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Tech

Apple's foldable iPhone leaks

Jennifer Mossalgue • 5 minutes

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Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Apple is preparing to fold the iPhone — whether or not anyone asked for it. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the device will open into an iPad mini–sized screen and pair luxe hardware with a sleeker design meant to make foldables feel stylish.

If it lands, it could amount to Apple’s most significant iPhone redesign in years — but is that enough to make you part with a fresh $2K?

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Apple’s foldable iPhone is basically a tiny iPad

  • Rivian delays its ‘Tesla killer’ electric SUV

  • Zoom debuts ‘digital twin’ AI avatars

  • Anduril ups its space game with ExoAnalytic buy

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 Apple’s foldable iPhone is basically a tiny iPad

Image source: Apple (iPad mini)

The Rundown: Apple’s first foldable iPhone will unfold into a near-iPad mini footprint and run a revamped iOS with split-screen multitasking — the most significant rethink of the iPhone's form and interface in years, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The details:

  • Bloomberg reports that the foldable will open to a 7.8 in. inner display about the size of an iPad mini, with a smaller outer screen closer to a compact iPhone.

  • The device will run a tweaked iOS that adds iPad‑style multitasking, including side‑by‑side apps and redesigned layouts for key first‑party apps.

  • Gurman says Apple is building a tougher hinge and a “market‑leading” barely‑there crease to outperform Samsung and Google foldables.

  • Expect pricing north of $2K; Apple is positioning the iPhone Fold as an ultra-premium, early-adopter product that sits even above the Pro line.

Why it matters: Apple’s foldable iPhone is Apple’s first shot at an ultra‑luxury phone, engineered to outclass rivals on hardware and software in one move. CAD-based leaks point to a wider book-style chassis and dual-camera bump, marking the first real silhouette shift for iPhone hardware in years.

RIVIAN

🚙 Rivian delays its ‘Tesla killer’ electric SUV

Image source: Rivian

The Rundown: EV startup Rivian is pushing back the much-hyped $45K electric R2 SUV until late 2027, choosing to launch a pricier Performance trim first — a margin play that leaves the mass market wide open for rivals.

The details:

  • The base R2 Standard, with rear-wheel drive and a projected 275-mile range, slips to late 2027, now starting at $46,495.

  • The R2 Performance launches this year at $57,990 — nearly $12K more than the entry model it’s replacing in the queue.

  • Rivian is targeting up to 25K R2s on the road by the end of 2026, betting that early adopters will tolerate higher prices to keep the fledgling automaker afloat.

  • To cut costs, Rivian is redesigning its stack, bringing more hardware in-house, and absorbing the blow from lost EV tax credits and new import tariffs.

Why it matters: Every month the $46K R2 sits in waiting, Tesla’s Model Y and Chevy’s Equinox EV can solidify their grip on the midrange SUV buyer Rivian is courting. The cash logic is sound — launch high-margin hardware first, fund the cheaper model later — but Rivian still hasn’t proved it can build a mass-market EV on time and on budget.

ZOOM

👯‍♂️ Zoom debuts ‘digital twin’ AI avatars

Image source: Zoom

The Rundown: Zoom is launching an AI-powered productivity suite that embeds generative tools across email, documents, chat, and meetings — and it’s building AI avatars that can show up to calls in your place.

The details:

  • With the new AI suite, users can summarize calls, draft follow-ups, and pull content automatically from transcripts and shared files.

  • The company is developing customizable AI avatars that can join meetings on behalf of users, engage in conversation, and produce a summary afterward.

  • Avatars can mirror your face, expressions, and facial movements to stand in for you in meetings and async video messages when you’re not camera‑ready.

Why it matters: Zoom wants to claw back relevance from Microsoft and Google by turning its video app into a full AI‑first workplace suite, not just a place you drop in for meetings. Its photorealistic avatars could push beyond the more limited avatars in Teams and Meet today — useful for overbooked workers, if your boss is okay with it.

ANDURIL

🛰️ Anduril ups its space game with ExoAnalytic buy

Image source: Anduril

The Rundown: Anduril, Palmer Luckey’s defense startup best known for autonomous drones and AI weapons systems, just snapped up boutique space-surveillance firm ExoAnalytic Solutions, instantly doubling the size of its space unit.

The details:

  • The deal brings in a global network of hundreds of ground telescopes that track satellites and missiles, plus more than a hundred space‑domain experts.

  • Live orbital data will feed into Lattice, Anduril’s AI battle‑management platform, tightening the loop between what happens in space and how militaries respond.

  • Luckey is steering Anduril toward becoming a key space‑intel supplier for the Pentagon, a software‑first rival to legacy contractors’ satellite fleets.

  • Anduril, eyeing a $60.5B valuation, is also in the process of raising a $4B round from investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

Why it matters: Anduril’s ExoAnalytic buy gives it a ready‑made space “sensor layer” — 400 telescopes, a hundred-plus specialists, and proven tracking software wired into its space‑defense stack. That lets Anduril sell the Pentagon not just drones, but a full chain from spotting satellites in orbit to steering interceptors at incoming threats.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Atlassian, the Australian software group, is cutting about 10% of its staff as it restructures to address the competitive threat from generative AI.

Apple is cutting its App Store commission in China from 30% to 25%, a rare concession aimed at easing mounting pressure from local regulators.

YouTube reportedly generated more U.S. ad revenue in 2025 than Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV networks combined.

Italian prosecutors asked a court to put Amazon and four current and former executives on trial over alleged tax evasion of about €14B ($16.1B) in Italy.

Substack is adding a built-in recording studio so writers can record, edit, and publish podcasts directly from its platform instead of relying on external audio tools.

Uber is rolling out an invite-only chauffeur service that offers high-end cars, professional drivers, and perks like free phone chargers for top-spending riders.

Honda scrapped its planned upcoming EVs — Honda 0 SUV, 0 Saloon, and electric Acura RSX — for the U.S. market, citing tariffs and slowing EV demand.

Amazon, responding to recent outages blamed on AI-written code, will now require senior engineers to sign off on any AI-assisted software changes before they go live.

The Marine Corps is testing a new full‑body “thermal cloak” over‑garment designed to hide Marines from drones and other sensors by masking their heat signature.

Tinder is rolling out in‑person events and virtual speed‑dating features to pull lapsed users back into its app and make swiping feel more like real‑world dating.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Google brings Gemini to the road

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. 2026 has been all about Google’s product-centric AI push, putting Gemini in everything you use… and now, the company is bringing that strategy to the road.

With a new experience rolling out to Maps, the Sundar Pichai-led company is betting Gemini can make your trips easier, more immersive, and hopefully a lot more hands-free.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Google launches Gemini-powered Maps

  • Microsoft’s step toward ‘medical superintelligence’

  • Automate Gmail with Google Workspace Studio

  • AI agent hacks McKinsey’s ‘Lilli’ chatbot in two hours

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🛣️ Google launches Gemini-powered Maps

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google just dropped a major Gemini-powered upgrade for Maps, introducing two new features: Ask Maps, which lets you ask questions and get relevant answers to plan trips, and Immersive Navigation, which renders the route in 3D.

