Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

3D printing just ventured where light can’t reach — inside your body.

Researchers are using focused ultrasound waves to bioprint custom structures within organs — unlocking a new world of possibility. Let’s dig deeper…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Ultrasound prints implants INSIDE the body

• Teens still hooked on YouTube, TikTok despite backlash

• 8 new products

• Reddit suffers major outages

• TikTok acquires major Indonesian e-commerce giant

• Apple releases major iOS update, new journal app

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

3D PRINTING TECH

🖨️ Ultrasound tech prints implants INSIDE the body

Image source: Duke University

The Rundown: Duke and Harvard researchers just devised a technique using focused soundwaves to solidify an injected "ink," enabling non-invasive 3D printing of customized implants deep inside human tissue.

The details:

• The process called DAVP hardens a biocompatible liquid into scaffolds, drug reservoirs, or other structures by targeting it with a specialized ultrasound probe.

• Light can't penetrate skin, so existing bioprinting is limited — but ultrasounds can reach over 100x deeper, allowing inner-body use.

• In tests, DAVP sealed heart tissue, regenerated bone, and printed chemotherapeutic gels in livers without damaging surroundings.

• The technique could enable less invasive surgeries, and enable treatments targeting organs previously unreachable.

The relevance: While we didn’t have 3D printing INSIDE the body on our bingo cards, technology continues to amaze. This research has enormous medical potential if proven safe at scale — opening the door for a wave of new treatments.

TOGETHER WITH JASPER

🦄 Accelerate content generation with AI

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Click here to transform your content game, and let Jasper help you stop posting “AI-sounding” content today.

TECH TRENDS

📱Teens still hooked on YouTube, TikTok despite backlash

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: A new Pew Research survey just found that YouTube and TikTok still dominate teens' media diets, with nearly 1 in 5 saying they use each platform "almost constantly" despite proliferating concerns.

The details:

• Among 1,453 surveyed teens ages 13-17, 93% use YouTube and 63% use TikTok. Trailing were Snapchat (60%), Instagram (59%) and Facebook (33%).

• 33% said they use at least one of those apps nearly constantly — and 46% use the internet overall almost constantly.

• While popularity remains high, growth for sites like Facebook and Twitter (now X) has declined over the decade.

Why it matters: For anyone who interacts with teenagers, these numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise. Despite concerns in the media, sites like YouTube and TikTok still have a vice grip on the younger generation (and most of us in general) as the world continues to get more and more digital.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 Tars Copilot- Stop worrying about project management for good - let Tars (inspired by Interstellar) handle your tasks, deadlines and project status (link)*

📰 GPT-4 generated legal news website- Stay updated with AI-generated legal news (link)

💡 Kel- An AI-powered assistant for command-line interfaces (link)

🔧 LLM Templates- Efficiently manage daily activities with pre-designed language model templates (link)

🧠 Imagine with Meta AI- Meta's web-based competitor to Midjourney, driven by AI (link)

🐦 TweetHunter- All-in-one Twitter growth tool to create content using AI, build an audience, and schedule posts (link)

⚡️ Notion AI- Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion (link)

📱 Synthesia- Create professional videos without mics, cameras, or actors using an AI-generated character (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

SNIPPETS

Reddit has resolved a significant outage that disrupted the loading of posts and comments for users.

TikTok owner ByteDance agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia, resuming operations after being banned from the country in October.

The Browser Company has launched a beta version of its Arc browser for Windows users with invites being sent out to those on the waitlist.

Apple has released iOS 17.2 featuring a new Journal app, enhanced Siri health interactions, and various other updates across its device ecosystem.

Researchers at Northwestern University have created specially designed VR goggles for mice to better understand their brain reactions to perceived aerial attacks.

Google Play Movies & TV is slated to shut down on January 17, 2024, leading to the dispersal of purchased content.

United Launch Alliance will only manage three rocket launches in 2023, with the debut of its Vulcan rocket postponed until January 2024 due to ground system issues.

SPONSOR US

⚡️ Get your product in front of over 75k+ tech enthusiasts

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❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Google’s viral Gemini demo is under fire this week — with the revelation that the video relied on heavy editing to overstate the model’s capabilities.

Is the hyped model farther behind ChatGPT than initially thought, or is this just a simple PR miscommunication? Let’s investigate…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google under fire after misleading Gemini demo

• Europe breaks new ground with landmark AI rules

• 9 new AI tools to try

• How to bring emojis to life with AI

• Seattle backs revolutionary DNA tech with $75M

• Google NotebookLM rolls out to all U.S. users

Read time: 3 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🐥 Google under fire after misleading Gemini demo

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google is facing backlash after admitting its flashy Gemini demo video utilized heavy editing and prompts to make the model seem more impressive — misleading consumers with the viral video. What the quack!?

The details:

• The slick demo wowed viewers with Gemini's capability in tasks like recognizing drawings — with Google now revealing it wasn't live.

• In reality, frames were extracted from footage, and then researchers entered written prompts for Gemini off-camera, massaging the interactions.

