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⚡️ Disney's magical (and adorable) new robot
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Disney just unveiled an adorable robot that hints at a new generation of delightful Disney creations.
Will the entertainment brand’s next act be the most magic one of all? Let’s get into it.
In today’s tech rundown:
🤖 Disney debuts adorable new robot
🐒 Monkey with pig kidney lives years in transplant success
🚀 Character AI's unstoppable growth
🛠️ 8 New products
📰 6 quick stories
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
DISNEY
🤖 Disney debuts adorable new robot
Image source: Disney Research
The Rundown: Disney Research just revealed an expressive new bipedal robot that can walk stably and independently like an animated character. The 3D-printed bot was developed by Disney's Zurich team in under a year.
The details:
The robot has movable antennae on its head that wiggle like animal ears to show emotion.
It can walk smoothly on its own without falling over — and keeps its balance when shoved or crossing uneven terrain.
Disney worked with animators so the robot moves expressively like a cartoon character while still functioning properly.
The animation-inspired development pipeline allows new behaviors to be quickly trained.
The relevance: While not destined for Disney parks yet, this tech could eventually enable some seriously interactive animatronics down the road — unlocking new magical experiences for fans.
TOGETHER WITH HELP ME WITH
⚡️ Revolutionize your web searches with ‘Help Me With’
The Rundown: Unlock smarter web searches with the "Help Me With" Chrome extension featuring AI-powered convenience.
Offering three main benefits:
Integration with Google's ChatBot LLM for advanced AI-powered search on your current page.
Simplistic design, instantly activating a search box for immediate query resolution via Bard without complex settings.
Convenient access through Ctrl + B, right-click, browser icon, or by typing 'Help' in your URL bar, and for power users.
Experience a smarter, not harder search with "Help Me With" today!
LONGEVITY
🐒 Monkey with pig kidney lives years in transplant success
Image source: Nature
The Rundown: Researchers have achieved an exceptional 2+ year survival time after transplanting a genetically edited pig kidney into a monkey, one of the longest interspecies transplant durations ever.
The details:
Researchers used CRISPR to edit 69 genes in donor pigs, including disabling genes that trigger organ rejection and neutralizing viruses.
15 monkeys received the modified kidneys along with immunosuppressants. 9 survived over a year, with 1 exceeding 2 years.
The results show the potential viability of genetically engineered pig organs to address the human organ shortage — with regulators considering clinical trials.
Why it matters: This research is an exciting step toward solving organ shortage — and as techniques are refined, the potential to save human lives with xenotransplantation looks increasingly achievable.
NEW PRODUCTS
😮 OpenSauced- Use deep insights to optimize your open-source project (link)
📖 NotionPlates- Free notion templates for covers, tools, and more (link)
🗺️ Dynamic Map for Webflow- A filterable map with pins for Webflow (link)
🎥 Descript- A powerful all-in-one video and podcast editing tool using AI (link)
🔥 Jasper- An AI copywriter assistant that can generate any kind of marketing copy (link)
📊 Sheet AI- Put AI in your Google Sheets (link)
🪄 Guidde- Magically create stunning how-to guides with AI (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
Adobe's "Project Res-Up" is a new AI tool that dramatically upscales and improves the quality of old, low-resolution videos and GIFs.
Firefox is testing a "Review Checker" to rate the reliability of product reviews using technology from the acquired company, Fakespot.
Google's "Flood Hub" tool, offering real-time flood forecasts, is now available in the U.S. and Canada to help communities prepare for climate-related flooding.
Utah has filed a lawsuit against TikTok for child safety concerns and its ties to China, alleging the app's addictive design manipulates young users and misrepresents its relationship with parent company ByteDance.
Google pays Apple up to $20B yearly for iPhone search dominance; the deal is at risk due to an antitrust case.
The FTC proposes a rule requiring businesses to display total prices with fees upfront; Ticketmaster and SeatGeek have already committed to all-in pricing.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
🤖 Adobe levels up Firefly AI (again!)
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
After last week’s rumors, Adobe is going back-to-back with some MAJOR upgrades to its suite of AI tools — including a vastly improved Firefly model.
Creative and design work will never be the same. Let’s dive in…
In today’s AI rundown:
🖼️ Adobe beefs up AI creativity tools
🗣️ ElevenLabs releases AI voice dubbing
🛠️ 7 New AI tools
🎨 How to generate stunning images with Firefly
🤖 3 Quick AI updates
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
ADOBE
🖼️ Adobe beefs up AI creativity tools
Image source: Adobe
The Rundown: Adobe just unveiled major upgrades to its suite of AI-powered creative tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, promising more realistic imagery and new generative abilities.