The details:

  • Ask Maps simplifies trip planning by letting you ask questions about the route/stops, with Gemini fetching from 300M+ places and reviews to answer.

  • Immersive Navigation renders the route in 3D, using Gemini to analyze Street View and aerial imagery to show buildings, overpasses, crosswalks, and more.

  • Other upgrades include more conversational voice guidance, Street View previews of destinations with parking info, and trade-offs for alternative routes.

  • Maps is the latest Google product to get the Gemini touch, following Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Meet, Photos, and Android.

Why it matters: As the race to build the best model continues, Google is showing the tech’s value by putting it where it matters most — into people’s daily lives. With Gemini now in Maps, Gmail, Docs, and Android, the company reaches billions without asking anyone to install anything new. That’s turning out to be its true moat.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

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  • Context-aware AI Agent to surface what matters and automate the rest

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MICROSOFT

🏥 Microsoft’s step toward ‘medical superintelligence’ 

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft AI debuted Copilot Health, a new AI experience that uses your health records, wearable data, and medical history to give personalized insights — moving toward what CEO Mustafa Suleyman describes as “medical superintelligence.”

The details:

  • Sitting as a secure space within Copilot, the new offering connects to 50+ wearables, EHR records from 50K+ U.S. hospitals, and Function lab results.

  • The AI analyzes this data and gives personalized insights to help people make sense of their health and get the most out of their doctors’ consultations.

  • Microsoft says Copilot Health’s advice is grounded in information from credible organizations such as Harvard Health, with answers linking back to the sources.

  • The data connected to the platform is not used for training, and users retain the option to disconnect data sources and delete the linked data altogether.

Why it matters: Microsoft is clear that it doesn’t want to replace doctors — it wants to be the next best thing. The company hopes this work will eventually pave the way for “medical superintelligence,” where AI has the knowledge of a general physician and the depth of a specialist, and remains accessible and affordable for billions worldwide.

AI TRAINING

📧 Automate Gmail with Google Workspace Studio

The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to use Google Workspace Studio to automate your Gmail inbox. You will be able to set up agents that triage incoming messages, extract key information from invoices, and draft replies using Gemini.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to Workspace Studio, check out pre-made email boosters on the homepage, designed for things like daily email recaps and VIP notifications

  2. To build your own flow, click the plus button, select “When I get an email” as your starter, add an Add labels step, and toggle on AI-powered labels

  3. Select the categories you want Gemini to watch for (like “Receipts & Invoices”). Gemini will read each incoming email and label it automatically

  4. Hit “Turn on” and send yourself a test email. Check the Activity tab in Workspace Studio to see exactly what happened at each step

Pro tip: You can add a “Check if” step for new receipt labels. Use Extract with Gemini to pull details, then Sheets → Add a row to log them.

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MCKINSEY

🤖 AI agent hacks McKinsey’s ‘Lilli’ chatbot in two hours

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: Security startup CodeWall revealed its AI agent broke into McKinsey's internal AI ‘Lilli’ in under two hours, gaining full read-write access to a database with confidential chat messages, client files, and user accounts — all in plain text.

The details:

  • As McKinsey’s AI for chat, analysis, and search across 100K+ internal documents, Lilli is used by 70% of its staff, some 45K people, for client work.

  • CodeWall’s agent found exposed API docs with 22 endpoints that didn’t need authentication. One had a basic security flaw that enabled database access.

  • It included 46.5M messages discussing strategy, M&A deals, and client work, 728K files with client data, 57K user accounts, and 95 control prompts.

  • McKinsey was informed about the flaw, following which it analyzed the situation with a third party (found no one else got access) and patched the vulnerability.

Why it matters: The fact that this wasn’t a four-person startup but McKinsey & Company shows even the best can miss the basics. If firms at this level are getting it wrong, every company rushing to ship AI internally for business-critical workflows needs to take a harder look at what they might be leaving wide open.

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  • ⚙️ Codex - OpenAI’s coding assistant, now with automations and themes

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📰 Everything else in AI today

xAI hired Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg — senior product engineers from Cursor — to accelerate Grok’s coding capabilities, with both directly reporting to Elon Musk.

Meta reportedly delayed its next AI model, named Avocado, until at least May after it underperformed against frontier models in internal evaluations.

Perplexity expanded its “Computer” agentic system to Pro subscribers, enabling access with the option to add credits depending on usage needs.

Pentagon CTO Emil Michael said “there’s no chance” of renewing talks with Anthropic, and that Claude would “pollute” the supply chain with “a different policy preference.”

Dating app Bumble plans to introduce “Bee,” a generative AI assistant that will privately learn user preferences and then suggest relevant matches based on them.

Axiom, the AI reasoning startup focused on formal mathematics and verified AI, announced a $200M Series A round at a $1.6B+ valuation, led by Menlo Ventures.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Jeff C. in Oklahoma City:

“I have been using AI to assist me in building required training courses for our team of aircraft maintenance professionals. The time to actual use has been reduced significantly. What once took months to create can be completed in less than a day.

The quality of the training has significantly improved through the use of AI/ChatGPT. The Federal Aviation Regulations are a winding road from all of the various documents. AI has been able to untangle the ‘spider’s web’ of documents, allowing accurate & up-to-date training.”

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Robotics

Figure's humanoid cleans living room

Jennifer Mossalgue • 6 minutes

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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Figure’s humanoid just walked into a messy living room and actually cleaned it, sort of.

The Figure 03 robot sprayed surfaces with 409 (product placement?), sorted toys, and hunted down a TV remote, powered by the same neural controller behind its earlier kitchen demo. CEO Brett Adcock says it’s fully autonomous, but Elon Musk has questions.

In today’s robotics rundown:

  • Figure 03 can now clean living rooms

  • Uber adds Zoox robotaxis in Vegas

  • Inside China’s robot boot camps

  • Robot dolphin cleans up oil spills

  • Quick hits on other robotic news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

FIGURE

🛋️ Figure 03 can now clean living rooms

Image source: Figure

The Rundown: Silicon Valley robotics startup Figure’s latest demo shows its Figure 03 humanoid tidying a living room, using the same single neural controller from its earlier kitchen demo to manage new tools and textiles and clean as it goes.

The details:

  • In the clip, Figure 03 sprays and wipes a dirty surface with a towel, repositions that same towel over its shoulder, and resumes cleaning, albeit a bit awkwardly.

  • CEO Brett Adcock says the robot “performs whole-body, end-to-end living room cleanup” powered by the company’s in-house Helix 02 VLA model.

  • The robot handles complex two-handed behavior: it lifts a bin while scooping blocks into it, stashes items under one arm, and retrieves a TV remote.

