Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Between Microsoft Build, Google I/O, and OpenAI’s io acquisition, this was already one of the biggest AI weeks in recent memory.

But Anthropic just capped it off with the release of its next-gen Claude 4 family — including "the world's best coding model” that takes autonomous programming to new heights.

Speaking of Google I/O… Our next workshop today at 4 PM EST covers all the latest upgrades from Google and how to use the new tools in your projects. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Anthropic’s Claude 4 Opus, Sonnet models

• Rumors: OpenAI and Jony Ive’s mystery AI device

• Automate HR Onboarding Processes with AI

• Apple rushes AI glasses to challenge Meta

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ANTHROPIC

🚀 Anthropic’s Claude 4 Opus, Sonnet models

Image source: Anthropic

The Rundown: Anthropic just launched Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, introducing the company’s next-gen models that can think through problems step-by-step while using external tools — showing advances in AI reasoning capabilities and autonomous coding.

The details:

• The models feature "hybrid" modes for either instant responses or extended thinking, with visible reasoning summaries showing thought processes.

• Opus 4 achieved 72.5% on the SWE-bench and can code autonomously for hours, while Sonnet 4 is an upgraded replacement for Sonnet 3.7.

• New capabilities include parallel tool use, memory functions for maintaining context across tasks, and integration with IDEs via Claude Code extensions.

• Anthropic has also heightened security measures to ASL-3, implementing safeguards against potential misuse in weapons development.

Why it matters: Anthropic caps off a big week in the AI world with what it calls the “world’s best coding model,” a fresh reminder that it’s still one of the top players in the race. Claude 4 also follows the industry shift towards agentic, extended length reasoning capabilities — moving into the “collaborator” stage of Anthropic’s AI curve.

TOGETHER WITH GUIDDE

🎬 Create how-to videos in seconds with AI

The Rundown: Guidde transforms the way you create documentation with AI-powered technology that generates stunning video guides 11x faster than traditional methods — turning tedious explanations into engaging visual content.

Guidde allows you to:

• Turn boring docs into visual masterpieces

• Save hours with AI-powered automation

• Share or embed your guide anywhere

Download the extension now — it’s 100% free.

OPENAI

🔮 Rumors: OpenAI and Jony Ive’s mystery AI device

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: New details emerged about OpenAI and Jony Ive's AI device following OpenAI’s $6.5B acquisition of Ive's startup io, with CEO Sam Altman reportedly telling staff that they have “the chance to do the biggest thing” ever as a company.

The details:

• A report from the WSJ detailed a preview Altman gave to employees, targeting shipping 100M units with a late 2026 release.

• The product is being positioned as a “third core device” alongside phones and laptops, and will maintain full awareness of users’ surroundings and daily life.

• Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the current device prototype is “slightly larger than the AI Pin” but “as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle”.

• Kuo also noted that the device is designed to be worn around the neck, with cameras and microphones, and no screen or display.

Why it matters: After other AI wearables flamed out, OpenAI is betting that combining Ive's design mastery with its AI prowess can finally crack a new physical form. A screen-free approach would be a departure from current habits, but whether users are ready to trust an always-listening AI remains the billion-dollar question.

AI TRAINING

👥 Automate HR Onboarding Processes

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to build an automated system that triggers when new employees are added to a Google Sheet, finds role-specific onboarding documents, and sends personalized welcome emails.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Zapier Agents and create a New Agent named “Onboarding Agent”

2. Configure your agent to trigger when new rows are added to your HR Google Sheet containing Name, Role, and Email columns

3. Add three tools: Google Sheets to extract employee data, Google Drive to find role-specific documents, and Gmail to create personalized draft emails

4. Test your setup and activate your agent

Pro tip: You can pre-create onboarding documents in Google Drive with names that include role titles so the agent can easily match them to new employees.

PRESENTED BY RIME

🗣️ AI voices that laugh, sigh, and sound genuinely human

The Rundown: AI startup Rime just unveiled Arcana, a new spoken language (TTS) model that captures the subtle magic of human communication — complete with all the imperfections and subtleties that make speech feel authentic.

With Arcana, you can:

• Capture the nuances of real human speech with unprecedented realism

• Handle laughter, accents, vocal stumbles, breathing, multilingual speech, and more

• Access the model via API to start building

Click here to talk to Arcana right in your browser.

APPLE

👓 Apple rushes AI glasses to challenge Meta

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple is reportedly accelerating development of its AI-powered smart glasses for a late 2026 launch, according to a report from Bloomberg — hoping to counter Meta's current category success with its Ray Ban smart glasses.

The details:

• The glasses will pack cameras, mics, and speakers for real-world analysis via Siri, with the ability to handle calls, music, navigation, and live translations.

• Apple is planning for prototype production by year's end, with sources saying the device will be "better made" than Meta's offering but with a similar concept.

• There is internal worry that Apple's AI shortcomings could doom the product, which currently relies on Google Lens and OpenAI instead of its own AI.

• The project is reportedly accelerating from an initial 2027 timeline, with Apple also simultaneously axing development of camera-equipped Apple Watches.

Why it matters: Apple is already lagging significantly behind in AI, but also finds itself in the unusual position of playing catch-up in a hardware category as well. Given its Apple Intelligence struggles, it’s hard to imagine this rushed effort bringing the AI-infused upgrades we expect out of something like OpenAI’s upcoming device.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• ⚙️ Devstral - Mistral’s new open-source coding model

• 🛍️ Shopify AI - New AI-infused design and business tools for merchants

• 🧑‍💻 Stitch - Google Labs AI experiment for turning ideas into UI designs

• 🥯 BAGEL - ByteDance’s open-source multimodal foundation model

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🔗 Abridge - Partner Operations Director

• 🖥️ Hugging Face - Senior Frontend Engineer

• 🧠 Perplexity AI - AI Systems Engineer

• 🏛️ Synthesia - Corporate Affairs Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI launched Stargate UAE, the project’s first international deployment to provide nationwide ChatGPT access and build computing centers in Abu Dhabi starting in 2026.

Mistral released Document AI, an enterprise tool for extracting text from documents and images with 99% accuracy and the ability to process thousands of pages a minute.

Anthropic announced the general availability of its Claude Code platform, along with new API capabilities, for developers building agents using its models.

Amazon is testing “Hear the highlights,” an AI-powered audio feature that creates conversational summaries of products by analyzing reviews and product details.

MIT researchers developed CAV-MAE Sync, an AI model that learned to match specific video frames with corresponding sounds without labeling.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that he believes the first billion-dollar company created with just one employee will happen as early as 2026.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop today at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be up to speed on the latest from Google and ready to use their new tools in your own projects.

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See you soon,

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