The details:
The latest version of Adobe's AI system, Firefly, was trained on 70% more image data, enabling much higher quality visual generations.
New controls allow users to better fine-tune AI output, like uploading a photo to mimic its style.
Illustrator can now auto-generate vector graphics from text prompts, while Express gains AI capabilities for quick social media creations.
Check out our AI Training section for an in-depth guide!
The relevance: Adobe and Canva continue to trade blows in the battle for AI design dominance. The realism upgrade to Firefly is impressive — and will take the tool to a serious competitor alongside Midjourney and DALL-E 3.
TOGETHER WITH KYLIGENCE
🌐 Excel your KPIs with an AI copilot
The Rundown: Kyligence Copilot is changing the game, offering a fully interactive platform for transformative metrics management and AI data analytics. Harness unparalleled capabilities right at your fingertips.
With Kyligence Copilot, you can:
🔍 Conduct on-demand root cause analysis with precision.
📊 Generate automated dashboards and reports effortlessly.
🔎 Dive into effortless metric search and analysis.
🤖 Integrate an embeddable AI copilot directly into your apps.
🎯 Monitor advanced KPI and goal progress seamlessly.
Ready to take the helm? Click here to launch Kyligence Copilot for free!
ELEVENLABS
🗣️ ElevenLabs releases AI voice dubbing
Image source: ElevenLabs
The Rundown: Voice AI startup ElevenLabs just launched a groundbreaking new AI Dubbing tool that translates speech into different languages while preserving the original speaker's voice.
The details:
AI Dubbing converts spoken audio/video into over 20 languages while still maintaining nuance and emotion.
The tech combines voice cloning, synthesis, and text-processing research by ElevenLabs.
It handles multiple speakers well, differentiating between voices and music/noise.
The release comes on the heels of a similar launch from Spotify, which utilized OpenAI’s Whisper tech.
Why it matters: AI voice dubbing has incredible potential to foster global understanding and accessibility. With tools like this available to the masses, creators can reach a broader audience without being limited by language.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🎨 AnimeGenius- Create anime AI art and bring your imagination to reality (link)
💹 STOCKED- The simplest way to beat the S&P 500 using AI (link)
📆 Vimcal- Calendar app on steroids. Assists users in scheduling and organizing events efficiently (link)
📽 Fliki- Video creation made 10x simpler & faster with AI (link)
🎬 HeyGen- Create videos from text in minutes with AI-generated avatars and voices (link)
🕵️♂️ Knibble- AI-powered knowledge base (link)
⭐️ Play HT- The highest quality AI-Powered voice generation platform (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
🎨 How to generate stunning images with Firefly
While Midjourney and DALL-E 3 get all the attention, Adobe’s latest upgrade to its Firefly platform packs a serious punch.
Try some of the new features out by following the steps below:
Step 1: Log in to Firefly and select Text to Image.
Step 2: Choose your prompt. Type the image you’d like to create into the text box at the bottom of the screen and click ‘generate.’
Step 3: Modify and iterate. Firefly will generate four outputs — and a sidebar will now appear on the right, allowing for modifications. The model version selected should be Firefly Image 2 (beta).
From here, change details (ratio, content type, color, and lighting), effects, or even upload a reference image to match the exact style you’re looking for.
Firefly’s variety of pre-loaded options gives a lot more control to the average user — without the need for serious prompting knowledge. Try it out!
QUICK HITS
🆓 Replit opens AI coding tools to masses
Replit announced free, open access to its AI-powered suite of coding tools — including debugging, autocompletion, and text-to-code features. The company believes putting AI in every developer's hands is key to empowering software's next billion creators.
⚡️AI's soaring electricity appetite raises alarm
New analysis from the New York Times estimates that AI could consume as much electricity as a small country by 2027, due to the tech’s reliance on power-hungry specialized chips — with experts warning of AI's rising carbon footprint.
🧠 AI detects schizophrenia through speech patterns
Scientists just developed AI that may be able to decode the brain — spotting subtle linguistic differences in schizophrenia patients and hinting at variances in how humans store memories and ideas.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
Research Engineer, RSP Evaluations at Anthropic
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning at Cohere
Staff Research Scientist, AI/ML at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning at Rad AI
Summer 2024 Internship Program at C3 AI
Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.
