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Ex-Tesla engineer sounds alarm 🚨
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Is Tesla putting too much confidence in flawed tech? That’s what claims from a former software engineer suggest.
The Tesla whistleblower is sounding the alarm that the autonomous driving systems may not be road-ready. Let’s dig deeper….
In today’s tech rundown:
Ex-Tesla engineer blows whistle on "unsafe" tech
Scientists engineer mess-free Christmas trees
8 new products
Grand Theft Auto VI trailer breaks records
23andMe breach expands to 6.9M customers
Bitcoin surges as ETF speculation continues
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
TESLA
🚘 Ex-Tesla engineer blows whistle on "unsafe" tech
Image source: BBC
The Rundown: A former Tesla software engineer turned whistleblower is warning that the company's autopilot and self-driving capabilities aren't yet reliable enough for public roads.
The details:
Lukasz Krupski leaked internal data about customer issues like sudden braking to media, claiming his concerns were ignored internally at Tesla.
He argues that both the hardware and software backing products like autopilot ‘aren't ready,’ calling drivers "experiments”.
German newspaper Handelsblatt published the leaked Tesla files, with regulators reportedly now investigating.
Krupski’s comments cast doubt on Elon Musk's boasts that Tesla has the "best real-world AI," though the firm disputes accounts of flaws.
The relevance: While the company basks in the glow of its hyped Cybertruck demo, Krupski’s claims highlight a major problem lurking — with major safety issues potentially derailing the progress made towards more mainstream autonomous vehicles.
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GENETIC TECH
🎄 Scientists engineer mess-free Christmas trees
Image source: NC State
The Rundown: NC State researchers just bred a ‘Super Christmas Tree’ — testing 30,000 Fraser firs and choosing the best genetics to breed a taller, shapelier standard that barely sheds needles for a cleaner holiday.
The details:
Fraser firs make up over 98% of Christmas trees grown in North Carolina — but shedding needles creates messy cleanup.
NC State launched a decade-long quest for the best genetics, planting the top 25 firs with ideal traits into an orchard.
With optimized genetics controlling needle retention, the gene-edited trees are expected to lose only 1-2% of needles.
Lead researchers expect the tidier trees to save money for growers and delight customers — but the long growth cycle means a long wait before the engineered firs actually hit the market.
Our thoughts: While everyone likes a good Christmas tree, the needle cleanup is a pain point most can live without. Bring on the super Christmas trees — preferably without a decade's wait.
NEW PRODUCTS
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SNIPPETS
Grand Theft Auto VI’s trailer has already garnered 85 million YouTube views, breaking MrBeast's record for the most views of a video within 24 hours, despite being leaked a day early on X.
Bitcoin has surged over 150% in 2023, trading near $44K, as investors speculate that regulators may soon approve the first spot BTC exchange-traded fund allowing mainstream ownership.
Microsoft will let consumers pay for Windows 10 security updates for the first time once support ends in 2025, rather than extending support or forcing an OS upgrade.
23andMe now estimates its recent breach exposed personal information of about 6.9 million customers, drastically revising its initial estimate of just 14,000 accounts.
Looking Glass unveiled the $300 Looking Glass Go via Kickstarter, its first pocket-sized foldable volumetric display that shows 3D images.
Discord overhauled its mobile app with new navigation tabs like Messages and Notifications, reply features, and various performance upgrades.
Tesla code for its software update suggests new navigation features like speed camera warnings, construction avoidance routing, and upgraded driver monitoring to boost safety.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
A new future for AI-generated video
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Major sparks are flying in AI video — with Runway and Getty Images dropping a new partnership that could reshape video content creation across industries.
Will this collaboration be the catalyst that brings the transformative tech into the mainstream media? Let’s dive deeper…
In today’s AI rundown:
Runway and Getty Images team up on AI video
DeepMind creates AI that can learns from humans
10 new AI tools to try
How to animate anything with AI
AstraZeneca taps AI for cancer drug hunt
Europe’s OpenAI competitor Mistral valued at $2B+
OpenAI juiced investor return potential
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
RUNWAY ML
🎥 Runway and Getty Images team up on AI video
Image source: Runway
The Rundown: AI video startup Runway ML just announced a partnership with stock media giant Getty Images to develop a powerful new generative model (not-so-creatively named Runway & Getty Images Model, or RGM).
The details:
RGM will allow companies like Hollywood studios and ad agencies to fine-tune the model with their own data to create customized, high-quality video content.