• Some defend brief demo embellishment as common practice — but critics argue it misrepresents capabilities.

Why it matters: It’s been a rollercoaster for Google/Gemini over the past week — with the demo quickly going from an incredible achievement to what now feels a bit like smoke and mirrors. If the model is as capable as Google claims, it would’ve been best to demo it transparently and let Gemini speak for itself.

TOGETHER WITH ARTISAN

🤖 The age of AI employees is upon us: meet Artisan

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• Autonomously schedule meetings in your calendar

Hire Ava today and 10x your leads, meetings & deals.

AI REGULATION

🇪🇺 Europe breaks new ground with landmark AI rules

Image source: Commissioner Thierry Breton on X

The Rundown: After a marathon of talks, EU officials finally clinched a tentative deal establishing the world's first comprehensive legal framework governing AI systems — though some critics argue it doesn't go far enough.

The details:

• The Artificial Intelligence Act aims to ensure oversight of high-risk AI through transparency, risk management, and human review.

• It covers controversial areas like the use of facial recognition, with compromises allowing law enforcement applications.

• The act will be officially voted on early next year and won’t take effect until at least 2025.

Our thoughts: AI regulation is a polarizing issue — with many feeling the act doesn’t go far enough and others saying its overreach destroys European AI advancement potential. Regardless of where it truly lands, Europe makes the first major move — establishing itself as a potential leader on the AI legal front.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

TRENDING TOOLS

🤖 Freeflo- Create better AI images with beautiful, free and endlessly reusable style prompts for Midjourney, Clipdrop, Firefly and DALL-E (link)*

🧑 Taskade Custom AI Agents- Specialized tools designed to automate routine activities like research, task management, and content creation (link)

💌 Charm Check- Transform your dating profile into an attractive one with expert guidance (link)

🔍 ayraa- Your AI-powered workplace search assistant (link)

🎬 Video Translation by Akool- Easily translate and adapt your videos with a single click (link)

📚 BigRead.ai- Enhance your learning experience with an AI-powered personal tutor (link)

📤 Outboundly.ai- Streamline your AI-driven cold communication efforts (link)

💼 Taplio- All-in-one AI-powered tool for creating, managing, and growing your personal brand on LinkedIn (link)

⚡️ Notion AI- Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content (delete if no tool sponsors)

AI TRAINING

🐈 How to bring emojis to life with AI

The viral trend of the week? Bringing emojis to life with AI image upscaling.

Follow the steps below by Dogan Ural to bring your favorite emoji to life

Step 1: Select a Detailed Emoji. Pick an emoji with clear visual elements like facial features, hair, accessories, etc. The more nuanced details, the better the AI can render it. For the example below, we used the cat emoji.

Step 2: Upload to an Upscaler. Download your chosen emoji and upload it to an AI image upscaler (Magnific or Krea work best).

Step 3: Craft Your Prompt. Write a text prompt describing the emoji plus any animation notes, ex: “Joy emoji with sparkling eyes, slowly spinning and laughing.”

Step 4: Generate Your Emoji. Hit enter and slide the upscaler to watch your new detailed emoji render. Tweak prompts and weights, re-generating until it’s just right!

QUICK HITS

⚡️ Almost 80% of developers believe generative AI boosts their productivity (sponsor)

What's your take? Take part in the Developer Nation Survey and influence the future of the developer ecosystem. Every respondent will get a virtual goodie bag packed with FREE resources and the chance to win amazing prizes!

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🧬 Seattle backs revolutionary DNA tech with $75M

UW Medicine and partners just secured $75M to advance "DNA typewriters" — cells that self-record biological data over time. Envisioned as smartwatches for cells, the tech blends AI and biotech to leverage DNA's digital properties as a storage mechanism.

📝 Google NotebookLM rolls out to all U.S. users

Google just opened its experimental AI note-taking app NotebookLM to everyone in the U.S., alongside new features and upgrades. Now armed with document transformation and Gemini integration, NotebookLM can summarize notes, answer questions, and even turn them into outlines or scripts.

💼 New jobs in the world of AI

Director of Sales Engineering at OctoML

QA Engineer at Robust Intelligence

Government Partnerships Lead at Anthropic

Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.

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THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for today’s news in the world of AI!

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundownai

❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

The FDA just handed a pioneering gene editing treatment landmark approval — harnessing precision DNA snipping to override sickle cell deficiency.

Has the CRISPR revolution officially arrived in the medical world? Let’s find out.

In today’s tech rundown:

• FDA greenlights landmark first CRISPR treatment

• Snapchat+ tops $20M revenue

• 9 new products

• Google shuts down Beeper’s Android-iMessage integration

• Elon Musk reinstates Alex Jones to Twitter/X

• Apple’s USB-C update rumored for Spring 2024

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

GENE EDITING

✂️ FDA greenlights landmark first CRISPR treatment

Image source: Vertex Pharmaceuticals

The Rundown: The FDA just approved the first ever CRISPR-based treatment in a landmark moment for gene editing — with the therapy set to treat debilitating sickle cell disease.