SPONSOR US
🦾 Get your product in front of over 350k+ AI enthusiasts
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THAT’S A WRAP
Keep an eye out and click the star emoji hidden somewhere in today’s email for a free entry into our Ray-Ban Meta AI smartglasses giveaway.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
⚡️ Unity CEO QUITS after massive backlash
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Unity has been fighting some major backlash in the past couple of weeks due to a hike in its pricing plan for developers.
And now, The CEO has just quit. Let’s get into it…
In today’s tech rundown:
🎮 Unity CEO exits after pricing backlash
📱 California enacts right-to-repair law for devices
🛠️ 7 New products
📰 7 quick stories
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
UNITY
🎮 Unity CEO exits after pricing backlash
Image source: Twitter @zackhargett
The Rundown: Unity CEO John Riccitiello has resigned following intense backlash over controversial new pricing plans for the company's gaming engine.
The details:
Unity wanted to charge developers fees based on game installs, angering studios big and small.
The proposal sparked outrage and threats to leave the platform, forcing Unity to roll back the pricing model and issue an apology.
Riccitello led Unity's growth since 2013, taking it public in a $13.6 billion IPO. But shares have sunk amid losses.
He also resigned from EA in 2007 after missing forecasts, saying he was "100% accountable."
The relevance: The Unity saga shows listening to your community is vital — especially when making major business model pivots. Rebuilding trust with the community takes time (and apparently new leadership).
TOGETHER WITH AKKIO
⚡️ The AI assistant for your data
The Rundown: You're not data deficient; you're flush with data but can't get actionable insights. While big corporations throw armies of analysts at the problem, SMBs don't have the luxury.
That's where Akkio changes the game:
Chat with your data for visualizations and transformations
Build machine learning models in a click
Share real-time reports
Analyze the past, predict the future, and act on it—so you can visualize survey sentiment, forecast revenue, and engage with qualified leads through one intuitive platform.
TECH REGULATION
📱 California enacts right-to-repair law for devices
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: California's governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill into law making DIY and third-party repairs much easier for consumer electronics over $100 — in a win for users against tech giants like Apple and Google.
The details:
The law empowers independent repair shops and give more choice to consumers — who were previously punished with excessive terms and conditions for trying to repair devices with third parties.
Manufacturers must provide tools, parts, and manuals for repairs for 7 years after device production.
Apple and others have dropped opposition after initially trying to fight the bill.
Game consoles and alarm systems are currently excluded, but the law covers most other electronics.
Why it matters: If you’ve ever had to get an iPhone or device repaired — you probably know the hoops the giants make you jump through. This is a huge win — more repairable devices means less e-waste and more affordability.
NEW PRODUCTS
📱 AppManager- Streamline your app & user provisioning with this IT agent for startups (link)
👨💻 Frigade- Product onboarding for React and Next.js (link)
🪄 Framer AI- Generate a website in minutes from prompts (link)
💘 Longshot- ChatGPT for enterprises. Upload your docs, fact check, ensure zero hallucinations and integrate anywhere (link)
✨ Magic Studio- Create amazing product photos in minutes (link)
🎤 Castmagic- Turn long-form audio into ready-to-use content assets, instantly (link)
🦄 Screen Story- Create video demos, tutorials, education videos, gifs, and promo videos (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Google is calling for patent reform after a judge invalidated Sonos' patents and tossed out a $32 million verdict, saying Sonos abused the system to "punish an innovator and enrich a pretender."
Rice University created a magnetoelectric material that rapidly stimulates nerves and can repair nerve damage.
Qualcomm introduces Snapdragon X chips, rivaling Apple's M-series, with improved performance, battery life, and on-device AI processing.
Sony unveils a new "Slim" PS5 model with a detachable disc drive and 1TB storage, releasing in November for $499.99 or $449.99 without the drive.
TikTok introduces a new API allowing users to post directly from approved third-party apps like Adobe Premiere Pro and Twitch; photo content support to follow soon.
California court finds Facebook's age and gender ad-targeting violates state anti-discrimination law after a user claimed discriminatory ad practices.
Caroline Ellison testified on Wednesday that Sam Bankman-Fried directed her to commit fraud and money laundering crimes, including taking billions from FTX customers.