  • Elon Musk publicly asked on X whether the demo was “autonomously or remotely operated” — Adcock replied it was “fully autonomous.”

Why it matters: If Figure can keep expanding Helix 02 with data instead of rewiring its robots every time the room changes, that’s a big point for the “one brain, many chores” thesis. But the field is split: 1X wants the same domestic endgame, Agility has real warehouse deployments, and Tesla’s Optimus hype still outruns its public demos.

ZOOX

🎰 Uber adds Zoox robotaxis in Vegas

Image source: Zoox

The Rundown: Amazon-owned Zoox plans to plug its steering‑wheel‑free robotaxis into the Uber app in Las Vegas later this year, if it can first convince U.S. regulators to let the purpose-built shuttles operate commercially.

The details:

  • The rollout hinges on regulators approving Zoox’s request for exemptions from multiple federal vehicle safety standards so the cars can operate commercially.

  • Zoox is already running limited, free public rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco, which it aims to convert into paid trips once approvals land.

  • The company will launch via its own app first, then feed vehicles into Uber under a multi‑year partnership that also targets LA in 2027.

  • The deal plugs Amazon’s AV unit into Uber’s huge rider base, putting Zoox up against Waymo and more than 25 other autonomous partners on the platform.

Why it matters: Zoox jumping onto Uber’s platform is an attempt to turn a long‑running R&D project into a real business, fast, by piggybacking on an existing ride‑hail giant. It also shows how robotaxi players may need to cooperate as much as compete, using shared platforms to chase scale while regulators decide how far to go.

CHINESE ROBOTICS

💪 Inside China's robot boot camps

Image source: SCMP

The Rundown: China is rapidly rolling out giant “robot boot camps” where armies of young workers train humanoids on everyday service jobs, turning these facilities into industrial-scale data factories for embodied AI.

The details:

  • A flagship Beijing training base spans around 150K square feet, with mock restaurants, factories, and streets where humanoids practice skills.

  • Local officials say that the site alone can generate more than 6M data points per year and around 5K hours of robot data per month.

  • China reportedly has 40 state‑backed training centers across the country, with one Shanghai center capable of logging up to 50K data points a day.

  • Germany’s NEURA Robotics is also building a massive humanoid training hub dubbed RoboGym, letting startups book “gym time” to run real‑world drills.

Why it matters: China is turning robot school into an industrial sport, running giant boot camps that crank out robot data like reps in a gym, while U.S. players such as Tesla and Figure train mostly behind closed doors. RoboGym shows Europe is finally opening its own shared robot centers, but it still has to chase Beijing’s scale.

ROBOTS FOR GOOD

🐬 Robot dolphin cleans up oil spills

Image source: RMIT

The Rundown: A sneaker-sized oil-skimming robot from RMIT University in Australia is using a sea-urchin-inspired filter and a dolphin-shaped body to help clean up marine oil spills.

The details:

  • The Electronic Dolphin skims oil from the water’s surface, using a small pump to pull in contaminated liquid and store the recovered oil onboard.

  • Its sea‑urchin‑inspired filter is coated with microscopic spikes that trap air pockets so water rolls off while oil sticks, letting it capture oil with 95% purity.

  • The prototype currently runs for about 15 minutes per battery charge, recovering roughly 2mL of oil per minute, and the filter material can be reused.

  • The team plans to scale it up in size and eventually make it fully autonomous so fleets can vacuum spills, autonomously return to base to offload and recharge.

Why it matters: Oil-spill cleanup is dangerous, messy, and labor-intensive, and RMIT’s robo-dolphin points to a new generation of marine-cleanup robots — alongside systems like IADYS’ oil-skimming Jellyfishbot and SeaClear2.0’s coordinated robot fleets — designed to take on hazardous pollution response with less human exposure.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Tesla unveiled its third-generation Optimus humanoid at AWE 2026 in Shanghai, aiming to start mass production by late 2026.

U.S. startup Nuro began testing its end-to-end AI-powered autonomous driving stack on Toyota Prius vehicles with safety drivers on public streets in Tokyo.

Grubhub is teaming with drone startup Dexa on a trial delivering Wonder restaurant orders by air to nearby New Jersey customers at no extra cost beyond regular fees.

ABB Robotics is partnering with Nvidia to bring industrial-grade physical AI into factories via ABB’s RobotStudio software and Nvidia’s Omniverse-based tech.

Rhoda AI raised $450M at a $1.7B valuation to build a “Direct Video Action” model that turns internet videos straight into robot control for messy real‑world tasks. 

iRobot is rolling out the Roomba Mini robot vacuum-and-mop to the U.K. and Europe, even as the company restructures under Chapter 11.

A University of Texas research team built a highly sensitive robotic hand that can pick up and gently hold a single potato chip without breaking it.

MIT built a two-step planning method that uses VLMs to turn a single scene image into precise instructions, making robots better at long, complex tasks.

Samsung SDI is unveiling its first pouch‑style solid‑state battery, designed for compact physical AI systems like humanoids.

Zoox began mapping Dallas and Phoenix with sensor‑packed SUVs as a first step toward testing its self‑driving system and eventually deploying its robotaxis there.

U.S. engineers developed a dual-arm “zero-momentum” robot control method to keep satellites stable during in-orbit robotic repairs.

A space engineer created WANDER-bot, a 3D‑printed, wind-powered robot designed to roam harsh environments or potentially other planets without batteries.

A Hexagon global survey finds robot anxiety is highest where robots are rare and drops as people see them working safely in everyday settings.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Perplexity's new answer to OpenClaw

Zach Mink • 7 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Apple hasn’t been able to get Siri right, but its smallest computer might be the one actually powering the AI agent era.

Perplexity just spun out its Computer agentic system with a ‘Personal’ local option, pitching itself as the safer alternative to OpenClaw — and likely ramping up the demand for Apple’s small but mighty machine even more in the process.

Reminder: Our next live workshop is today at 2 PM EST — join pt. 1 of our Intro to Vibe Coding Workshop and learn how to build reusable, working software for your specific tasks without any technical experience needed. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Perplexity turns Mac mini into a 24/7 AI agent

  • Musk revives Macrohard as a joint xAI-Tesla project

  • Create agentic workflows in Google Workspace

  • Anthropic Institute to document AI’s disruption

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

PERPLEXITY

💻 Perplexity turns Mac mini into a 24/7 AI agent

Image source: Perplexity

The Rundown: Perplexity just debuted Personal Computer, a new local version of its Computer AI agent system that runs on a dedicated Mac mini — positioning itself as a more secure, controlled rival to the viral OpenClaw.

The details:

  • The agent gives Perplexity's Comet assistant persistent local access to files, apps, and sessions on a Mac mini, able to be managed from anywhere.

  • Perplexity frames it as a safer OpenClaw, with safeguards like tracked activity, sign-off for sensitive tasks, and a ‘kill switch’ to shut the system down.

  • Perplexity Computer launched in late February, providing a cloud-based agentic system that orchestrates different models at once to complete tasks.

