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New Reddit rebrand fuels IPO hype
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Reddit just unveiled its first major redesign in years — complete with a slick new Snoo mascot, conveniently timed alongside accelerating IPO chatter.
As the internet's forum plots its public listing, how much of its counter-culture essence can survive the Wall Street shift? Let’s break it down…
In today’s tech rundown:
Reddit debuts new look amid IPO chatter
Google taps new geothermal energy technique
10 new products
Substack launches video tools
Google reverses decision to block Canadian news
ESA's Cheops spacecraft discovers a six-planet system
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
👀 Reddit debuts new look amid IPO chatter
Image source: Reddit
The Rundown: Reddit just introduced its first major rebrand in years — including a slick new Snoo mascot — as the social media giant reportedly weighs going public in early 2024.
The details:
Snoo, the iconic alien mascot that originated from a college sketch by co-founder Alexis Ohanian, receives a new modern 3D makeover.
New fonts and colors aim to represent Reddit's identity as an eclectic hub for chatter.
The timing of the rebrand fuels speculation of a long-rumored IPO, as per Bloomberg.
Why it matters: A public listing would be a milestone in Reddit's wild 17-year journey — but can the ‘front page of the internet’ maintain its quirky, counter-culture essence post-IPO?
TOGETHER WITH MASTERWORKS
⚡️ This painting sold for $8 million and everyday investors profited
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All thanks to Masterworks, the award-winning platform for investing in blue-chip art. In just the last few years, its investors have realized annualized net returns of 17.8%, 21.5%, 35% and more.
Shares of offerings can sell out in just minutes, but The Run Down Tech readers can skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link.
Investing involves risk and past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures and aggregate advisory performance: masterworks.com/cd
🌋 Google taps new geothermal energy technique
Image source: Google
The Rundown: Google just went operational on its first-of-its-kind geothermal plant in Nevada — seeking to prove a new advanced drilling method to access previously inaccessible heat energy deep underground.
The details:
The method builds on methods from oil/gas industry to unlock geothermal potential previously blocked by geology.
The plant delivers constant, weather-independent electricity while radically reducing drilling risk and land use versus wind and solar.
Google partnered with clean-energy startup Fervo on the plant, who also just broke ground on a larger-scale version in Utah.
The tech giant has set a goal to operate its data centers and campuses on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.
The relevance: Google is breaking the boundaries of energy harvesting — with the noble goal of unlocking clean power sources and transforming the sector.
NEW PRODUCTS
🤖 Arch.dev- The bridge between your customers’ data & your code. 500+ sources, unlimited tenants, auto-embeddings, and instant APIs (link)*
⏰ Marketing GPTs- Streamline your daily marketing tasks for maximum efficiency (link)
📊 Morph 1.0- Leverage AI for a comprehensive view of your SaaS data (link)
🎮 GachaGPT- Your go-to AI assistant for all your gacha gaming queries (link)
📃 Docufai- Get instant answers from your documents with this new AI tool (link)
📷 EraseID- Perfect your marketing campaigns with AI-powered image editing (link)
💼 Alta AI- Enhance your digital presence with AI (link)
📊 Sheet AI- Put AI in your Google Sheets (link)
🖋️ Easy Peasy AI- Create amazing blog posts 10X faster with AI tools (link)
🏦 Danelfin- Pick the best stocks to beat the market (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
* = This is sponsored content
SNIPPETS
Substack launches video tools with direct uploads and customizable paywalls, competing with YouTube and Patreon.
Google reverses its decision to block Canadian news links, agreeing to pay publishers under the Online News Act, Bill C-18.
ESA's Cheops spacecraft discovers a rare six-planet system around star HD110067.
Google Nest cameras introduce a feature to alert users if their garage door is left open, enhancing home security and convenience.
MIT scientists create a method to simultaneously track seven molecules within living cells, revealing intricate cellular activities.
Apple pays minimal fees to Arm for chip licenses, leveraging its dominance in the smartphone market.
New antimicrobial textile coating developed to combat superbug spread in hospitals, effectively killing bacteria and viruses.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
GPT-4's potential to revolutionize radiology
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
A new study found that GPT-4 delivers human-level performance in radiology tasks like analyzing scans, summarizing records, and classifying diseases.
It’s becoming more clear every day that the future of medicine will be AI-driven. Let’s break it down…
In today’s AI rundown:
GPT-4's potential to revolutionize radiology
Pika raises $55M, launches new AI video upgrades
10 new AI tools to try
How to remember everything using Rewind AI
Amazon launches enterprise AI assistant ‘Q’
Intuit brings AI to TurboTax
Stability debuts real-time image generation
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
MICROSOFT
🩺 Study: GPT-4 displays radiology prowess
Image source: DALLE-3
The Rundown: A new study from Microsoft found that GPT-4 demonstrates strong performance on radiology tasks like summarization and disease classification, achieving new state-of-the-art results.