The partnership combines Runway's cutting-edge AI for realistic video generation with Getty's vast image library and distribution network.
The news comes as Runway faces a lawsuit from artists, alleging the models were trained on their content without consent.
Why it matters: This collab shows serious potential to reshape workflows with AI in major industries. While the use of AI has been a hot-button issue, moves like this open the floodgates for mass adoption of the tech.
TOGETHER WITH OCTOML
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The Rundown: Learn from e-commerce pros on how you can leverage GenAI to shave off hours of design and production time in your own business.
They’ll share how you can:
Create highly customized product assets at scale
Generate and iterate new product design concepts quickly
Mix multiple GenAI models to create powerful workflows
Register for the OctoML FREE live event on December 12th at 11 am PT, and get free credits to try OctoAI!
GOOGLE DEEPMIND
🧠 DeepMind creates AI that can learn from humans
Image source: Google DeepMind
The Rundown: Researchers from Google DeepMind just developed a new way for AI agents to acquire knowledge from human demonstrations in real-time — allowing for "cultural transmission" without needing large datasets.
The details:
The agents can learn from humans in a rich 3D simulation by observing movements and reproducing behaviors.
The system uses deep reinforcement learning combined with memory, attention mechanisms, and automatic curriculum learning to achieve strong performance.
Tests show the AI can generalize across tasks, recall demos when the expert is gone, and closely match human trajectories with goals.
Why it matters: Cultural transmission in AI enables feedback loops that can massively amplify learning over time. This method is a stepping stone towards systems that accumulate knowledge over generations, just like humans.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
📊 Danelfin- AI-powered stock-picking tool with up to a 94% win rate (link)*
📱 D-ID Creative Reality- Animate any face, anytime, anywhere, right from your phone (link)
📚 Papermark AI- Open-source AI document assistant (link)
💡 PromptForge- Prompt extension for ChatGPT, Bard & Claude (link)
💕 Flurry AI- Enhance your dating profile with AI feedback (link)
🎓 Learniverse- AI-powered personal learning revolution (link)
🎥 Shorts Generator- From idea to viral video in minutes (link)
➕ PlusVector- Generate custom vector illustrations with AI (link)
👩🏫 guidde- Magically create stunning video documentation with AI (link)
⭕️ Circleback- Never take notes again with AI-driven meeting notes (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
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AI TRAINING
🎬 How to animate anything with AI
There’s a new AI model going viral over the last few days — unlocking a wild new technique for animating characters, images, and… everything in between.
Follow the guide below to try out a similar demo yourself:
Step 1: Head to the MagicAnimate demo on HuggingFace.
Step 2: Upload the subject you’d like to animate — most of the example motion sequences are full-body vertical, so keep that in mind when generating or selecting your reference image.
Step 3: Hit animate, and wait! This demo might take a bit longer than others, especially with so many users testing it out right now.
We’re about to enter a world where anyone can create and transform anything — limited only by what they can imagine…
QUICK HITS
💊 AstraZeneca taps AI for cancer drug hunt
Pharma giant AstraZeneca just inked a deal worth up to $247M with U.S. AI biotech company Absci to design a new antibody cancer therapy. Absci's protein-analyzing AI speeds up discovery success — with the partnership hoping to turbocharge the development of life-saving drugs.
💰 OpenAI competitor Mistral valued at $2B+
French AI startup Mistral is reportedly closing a mega $488M round from backers like a16z to value the firm at around $2B. Quickly emerging as a European counterweight to US giants, Mistral's giant war chest will fuel its mission to offer a scaled-down, efficient alternative for AI's costly compute.
📈 OpenAI juiced investor return potential
A new (paywall) article from The Economist reveals that OpenAI originally capped investor profits at 100x but recently tweaked the limit, which is now set to rise 20% annually from 2025. The change suggests OpenAI knows its goal of AGI could eventually yield massive financial upside for backers.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Member of Technical Staff, Data Pipelines at Cohere
Senior Corporate Counsel at OpenAI
Sales Development Representative - Inbound at Synthesia
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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
Virtual avatars take over music!
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
KISS is guaranteeing that the show will go on forever… As digital avatars.
The legendary rock band just pivoted to virtual versions of themselves that can keep touring without aging a day — opening up a whole new world for music. Let’s explore…
In today’s tech rundown:
KISS goes fully virtual with lifelike avatars
Bluebird feathers inspire longer-lasting batteries
8 new products
Google releases major spam-filter upgrade
Spotify lays off 17% of workforce
TikTok expands global partnership with Ticketmaster
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
MUSIC TECH
🤘 KISS goes fully virtual with lifelike avatars
Image source: KISS
The Rundown: At their final live show, rock legends KISS passed the torch to digital avatar versions of themselves created by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic — which will continue ‘touring’ in a new digital era for the band.