  • Perplexity Max subscribers get early access via a waitlist, with the company saying it will provide “support and resources” for the initial cohort of users.

  • Perplexity also released Computer to enterprise, tapping into 20 models and 400+ app connections — along with a Slack integration for team workflows.

Why it matters: Everyone knocks Apple for its AI mishaps, but the Mac mini is unintentionally becoming the default hardware for the AI agent era. Between OpenClaw, Perplexity's Personal Computer, and the wave of offshoots, always-on local agents are getting safer and easier to set up — and soon everyone's going to have one.

TOGETHER WITH SLACK FROM SALESFORCE

♥️ Why Microsoft customers love Slack

The Rundown: How do top teams use Microsoft 365? They integrate it with Slack to create an all-in-one work operating system, connecting every tool, automating workflows, and putting AI at the center.

Watch this demo to see how 150,000+  Microsoft customers maximize existing tech investments with Slack, including:

  • Best in class integrations with Office, SharePoint, Teams, etc.

  • AI-powered automation and no-code search

  • An open ecosystem with 2,600+ app connections

Watch and learn more.

XAI & TESLA

🤖 Musk revives Macrohard as a joint xAI-Tesla project

Image source: Lovart / Elon Musk on X

The Rundown: Elon Musk pushed back on reports that its AI software initiative Macrohard had stalled, revealing xAI's project is merging with Tesla's ‘Digital Optimus’ AI agent into a system he claims can "emulate the function of entire companies."

The details:

  • The system will pair Grok with a ‘Digital Optimus’ agent, processing live screen video and inputs and borrowing techniques from Tesla's FSD tech.

  • Musk says it'll run on Tesla's $650 AI4 chip paired with xAI's Nvidia servers — and calls it "the only real-time smart AI system" available.

  • The post came after Business Insider reported that 20+ Macrohard engineers had left or shifted roles, with a 600-person data project also on pause.

  • xAI merged with SpaceX in February, but has suffered from a wave of employee exits over the last month, including several co-founders.

Why it matters: "Emulate the function of entire companies" is a big claim, but Musk has the pieces for it — custom chips, FSD-trained video processing, and Grok's reasoning in one stack. Macrohard could end up as the most vertically integrated agent play on the market… But his grand visions often take longer than expected to develop.

AI TRAINING

🛠️ Create agentic workflows in Google Workspace

The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to create an agent in your Google Workspace that reads form submissions, tracks them in a spreadsheet, and then emails you action items using Google’s new AI automation tool called Workspace Studio.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to Workspace Studio (request access if unavailable), create a new Flow, select “When a form response comes in” as the starter, and pick your form

  2. Add a new step and select Summarize > Content from previous steps > Variable > Form response. In the prompt box, give the form’s purpose

  3. Add a Decide step with the prompt “Read this summary [summary variable] and decide if it meets [your criteria for escalation]”

  4. Click Add substep > Notify me by email and add the AI summary in the message body along with any other form variables

Pro tip: You can use this workflow to triage inbound leads, handle internal troubleshooting, onboard clients, and more.

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ANTHROPIC

🏛️ Anthropic Institute to document AI’s disruption

Image source: Lovart / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic unveiled the Anthropic Institute, a new group combining three teams under co-founder Jack Clark to study AI’s societal impacts, launching amid the company's legal battle with the Pentagon over its blacklisting as a supply-chain risk.

The details:

  • The ~30-person team will merge Anthropic's Frontier Red Team, Societal Impacts, and economics research groups, with plans to double staff yearly.

  • The Institute plans to share learnings from building frontier models with the public, while engaging workers and industries facing AI displacement head-on.

  • Founding hires include ex-DeepMind researcher Matt Botvinick, economist Anton Korinek, and Zoe Hitzig, who resigned from OAI over ads in ChatGPT.

Why it matters: Anthropic has not been shy about banging the drum on AI’s coming disruption, and now it has a whole think tank devoted to it. If a powerful AGI-level system really does arrive this year (and some may argue they’re already here), having an institute already studying its fallout may turn out to be one of the smarter bets in AI.

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  • 🗣️Unwrap Customer Intelligence - Turn unstructured customer feedback into data-backed insights that inform your product roadmap*

  • ⚙️ Agent 4 - Replit's coding agent with infinite design canvas, team workflows

  • 🧠 Nemotron 3 Super - Nvidia's 120B reasoning AI with 1M token context

  • 🎧 TADA - Hume AI's open-source TTS AI with expressive and reliable outputs

*Sponsored Listing

📰 Everything else in AI today

Replit raised $400M at a $9B valuation, while dropping Agent 4, a coding agent that ships 10x faster with parallel agents, deeper collaboration, and broader build options.

Microsoft filed an amicus brief in support of Anthropic in its lawsuit against the Pentagon's supply chain blacklist, calling for a restraining order on the ban.

Amazon imposed a 90-day code safety reset after AI changes led to outages that cost 6.3M lost orders in one day, now requiring dual sign-offs for crucial deployments.

NVIDIA released Nemotron 3 Super, an open-source 120B reasoning model built for multi-agent workflows with a 1M-token context window and 5x faster speeds.

Cloudflare introduced a /crawl API endpoint that scrapes entire websites in one call, in a notable pivot from the company known for selling anti-bot protection.

Amazon launched Health AI, a free agentic assistant that can read medical records, book appointments, and manage prescriptions, with five free visits for Prime members.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Jigar P. in Canada:

"I use AI as a learning partner to support my son’s communication and language development. He is on the Autism spectrum. I generate tailored WH-question exercises (who, what, where, when, why) so he can practice understanding and answering.

I also use AI to design vocal and speech exercises that help reduce echolalia by encouraging him to move from repeating the question to giving his own response. Instead of relying on generic worksheets, I create learning materials that adapt to what he finds challenging and what keeps him engaged. AI helps me produce new examples, practice prompts, and role-play scenarios, so the practice stays fresh and consistent."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

AI

Yann LeCun's $1B bet against LLMs

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Few people in AI have been louder about LLMs being a dead end than Yann LeCun. Even fewer have a Turing Award and a billion dollars to do something about it.

His new Advanced Machine Intelligence just launched with over $1B in funding to build what he believes LLMs never can: AI that actually understands the real world.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • LeCun's anti-LLM startup opens with $1B

  • Meta acquires AI agent social media platform

  • Replicate ChatGPT Pulse on the $20 plan

  • Murati lands Nvidia deal for Thinking Machines

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AMI LABS

💰 LeCun's anti-LLM startup opens with $1B

Image source: Advanced Machine Intelligence

The Rundown: Ex-Meta Chief Scientist Yann LeCun’s Advanced Machine Intelligence just emerged with a $1.03B seed round, with the Turing Award winner betting on a world model approach to AI over the LLM approach he’s been railing against for years.

The details:

  • LeCun left Meta in November after 12 years with FAIR, telling Mark Zuckerberg he could build world models “faster, cheaper, and better” on his own.