The details:
GPT-4 summaries were comparable or preferred to those from experienced human radiologists in the study.
The model excelled in automatically structuring complex reports into standardized formats.
Researchers highlighted that integrating GPT could aid disease interpretation, real-world data usage, and patient education.
The relevance: For those who have been following the near-daily AI medical breakthroughs, GPT-4's radiology talents should come as no surprise. This study is another example of how the tech can improve both diagnosis and workflows across the field.
TOGETHER WITH NOTION
⚡️ A search bar for your second brain
The Rundown: Unlock new levels of productivity with Notion Q&A - your personal assistant in the digital realm.
Notion’s new Q&A feature lets you ask any question about your entire Notion workspace:
What action items came out of my meeting with my manager last week?
Where can I find my class notes on the nervous system?
Summarize the activities I have planned for my trip to London
Elevate your workflow with instant knowledge – ask, explore, and let Notion Assistant be your key to seamless productivity.
PIKA
🎥 Pika raises $55M, launches new AI video upgrades
Image source: Pika
The Rundown: AI video startup Pika Labs just announced a $55M raise, coinciding with the launch of Pika 1.0, which features extensive (and pretty wild) new upgrades to the company’s text-to-video generator.
The details:
Calling it an ‘idea-to-video’ platform, users can prompt using text, image, or existing video to create AI-generated videos.
The platform lets users edit the AI-generated footage, such as changing an outfit, altering the style of the output, and even expanding the video canvas/aspect ratio.
The new capabilities are available on both the web and Discord to users, with the rollout beginning Monday.
The $55M in new funding comes amid fierce competition from tools like Runway and Stability AI.
Why it matters: How long until we have text-to-movie capabilities? This new upgrade is a perfect example of how quickly AI video is improving — and it’s exciting (and scary) to think where the quality will be a year from now.
Check out the impressive demo video here.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 Freeflo- Reusable generative AI style prompts. Copy the prompt, swap the subject, and drop it into Midjourney, Clipdrop, Firefly, or DALL-E (link)*
🧩 Walling AI- Turn your idea into a complete project in seconds with AI (link)
🪐 LiarLiar.ai- Combining psychology with computer vision (link)
🚀 Deepchecks LLM Evaluation- Validate, monitor, and safeguard LLM-based apps (link)
💌 BounceBan GPT- A custom ChatGPT for unlimited free email verifications (link)
😴 Lucid Dreamer- High-fidelity text-to-3D generation (link)
🍔 Lil Snack- A fun AI mini-game arcade (link)
🏛️ Capitol AI- Data storytelling powered by AI (link)
📚 Morise AI- Reads your videos and generates everything in seconds (link)
🎵 Mubert- Soundtrack for your content made by AI (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
* = This is sponsored content
AI TRAINING
🧠 How to remember everything using Rewind AI
Rewind is a personalized AI powered by everything you’ve seen, said, or heard that makes you wildly more productive.
Here's how to use it:
Step 1: Download Rewind for free here.
Step 2: Rewind automatically records your day, including recording, transcribing, and summarizing your meetings without an awkward bot joining the call.
Step 3: Ask Rewind about anything you've seen, said, or heard. Visually scroll through your day, or Ask Rewind to recall what you're looking for.
Step 4: Put Rewind to work. Ask Rewind to draft an email based on the context of a meeting, or summarize research you did.
And just like that, you'll have an AI assistant sidekick that will help you remember everything.
QUICK HITS
📦 Amazon launches enterprise AI assistant
Amazon just announced Q, a new privacy-focused AI chatbot to help corporate users with tasks like summarizing reports or answering policy questions. Charging $20 per user/month, Amazon hopes secure data handling will attract clients who are weary of consumer chatbots handling sensitive company info.
💸 Intuit brings AI to TurboTax
Intuit just announced that TurboTax is being infused with the latest generative AI to match users with experts and translate offerings. The new updates aim to customize tax prep for all filers — and take some of the pain out of the rough filing process.
🖼️ Stability debuts real-time image generation
Stability AI just released SDXL Turbo — a new model for real-time text-to-image generation. The model creates images in a single step while maintaining quality, with the output updating at lightning speed as users type a prompt.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Technical Product Marketing Associate at Cohere
Compliance Manager at Anyscale
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
Amazon drops MAJOR upgrades
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
From conversational AI to palm-scanning tech, Amazon just revealed a host of shiny new toys at its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.