The details:

• Called CTX001 or Casgevy, the one-time treatment involves using CRISPR to switch on the production of an alternate "fetal" hemoglobin protein that prevents sickling.

• It works by cutting out the gene that normally shuts off fetal hemoglobin after birth — allowing it to resume circulating and blocking sickle hemoglobin's damaging effects.

• In trials, over 90% of patients went 1+ years crisis-free after getting their edited stem cells infused back into the body post-chemo.

Why it matters: Now proven viable, expect a deluge of CRISPR treatments leveraging precision DNA editing to overcome conditions long thought untreatable. Let’s hope this moment kickstarts a healthcare revolution.

TOGETHER WITH HOPPY COPPY

⚡️ 10x your email campaigns

The Rundown: Create engaging, AI-powered newsletters or email campaigns in mere seconds with HoppyCopy:

• Create one-click, image-rich newsletters that captivate your subscribers

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Revolutionize your email game with HoppyCopy.

SNAPCHAT

📸 Snapchat+ tops $20M revenue

Image source: Snap

The Rundown: Snapchat's paid subscription quietly continued its explosive growth — passing $20M in monthly revenue for the first time in November amid climbing demand for perks like early AI access.

The details:

• Snapchat+ revenue jumped 23% month-over-month to over $31M before commissions, its second-biggest increase ever.

• The app now boasts over 5 million subscribers globally, with the top markets for spending including the U.S., UK, France, and Australia.

• Features like expanded access to the ‘My AI’ chatbot and ‘Dreams’ AI selfies, along with new visual filters, continue to attract fresh sign-ups.

The relevance: While Snapchat may have fallen out of favor with older social media users, there looks to still be serious demand from the younger demographics. And those younger audiences are showing a surprising willingness to pay for digital life enhancements and new AI features.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 Freeflo- Create better AI images with beautiful, free and endlessly reusable style prompts for Midjourney, Clipdrop, Firefly and DALL-E (link)*

💬 CopilotKit- Integrate AI-driven chatbots and smart text areas into apps with this open-source toolkit (link)

🎞️ Vizard- Transform a single long video into multiple viral clips with ease (link)

🔧 Flux- Hardware-oriented ChatGPT (link)

📘 Ello- An AI-powered reading companion designed to enchant kids with the joy of books (link)

💻 KATA Teams- Enhance your engineering team's productivity with a supportive second screen (link)

💡 Mixo- Launch a startup in seconds with AI (link)

🎵 Mubert- Soundtrack for your content made by AI (link)

🦿 My AskAI- Create your own ChatGPT from your content (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

SNIPPETS

Apple shut down Beeper Mini, an app designed to integrate iMessage with Android, citing concerns over security and user privacy exploitation.

Elon Musk conducted a poll on X, and following a majority "Yes" vote, controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been reinstated after a five-year ban.

A Bluetooth SIG database listing suggests the imminent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker.

Apple is rumored to update its Mac accessories with USB-C ports by the spring of 2024, signaling a further retreat from its Lightning connector.

Ford's upcoming collaboration between its F-150 Lightning pickup and Resideo smart thermostats will demonstrate using the EV's battery for powering home AC when grid rates are high.

The Raspberry Pi OS now includes an easy-to-toggle dark mode, protecting your vision during extended use.

Amazon filed a motion to dismiss the FTC's antitrust lawsuit alleging it uses unfair monopolistic tactics — arguing a lack of evidence the company’s practices actually raised prices or harmed consumers.

SPONSOR US

⚡️ Get your product in front of over 75k+ tech enthusiasts

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.

THAT’S A WRAP

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❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

OpenAI’s former board member Helen Toner is finally speaking out — detailing the events that led up to Sam Altman’s ousting last month.

Her account sheds more light on the juicy drama, revealing a feud over a critical paper prompting a power struggle. Let’s investigate…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Helen Toner speaks on Altman's firing

• Grok begins rolling out to X Premium+ users

• 9 new AI tools to try

• How to get inspired with AI visualizations

• Meta unveils high-fidelity VR avatars

• Inflection’s Pi chatbot comes to Android

• Scientists build cyborg rescue bugs

Read time: 3 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🚨 Helen Toner speaks on Altman’s firing

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: OpenAI board member Helen Toner spoke out about the tense boardroom drama that saw her vote to oust CEO Sam Altman in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The details:

• Toner denies AI safety concerns drove Altman's firing, instead citing eroded trust.

• The two had clashed prior to the firing over a paper she co-authored in October on AI safety, which Altman felt was too critical of OpenAI.

• Altman supposedly tried swaying directors to remove her, with his allies publicly attacking her credentials and priorities.

• Toner said she was surprised by employee loyalty to Altman but that OpenAI's duty isn't to his leadership but its mission of ‘ensuring AGI benefits all humanity’.

Why it matters: The behind-the-scenes drama from one of the wildest company situations in history continues to drip out. These details paint the feud as more of a power struggle than an existential crisis towards uncontrollable AI systems.