SPONSOR US
⚡️ Get your product in front of over 50k+ 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
🤖 'Godfather of AI' fears robot takeover
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
If you’re a professional working in AI or a tech enthusiast looking to get into an up-and-coming AI startup, we’ve got a huge announcement for you.
We're thrilled to unveil our AI Job Board and dedicated AI Jobs section in our newsletter. Your next dream job in AI is now just a scroll away.
Based on previous feedback, the new section is at the bottom of the newsletter and will be kept as small as possible. We’d love to hear what you think in today’s poll!
In today’s AI rundown:
🤖 ‘Godfather of AI’ issues another stark warning
🩺 Google launches healthcare-specific generative AI
🛠️ 8 New AI tools
🎨 Create custom logos with ChatGPT and Canva
🤖 3 Quick AI updates
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AI SAFETY
🤖 ‘Godfather of AI’ issues another stark warning
Image source: CBS
The Rundown: AI pioneer and former Google Brain researcher Geoffrey Hinton said during an interview with 60 Minutes that today's systems may soon surpass human intelligence — with the potential to take over if we don't act quickly.
The details:
Hinton said he believes AI like chatbots truly do understand and reason — despite claims that the technology just predicts words.
He also thinks AI could reason better than humans in five years, which could lead to manipulating people or "taking over".
Hinton reiterated that while AI can and will bring enormous health benefits, the risks include unemployment, bias, fake news and even battlefield robots.
The relevance: This isn’t Hinton’s first warning — and his words (especially to the large ‘mainstream’ audience on 60 Minutes) carry serious weight that can shape both sentiment and future policy. The question remains — can we put the genie back in the bottle, even if we wanted to?
TOGETHER WITH SUPERMANAGE
🔥 Catch up before your 1-on-1 with an AI-powered snapshot
The Rundown: Introducing Supermanage, a powerful tool for top-tier managers and teams to enhance 1-on-1 meetings. It analyzes selected Slack channels, offering real-time insights into team members.
Supermanage benefits:
Instant Updates: Receive immediate information on team members' contributions, challenges, and engagement levels.
Informed Discussions: Equip yourself with comprehensive data for more meaningful 1-on-1 conversations.
Team Insight: Stay informed and ready to discuss crucial team performance and dynamics.
Elevate your 1-on-1 meetings with Supermanage, add to Slack here!
🩺 Google launches healthcare-specific generative AI
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Google just launched new features in its Vertex AI search platform, combining the tech with the medically-focused model Med-PaLM 2 to aid health groups in unifying clinical data.
The details:
New tools in Vertex enable queries across siloed sources like EHRs, clinical notes, medical images, and genomic data.
Natural language questions can be combined with structured search for intuitive exploration of patient records.
Google touts security measures like encryption and HIPAA compliance for protecting sensitive health data.
Med-PaLM 2, trained on medical data, can provide responses to clinical questions linked to specific patient info.
The relevance: Google is aggressively expanding its AI healthcare offerings, now with a focus on connected data. This area feels like one with serious transformative potential — with AI having the opportunity to completely revolutionize the medical world.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
💡 Business Idea Generator- Generate 6 unique business ideas in just 10 seconds (link)
🗒 TalkNotes- Converts your thoughts into actionable notes in no time (link)
🛍 Kua.ai- Improve your e-commerce success with AI-assisted content creation (link)
💼 Taplio- All-in-one AI-powered tool for creating, managing, and growing your personal brand on LinkedIn (link)
🖥️ Super- Create a website from your Notion database in minutes (link)
🦿 My AskAI- Create your own ChatGPT from your content (link)
🕵️♀️ Fine-Tuner.ai- Build your own tailored AI agents without technical skills or coding (link)
🎬 HeyGen- Create videos from text in minutes with AI-generated avatars and voices (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
⭐️ Create custom logos with ChatGPT and Canva
Need marketing materials quick? Design unique brand assets in seconds thanks to Canva's ChatGPT integration:
Activate the Canva plugin: In ChatGPT, open the plugin store and install the Canva plugin.
Describe your logo needs: Prompt ChatGPT to generate logo options matching your brand style and industry. Ex: "Design 3 logo variations for my new tech company focused on AI assistants."
Refine in Canva: Click the Canva link to customize elements like fonts, colors, and layouts.
Export final files: Download your polished logo assets by selecting "Share" then "Download" in Canva.
With Canva's massive template library and ChatGPT's creative prompts, you can effortlessly design one-of-a-kind logos tailored to your brand.