The details:
The band's avatars made a surprise debut at the end of KISS's final show on their "End of Road" tour, performing before a stunned crowd.
These avatars kick off a new chapter where KISS pivots to virtual shows, aiming to continue performing for years to come.
The hyperrealistic avatars were created through a partnership between KISS, entertainment firm Pophouse, and VFX studio ILM.
The tech was originally developed for Abba and used for the band’s ‘Voyage’ show — which uses data captured from performances.
The relevance: KISS is future-proofing itself so the music never dies — in an innovative way built for the digital age. The avatars are a great example of a major artist taking advantage of new tech — and surely won’t be the last act to go down the digital route.
Check out the band’s digital avatar announcement here.
TOGETHER WITH SUPERHUMAN AI
📧 The fastest email experience ever made
The Rundown: Superhuman’s new AI email features save teams from Harvard, Netflix, Spotify, Notion, and more over 10 million hours every single year.
The details:
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AI-email drafts written in your style
Type at the speed of thought with auto-correct and suggestions
Custom 1-click action items features
SUSTAINABILITY TECH
🐦 Bluebird feathers inspire longer-lasting batteries
Image source: TheNextWeb
The Rundown: Researchers at ETH Zurich just developed a synthetic material that replicates the unique network found in bluebird feathers, saying the material could boost tech such as battery life and water filtration.
The details:
Bluebird feathers contain nanoscale channels that give them their signature blue color without pigments.
The new material is made by swelling, then cooling a silicone rubber in oil, creating the small channels ideal for transporting lithium ions.
The material has the potential to improve batteries by enabling better ion flow, increasing capacity, and battery health over time.
Our thoughts: Nature continues to school humans when it comes to elegant, efficient designs. If we finally solve the problem of terrible battery life — we may have some blue, feathered friends to thank.
NEW PRODUCTS
📊 Danelfin- AI-powered stock-picking tool with up to a 94% win rate (link)*
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🤖 Botsheets- Autonomous lead-generating chatbots (link)
🎧 LLMs for Podcasters- Simplifying content workflows for podcasters (link)
✍️ Scribe- Transforms your written content into engaging videos (link)
🎓 Learniverse- AI-powered personal learning revolution (link)
📝 PDF AI- Chat with any document (link)
🎓 Monic AI- Learn anything faster with AI (link)
🔩 Bolt AI- ChatGPT app for Mac (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
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SNIPPETS
Google released RETVec, a major spam-filtering upgrade for Gmail that improves understanding of manipulated text to better catch illegible messages.
Spotify is cutting around 1,500 jobs, about 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs in 2022 amid rising costs.
Meta will reportedly disconnect Messenger and Instagram chat integration in mid-December without explaining why, potentially aiming to avoid consequences under the EU's Digital Markets Act.
Swedish fintech firm Klarna just froze hiring beyond engineering roles, with its CEO citing AI productivity gains from tools like ChatGPT requiring fewer staff over time.
TikTok has expanded its Ticketmaster partnership beyond the U.S., now letting verified artists in over 20 countries embed ticket links so users can purchase directly within videos and music clips.
A UK court just ruled Getty Images' copyright lawsuit against Stability AI over claims it used Getty's images to train Stable Diffusion can proceed to trial rather than being dismissed.
Fitness tracking app Strava launched in-app messaging, letting users send private individual and group chats to coordinate meetups or share advice.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
Google's ChatGPT competitor DELAYED...
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
The hyped launch of Google’s multimodal ChatGPT competitor just got pushed to 2024 — facing another setback as Google challenges OpenAI.
With Google’s AI future riding on Gemini — can the model live up to the massive expectations? Let’s dive in…
In today’s AI rundown:
Google postpones launch of GPT-4 rival Gemini
OpenAI’s $51M chip deal with Altman-backed startup
9 new AI tools to try
How (and how not to) use AI for scientific research
Amazon's Q suffering hallucinations, privacy issues
OpenAI pushes back GPT store debut to 2024
UberEat’s AI images go viral
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
🛑 Google postpones launch of GPT-4 rival Gemini
Image source: Google
The Rundown: Google just delayed the rollout of its multimodal ChatGPT competitor Gemini until January — after identifying deficiencies in handling non-English languages.