TOGETHER WITH MAX AI

✨ The only AI-powered extension you need

The Rundown: Unlock the future of browsing with MaxAI - your gateway to 1-click AI brilliance.

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XAI

🚀 Grok begins rolling out to X Premium+ users

Image source: xAI

The Rundown: Elon Musk just announced that xAI’s ChatGPT competitor Grok is officially rolling out to X Premium+ subscribers, unleashing the Twitter-trained uncensored chatbot to the public for the first time.

The details:

• Grok is only rolling out to US-based Premium+ users for now.

• Grok uses real-time data from Twitter/X to source responses, apparently even scraping our post for the latest AI news.

• The edgy chatbot is positioned as an uncensored, ‘anti-woke,’ rebellious alternative to competitors — answering questions that would be avoided or refused by ChatGPT.

• The release comes on the heels of a reported SEC filing that xAI is looking to raise up to $1B in investment.

The relevance: The real-time info access to Twitter/X sets Grok massively apart from the alternatives — but questions remain on how the team at xAI will filter out the disinformation/noise on the platform. More to come…

QUESTION OF THE DAY

TRENDING TOOLS

✨ Gemini- Google's answer to GPT-4 (link)

🤖 GPT Wrapped- ChatGPT year in review recaps your usage in 2023 (link)

💰 Payback- GPT-4 Vision enabled expense tracker (link)

📝 AI Applicant Sorting- Chat-powered assistant to help you review resumes 10x faster (link)

✍ Strut AI- All-in-one AI workspace designed for writers (link)

🚨 Openlayer- Slack or email alerts for when your AI fails (link)

🎬 Animaker AI- The future of AI animations starts here (link)

📆 Vimcal- Calendar app on steroids. Assists users in scheduling and organizing events efficiently (link)

💬 Chatbase- Create a ChatGPT-like chatbot widget for your website (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

AI TRAINING

💡 How to get inspired with AI visualizations

Need some extra motivation or inspiration as we inch closer to the new year?

Here's an incredibly simple yet powerful way to envision and manifest your ideal future self in 2024 — courtesy of Jodie Cook:

Open ChatGPT and type the following prompt:

"Generate an inspirational landscape image depicting my ideal future self from behind, wearing [insert clothing], [insert action like working, relaxing etc.], and situated in [describe ideal location like apartment, office etc.]"

Save the image as your desktop background, using it as inspiration to help visualize your ideal reality!

QUICK HITS

📱Inflection’s Pi chatbot comes to Android

Inflection just announced that its personal AI chatbot Pi is now available for Android users in the Google Play store. The supportive companion was also recently upgraded to Inflection-2, which the company hails as a more capable model with ‘dramatically improved reasoning’.

🕶️ Meta unveils high-fidelity VR avatars

Researchers at Meta just released a new update to its Codec Avatars, using 3D Gaussian Splatting to produce lifelike animated faces with incredible detail. By using this tech, we’ll soon be able to talk to someone seemingly across the table from us, who can be miles away in reality.

🪲 Scientists build cyborg rescue bugs

Is the world ready for AI bugs? Researchers are now creating bio-hybrid robot cockroaches — melding living tissues like muscles into android bodies. These cyborg cockroaches with sensors could soon be ‘the future of earthquake search and rescue’.

💼 New jobs in the world of AI

Principal Software Engineer (Firmware) at Rewind

DevOps Engineer at Fiddler AI

Partner Marketing Lead at Anthropic

Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.

SPONSOR US

🦾 Get your product in front of over 400k+ AI enthusiasts

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.

THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for today’s news in the world of AI!

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundownai

❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Coinbase is making moves to update the financial system — rolling out a new feature enabling instant cross-border money transfers via shareable links.

With support for over 170 countries and simple transactions — the crypto giant is putting serious pressure on legacy banking. Let’s dive in…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Coinbase boosts global money transfers

• Drones saving lives with rapid AED deliveries

• 7 new products

• Amazon cancels Venmo payment option

• Threads rolls out ‘tags’ to connect users by topic

• Amazon’s new ‘Digit’ warehouse robot

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

COINBASE

💸 Coinbase boosts global money transfers

Image source: Coinbase

The Rundown: Coinbase just launched a new feature allowing users to instantly send money worldwide just by sharing a link, with no crypto or banking details required.

The details:

• Users can now send cash via messaging apps, email, social media, etc., by creating a shareable Coinbase link, with recipients able to claim funds with a single click.

• It expands access to crypto banking by supporting local payment methods across 170+ countries, crucial for inflation-racked regions.

• A simplified mode also focuses Coinbase Wallet on core send/receive functions to appeal to crypto newbies.

• Coinbase frames the feature as advancing economic freedom and connecting the unbanked, leaning into crypto's global payment promises.

Our thoughts: Hints of crypto's potential as a universal payment rail keep emerging. If tools continue simplifying, fast frictionless money could become reality — with huge appeal for younger populations tired of outdated banking systems.