What do the big reveals mean for Amazon’s cloud and AI ambitions? Let’s break it all down…
In today’s tech rundown:
AWS shows off new tech at re:Invent
Autonomous digger shows future of construction
10 new products
YouTube Premium subscribers access Playables
Oxford Internet Study
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
AMAZON WEB SERVICES
📢 AWS shows off new tech at re:Invent
Image source: Amazon
The Rundown: Amazon Web Services (AWS) just revealed major new offerings at its re: Invent conference in Las Vegas — including a new AI assistant, powerful chip upgrades, and palm-scanning tech.
The details:
Amazon’s ‘Q’ chatbot brings a new conversational enterprise AI with a focus on privacy, trained on 17 years of AWS knowledge.
The new Graviton4 chip is optimized for running trained AI models at scale — with AWS also experimenting with a new chip that can solve key quantum computing errors.
AWS expands its partnership with Nvidia, becoming the first cloud provider to deploy GH200 chips.
Amazon One Enterprise allows workplace entry authentication via palm-print biometrics, building on prior Amazon One tech.
‘Guardrails’ defines content boundaries for LLMs, letting companies specify off-limit topics to constrain model responses.
Amazon Transcribe can now handle transcriptions from over 100 languages.
The relevance: As with most major tech conferences in the last year, AI was the star of the show — with AWS also remaining aggressive in cloud AI as Microsoft, Google, and startups nip at its heels.
TOGETHER WITH PASSIONATE INCOME
⚡️ Empower your mind & gain financial literacy
The Rundown: Unleash the power of your mind and improve your financial knowledge with easy-to-follow steps. Explore practical advice in a brief three-minute read.
You’ll get deep dives on:
Uncover stoic-inspired business wisdom on money exchange.
Save smart on Black Friday, beyond consumer deals.
Decode crypto trends from recent project successes.
Subscribe and explore practical advice in a brief three-minute read.
ROBOTICS
🚧 Autonomous digger shows future of construction
Image source: TheNextWeb
The Rundown: Researchers in Switzerland just developed an autonomous excavator that can build walls with multi-ton boulders, with extreme precision and speed.
The details:
The excavator uses LiDAR and computer vision to scan terrain, identify stones, and plan placement.
The digger can grab and position stones within 1cm of accuracy based on an algorithm and automated plans.
The precision allows the excavator to use local stones/rubble instead of new material for a more sustainable building.
Our thoughts: With a shortage of construction workers and often dangerous conditions, automating more of the process (in a faster, more sustainable way) seems like a big step forward if the tech can scale past prototype stages.
NEW PRODUCTS
🤖 Freeflo- Reusable generative AI style prompts. Copy the prompt, swap the subject and drop it into Midjourney, Clipdrop, Firefly or DALL-E (link)
💼 Venture Matching- Tinder for venture capital (link)
🎯 ob1 by Outerbase- Generate APIs, databases, and your backend with a prompt (link)
🌐 Hyper- AI-powered live data chat for every integration (link)
📝 Postli- Create LinkedIn posts from 100+ templates with AI (link)
🌈 DALL-E Party- A DALL-E 3 and GPT4-Vision feedback loop (link)
🧠 AI-suggests- Generate tons of ready-to-use content and new ideas for your business instantly (link)
🎤 Castmagic- Turn long-form audio into ready-to-use content assets, instantly (link)
🎥 Munch- Extract the most engaging and impactful clips from your long-form videos (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Charlie Munger, the legendary investor and longtime right-hand man to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, has died at age 99.
YouTube Premium subscribers now have limited-time access to Playables, simple cloud-based games powered by GameSnacks.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority suggests that Adobe's $20 billion merger with Figma may harm competition and innovation in the digital design sector.
European cyber police arrested a suspected ringleader and four others in Ukraine, accused of conducting ransomware attacks extorting millions.
"Doritos Silent" is an AI-powered app that cancels out the sound of chip crunching, developed to allow people to eat Doritos during Zoom calls.
iOS 17.2 beta adds options to customize default notification sounds and haptic feedback.
A large-scale Oxford Internet Institute study found no definitive evidence linking Internet use to mental health problems.
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
Warnings emerge over AI firm G42...
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Major AI firm G42 was caught in a delicate balancing act between its relationships with both US and Chinese firms.