The details:
Google teased the new model at its I/O conference in May, with the launch initially planned for December.
With rumors of massive training data including YouTube transcripts, Gemini has reportedly reached capabilities of GPT-4 in some areas.
Struggles with non-English languages were a primary cause for delay.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has hinted that Gemini will be the first in a series of next-gen models planned for launch in 2024.
Why it matters: With massive stakes riding on Gemini, a month's delay is likely meaningless for Google in the long run. However, persistent issues at OpenAI’s competitors show that catching the market leader is a lot easier said than done.
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OPENAI
💾 OpenAI’s $51M chip deal with Altman-backed startup
Image source: Rain NeuroMorphics
The Rundown: OpenAI reportedly agreed to buy $51 million worth of AI chips in 2019 from Rain NeuroMorphics — a startup CEO Sam Altman previously invested over $1M in personally.
The details:
Rain is developing brain-inspired NPUs for edge devices, touting massive efficiency gains over GPUs for AI workloads.
The 2019 agreement predated OpenAI's reliance on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure.
Rain was in the news last week, with the U.S. forcing Prosperity7, a Saudi venture capital firm, to sell its shares in the company over national security concerns.
The company has claimed its NPUs will offer 100x more computing power and 10,000x energy efficiency than traditional GPUs.
The relevance: Given the Saudi-related scrutiny, Altman’s deal and investment in Rain will likely raise some eyebrows. But the promise of NPUs (if the claims are accurate) could deliver huge upgrades in the AI chip market.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 Dubbing AI- Change your voice in real-time with AI (link)
💘 Rizzpad- The first build-in AI toolkit for flirting on any dating app (link)
🛒 iMean Shopping- Your AI shopping co-pilot for finding the best deals & prices (link)
📊 Plus AI Google Analytics Reports- AI-powered presentations with your Google Analytics data (link)
📄 FastCut- Create engaging captions for your short-form video with AI (link)
📝 Dictation- Voice memos with accurate AI transcriptions (link)
🎥 Descript- A powerful all-in-one video and podcast editing tool using AI (link)
🧠 Decktopus- An AI-powered presentation generator (link)
😃 Aragon- Turn your selfies into professional headshots (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
🧪 How (and how not to) use AI for scientific research
A fascinating new article from Nature interviewed several scientists on how they are using AI in their fields
Here’s how several of the leading researchers leverage ChatGPT responsibly:
Fix health biases, don't amplify them — Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi, MIT
Uses ChatGPT to simplify medical content for general public
But warns deploying AI naively in healthcare could worsen inequities
Goal should be improving care, not just quick fixes for efficiency
Use it for structure over unreliable content — Dr. Mushtaq Bilal
Prompts ChatGPT for outlines to spark research idea directions
But does not trust actual autogenerated content due to unpredictability
Customize it as a teaching aid, not a replacement — Dr. Siddharth Kankaria, EPFL Switzerland
Generated science communication prompts for students
Focused on audience targeting and storytelling skills
Embraced use while fostering critical thinking on limitations
Read the full article here.
QUICK HITS
😵💫 Amazon's Q suffering hallucinations, privacy issues
Just days after its launch, internal docs reportedly show staffers warning of "severe hallucinations" and confidential data leaks by Q, Amazon’s new enterprise AI assistant. Amazon has denied any verified issues, but is investigating the feedback.
⏮️ OpenAI pushes back GPT store debut to 2024
OpenAI is postponing its planned launch of its GPT Store until early next year, the company announced in an email to users. The delay follows OpenAI's chaotic executive shakeup, with the release mentioning that “a few unexpected things” have been keeping them busy. Quite the understatement!
🍔 UberEat’s AI images go viral
UberEats appears to be using AI-generated photos on its platform — with restaurants apparently unaware of the situation. The images went viral for some comical mistakes — including confusing a ‘pizza pie’ with an actual pie dessert and generating a fake Ranch dressing brand.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
UX Designer at Robust Intelligence
Founding Decentralized ML Research Engineer at Hugging Face
Senior FP&A Analyst at Shield AI
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
Jeff Bezos bows to SpaceX
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Jeff Bezos just waved the white flag in a long space race grudge against Elon Musk — with Amazon turning to SpaceX to deploy its internet satellites.