TOGETHER WITH TWEET HUNTER

🐦 Build and monetize your Twitter audience

The Rundown: Supercharge your X (Twitter) growth with Tweet Hunter - the ultimate tool for scaling and monetization.

TweetHunter helps you:

• Generate up to 100 high-quality tweets in one hour with personalized suggestions

• Find the best-performing Tweets to apply to your own content

• Schedule a month’s worth of Tweets in one sitting

Whatever your current growth strategy is, TweetHunter is faster. Try it here.

ROBOTICS

🚁 Drones saving lives with rapid AED deliveries

Image source: Everdrone

The Rundown: Swedish researchers found that drones equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) arrived over 3 minutes faster than ambulances in most cardiac arrests, successfully saving one patient.

The details:

• Over an 11-month urban trial, drones autonomously carried AEDs to patients 67% of the time before paramedics arrived.

• Even at 3 minutes, every second sooner is crucial for survival odds.

• They covered 194 square kilometers from five bases, directed by dispatchers.

• Bystanders then retrieved and used the lowered devices — and out of 18 cardiac arrests, AEDs revived 1 patient.

• The researchers suggest integrating drones with first-aid apps for other time-sensitive emergencies, such as drug overdoses.

Why it matters: In critical emergencies, every second counts. And while the sample size is low, increasing drone tech could be a perfect candidate for rapid response to life-saving situations.

NEW PRODUCTS

💌 Kombai for Email- Email designs to code that works even on Outlook, in a click (link)

🎥 VEED Captions App- The simplest way to create engaging short-form videos (link)

🛠 JetBrains AI- Supercharge your tools. Embrace new freedom (link)

💡 Superpowered AI- API for retrieval augmented generation (link)

🖋 Frontitude- Craft consistent UX content at scale with the power of AI (link)

⚡️ Notion AI- Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion (link)

🎙️ Wondercraft AI- Turn existing content such as blog posts, into full podcasts (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

SNIPPETS

Amazon removed the ability to directly pay with Venmo just over a year after adding the option in October 2022, providing no reason for nixing the payment method as customers are left with fewer checkout options.

Threads is finally rolling out hashtags globally rebranded as "tags" to help connect people by topics, limited to one per post.

A new Spectre-like flaw, SLAM, affecting Intel, AMD, and Arm CPUs has been discovered, but manufacturers believe it's already been mitigated.

Meta is rolling out default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Messenger and Facebook chats and calls, despite opposition from law enforcement agencies.

Android phones can now automatically send medical data like age, blood type, and allergies to first responders during 911 calls.

Amazon introduces Digit, a humanoid robot for warehouse tasks that will eventually cost only $3 per hour to operate.

The iPhone 15 Pro's upcoming iOS 17.2 update will improve telephoto camera focusing and introduce features for Apple's Vision Pro headset.

SPONSOR US

⚡️ Get your product in front of over 75k+ tech enthusiasts

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.

THAT’S A WRAP

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❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Everyone in the AI world is talking about Google’s Gemini — but apparently, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a big horoscope guy.

Meta just charged ahead with its own updates, including a massive amount of new AI features and upgrades across its suite of social platforms. Let’s dig in…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Meta reveals major AI upgrades

• McDonald's uses AI to aid workers

• 9 new AI tools to try

• How to recreate any image with AI

• AI helps decode whale language

• Alibaba video AI relies on scraped TikTok clips

• Meta releases expressive voice translator demo

Read time: 3 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

🚀 Meta reveals major AI upgrades

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta just revealed over 20 new AI-powered features in progress, spanning search, messaging, ads and more — plus upgrades to Meta AI assistant with a standalone image generator, IG Reels discovery, and more.

The details:

• New capabilities on Facebook and Instagram leverage Meta's Emu models to remix group images, edit posts, create marketplace listings, and suggest replies for creators.

• Meta AI gets more helpful responses, search result summaries, Reel recommendations, and more to upgrade users’ in-message experiences.

• Meta also launched its image generator Imagine as a standalone app — with invisible watermarks to increase transparency on AI images.

The relevance: Despite Yesterday being all about Gemini, Meta clearly didn’t get the memo — with a massive drop of features set to infuse AI even more across their social platforms. Zuck and co. continue to ‘just ship it’.

TOGETHER WITH AE STUDIO

🔥 Don’t lose the AI race, hire AE Studio

The Rundown: AE Studio is the key to industry dominance, securing AI talent from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT to streamline operations.

What AE Studio will do for you:

• Turbocharge your business, save hundreds of hours, and WIN!

• Have AE build custom your custom software and AI solutions.

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Stop waiting and start winning by scheduling your FREE strategy session with AE Studio today to take control of your future in the AI race. Book now!

MCDONALDS

🍔 McDonald's uses AI to aid workers

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: McDonald's is leveraging Google's generative AI tools to build digital upgrades — including an ‘Ask Pickles’ chatbot that provides restaurant employees guidance on equipment cleaning and maintenance.