American officials are reportedly sounding the alarm — underscoring how AI advantage is becoming a major national security priority. Let’s get into it…
In today’s AI rundown:
US scrutinizes UAE's AI powerhouse over China links
Nations unite on AI safety principles
9 new AI tools to try
How to animate memes with AI video tools
Amazon taps AI for holiday rush
AI revolutionizing microscopic views
Sports Illustrated under fire for AI writers, content
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
GEOPOLITICS & AI
🔎 US scrutinizes UAE's AI powerhouse over China links
Image source: New York Times
The Rundown: American officials are privately investigating the UAE over links between its major AI firm G42 and Chinese companies, warning of data and tech transfer risks, according to a new report from the NYT.
The details:
G42 announced a partnership with OpenAI last month and also boasts agreements with Microsoft and Dell.
The CIA flagged G42 partnerships with firms like Huawei that could act as a pipeline to providing advanced US tech to China's military.
CEO Peng Xiao formerly oversaw operations of ToTok, an Emirati app identified by US agencies as a spying tool aided by China.
Why it matters: With AI capabilities set to shift the future global order, the advantage of gaining access to cutting-edge techniques or breakthroughs may push espionage and national security risks to new heights. This story is one to monitor as the US/China AI race continues to escalate.
TOGETHER WITH INCOGNI
🔥 Prepare your inbox for the holidays
The Rundown: Wanna know a secret? Those spam emails you get?... They come from data brokers. They snatch your info, sell it to marketers, and can end up landing in the wrong hands.
Incogni fixes this:
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GLOBAL AI REGULATION
🌎 Nations unite on AI safety principles
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: The U.S. and 17 other countries just signed an agreement promoting major AI systems to be "secure by design" against hacking and misuse.
The details:
The agreement is the first coordinated international effort outlining safety-first AI development principles.
The non-binding deal urges vetting suppliers, testing models before release to prevent hijacking and other general recommendations.
Despite the framework, the recommendations do not tackle pressing issues like data/training for m
odels or appropriate uses of AI.
The relevance: This agreement marks an unprecedented level of international coordination on AI safety issues and another effort by the U.S. to catch up to Europe on regulating the tech.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 MaxAI.me- Use personalized 1-click AI tools on any webpage (link)*
🖌️ Draw Fast- Real-time AI image generation based on drawings in a canvas (link)
🗒️ Postli- Create LinkedIn posts from 100+ templates with AI (link)
📘 Claude 2.1- 200K token context window, fewer hallucinations and tool use (link)
🌐 Yep.so- A free, no-code landing page builder powered by AI (link)
💡 Walles.ai- Get instant insights & answers from any site/PDF in browser (link)
🛠️ Sysaidmin- Give GPT access to your terminal so it can fix your problems (link)
🔥 PromptPal- Share & discover the best AI prompts (link)
🧪 Quizgecko- AI online test and quiz maker (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
* = This is sponsored content
AI TRAINING
🤣 Animate your memes with AI video tools
If you’re on X (formerly Twitter), you’ve probably seen the viral animated memes all over your timeline. Wondering how to make one of your own?’
Follow the steps below to bring your favorite memes to life:
Step 1: Find your meme: For this example, we'll use the famous Drake ‘Hotline Bling’ image with some text added using IMGflip.
Step 2: Upload to Stable Video: Drop your meme into Stable Video Diffusion (available via Replicate or HuggingFace demo). Below the input, you can edit preferences like video length, motion speed, sizing, etc. Click ‘Run’, and the animation generation will begin.
Note: Other video tools like RunwayML (motion brush) and Pika Labs will also work.
Step 3: If you’re happy with the output, click the three dots → download or the ‘Download’ button below the generation to save.
Tweak the preferences as needed (decreasing the ‘motion bucket id’ worked wonders for the example below). Happy creating!
QUICK HITS
🎁 Amazon taps AI for holiday rush
Amazon is using AI to power the shopping journey this holiday season — from forecasting demand months to routing Cyber Week deliveries. The company’s initiatives even include robot helpers to fulfill orders (including fetching, packing, and sorting) and AI-powered vision assisting drivers on routes.
🔬 AI revolutionizing microscopic views
A new paper details how AI-powered image analysis tools are changing the game for microscopy data, with new models reaching unprecedented accuracy heights. The algorithms can automatically segment and trace cells in all types of data, aided by growing troves of annotated images.
🏈 Sports Illustrated under fire for AI writers, content
Sports Illustrated is facing scrutiny for reportedly publishing numerous articles under AI personas — complete with generated headshots and bios. Some pieces also appeared AI-written, though SI scrubbed it all post-inquiry, according to Futurism.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Policy Design Manager, Integrity and Authenticity at Anthropic
Technical Publications Manager at Shield AI
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
Medical nanobots inch closer to reality
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Everyone’s seen the movies of nanotech injected and transported through the body — finding and correcting issues like cancerous cells or illness.