QUICK HITS
💸 Unleash your AI business with AE Studio (sponsor)
AE Studio crafts custom software and AI/ML solutions tailored to elevate your business. Whether you're after a Minimum Viable Product, embarking on an Enterprise Digital Transformation, or seeking specialized AI/ML innovations, partner with AE's world-class team. Outpace your competition with AI-driven success.
😡 Loki poster sparks more AI art backlash for Disney
Disney is facing AI drama… AGAIN. Despite previous criticism over its AI-generated ‘Secret Invasion’ intro, the company isn’t backing down from the tech — with a poster for Season 2 of ‘Loki’ stirring up anger from fans after seemingly utilizing AI-generated stock image elements. The AI hatred is real out there, folks.
👵 DUOS AI connects seniors with care
Digital health firm DUOS introduced an AI platform helping match seniors with primary care, transportation, and more. The tech analyzes language to understand needs and recommend relevant services and benefits. For the least tech-savvy generation, AI advancements like this could be an absolute game-changer.
💼 New jobs in the world of AI
PR & Communications Manager at Sanctuary AI
Browse all available AI job positions with our job board.
SPONSOR US
🦾 Get your product in front of over 350k+ 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
Keep an eye out and click the star emoji hidden somewhere in today’s email for a free entry into our Ray-Ban Meta AI smartglasses giveaway.
Additionally, you’ll get another free entry for every subscriber who joins our newsletter using your unique link: {{rp_refer_url}}
You can track how many referrals you’ve made here. Happy hunting!
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
⚡️ X's massive disinformation problem
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
The world is watching on X as horrors unfold during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
But disinformation is flooding the platform — making it harder than ever to discern fact from fiction. Let’s dive in…
In today’s tech rundown:
😵💫 Disinformation explodes on X amid Israel-Hamas conflict
🚖 Waymo driverless taxis expand while Cruise stumbles in SF
🛠️ 7 New products
📰 7 quick stories
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
TWITTER/X
😵💫 Disinformation explodes on X amid Israel-Hamas conflict
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: A wave of manipulated videos, fake images, and out-of-context footage flooded X (formerly Twitter) amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas over the weekend — with the platform grappling with an ‘unprecedented scale’ of misleading content.
The details:
Real footage was largely drowned out by manipulated content, due to X's algorithm boosting sensational but false posts.
Changes under Elon Musk, including firing critical moderation staff and diminishing the value of verified blue checks, enabled the disinfo surge according to experts.
Musk himself made the situation worse by recommending notorious disinformation accounts to his 150 million followers.
The rise of AI-generated fake media will only increase the challenge of spotting and stopping weaponized lies during global news coverage.
The relevance: While Twitter has previously been where many turn to get real-time news, the platform’s changes (alongside the rise in AI) have made user feeds a minefield for discerning fact from fiction. And the scary part — its likely only going to get worse.
TOGETHER WITH SEO WRITING AI
⚡️ Your 1-click article generator with images & auto-posting
The Rundown: Crafting quality content often involves hours of research, image sourcing, keyword optimization, and publication. But with SEO Writing AI it takes minutes.
Here’s how it works:
👆 Generate blog posts with a single click.
📷 Integrate high-quality AI images.
📆 Schedule and auto-post directly to WordPress.
🧠 Benefit from bulk mode for up to 100 articles.
Experience the future of content creation. Click here to get your first AI-generated blog post now!
WAYMO
🚖 Waymo driverless taxis expand while Cruise stumbles in SF
Image source: Waymo
The Rundown: Waymo just expanded its driverless ride-hailing service area in San Francisco, while rival Cruise is navigating a series of setbacks including fleet cuts and crashes.
The details:
Waymo opened its San Francisco service to tens of thousands of additional riders this week after an initial slow roll-out.
The move comes after California ruled to allow 24/7 commercial robotaxi operations, despite facing opposition from San Francisco.
Waymo competitor Cruise was ordered to halve its fleet over "concerning incidents", including an AV recently running over a pedestrian.
The relevance: The robotaxi rivalry in SF highlights the remaining challenges surrounding the tech — with most experts still seeing years of progress needed for safe urban autonomous driving at scale. But the capabilities are likely much farther along than the general public realizes.