Is the drama over, or is this billionaire rivalry about to go interstellar? Let’s investigate…
In today’s tech rundown:
Amazon turns to SpaceX for satellite launches
Subsea habitats pave way for humans to live underwater
8 new products
Zoom releases a new app for Apple TV
Fortnite and Lego reveal "survival crafting"
23andMe says hackers accessed files
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
AMAZON
🛰️ Amazon turns to SpaceX for satellite launches
Image source: Fortune
The Rundown: Amazon just contracted SpaceX, a major competitor, to launch some of its Project Kuiper internet satellites starting in 2025 — in an effort to help meet an FCC deadline.
The details:
The contract covers 3 Falcon 9 rocket launches for Amazon's satellites, with Amazon needing over 1,600 Kuiper satellites in orbit by mid-2026 to comply with license requirements.
The partnership comes despite a long-running rivalry between SpaceX's Elon Musk and Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
A September lawsuit alleged that Amazon snubbed SpaceX in its search for launch providers, favoring Bezos-founded Blue Origin.
Why it matters: In a billionaire tech feud made for TV, it couldn’t have been an easy decision for Bezos to swallow his pride and turn to SpaceX for Amazon’s launch needs. But for now, the space race runs through Elon.
TOGETHER WITH VANTA
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AQUATIC TECH
🐟 Subsea habitats pave way for humans to live underwater
Image source: Deep
The Rundown: A company called Deep is planning to deploy crew members to live in underwater habitats starting in 2026 — kicking off a potentially continuous human presence below the ocean surface.
The details:
Six ‘aquanauts’ will inhabit pressurized habitats called ‘Sentinels’, which sit on the seafloor at depths of 200m.
The habitats have life support for 28 days and will facilitate science and exploration — enabling access impossible with normal diving.
Made from aerospace-grade materials, the configurable habitats will have living quarters, labs, a moon pool, and more.
Deep wants to establish the ocean equivalent of the International Space Station.
The relevance: As climate change threatens marine ecosystems, exploring the deep ocean frontier is crucial — especially given how little humanity knows about the depths that cover the majority of our planet.
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👨🏭 Human or AI?- A social game to identify if an image is real human or AI-generated (link)
🍳 Flavorish- Taking the guesswork out of cooking, with AI (link)
🎬 HeyGen- Create videos from text in minutes with AI-generated avatars and voices (link)
📣 Followr- Automated scheduling, AI content creation & advanced analytics for social (link)
🗣 ChatFast- Custom GPT chatbot from your data (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Zoom has released a new app for Apple TV that allows users to conduct Zoom meetings using their iPhone or iPad as a webcam.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson ruled out further investments in the struggling space tourism company, saying his business empire no longer has deep enough pockets after the pandemic.
Quantum computers face inherent limitations due to the fundamental trade-off between the precision and resolution of the clocks used in their quantum operations.
Apple is parting ways with Goldman Sachs, its financial partner for the Apple Card, due to various challenges and losses, and is considering Chase as a potential new partner for its credit card services.
Recent studies indicate plants may absorb 20% more CO2 than previously estimated, highlighting their greater importance in combating climate change.
Fortnite and Lego revealed a new "survival crafting" game experience coming Dec. 7 as part of their partnership focusing on family-friendly metaverse spaces.
23andMe says hackers accessed files on ancestry and health info for around 14,000 users in a recent breach, plus a "significant number" of additional customer files.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
ChatGPT gets a special birthday gift
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
ChatGPT got an extra special first birthday gift — the official return of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to OpenAI.
With a new board and the vibes seemingly back, is the drama over at the AI leader for now? Or is there more of the story still to unfold? Let’s dig in…
In today’s AI rundown:
Altman officially reinstated as ChatGPT turns 1
Microsoft invests $3.2B in UK AI infrastructure
9 new AI tools to try
How to learn the basics of AI for beginners
Musk predicts AGI within next three years
Mastercard releases AI shopping buddy
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
🎂 Altman officially reinstated as ChatGPT turns 1
Image source: The Verge
The Rundown: OpenAI just published a letter announcing that Sam Altman is officially back as CEO of OpenAI alongside a new board and leadership team — coinciding with the one-year anniversary of ChatGPT’s launch.
The details:
Mira Murati returns as CTO, with Greg Brockman coming back as President.
The initial board consists of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo, with Microsoft adding a non-voting ‘observer seat’.
Noticeably absent from the board is Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever — with Altman saying they are ‘discussing how he can continue his work.’
Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley also vacated their board seats, with Toner tweeting that the board’s actions were ‘not motivated by a desire to slow down OpenAI’s work’.