Well, new research shows the sci-fi future might be closer to reality than we originally thought. Let’s dig in…
In today’s tech rundown:
‘Blood WiFi’ system links medical micro-implants
Google upgrades search tools
10 new products
Tesla sues the Swedish government
Google Drive experiences lost customer file issues
Wave detouring technology
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
MEDICAL TECH
🩸 ‘Blood WiFi’ system links medical micro-implants
Image source: Depositphotos
The Rundown: EPFL researchers just developed a system enabling communication between nanoscale transmitters using the bloodstream — which could enable swarms of smart implants without surgery.
The details:
Communicating with nanobot tech has been a challenge, with their small size evading traditional techniques that work for larger implants.
The new ‘biomolecular communication’ method encodes data in blood molecules, mimicking biological signals to form in-body networks.
The proof-of-concept study outperformed state-of-the-art tech, showing promise for future smart drug delivery.
The relevance: The sci-fi dream is having nanotech that can transport through the body — finding and correcting issues like cancerous cells or illness. With this new breakthrough, it sounds like medical nanobots may be closer than we imagined.
TOGETHER WITH FOOTBALLGUYS
⚡️ Dominate your daily fantasy football league
The Rundown: Join 600,000 Footballguys subscribers for FREE. Get daily fantasy news updates, access exclusive Insider content, and take charge of your fantasy football season!
Stay Informed: Receive daily updates covering the fantasy impact of the latest news, ensuring you make informed fantasy decisions.
Exclusive Access: Gain entry to special insider content and get advanced strategies and expert advice for a competitive edge in your league.
Ready to boost your fantasy season? Click here to subscribe today to gain the winning advantage!
🔎 Google upgrades search tools to fight AI spam
Image source: Getty Images
The Rundown: Google just introduced new tools helping discussion forums and social platforms better surface their content in search results — continuing the company’s push to showcase more first-hand perspectives.
The details:
The tools aim to address the rise of SEO-optimized junk crowding out authentic opinions and conversations.
New markups let sites signal to Google how user-generated content is structured for accurate indexing.
The move is part of Google's response as complaints grow about search losing usefulness amid AI content explosions.
Why it matters: The internet has an AI-generated spam problem — and it will only get worse. Google Search is going to need a serious overhaul to fight to elevate quality content against the flood of generated junk in the new AI-era.
NEW PRODUCTS
🤖 MaxAI.me- Use personalized 1-click AI tools on any webpage (link)
📚 SquadStack- A telecalling solution for high-growth teams (link)
🏆 RankWeek- Reindex pages on Google and boost SEO performance (link)
💰 How Much to Make- Hit your financial goals with this special calculator (link)
📝 Riju- The best alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint (link)
🐦 TweetHunter- All-in-one Twitter growth tool to create content using AI, build an audience, and schedule posts (link)
🖥️ Super- Create a website from your Notion database in minutes (link)
👾 Dante- Custom GPT chatbots trained on your data (link)
🌐 Vondy- A search engine application to guide you to your productivity needs (link)
📝 Otter AI- Voice meeting notes & real-time transcription (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Tesla is suing the Swedish government, demanding action against strikes that have crippled operations like blocked license plate deliveries.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has left the social media platform X, denouncing it as a harmful space that undermines democracy.
China is constructing the world’s first commercial underwater data center, expected to have massive computational power and significant energy and land savings.
Alibaba has closed its quantum computing lab within DAMO Academy, transferring the lab and equipment to Zhejiang University.
Google Drive is experiencing issues with lost customer files, leaving some users without months of saved work.
A UK university is developing a 'wave devouring' technology for ships, mimicking whale fins, to reduce emissions and improve efficiency in maritime transport.
Varjo just unveiled its XR-4 series headsets with auto-focus cameras that mimic human vision, aiming to make virtual interactions indistinguishable from reality.
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
The Pentagon's AI drone initiative
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
The Pentagon is reportedly racing towards autonomous and expendable AI weapons systems, despite experts warning the risky tech may not be ready.
With lethal AI weapons coming very soon — how scared should we be right now? Let’s investigate…
In today’s AI rundown:
Pentagon pushes ahead on autonomous AI weapons
Jensen Huang urges FASTER AI innovation
9 new AI tools to try
How to create a simple GPT from natural language
Putin: Russia must catch up in global AI race
Spain's first AI influencer cashes in
NVIDIA postpones new AI chip
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
MILITARY AI
💣 Pentagon pushes ahead on autonomous AI weapons
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: The Pentagon is reportedly rushing “Replicator,” a new initiative to develop of thousands of lethal, autonomous drones and systems by 2026 — to keep pace with China.