The details:

• The ‘Ask Pickles’ chatbot will train on manuals and data from McDonald's locations to instantly answer worker questions.

• The chatbot is part of a broader tech overhaul using Google Cloud's edge computing to enable data gathering on everything from fryers to supply chains.

• McDonald’s already uses AI for ordering at 100 drive-thus, with plans to expand its usage.

• The massive amount of data from over 50,000 restaurants will be used to train AI models to continue optimizing systems and experiences.

Why it matters: AI thrives on large amounts of data — something that McDonald’s has no shortage of at its army of locations. With a reported over 40% of the company’s sales coming from digital channels, the fast-food giant is wisely doubling down on its tech infrastructure.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

TRENDING TOOLS

🤖 Deepgram- Introducing Aura, a powerful text-to-speech (TTS) API built for real-time conversations. Be the first to try Aura by joining the waitlist (link)*

🚀 Streak AI- The CRM co-pilot for teams in Gmail (link)

💽 TableFlow- Open-source CSV importer, alternative to Flatfile (link)

🦾 Kommunicate GenAI- Easily deploy generative AI bots on any platform (link)

🔍 Stey.ai- Using AI to analyze your user behavior replays (link)

💬 CopilotKit- Build in-app AI chatbots and AI-powered text areas (link)

📝 Never Jobless- Maximize your interview chances with AI-powered LinkedIn messaging (link)

⚡️ Notion AI- Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion (link)

🦾 Browse AI- Train a robot in 2 minutes to extract and monitor data from any website (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

AI TRAINING

🎨 How to recreate any image with AI

Want to create your own cartoon avatar or an oil painting of a real image? It’s never been easier with the ability to upload images in DALLE-3. Follow the steps below to recreate any image in the style you want:

Analyze the photo: Upload the image and ask ChatGPT to describe it in detail.

Recreate it: Prompt DALL-E to generate a new version based on the previous description. You can ask for various styles or edits in any way you’d like — for the example below, we created an anime version of an uploaded Taylor Swift image.

Upscale resolution: After getting a generation you like, use AI photo enhancers like KREA or Magnific to sharpen details and boost quality.

With the power to upload, remake, remix, and enhance images, DALL-E turns inspirational photos into springboards for entirely new creations. Let your imagination run wild!

QUICK HITS

🐳 AI helps decode whale language

Are we about to be able to communicate with animals? Analysis aided by AI just revealed that sperm whale clicks contain recurrent vowel-like patterns and diphthongs — whale equivalents to human speech sounds. The research showcases AI’s promise in potentially cracking animal language mysteries.

🎥 Alibaba video AI relies on scraped TikTok clips

Alibaba researchers' new "Animate Anyone” AI clones TikTok dances — but is coming under fire for being trained on a dataset scraping popular TikTok creators without consent. The situation adds yet another case to the growing list of copyright and usage complaints surrounding AI training data.

🗣️ Meta releases expressive voice translator demo

Meta just released a demo of its ‘SeamlessExpressive’ model, which enables speech translation across languages while maintaining key elements like vocal style, tone, and expressions. Try it out with your own voice here.

💼 New jobs in the world of AI

Trust and Safety Analyst at Anthropic

Site Reliability Engineer at Hugging Face

Customer Success Manager at OpenAI

Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.

SPONSOR US

🦾 Get your product in front of over 400k+ AI enthusiasts

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THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for today’s news in the world of AI!

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundownai

❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Is Apple losing its luster? After a quiet, slumping year of sales, the tech giant is reportedly plotting a major set of releases for early 2024.

But will the updates be enough to get consumers to open their wallets? Let’s investigate…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple preps iPad and Mac upgrades to boost sales

• Giant CO2 battery aims to slash emissions

• 9 new products

• AMD introduces new AI chips to compete with NVIDIA

• Scientists develop new device for insulin delivery

• 23andMe updates ToS, new class action waiver

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

APPLE

🍎 Apple preps iPad and Mac upgrades to boost sales

Image source: Bloomberg

The Rundown: After an unprecedented lull in iPad releases, Apple is reportedly (paywall article) readying major iPad and Mac updates for early 2024 — featuring new sizes, displays, processors, and more — to help reinvigorate declining sales.

The details:

• New models incoming allegedly include a 12.9" iPad Air joining the 10.9" version, an iPad Pro with OLED displays, an M3 MacBook Air, and OS software updates.

• The refreshes target the slumping Mac and iPad business, now accounting for just 15% of Apple's revenue.

• The company saw iPad sales drop 10% and Mac sales plunge 34% last quarter.

• Other 2024 Apple device upgrades in the works range from the Vision VR/AR headset to blood pressure tracking Apple Watch models, new iPhone sizes, and updated AirPods.

The relevance: After no iPad updates for an entire year, it’s unsurprising to see a massive push coming in 2024. As the iPads inch towards near-Macbook capabilities, does one product line risk cannibalizing the other in the process?