Altman also seemed to confirm the Q* rumors in some capacity, calling it an '“unfortunate leak” in an interview with The Verge.
The relevance: While Altman, Brockman, and co. return to their positions without losing a single employee, questions still remain surrounding the board’s reasoning for the initial coup. Will we ever learn what Ilya saw?
TOGETHER WITH LUCYD
🕶️ Take ChatGPT with you everywhere
The Rundown: In the new wave of AI, Lucyd is pioneering a smart eyewear revolution with the world's first smart eyewear powered by ChatGPT.
Lucyd stands out with:
Universally compatible with any Bluetooth device and supports Siri, Google Voice, Alexa, and voice access to ChatGPT.
Your data is yours alone; we prioritize your privacy, not profit from ads.
By making ChatGPT fully voice-accessible from a handsfree wearable, Lucyd is transforming the way we interact with AI.
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MICROSOFT
🇬🇧 Microsoft invests $3.2B in UK AI infrastructure
Image source: Reuters
The Rundown: Microsoft just announced a massive $3.2 billion investment into U.K. cloud infrastructure and skills development — with the goal of helping establish the country as an AI powerhouse.
The details:
Microsoft pledges $3.2B over three years to upgrade U.K. data centers with 20,000 state-of-the-art GPUs to meet AI demand.
The company will train 1M workers on technical skills like machine learning and responsible generative AI.
Microsoft also plans to collaborate with the government on AI safety, adopting its responsible AI principles across 25,000 U.K. partners.
Why it matters: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been pushing hard to become a leader in the space — and this Microsoft partnership is a significant step forward in his quest to transform the country into an AI superpower.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
✒️ Inkform- Find out why copywriters, marketers, and national brands are ditching ChatGPT for this scalable AI writer (link)*
🤖 OpenZeppelin AI Assistant- Create and deploy smart contracts in a breeze (link)
🖌️ Pixlr 2024- Maximize work, minimize effort with Pixlr 2024's AI tools (link)
🤖 AI Agents- In 10 secs, build a squad of ChatGPT assistants to help you (link)
✈️ Itair- AI-powered travel planning for human-created memories (link)
📚 The New GitBook- Your team's go-to for technical knowledge management (link)
🔔 Pagerly- Manage rotations, oncalls, incidents & ops over Slack (link)
✏️ Yaara- Use AI to write proven, high-converting copy (link)
💼 Cody- An AI assistant for business (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
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AI TRAINING
📚 How to learn the basics of AI for beginners
Microsoft recently launched a free, 12-week course on AI for beginners. If you want to learn what technical topics in AI mean, this is a great resource to get you started.
The curriculum covers:
Introduction and History of AI (link)
Neural Networks (link)
Computer Vision (link)
Natural Language Processing (link)
Genetic Algorithms & so much more (link)
The entire course is publicly available for free on GitHub. Happy learning!
QUICK HITS
🧠 Make your online presence a digital powerhouse (sponsor)
Join leading social media experts at Mindvalley's FREE Summit! Immerse yourself in insights from top influencers, diving into viral branding, follower conversion, AI-driven creativity, and mastering organic reach. Click to Unlock Your Free Pass for the 3-Day Summit.
🔮 Musk predicts AGI within next three years
During a polarizing (to say the least) interview at the New York Time’s DealBook Summit, Elon Musk said he believes the world is less than three years away from AGI — and will have the ability to “write as good a novel as J.K. Rowling, discover new physics, or invent new technology.”
🛒 Mastercard releases AI shopping buddy
Mastercard just rolled out a new generative AI tool called Shopping Muse to inspire and advise shoppers this holiday season. Designed to mimic an in-store helper through natural language, Muse makes product matches based on profiles and past purchases.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
UX Designer at Robust Intelligence
Founding Decentralized ML Research Engineer at Hugging Face
Senior FP&A Analyst at Shield AI
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
Elon told advertisers to WHAT?
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Between a profanity-laced attack on (former) X advertisers to the insanely-hyped Cybertruck event, Elon Musk is having quite the week.
Love him or hate him, the eccentric billionaire knows how to keep us all on the edge of our seats. Let’s dive in…
In today’s tech rundown:
Elon to X advertiser boycott: GO F**K YOURSELF
Tesla's long-awaited Cybertruck arrives
10 new products
Meta removed a China-based network
The LAPD acquired WebLoc
Uber plans to include London's iconic black cabs
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
TWITTER / X
🖕 Elon to X advertiser boycott: GO F**K YOURSELF
Image source: Getty Images
The Rundown: Elon Musk had harsh words for advertisers exiting Twitter, accusing them of "trying to blackmail the company" during a polarizing interview at the New York Times.