The details:
The U.S. military’s "Replicator" initiative seeks rapid expansion of expendable AI attack and defense drones.
Officials claim humans will remain "in control," but experts see the inevitability of full autonomy within years.
Concerns also remain that the pace of AI development may outpace the military’s ability to rigorously test systems before deploying them.
The relevance: Lethal and autonomous in the same sentence is a frightening prospect — and one that needs serious oversight. The advancement of AI in warfare is likely to pose some major moral arguments in the VERY near future.
TOGETHER WITH GUIDDE
🔥 Unleash your AI-powered efficiency with guidde
The Rundown: Transform the way you communicate complex tasks using GPT technology to instantly generate intelligent, productive explanations.
Here’s what guidde offers:
Elevate traditional documentation into engaging visual guides.
Speed up video guide creation by a staggering 11x.
Share or embed your guide effortlessly, keeping your team informed and aligned.
With a simple click on our browser extension, witness the magic: comprehensive step-by-step video guides replete with dynamic visuals, clear voiceovers, and actionable calls to action.
NVIDIA
💨 Jensen Huang urges FASTER AI innovation
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: While many are calling for a slowdown in AI development for safety concerns, NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang is arguing for acceleration — which he believes can unlock new technologies for understanding risks and guardrails.
The details:
Huang believes improving AI will provide more tools to make models safer over time, just as auto safety increased with tech advances.
He cited OpenAI's use of reinforcement learning from human feedback as an example of developing oversight tech.
Huang also thinks existing regulations can handle emerging AI apps — with different agencies overseeing implementations.
What this means: Jensen Huang believes by advancing AI, we can potentially develop more effective safety measures by using the tech itself. However, it’s not surprising to see the kingmaker of the AI chip world advocate for increased development.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🧩 MindMap Generator- Visualize ideas for learners & professionals (link)
🔎 Walles.ai- Get instant insights & answers from any site/PDF in browser (link)
💼 OpenRep- AI-powered organic digital marketing workflow optimization (link)
📱 Recall- Save countless hours by summarizing any online content (link)
💭 Show HN: Dreamachines.ai- Discover the potential of artificial intelligence through dream machines (link)
📊 Code to Flow- Visualize, analyze & understand your code flow (link)
📏 Find My Size- Get size recommendations for online stores w/ AI camera scan (link)
🐦 TweetHunter- All-in-one Twitter growth tool to create content using AI, build an audience, and schedule posts (link)
⚙️ Bardeen- A no-code automation tool to enhance workflow productivity (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
🤖 How to create a simple GPT from natural language
In our previous newsletter, we hosted a poll on OpenAI’s new custom GPTs and received thousands of responses that you needed a tutorial to get started.
Here’s a very simple guide to get started on building your own custom GPT from natural language (we will release more advanced guides shortly):
Step 1: You can only access GPT Builder if you have ChatGPT Plus. Start by clicking the Explore tab, then "Create a GPT".
Step 2: Before adding custom instructions in the "Configure" tab, simply talk with ChatGPT conversationally to describe what you’d like to build to get a draft.
Step 3: Now that the basic drafts are done, click configure and optimize the GPT. For example, try uploading a file such as a spreadsheet to add data to your GPT to train it on.
Step 4: Chat with your GPT and you can see how well it follows instructions. If it doesn’t go as planned, simply chat with it about what you want it to do better.
Remember, these are the early days of the GPT Builder. If predictions come true and the new GPT Builder Shop (coming soon) becomes the new App Store of AI, you will have a huge headstart over others in the new GPT wave.
For the full tutorial (with visuals), click here.
QUICK HITS
🇷🇺 Putin: Russia must catch up in global AI race
Vladimir Putin warned that the West can't monopolize AI during a Russian conference on Friday, vowing that Russia will boost funding and ambitions to close the AI gap between the country and the US and China.
📸 Spain's first AI influencer cashes in
Spanish AI model ‘Aitana’ is being hailed as Spain’s ‘first AI influencer’, reportedly earning up to $10,000 a month. Created by ad agency “The Clueless”, the model has cashed in with brand deals and accumulated 121k followers on IG since making her debut over the summer.