  • AMI's systems hope to simulate how the physical world works with persistent memory, targeting manufacturing, robotics, wearables, healthcare, and more.

  • The round values the company at $3.5B, with Nvidia, Samsung, Bezos Expeditions, Eric Schmidt, and Mark Cuban among the backers.

  • LeCun chose Paris for AMI's headquarters, calling Silicon Valley 'LLM-pilled' —with additional hubs in New York, Montreal, and Singapore.

Why it matters: That is quite the seed round, and LeCun has quickly landed on his feet after leaving the FAIR research team he called home for over a decade. The outspoken research scientist has gone against the LLM flow throughout the AI boom. Now, he finally has a major war chest and the freedom to work on his vision of world models.

TOGETHER WITH LAMBDA

⚡ Cut your AI training costs by 25% or more

The Rundown: Most large-scale AI training runs use less than half the computing power they're paying for. Lambda's team found the root causes and built a reproducible framework that boosted efficiency by over 25%—without changing the model itself.

Lambda’s whitepaper shows you how to address:

  • Memory inefficiencies silently inflating your costs

  • Training configurations that aren't making full use of your hardware

  • Bottlenecks that slow down GPU communication

Get the guide.

META

🦞 Meta acquires viral AI agent social media platform

Image source: Moltbook

The Rundown: Meta acqui-hired the creators of Moltbook, the viral vibe-coded social forum for AI agents that went viral alongside OpenClaw — folding the duo into its Superintelligence Labs team, weeks after OpenAI hired OpenClaw’s Peter Steinberger.

The details:

  • Co-creator Matt Schlicht launched Moltbook in late January as a weekend project, building most of it with his OpenClaw bot named ‘Clawd Clawderberg’.

  • Mark Zuckerberg had reportedly tried OpenClaw and courted Steinberger first, but lost out after the developer joined OpenAI in February.

  • The platform has 2.8M registered bots with nearly 200K verified to real people, forming what Meta calls an 'always-on directory' for agent coordination.

  • Posts about bot religions and anti-human manifestos went viral, though researchers found security holes that let humans easily pose as agents.

Why it matters: Meta's feeds are already filling up with AI creators and bot content, but it's been a messy, backlash-heavy rollout. Moltbook offers something different — a verified agent layer where bots operate in the open, not disguised as humans. How Zuck and co. incorporate the concept will be an interesting angle to watch.

AI TRAINING

🧠 Replicate ChatGPT Pulse on the $20 plan

The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to replicate ChatGPT Pulse (from the $200 Pro plan) on your $20 Plus plan, as well as discover how to use the lesser-known ChatGPT feature.

Step-by-step:

  1. Pulse proactively messages you each day with news and suggestions based on your chat history. ChatGPT also has a feature called “tasks”

  2. Open ChatGPT on the web, desktop, or mobile and prompt: “Create a daily, recurring task that briefs me on the daily stock market moves at 5 PM”

  3. To edit/delete tasks, go to Settings > Notifications > Tasks > Manage Tasks. Turn on push notifications for tasks and for the app on your phone

  4. You should start getting daily, recurring briefs in the chat where you set up the task

Pro tip: You can have up to 10 active tasks at once, so we recommend setting up briefs on multiple topics or recurring tasks on connected services like Gmail or your Calendar.

PRESENTED BY UNWRAP

💬 Powerful insights for powerful brands

The Rundown: Unwrap’s customer intelligence platform brings all your customer feedback (surveys, reviews, support tickets, social comments, etc.) into a single view, then uses AI + NLP to surface the most actionable insights and deliver them straight to your inbox.

With Unwrap, you get:

  • A clear, single view of customer sentiment

  • The ability to ask questions about your feedback using natural language with Assistant

  • Real-time alerts from your feedback as they arise

  • Tools trusted at scale by Oura, Stripe, Clay, DoorDash, lululemon, Southwest Airlines, and others

Exclusive for The Rundown subscribers, connect with Unwrap for a free trial.

THINKING MACHINES & NVIDIA

💰 Murati lands Nvidia deal for Thinking Machines

Image source: Thinking Machines

The Rundown: Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Labs just secured a multiyear deal with Nvidia for at least a gigawatt of compute, giving the former OpenAI exec’s year-old startup the kind of AI infrastructure typically reserved for the largest labs.

The details:

  • Murati was OpenAI's CTO and briefly its interim CEO before leaving to found Thinking Machines, which pulled in $2B in funding at a $10B valuation last year.

  • The multiyear deal puts at least a GW of Nvidia's next-gen Vera Rubin systems behind TML's frontier model training, with deployment targeted for early 2027.

  • Nvidia also added undisclosed new capital on top of its existing stake from the $2B seed round, though neither company shared the size.

  • TML has one product live, Tinker, a fine-tuning API for enterprises, but the gigawatt commitment signals a move toward creating their own models.

Why it matters: The exodus of TML employees and co-founders moving back to OpenAI in January looked like a death blow for a startup that had made little noise since launching. But this Nvidia partnership is a loud response and a clear sign that Murati has bigger ambitions — regardless of who is sticking around with her.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • 🤖 Thenvoi - Connect any agent, any framework with a powerful multi-peer agentic communication mesh*

  • ⚙️ Code Review - Anthropic's multi-agent PR review system for Claude Code

  • 🧠 Gemini Embedding 2 - Google’s AI to search across text, images, video, audio

  • 💻 Interactive Learning - ChatGPT’s visual math and science modules

*Sponsored Listing

📰 Everything else in AI today

Google released Gemini Embedding 2 in public preview, its first AI model that can understand and search across text, images, video, and audio in a single system.

OpenAI introduced interactive visual modules to ChatGPT for 70+ math and science concepts, letting users tweak variables and watch formulas respond in real time.

Hume AI opened TADA, a speech generation AI that locks text & audio in sync to cut hallucinations, coming in 5x faster than rivals and light enough for on-device use.

Google upgraded Gemini across its productivity suite with the ability to draft docs, build sheets, and create presentations by pulling context from files, inbox, and the web.

Amazon secured a preliminary injunction against Perplexity’s Comet browser, barring the AI agent from buying products through Amazon accounts on behalf of users.

Nvidia is preparing to launch NemoClaw, an open platform for enterprises to run AI agents across any hardware, with early pitches out to Salesforce, Google, and others.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Sahar R. in St. Louis, MO:

"I'm a philosophy professor, and I integrated AI in nearly every step of generating a new course (Business Ethics) — from finding real-world cases posted about on credible news outlets, open-access case law, open educational resources as class materials, designing discussion board questions, building fair rubrics, and interactive in-class activities for the students.

Augmenting my course development with AI enhanced my course, the student experience, my effort and time, and my work became fun again."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer—the humans behind The Rundown

Tech

Air taxis to fly in 26 states

Jennifer Mossalgue • 6 minutes

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Good morning, tech enthusiasts. This summer, electric air taxis from startups like Archer, Joby, and Beta will hit the skies in federally backed trials, shuttling passengers and cargo across 26 states.