The details:
Musk said companies halting ads should "go f**k themselves" in profanity-laced remarks at a NYT conference.
Major advertisers like Disney, IBM, Comcast, and Sony have pulled their ads from X after Musk’s tweet endorsing an antisemitic post.
Elon called the tweet one of the "most foolish" he’s ever made.
Musk also said the companies removing ads from the platform were trying to ‘blackmail’ X and drive it to bankruptcy.
Why it matters: Elon’s angry quips overshadow the other thought-provoking commentary during the intense Q&A — and put the eccentric billionaire even more at odds with remaining major brand advertisers on X.
Watch the full interview here.
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📈 Podcast Growth Essentials: Explore strategies to expand your podcast, reaching a broader audience and achieving greater success.
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🏆 The Power of 'Packaging': Discover why effective 'packaging' is crucial for your podcast's success and learn strategies to enhance its visual and thematic appeal.
TESLA
🛻 Tesla's long-awaited Cybertruck arrives
Image source: Tesla
The Rundown: After years of hype and delays, Tesla just delivered the first electric Cybertrucks to reservation holders at its Austin factory — also releasing pricing and specs for two additional models.
The details:
The Base RWD model starts at $61K (nearly $20K above the original target) — with its 250-mile range also coming in lower than expected.
The AWD and Cyberbeast models will reportedly be available next year, with estimated price tags of $80K and $100K.
Tesla aims for 250K trucks per year by 2025, with rapid scaling a struggle due to the truck’s complexity and unorthodox design.
Musk’s demo included the premium Cybertruck beating a Porsche 911 in a race — WHILE towing another Porsche at the same time.
The relevance: After a long wait, the Cybertruck finally makes it into the hands of (at least some) customers — though a full scale rollout seems to still be years away. But Musk remains a master of generating hype — and his latest eye-popping demos will have fans salivating for their turn in line.
NEW PRODUCTS
✒️ Inkform- Find out why copywriters, marketers, and national brands are ditching ChatGPT for this scalable AI writer (link)*
💻 Vela Terminal- Co-pilot for VCs (link)
🗨️ Sider 4.0- Group chat with multiple AI bots to reduce hallucinations (link)
💬 AskYourDatabase Desktop- No SQL query, just chat with your SQL/NoSQL databases (link)
🧠 Wisecraft- Expand your mind with applied mental models (link)
🔥 Jasper- An AI copywriter assistant that can generate any kind of marketing copy (link)
📱 Synthesia- Create professional videos without mics, cameras, or actors using an AI-generated character (link)
📝 Writesonic- ChatGPT alternative that addresses the limitations of ChatGPT (link)
🧠 Taskade- Five AI-powered tools in one to supercharge your team productivity (link)
⚡️ Play HT- The highest quality AI-Powered voice generation platform (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
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SNIPPETS
Meta removed a China-based network of over 4,700 fake accounts spreading polarizing US political content.
The LAPD acquired WebLoc, a mass surveillance software from Cobwebs Technologies, enabling police to track individuals through geolocation data.
Apple and Google named AllTrails and Imprint as their 2023 'app of the year', overlooking newer apps like ChatGPT.
Google is addressing a Gmail outage that caused delayed email delivery, with newer emails now functioning normally but older ones still pending delivery.
A bipartisan Senate bill proposes to end involuntary facial recognition screenings at airports, challenging the TSA's expanding use of biometric technology.
Research in 'Nature Neuroscience' indicates distinct neural patterns in PTSD patients differentiate traumatic from sad memories.
Uber plans to include London's iconic black cabs in its service starting next year, despite opposition from the local taxi association.
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THAT’S A WRAP
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
Stability AI CEO urged to resign...
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
A new report details drama and potential sales chatter at Stability AI — including a letter from its top investor calling for the CEO to be replaced.
Is there… instability at the open-source AI leader? Let’s dive deeper…
In today’s AI rundown:
Stability AI explores sale amid executive turmoil
DeepMind AI multiplies materials knowledge
10 new AI tools to try
How to optimize your calendar with ChatGPT
Together AI nabs $102M to fuel open AI
Perplexity debuts real-time LLM API
HeyGen reveals new funding, avatar upgrades
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
STABILITY AI
🚨 Stability AI explores sale amid executive turmoil
Image source: Stability AI
The Rundown: Stability AI, one of the world’s leading open-source AI companies, is reportedly exploring a sale following a letter from investors urging the CEO to resign over financial instability and management issues.