TOGETHER WITH IMAGINE AI LIVE ‘24

⚡️ Transform your business with AI

The Rundown: The pace of AI is relentless, even for the most informed individuals. Opportunities for transformative solutions that can revolutionize business are emerging at an unprecedented speed.

Mark your calendar for a one-of-a-kind experience at the first cross-industry AI enterprise summit, March 27-28, at the new Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

Join like-minded AI leaders, thinkers, and disruptors in a collaborative quest to redefine business and the future of work with AI.

Secure your spot now.

ENERGY TECH

🔋 Giant CO2 battery aims to slash emissions

Image source: Energy Dome

The Rundown: An Italian startup just built a first-of-its-kind battery using carbon dioxide instead of lithium to store renewable energy — with big implications for costs and sustainability.

The details:

• Energy Dome's CO2 battery works by compressing CO2 gas into liquid to store energy, then converting it back to gas to generate electricity.

• Using CO2 instead of air allows 10x smaller facilities, with the system cutting costs in half versus lithium-ion batteries by utilizing steel.

• After a successful pilot plant, Energy Dome secured €140 million to build a large-scale CO2 battery plant in Sardinia.

Why it matters: Using CO2 to cut… CO2 may sound odd, but Energy Dome's closed-loop battery touts dramatic space and cost edges over lithium. If scalable, these savings could drive mass adoption to slash emissions.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 Deepgram- Introducing Aura, a powerful text-to-speech (TTS) API built for real-time conversations. Be the first to try Aura by joining the waitlist (link)*

🕸 Toofan- Next-gen AI web design studio (link)

🎨 Visual Electric- The first image generator designed for creatives (link)

🎧 PodMixt- Get personalized audio summaries of your favorite podcasts (link)

🤖 Competely- AI-powered competitive analysis in minutes (link)

🎥 MagicAnimate- A model framework to transform images to dynamic videos (link)

🧠 Humata- Ask questions and chat with any file instantly using AI (link)

🔥 PromptPal- Share & discover the best AI prompts (link)

👾 Dante- Custom GPT chatbots trained on your data (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

SNIPPETS

Google provides a recovery process for Drive for desktop users to retrieve files lost due to a sync issue.

AMD introduces MI300 chips for more efficient AI training, rivaling Nvidia.

Meta is adding new AI capabilities to Meta AI like "reimagine" for iterative image generation in chats and Reels integration, with over 20 new trial upgrades underway.

Researchers have developed DNA nanobots capable of exponential self-replication, potentially leading to in-body drug manufacturing applications.

Scientists have developed an implantable device (SHEATH) that could revolutionize insulin delivery for Type 1 diabetes.

Apple releases new MLX frameworks, hinting at potential expansion into generative AI applications, including text, image, and video generation.

23andMe updates its terms of service, including a class-action waiver, following a data breach, giving users 30 days to opt-out.

SPONSOR US

⚡️ Get your product in front of over 75k+ tech enthusiasts

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.

THAT’S A WRAP

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundowntech

❤️ Rundown review of the day

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Today’s news comes in an hour late — due to Google’s EMERGENCY press briefing, giving us just a few moments to update everything before sending.

However, it did not disappoint, with Google announcing GPT-4’s biggest competitor yet — Google Gemini. Let’s get to the rundown.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google DeepMind reveals Gemini

• IBM and Meta lead 50+ groups in AI Alliance

• Microsoft boosts Copilot with new AI capabilities

• 9 new AI tools to try

• How to level up your job search with AI

• McKinsey: AI could unlock $340B for Wall Street

• Musk's xAI startup chases $1B

• Google DeepMind breaks ChatGPT (for research)

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE DEEPMIND

✨ Google DeepMind reveals Gemini

Image source: Google DeepMind

The Rundown: Google DeepMind just revealed THREE versions of their most capable multimodal AI yet — Google Gemini (aka GPT-4’s biggest competitor).

The details:

• Gemini comes in three sizes — Ultra for complex tasks, Pro for scaling across a range of tasks, and Nano for efficient on-device tasks.

• Gemini Ultra’s performance beats current state-of-the-art results in 30 of 32 benchmarks used in LLM research & development.

• With a score of 90%, Gemini Ultra is the FIRST AI model to outperform human experts on the MMLU benchmark.

• Gemini has next-generation capabilities such as sophisticated reasoning, multimodality, and advanced coding.

• Google also announced Cloud TPU v5p, their most powerful TPU system to date, which Gemini is running off of.

• Gemini Pro will be in Google products (Gmail, YouTube, Docs, and more) through Bard starting today.

• Bard is now available in English in more than 170 countries here.

• Gemini Ultra will be rolling out early next year.

• Gemini will also be available directly on-device in Pixel 8, using Gemini Nano.

Why it matters: Google’s long-anticipated ‘ChatGPT killer‘ is finally here — with 3 unique models for enhanced flexibility. While we still have to wait to test the true power of ✨Gemini Ultra✨, at least we can try Gemini Pro in Bard, which is now the best free chatbot on the market (based on benchmarks).