The results could show whether urban air mobility is finally ready for liftoff, or still years away from escaping the hype cycle.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Electric air taxis to take flight in 26 states

  • Apple preps high-end ‘Ultra’ line

  • Bluesky CEO Jay Graber steps down

  • Palmer Luckey’s gaming startup seeks $1B valuation

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

EVTOL

🚀 Electric air taxis to take flight in 26 states

Image source: Beta Technologies

The Rundown: This summer, Americans in 26 states will get their first taste of “flying cars,” as federally backed pilot programs send electric air taxis from startups like Archer, Joby, and Beta skimming over city traffic under tightly controlled FAA trials.

The details:

  • Startups including Archer, Joby, Beta, Wisk, Electra, and Reliable Robotics will run passenger, cargo, and emergency flights with state and local partners.

  • The three-year program, created by a Trump executive order, lets these aircraft operate under tight supervision before full FAA type certification.

  • Officials say the aircraft will be quieter, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper than helicopters, and aimed at cutting congestion and linking smaller cities.

  • Beta CEO Kyle Clark said the program will let Beta start flying a year early; its shares jumped nearly 12% Monday, with Archer and Joby stock rising too.

Why it matters: Partnering with state and local governments, flying car startups get a chance to gather real‑world data across dozens of operation scenarios, from Manhattan heliports to routes over the Gulf Coast, access that could boost stock prices and validate their business models — or reveal just how far the tech still has to go.

APPLE

🍎 Apple preps high-end ‘Ultra’ line

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Apple is reportedly getting ready to seriously crank up the luxury dial, prepping a $2,000‑ish foldable iPhone, a touchscreen MacBook Pro, and camera‑toting, AI‑smartened AirPods aimed squarely at the ultra‑high‑end crowd.

The details:

  • Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that at least three ‘Ultra’-tier devices are in the pipeline for 2026, including a foldable iPhone with a large inner display.

  • The Ultra tier is built around a $2,000‑class foldable iPhone that sits well above today’s Pro models, as well as a higher-priced MacBook Pro.

  • Apple is also said to be working on new AirPods with built‑in computer‑vision cameras that can feed visual “intelligence” straight into Siri

  • The new MacBook is expected to pair the first touchscreen ever on a Mac with an OLED panel, at a price beyond today’s M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro.

Why it matters: The budget MacBook Neo may have grabbed headlines, but Gurman says Apple’s real play this year is at the other end of the price spectrum. A foldable iPhone, AI-camera AirPods, and a touchscreen OLED MacBook are all expected before year’s end — and none of them will be cheap.

BLUESKY

🪜 Bluesky CEO Jay Graber steps down

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Rundown: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down to hand longtime tech operator Toni Schneider the reins — just as the Jack Dorsey-founded Twitter alternative finally hits its stride at 40M users, and its first real growing pains.

The details:

  • Venture capitalist and ex-Automattic CEO Toni Schneider is taking over as interim CEO while Bluesky’s board searches for a permanent replacement.

  • Graber says Bluesky has matured to the point where it needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution.

  • Bluesky has grown into a decentralized social network with more than 40M users and an ecosystem of over 500 third-party apps.

  • The shake-up lands as Bluesky runs into new state age‑verification rules, forcing it to cut off Mississippi and start checking users’ ages in other states.

Why it matters: Graber became CEO of Bluesky in 2021, as it spun off from Twitter into its own company. As she shifts back toward Bluesky’s underlying AT Protocol — the open social framework she has worked on since the project’s early days —Schneider will have to face a growing wave of age-assurance regulation.

PALMER LUCKEY

🕹️ Palmer Luckey’s gaming startup seeks $1B valuation

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Rundown: Palmer Luckey, the Oculus co-founder turned defense-tech billionaire, is now reportedly chasing a $1B valuation for his retro gaming startup ModRetro, betting that there’s serious money in high-end nostalgia hardware.

The details:

  • ModRetro’s Chromatic is a handheld built in the mold of the original Game Boy, with support for original GB and GBC cartridges. Price starts at $199.99.

  • Luckey has described the Chromatic as the product of “hundreds of irrational decisions” intended to create a worthy tribute to the original Game Boy.

  • The Financial Times reports ModRetro is already developing additional hardware, including a device meant to replicate the Nintendo 64.

  • Luckey’s defense startup Anduril, whose autonomous weapons vision has been embraced by Trump, is also seeking a new funding round at a $60B valuation.

Why it matters: Luckey is testing whether premium nostalgia gadgets can earn a unicorn valuation in a handheld market already crowded with Analogue, Anbernic, AyaNeo, and a dozen retro rivals. The same engineer perfecting Game Boy clones is also racing firms like Palantir and Shield AI to automate warfare.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Meta AI chief Yann LeCun’s new startup, AMI, raised about $1B to build world-model systems that understand and reason about the physical world.

Apple reportedly delayed the launch of its long‑planned J490 smart home display because the overhauled Siri and on‑device AI assistant are still not ready.

AT&T said it plans to pour more than $250B into U.S. network infrastructure over the next five years.

Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz are backing Nexthop AI, a fast-growing AI data center supplier now valued at about $4.2B.

Uber is rolling out its “Women Drivers” feature nationwide in the U.S., allowing women and teens to request female drivers, expanding a safety-focused pilot.

XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis is offering $3.5M for upbeat sci‑fi films that cast AI as the hero, not the villain.

Apple now produces 25% of all iPhones in India — around 55M units produced in 2025 — as it accelerates a shift away from China to dodge US tariffs.

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is reportedly exploring vehicle-integrated solar tech to add photovoltaic panels to future EVs and extend their driving range.

Samsung told CNBC that its first AI smart glasses, featuring an eye-level camera that connects to a smartphone for AI processing, are planned for launch later this year.

Startup Cortical Labs is building test data centers in Melbourne and Singapore that swap server racks for “biocomputers” made from lab‑grown human brain cells.

OSHA is investigating the death of a 61-year-old contractor who was fatally pinned between a tractor-trailer and a loading dock at a Rivian warehouse in Illinois.

Bezos-backed EV startup Slate Auto replaced CEO Christine Barman with ex-Amazon VP Peter Faricy, just months before the launch of its first electric truck.

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is reportedly close to closing its fourth growth fund with about $6B in commitments.

Nintendo is suing the U.S. government to claw back Trump-era import tariffs that courts have ruled unlawful.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Anthropic takes U.S. government to court

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. A few months ago, Anthropic was one of the Pentagon's most prominent AI partners. Now it's suing the government in federal court.