The details:
Coatue, Stability AI’s biggest investor, called for CEO Emad Mostaque to step down a year after leading Stability AI's $101M funding round.
According to Bloomberg, Stability has held acquisition talks with Cohere and Jasper but claims it is not actively trying to sell.
The news comes amid cultural issues that spurred executive departures as the company rapidly expanded staff for new releases.
Our thoughts: Despite the name, Stability AI seems a bit… Unstable? While it hasn’t seemed to impact shipping new models (see yesterday’s news), a sale and the potential drama could have major implications for the open-source champion of the AI space.
TOGETHER WITH IMAGINE AI CONFERENCE
⚡️ 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.
GOOGLE DEEPMIND
🪨 DeepMind AI multiplies materials knowledge
Image source: Nature
The Rundown: A new tool by Google DeepMind called ‘GNoME’ just generated recipes for 2.2 million potentially stable new inorganic compounds — a 10x explosion of the known materials catalog.
The details:
The graph-based AI tweaked combinations of existing compounds from large materials databases to make predictions.
Using 48,000 compounds from the Materials Project, GNoME generated 2.2M potential structures (80% success rate).
381,000 of the materials are expected to be synthesizable — with DeepMind making the code public for widespread testing.
New materials include battery and solar cell components missed by prior algorithms.
The relevance: Between this materials breakthrough, the weather accuracy algorithm, to AlphaFold’s drug discovery, Google DeepMind continues to push science forward with the immense data-crunching power of AI.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 Arch.dev- The bridge between your customers’ data & your code. 500+ sources, unlimited tenants, auto-embeddings, and instant APIs (link)*
📘 Julius AI- Solves math, analyzes data, and creates visualizations (link)
🖼️ Krea- Upscale and enhances images with AI (link)
🌊 DeepSeek AI- Open-source and created with 2 trillion bilingual tokens (link)
🎥 Syllaby- Effortless video marketing to brainstorm, create, and share (link)
💡 Notion Expert GPT by HelpKit- Harness the power of AI to become a master of Notion (link)
👤 Avatar Generator by HeadshotPro- Transform your photo into a cute avatar (link)
🔎 Manot- Get crucial insights into the blind spots of your computer vision model (link)
🔥 Jasper- An AI copywriter assistant that can generate any kind of marketing copy (link)
💘 Longshot- ChatGPT for enterprises. Upload your docs, fact check, ensure zero hallucinations and integrate anywhere (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
* = This is sponsored content
AI TRAINING
🗓️ How to optimize your calendar with ChatGPT
Feeling overwhelmed looking at your calendar? Tons of meetings piling up?
Try this great trick below from @Jodie_Cook to have ChatGPT analyze your schedule and help focus on high-impact work:
Step 1: Upload your calendar. Screenshot your calendar for the upcoming week, and use ChatGPT Vision to upload the image.
Step 2: Ask for specific recommendations. Have ChatGPT analyze your calendar using the prompt below:
"Review the attached calendar. Ask clarifying questions to identify low-priority tasks to delegate/reschedule. Flag unnecessary commitments. Focus my time on the most valuable responsibilities."
Step 3: Implement the changes. ChatGPT will suggest optimizing and consolidating your calendar to create focus. The tips are shockingly good!
And just like that — you can take back control of your schedule with the help of AI. Let us know in the polls below if this tip was helpful!
QUICK HITS
☁️ Together AI nabs $102M to fuel open AI
Cloud platform startup Together AI, which helps companies efficiently run open-source models on pricey GPUs, just announced a hefty $102.5M raise. The funding positions the company as a potential leader in backing accessible alternatives to (ironically) closed giants like OpenAI.
🚀 Perplexity debuts real-time LLM API
AI startup Perplexity just launched the first-ever online LLM API available to the public, featuring constantly updated models that use knowledge from the internet. Pulling live data, the pplx-7b-online and pplx-70b-online bots target helpfulness and accuracy over pure scale.
🗣️ HeyGen reveals avatar upgrades
AI video startup HeyGen can reportedly now generate avatars from smartphone clips in just 5 minutes, thanks to new breakthroughs in the company’s model architecture. The increased capabilities come alongside a fresh $5.6M raise announced Wednesday, valuing the firm at a cool $75M.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Machine Learning Engineer at Fiddler AI
UX Designer at Robust Intelligence
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
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