💾 NVIDIA postpones new AI chip
Nvidia is reportedly pushing the launch of its new H20 chip back until Q1 of 2024, due to issues from server manufacturers with integrating it. The H20 is the most powerful of three new China-focused chips aimed to adhere to U.S. export restrictions.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Machine Learning Engineer Internship, Watermarking at Hugging Face
Robotics Simulation at Sanctuary AI
Full-stack developer at Mistral 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
Instagram's biggest user problem...
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Meta is under fire AGAIN, with a court filing showing the company ignored over 1M underage user reports while collecting data from minors.
Will another fine stop the social media giant from chasing growth over user safety? Let’s get into it…
In today’s tech rundown:
Instagram's underage user problem exposed
Copper breakthrough could slash drug costs
9 new products
8 New products
Adobe hits record-level sales
Meta's Andy Stone is now on Russia's wanted list
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
META
🚨 Instagram's underage user problem exposed
Image source: Getty Images
The Rundown: A newly unsealed legal complaint alleges that Instagram has been knowingly collecting data on millions of children under 13, violating federal privacy law.
The details:
33 U.S. attorney generals claim Instagram pursued underage users —despite being aware of their ages.
Over 1.1 million under-13 user reports have been filed since 2019, but Meta "disabled only a fraction".
The suit argues Instagram prioritized growth over complying with children's data laws, and fines could total hundreds of millions.
Why it matters: This complaint (and the details trickling out) exposes Meta's history of lax protections and questionable data collection. Will a fine be enough to push the company to prioritize user safety over profits?
TOGETHER WITH BOARDROOM
⚡️ Never miss a beat in sports, music and entertainment
The Rundown: HeadlineToGo is your one-stop shop for the day’s biggest stories in the business of sports, music, and entertainment — delivered every morning, Monday-Saturday.
Get the latest updates from athletes, executives, musicians, and creators who are moving the business world forward to industry trends, tech advances, and emerging opportunities.
MEDICAL TECH
🧪 Copper breakthrough could slash drug costs
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: UCLA chemists just discovered a way to produce amines — a key component of many drugs by using cheap and abundant copper instead of precious metals, enabling more affordable versions of critical medicines.
The details:
Many vital drugs contain chemicals called amines — whose production requires expensive metals.
The new method snips and reforms molecules with low-cost copper and oxygen in fewer steps to generate amines.
The technique was used to make cancer and gene-regulating drugs for just dollars per gram instead of thousands.
The relevance: At a time when drug prices are still astronomically high, this new method could make life-saving medications more accessible to the masses. The question is — will big pharma companies actually lower prices or just pocket the profits?
NEW PRODUCTS
🚀 Show HN: Altero- Get ahead with insights on fast-growing companies (link)
🌐 LLMonitor- Open source monitoring and production toolkit for AI apps (link)
👨⚕️ DrLambda- AI content generation for social media (link)
🚰 Leadpipe- Everything you want to know about your website visitors (link)
🦄 Screen Story- Create video demos, tutorials, education videos, gifs, and promo videos (link)
🤓 Coachvox - Create an AI version of yourself (link)
👩🏻💼 Aomni- AI Sidekick for your sales team (link)
📕 DeepFiction- An AI platform for creating and sharing stories (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain chip implant startup, raised an additional $43 million in VC funding — with the company now valued at $5B.
Black Friday sales have surged this season, with Adobe Analytics reporting a record $9.8 billion in US online sales — exceeding predictions and growing 7.5% annually.
The European Space Agency declared the test of its delayed Ariane 6 rocket a success — bringing the rocket closer to its debut in 2023 after years of setbacks.
Physics suggests black holes could have vast interiors within shrinking boundaries, similar to the 'bigger inside' Tardis in 'Dr. Who'.
Meta's spokesperson Andy Stone is now on Russia's wanted list, with no public reason given, amidst tensions post-Ukraine invasion.
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is rumored to retain a slight curve on its screen edges rather than having a completely flat display.
Taste rapidly informs the brain to regulate eating, preceding slower signals from the gut and affects appetite control, according to new research from USCF.
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THAT’S A WRAP
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
OpenAI's secret discovery before firing Sam Altman
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
The mystery of what led the OpenAI board to fire Sam Altman might’ve just been solved.
A leak from top OpenAI researchers states they made a powerful AI discovery that could "threaten humanity" right before the ousting. Let’s get into it...
In today’s AI rundown:
OpenAI’s recent discovery before firing Sam Altman
xAI plans to launch Grok next week to rival ChatGPT
9 new AI tools to try
The 5 most popular GPTs of the week
ElevenLabs reveals speech-to-speech converter
Bill Gates predicts AI can lead to a 3-day workweek
Andrej Karpathy: Intro to LLMs
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
😱 OpenAI’s recent discovery before firing Sam Altman
Image source: Jessica Chou via WIRED
The Rundown: According to a report by Reuters, OpenAI had a secret breakthrough called Q* (pronounced Q-Star) that precipitated the firing of Sam Altman.