With two new lawsuits challenging the “supply chain risk” label and White House directive to cut ties, Anthropic is arguing it’s being retaliated against for speaking up on safety — and now 30+ employees from OpenAI and Google are lining up behind them.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Anthropic takes U.S. government to court

  • Microsoft’s Claude-powered Copilot Cowork

  • Auto-generate videos from content with Manus

  • a16z releases new consumer AI Top 100

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ANTHROPIC

⚖️ Anthropic takes U.S. government to court

Image source: Lovart / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic fired back at the Trump administration with two lawsuits, challenging the Pentagon's 'supply chain risk' label and White House directive for all federal agencies to drop Claude — a move it calls punishment for its AI safety positions.

The details:

  • Anthropic filed lawsuits in two separate courts, asking judges to throw out the blacklist label and block the government from forcing agencies to cut ties.

  • The suits argue the ‘supply chain risk’ label was designed to counter foreign adversary threats, not punish a U.S company over policy disagreements.

  • They also claim the Pentagon violated free speech rights by retaliating for publicly advocating AI safety limits on weapons and surveillance.

  • 30+ OAI and Google staffers signed a legal brief backing Anthropic's Pentagon lawsuit, warning that the blacklisting threatens U.S. AI leadership.

Why it matters: Whatever side you take on who controls AI in warfare, the federal response (Hegseth's blacklist, Trump's Truth Social posts) has looked a lot like retaliation. Win or lose, the case could decide whether the gov. can move against a domestic company for speaking up on safety — a precedent all labs will be watching.

TOGETHER WITH TELEPORT

🤐 Your AI agents shouldn’t share secrets

The Rundown: Autonomous agents can’t rely on API keys or long-lived credentials anymore. Teleport’s Agentic Identity Framework replaces static secrets with verifiable, cryptographic identity for machine actors at scale.

With Teleport, you get:

  • Zero standing privileges for autonomous agents

  • Ephemeral, certified machine identities

  • Policy-based access control

  • Reliable, auditable workflow orchestration

If agents can act, they must be identified. Explore the framework.

MICROSOFT

🤖 Microsoft’s Claude-powered Copilot Cowork

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft just introduced Copilot Cowork, a new M365 feature built on Anthropic's Claude system that runs tasks in the background across apps — launching alongside a $99 enterprise bundle and a new platform for governing AI agents at scale.

The details:

  • Cowork operates in the cloud, pulling from emails, meetings, files, and chats across M365 — a contrast to Claude Cowork's current desktop-only approach.

  • Microsoft built Cowork directly with Anthropic, using Claude Cowork’s tech but wrapped in M365's enterprise security and compliance layers.

  • Users describe an outcome, and Cowork breaks it into steps, producing deliverables like decks, briefing docs, and workbooks across apps.

  • Cowork is available in a limited research preview, coming with a new $99/user E7 tier that bundles Copilot with agent management and security tools.

Why it matters: If you can't beat the thing that scared your investors, absorb it. Embedding Anthropic's agent tech inside M365's security boundaries gives Copilot Cowork something Claude Cowork can't easily match (yet) — deep, integrated enterprise context across 450M users’ worth of emails, calendars, and files.

AI TRAINING

📹 Auto-generate videos from content with Manus

The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to use Manus to script, generate, and assemble a short promotional video from any written content you already have — with no video editing experience required.

Step-by-step:

  1. Start with a blog post, a press release, or even a news story. Download it as a PDF or Markdown file, and log in to Manus.im

  2. Create a project with instructions: “You are a video producer for [my brand]. Your job is to transform written content into branded videos”

  3. In the project task, click the plus button > Use Skills > video-generator, and prompt: “Create a 15–20 second teaser video based on the attached post. The CTA is to read the full blog. Generate it in portrait orientation for Instagram Reels. Give me four script options before you generate. Use default mode”

  4. Carefully review Manus’s script options and pick the best one. Video generation should take 5–10 minutes and use between 499–800 credits

Pro tip: Save tokens by uploading B-roll videos and music into a Google Drive folder and connecting it to Manus.

PRESENTED BY GALILEO

⚙️ Expert guide to building RAG systems in 2026

The Rundown: RAG isn't dead, it's evolved: from basic vector search to today's agentic architectures with self-correction and adaptive retrieval.

Read Galileo's new 240+ page guide to learn how to build RAG systems that work in 2026, including:

  • Mastering chunking, embedding, and reranking strategies

  • Building evaluation frameworks using retrieval and generation metrics

  • Implementing advanced patterns like query decomposition and adaptive retrieval

Get the free eBook.

AI RESEARCH

📊 a16z releases new consumer AI Top 100

Image source: a16z

The Rundown: a16z released the sixth edition of consumer AI Top 100, expanding the list to include traditional apps with AI like Canva and CapCut for the first time, along with data showing ChatGPT still dominates overall usage, but rivals are gaining ground.

The details:

  • ChatGPT crossed 900M weekly users and still dwarfs every rival, but the gap is tightening — with Claude and Gemini growing paid subs over 200% last year.

  • The new list included “AI-enhanced” consumer apps for the first time, with CapCut, Canva, Notion, Grammarly, and others now slotting into the rankings.

  • The report found three distinct AI ecosystems forming: Western, Chinese, and Russian, with sanctions accelerating the split as local alternatives fill the gaps.

  • Agents are gaining ground, with Manus (#44) and (#47) Genspark making the cut, while OpenClaw is absent due to the report’s time frame.

Why it matters: a16z's consumer reports have become one of the best pulse checks on where AI adoption is actually heading, and this edition is no different. Given the recent OAI Pentagon drama, cancellations, and Claude surge, the battlefield for consumers’ ‘default AI’ could be even more competitive in the next release.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • 🔒 Incogni - Remove your personal data from the web so scammers and identity thieves can’t access it. Use code RUNDOWN to get 55% off*

  • 🤖 Copilot Cowork - Microsoft's Anthropic-powered AI for M365 tasks

  • 🧠 GPT-5.4 - OpenAI's flagship reasoner with native computer use, 1M context

  • 🗂️ Claude Marketplace - Anthropic's hub for Claude-powered partner tools

*Sponsored Listing

📰 Everything else in AI today

Anthropic rolled out Code Review for Claude Code in Team and Enterprise accounts, which uses teams of AI agents to deep-read code and flag bugs.

OpenAI announced the acquisition of Promptfoo, an AI security and red-teaming platform, to embed native agent testing into its Frontier enterprise platform.

Andrew Ng released Context Hub, a free tool that gives AI coding agents access to current documentation to prevent them from using outdated or hallucinated code.

OpenAI is further delaying its "adult mode" feature for ChatGPT, shelving the verified-users-only option to focus on intelligence, personality, and proactive capabilities.

Anthropic launched Claude Marketplace in limited preview, letting enterprises apply existing spend commitments toward partner tools from GitLab, Harvey, and others.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Tina J. in Farmingdale, NY:

"I’m working towards a promotion at the end of the year and used Copilot to evaluate my resume against real work artifacts and a competency framework. Copilot analyzed my work output and identified where I was already operating at the next level and where I could strengthen my visibility and framing.