TOGETHER WITH OPEN LAYER

📈 Ship your AI product with confidence

The Rundown: Tired of constantly checking for faults in your AI model? Get real-time alerts when things go sideways with Openlayer.

Openlayer lets you:

• Automate testing, evaluation, and observability

• Monitor models, manage prompts, and detect production errors

• Build AI products like traditional software

Get started with one line of code today.

IBM & META

🤝 IBM and Meta create the AI Alliance

Image source: IBM

The Rundown: Meta, IBM, and over 50 other companies, universities, and organizations just announced the formation of the ‘AI Alliance,’ with the mission of advancing open and responsible AI innovation.

The details:

• The AI Alliance aims to foster collaboration on AI safety, share open-source models and tools, boost hardware, and more.

• Others joining Meta and IBM include Stability AI, Intel, Oracle, Hugging Face, Dell, and Sony — with OpenAI noticeably absent.

• Initial projects target advancing trust & security tools, creating an open catalog of vetted resources, and advancing foundation models.

Why it matters: This push for open-source AI from some of the biggest names in the space is a massive step towards making the tech accessible to all — and alliances like this lay the groundwork for progress through collaboration.

MICROSOFT

🚀 Microsoft boosts Copilot with new AI capabilities

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Marking Copilot's first anniversary, Microsoft just revealed a slate of powerful upgrades to the AI assistant, including GPT-4 Turbo integration, improved DALL-E image generation, and new features like Code Interpreter.

The details:

• GPT-4 Turbo will enable Copilot to tackle more complex, longer prompts across use cases like search, writing, and coding.

• An updated DALL-E model provides higher quality, more accurate images.

• Upcoming capabilities include multimodal Search to combine text and imagery, Deep Search for optimized queries, and tools like math/data analysis.

The relevance: Microsoft’s blog says this year “will be remembered as the moment that we, as individuals, began to harness the power of AI in our daily lives.” And with its dominance in the legacy business sector, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to truly bring that power to the people.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

TRENDING TOOLS

🔎 Notion Q&A- A search bar for your second brain - ask, explore, and let Notion Assistant be your key to seamless productivity (link)*

🔮 Spellar AI- AI-powered speaking co-pilot is ready to help you with communication (link)

🤖 Respell- Automate knowledge work using AI workflows and agents (link)

📷 Magnific AI- Advanced AI tech to achieve insanely high-res upscaling (link)

⏱️ ddle.dev- Instant 1-minute walkthrough for your website that you can share with everyone (link)

🤏 Amazon Q- Boost your workforce productivity with generative AI (link)

🎦 PPTX.ai- Generate slides from uploaded docs or a simple description within seconds (link)

🖥️ Super- Create a website from your Notion database in minutes (link)

💌 HoppyCoppy- Generate better emails and newsletters in seconds with AI (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

AI TRAINING

💼 How to level up your job search with AI

On the hunt for a new job or just looking to improve your resume or LinkedIn profile? Let ChatGPT be an expert recruiter to get more attention from prospective employers:

No Resume: If you don’t have a resume, try this prompt to get one started. Make sure to provide ChatGPT with relevant details, and replace bracketed areas with your own background:

Prompt "I am a [marketer] with [7] years experience in [content creation]. Write a resume tailored for [a marketing manager role] highlighting my relevant qualifications."

Upgrade existing resume: Upload an image of your resume/LinkedIn profile to ChatGPT. If you have a specific job you are applying to, include the description/details to tailor outputs directly to the specific role.

Prompt: “I am a [marketer] applying for [job title] at [company]. Attached is my current resume, and a job description of the role. You are an expert hiring manager/recruiter — please provide detailed feedback on my resume, optimizing it for the role provided.”

QUICK HITS

💥 McKinsey: AI could unlock $340B for Wall Street

Consultancy McKinsey estimates (paywalled article) that generative AI tools could boost bank profits up to 15% or $340 billion annually via increased productivity. McKinsey sees automation transforming up to 70% of tasks as tools like ChatGPT spark an explosion in AI demand.

🤑 Musk's xAI startup chases $1B

Elon Musk's AI firm xAI is reportedly aiming to raise $1 billion in fresh funding — on top of $135 million banked already, according to an SEC filing. The cash injection comes as xAI inches closer to pushing Grok, the company’s ‘rebellious’ rival to ChatGPT.

💔 Google DeepMind breaks ChatGPT (for research)

Researchers at Google DeepMind just put out a new paper detailing their (research-driven) attack on rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, finding that forcing the model to repeat a word forever causes it to leak training data. OpenAI seems to have since patched the attack, with ChatGPT now refusing the request.

💼 New jobs in the world of AI

Forward Deployed Engineer at Anthropic

Technical Investigator, Intel & Investigations at OpenAI

Founding Decentralized ML Research Engineer at Hugging Face

Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.

SPONSOR US

🦾 Get your product in front of over 400k+ AI enthusiasts

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.

THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for today’s news in the world of AI!

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @rowancheung & @therundownai

❤️ Rundown review of the day