcriptions, file uploads to Projects, and connectors to pull data from Teams, Drive, and DropBox.

• Business subscriptions generated $600M in 2024, with OpenAI projecting $15B by 2030, with increased revenue coming from enterprise subscriptions.

Why it matters: Sam Altman warned last year that OpenAI would “steamroll” most AI startups… But he might also have his biggest partner in the crosshairs. ChatGPT’s productivity push is about to step right on Microsoft’s legacy software — and given the icy current relationship, the renegotiation may get even more contentious.

AI TRAINING

🤖 How to automate your content strategy with scheduled tasks

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Grok’s new Tasks feature to schedule automated content research and trend analysis — running silently in the background and notifying you once it's done.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Grok and navigate to the “Tasks” section

2. Click “Add new” and create your first task: “Weekly Content Trends Analysis” scheduled for Sundays

3. Use this prompt: “Analyze trending topics in [your niche] from the past week. Identify 5 content opportunities with content format recommendations”

4. Create additional tasks such as viral content analysis, or monthly market research (up to 10 total tasks)

Pro tip: Enable DeepSearch for better results. When tasks are complete, review notifications and refine prompts based on results quality.

PRESENTED BY IBM

🎙️Transforming HR with agentic AI

The Rundown: Curious about agentic AI in HR? Steve Moss, Director of watsonx Americas at IBM, discusses HR, agentic AI, and the real-world impact of IBM’s transformation journey in the latest episode of the AI in Action podcast.

Dive into the details of how IBM has:

• Used agentic AI and consolidated various HR tools into a single interface

• Improved employee experience and operational efficiency

• Driven strategic shifts, boosted productivity, and scaled teams effectively

Click here to watch the video.

AI & NEUROTECHNOLOGY

🧠 LinkedIn co-founder bets on AI ultrasound helmet

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: LinkedIn co-founder and OpenAI investor Reid Hoffman just led a $12M funding round for Sanmai Technologies, which is developing AI-guided ultrasound devices for treating mental health conditions without surgery.

The details:

• Sanmai’s consumer devices focus ultrasound waves on specific brain regions to treat anxiety, depression, and enhance cognitive function.

• The startup combines the ultrasound tech with AI coaching systems into a helmet at a sub-$500 price point, targeting consumers’ in-home use.

• Hoffman joined Sanmai's board through his Aphorism Foundation, saying non-invasive approaches are “much less risky” than tech like Neuralink.

• The company is currently testing anxiety treatments with a prototype at its Sunnyvale facility ahead of FDA trials.

Why it matters: Tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and now Reid Hoffman are all funding brain-tech startups. With an AI coach guiding treatments and a non-invasive approach, the start of the neurotech wave may end up being a lighter touch that is easier to swallow for consumers than a full brain-computer interface.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 💰 Taka - Your AI Personal CFO: Ask any personal finance question. Make confident decisions with a self-building canvas tailored to you*

• 🗣️ 11ai - ElevenLabs’ new voice assistant with MCP integrations

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• 🎆 Imagen 4 Ultra - Google’s top image model, available via API & AI Studio

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💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🔁 The Rundown - Strategic Partnerships (AI University)

• 🤝 OpenAI - Program Manager, M&A Recruiting

• 🖥️ Together AI - Senior Systems Administrator

• 📦 Groq - Senior Program Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

SimilarWeb data shows ChatGPT downloads on iOS hit 29M+ over the last 28 days, nearly surpassing downloads of TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram (33M) combined.

Sam Altman said that the ‘io’ lawsuit is “silly, disappointing and wrong", saying that founder Jason Rugolo made persistent attempts to get acquired by OpenAI.

Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab is planning to develop custom AI models to help businesses increase profits, according to a new report from The Information.

Google released Gemini Robotics On-Device, a new VLA model that powers robotics dexterity and task completion without needing an internet connection.

Databricks & Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski launched the Laude Institute, pledging $100M to fast-track computer science breakthroughs for real-world impact.

XBOW revealed that its autonomous AI became the first to surpass all humans on the HackerOne platform, also announcing a new $75M Series B funding round.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop today at 3 PM EST with Max Brodeur-Urbas, Founder & CEO at Gumloop. By the end of the workshop, you’ll know how to build production-grade AI agents that combine context, reasoning, and actions with Gumloop.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason — The Rundown’s editorial team