Then I asked it to generate promotion-aligned custom instructions to reinforce strategic, executive-level behavior in future work."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Robotics

DJI pays $30K for mass robot vacuum hack

Jennifer Mossalgue • 6 minutes

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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. DJI is paying a French hobbyist $30K after he accidentally hijacked thousands of Romo robot vacuums — and the live camera feeds and microphones that came with them.

A single cloud permission flaw turned a wacky PlayStation controller experiment into an accidental mass surveillance incident. Patches are out, but the bigger question lingers: can we ever make smart devices truly private?

In today’s robotics rundown:

  • DJI pays $30K for robot vacuum hack

  • Alphabet’s delivery drones now work nights

  • Ex-Googler launches robotics startup in Tokyo

  • Tesla’s Full Self-Driving hits 8B miles

  • Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

DJI

💵 DJI pays $30K for robot vacuum hack

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: DJI is reportedly paying $30K to the French hobbyist who accidentally seized control of 7K Romo robot vacuums, flagging a bug that turned an AI-assisted weekend hack into a global home‑surveillance scare.

The details:

  • Sammy Azdoufal accidentally gained remote access to 7K robot vacuums worldwide while trying to control his own unit with a PlayStation controller.

  • The flaw let him tap into live camera feeds, microphones, and detailed home floor maps from strangers’ devices via DJI’s cloud infrastructure.

  • After he reported the issue and it went public, DJI pushed rapid backend fixes and automatic updates, saying the main vulnerabilities are now patched.

  • DJI has agreed to pay Azdoufal $30K, positioning it as a bug-bounty style reward and vowing more third-party security audits and certifications for Romo.

Why it matters: This story is a test of how much trust we put in AI-powered gadgets that can see, hear, and map our homes, in the same line as Roomba test vacuums leaking intimate photos and Ring cameras letting strangers talk to kids in their bedrooms. It’s more proof that one bad cloud permission can go terribly wrong at scale.

WING

🥡 Alphabet’s delivery drones now work nights

Image source: Wing

The Rundown: Alphabet’s Wing just won the FAA’s approval to extend its drone delivery hours to 9 p.m. in parts of Dallas–Fort Worth and Charlotte, pushing on-demand aerial logistics firmly into the evening routine.

The details:

  • Alphabet’s Wing now has FAA approval to run drone deliveries after sunset, extending operations into nighttime hours.

  • Wing’s service for Walmart and DoorDash customers runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at select sites in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the Charlotte region.

  • The drones use near-infrared “headlights” to see in the dark without adding visible light pollution, and can still pick safe landing spots, avoiding obstacles.

  • Rival Zipline has now crossed 2M commercial deliveries, while Wing has logged roughly 350K drops and aims to cover 270 Walmart stores by 2027.

Why it matters: Amazon and Zipline are also chasing drone delivery at scale, but approvals for fully automated, after-dark flights are still rare enough that each new waiver quietly resets the bar for everyone else. Knowing when Wing slips into the night shift is also a useful tell for how fast regulators are loosening the reins.

INTEGRAL AI

🇯🇵 Ex-Googler launches robotics startup in Tokyo

Image source: Integral AI

The Rundown: Ex-Google researcher Jad Tarifi is turning Integral AI from a split SF–Tokyo business into a Tokyo‑first startup, betting Japan’s factory‑robot giants are the fastest way to put his AI “brains” into the real world.

The details:

  • Tarifi has built a 15-person startup in Tokyo to plug advanced AI models into Japan’s huge industrial robot ecosystem.

  • Integral AI has worked with auto parts giant Denso since 2021, using imitation learning so factory robots can pick up new tasks by watching human demos.

  • The company is in talks with Toyota, Sony, Honda, and Nissan to show how language prompts let robots teach themselves complex workflows on the fly.

  • Integral has raised about $5.5M so far and is seeking roughly $10M more to scale its models and launch its Genesis system later this year.

Why it matters: Japan controls a huge slice of the world’s industrial robots but still depends on foreign AI and cloud providers to run them, which is exactly the gap Integral AI is trying to fill. The company’s goal is to provide the “Silicon Valley brains” that sit on top of Japanese hardware to power next-gen factory automation.

TESLA

🚘 Tesla’s Full Self-Driving hits 8B miles

Image source: Tesla

The Rundown: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) crossed 8B cumulative miles this year, a staggering data haul that inches Elon Musk’s long-promised robotaxi future closer to technical plausibility even as it remains stuck in regulatory and safety limbo.

The details:

  • Tesla is pursuing autonomy using a camera-only perception stack, in contrast to Waymo’s lidar sensors and detailed 3D mapping.

  • FSD has evolved into a supervised driver-assist suite that can change lanes, navigate routes, steer, park, and drive itself across parking lots to the owner.

  • The company’s expanding fleet, software rollouts, and periodic free FSD trials have accelerated usage from just 6M miles five years ago to billions today.

  • Musk has said about 10B miles of training data are needed to justify large-scale autonomous deployment, a threshold Tesla could hit within the year.

Why it matters: Tesla’s 8B FSD miles are huge, but those miles still come from a supervised Level 2 system rather than a true robotaxi network. That leaves Tesla with a massive data advantage over rivals in training volume, while Waymo retains the edge in fully driverless deployment, regulatory approval, and real-world commercial autonomy.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

OpenAI’s robotics chief, Caitlin Kalinowski, resigned over what she says is a rushed, poorly safeguarded Pentagon deal to put the company’s AI on military systems.

A London surgeon remotely controlled a Toumai robot to remove a prostate 2,400 km away with only 48 ms latency, showcasing long-distance telesurgery’s viability.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will host an autonomous vehicle safety forum on Tuesday with the CEOs of Waymo, Zoox, and Aurora.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s new equity package, worth up to $692M over three years, is reportedly tied to boosting the valuations of Waymo and Wing.

Mirai Robotics raised a €4.2M ($4.9M) pre-seed round to develop autonomous maritime systems aimed at both civilian and defense applications.

Agility Robotics is dropping “Robotics” from its name to become Agility, saying the rebrand reflects its readiness to scale humanoid deployments and lead adoption.

Ukraine is rolling out remote-controlled and autonomous armed ground robots against Russian forces, raising fresh ethical and legal concerns about AI-driven warfare.

Dexterity introduced Foresight, a physics-consistent world model that powers its Mech robot to autonomously load trucks using a 4D box-packing agent.

Ouster said demand for its lidar-powered software is taking off, with 2025 orders doubling and its systems now booked for more than 1,200 sites worldwide.

China’s new 5-year plan doubles down on rare earths and advanced robotics to secure supply chains and keep its edge as a high-tech industrial powerhouse.

NASA’s 1.8-meter Valkyrie humanoid is heading back to Johnson Space Center after a decade at the University of Edinburgh.

China’s WeRide is deepening its partnership with Geely’s Farizon unit to mass-produce 2K upgraded GXR robotaxis in 2026.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

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