The details:
Before Sam's firing, researchers sent the board a letter warning of a new AI discovery that could "threaten humanity."
The new model dubbed Q* demonstrated internal capabilities of doing simple math (something no model has achieved).
While simple math might not seem impressive to most, it could be a huge step toward creating artificial general intelligence (AGI).
A day before Sam was fired, he gave a chilling speech, quoting: "Is this a tool we've built or a creature we have built?"
Why it matters: While Q* is not fully confirmed yet, if true, the entire firing of Sam Altman could have been AGI-related all along, and the board’s drastic (and unexplained) actions would make more sense.
TOGETHER WITH MINDVALLEY
🧠 Turn your online presence into a digital powerhouse
The Rundown: Join leading social media experts at Mindvalley's free online Summit. Learn from influencers and strategists who've captivated millions.
Explore key topics:
Crafting Viral Brands
Converting Followers
Creative Content with AI
Mastering Organic Social Media Reach
Whether you're a CEO amplifying your brand, an entrepreneur monetizing your following, or an advocate promoting a cause, this summit offers the insights and tools you need.
xAI
👽 xAI plans to launch Grok next week to rival ChatGPT
Image source: xAI
The Rundown: Elon Musk’s new company, xAI, is reportedly launching Grok, its ChatGPT competitor next week to X Premium+ subscribers.
The details:
Grok will be integrated directly into X (formerly Twitter) and will have its own unique tab within the platform.
Grok’s differentiation over ChatGPT is its unique features like a distinctive personality and real-time X knowledge access.
Grok is part of a new, higher-priced X Premium+ subscription, priced at $16/month (above the standard $8/month).
Users will be able to submit feedback on how Grok answered, including writing optimal answers in response, to train the AI over time.
Our thoughts: While X is known to be the top platform for real-time news, it’s also known for massive misinformation. Given this fact, it will be interesting to see how the team at xAI handles what to feed into the AI vs. not.
TRENDING TOOLS
✍️ Grail Writer- Generate unlimited SEO-optimized articles from by your OpenAI API key (link)
👗 AI Fashion Model Generator- Create try-on models for garments and accessories (link)
📖 Readany- Turn any website into a podcast or audiobook (link)
🧠 Sonia- AI-powered cognitive behavioral therapist (link)
✏️ Notice- Create FAQs, Blogs, Docs, and Testimonials (link)
🎨 Meimu- Convert SVG to 3D with a high-quality renders (link)
🦙 Llama packs by Llamaindex- Hub of prepackaged modules that you can use to kickstart your LLM application (link)
🪞 Hey Mind- A mirror for the mind (link)
🎯 Automata - Repurpose Your Videos with AI (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
📈 The 5 most popular GPTs of the week
An interesting thing about the OpenAI saga is that as the drama happened, OpenAI’s newly launched custom GPTs seemingly spiked in interest, based on data from our GPT directory.
The top 5 most popular GPTs of the week worth trying out:
ResearchGPT- An AI research assistant that searches 200M academic papers and drafts content with accurate citations (link)
VideoGPT- Drop a Spotify link to a song, playlist, user, or artist and explore with insights (link)
Logo Creator- Generates simple logo designs in seconds (link)
ConvertAnything- Convert images, audio, videos, PDFs & more with natch uploads, ZIP support, and download links (link)
Grimoire- A 10x coding assistant that can help you build a website with a single sentence (link)
QUESTION OF THE DAY
QUICK HITS
🎙️ ElevenLabs reveals speech-to-speech converter
Popular AI voice startup ElevenLabs released an AI speech-to-speech converter that allows you to change your voice for free. Potential uses include creating custom voices for games, videos, and podcasts using any sample audio with a single click.
💼 Bill Gates predicts AI can lead to a 3-day workweek
Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicts that AI could lead to a three-day workweek, with machines taking over the “drudge work.“ Gates believes that if human labor is freed, it can be used for more meaningful activities, such as helping the elderly and reducing class sizes.
🤖 Andrej Karpathy: Intro to LLMs
Andrej Karpathy, one of the world’s most respected AI scientists currently working at OpenAI, just published an extremely helpful YouTube video titled: “Intro to Large Langauge Models.”
LLMs are the brains behind AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard, and if you don’t yet understand what they do, we highly recommend the free intro video!
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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
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