NEW PRODUCTS
🏋️ FormFusion- The perfect fitness app designed specifically for you (link)
🔗 WorkOS- Make your app enterprise-ready with instant API connections (link)
🕸️ 10Web- Build or recreate any website in minutes with the power of AI (link)
🎤 LALAL AI- Vocal Remover & Instrumental AI Splitter (link)
👾 Dante- Custom GPT chatbots trained on your data (link)
🧠 Decktopus- An AI-powered presentation generator (link)
🧑⚖️ AI Lawyer- Personal AI lawyer at your fingertips (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
Edinburgh to host the UK's first exascale supercomputer, enhancing AI research and national innovation.
Apple's next-gen Vision Pro headsets aim for a lighter design and may offer preinstalled prescription lenses, with a potential launch between 2025-2027.
Merlin Entertainments collaborates with Immersive Gamebox, introducing enhanced gaming venues in 2023 featuring brands like Squid Game and PAW Patrol, eyeing global expansion.
Google's 2017 ad auction tweak, "Project Momiji," potentially netted billions by narrowing bid gaps, according to US Justice Department testimony.
California passed a law requiring venture capital firms to annually report the diversity of their investment portfolio, hoping to increase transparency and funding for women and minorities.
Instagram's Threads app is working on a ‘Trends‘ feature to better compete with X, showing buzzy topics and number of related posts.
French startup Mecaware raised €40 million to scale up its unique CO2-based battery recycling technology that extracts critical metals like lithium and cobalt from batteries and scrap.
SPONSOR US
⚡️ Get your product in front of over 50k+ tech enthusiasts
Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, investors, engineers, managers, and business owners around the world. Get in touch today.
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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
🤖 GPT-4 Vision's newest competitor is FREE
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
An open-source AI model emerged this week with visual abilities potentially rivaling GPT-4 (and it’s completely free to try).
Can open-source AI compete with the LLM giants? Let’s dive in…
In today’s AI rundown:
👀 Open-source LLaVA challenges GPT-4
🧠 Anthropic breakthrough makes AI understandable
🛠️ 8 New AI tools
💻 Create websites from sketches with ChatGPT
🤖 3 Quick AI updates
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPEN SOURCE AI
👀 Open-source LLaVA challenges GPT-4
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Researchers from Stanford, UW-Madison and Columbia introduced LLaVA, a new open-source AI system that could rival GPT-4 for visual and language understanding. It’s open-sourced and completely free to use.
The details:
LLaVA connects CLIP (an AI system that understands images) with LLaMA, an open-source text AI model.
In a demo, LLaVA showed it could understand and have convos about images, much like the proprietary GPT-4 system, despite having far less training data.
Unlike the private GPT-4, LLaVA's code, trained model weights, and generated training data are freely available online.
Why it matters: LLaVA proves the potential of open to push vision-language AI forward. While still likely no match for GPT-4's sheer scale, its accessibility, and strong initial results are impressive.
TOGETHER WITH PLUTO
🤖 How to use AI to invest smarter
The Rundown: With Pluto.fi, you can have your own AI analyst that can provide reports on your portfolio and specific stocks, so you can make smarter investing decisions.
Here’s what over 20,000 investors use Pluto for:
📊 Access personalized real-time market data and analysis
🧠 Team up with your AI to turn market trends into lucrative Automations
💰 Invest in any US stock, fine-tuning with AI support
Start your free trial today at Pluto.fi
ANTHROPIC
🧠 Anthropic breakthrough makes AI understandable
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: Anthropic just developed a new method to interpret the individual neurons inside LLMs like Claude, helping researchers better understand and decode the model’s reasoning.
The details:
Neurons usually respond to many unrelated concepts, making them hard to understand in isolation.
Anthropic found a way to decompose groups of neurons into simpler "features" with clearer meanings.
For example, they extracted DNA, legal text, and HTML features from a blend of 500 neurons — and stimulating a single feature consistently caused expected model behavior.
Features also link together in systems for complex functions like producing valid HTML.
Why it matters: This massive breakthrough makes it easier to understand what’s happening when the AI is thinking. Not only is it crucial to understand this from an AI safety perspective, but it will allow much more control over the entire system as a whole.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 VantagePoint A.I. - dual-patented forecasting tool predicts moves on Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, and more(!) with up to 87.4% proven accuracy. Attend FREE Live A.I. Market Training >*
💬 TalkNotes- Turn your thoughts into actionable notes, fast (link)
🗣️ Chatcare- Reduce your customer support volume by 60% (link)
🧾 Airparser- Data extraction powered by GPT-4 (link)
🪄 Framer AI- Generate a website in minutes from prompts (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)
📝 Writesonic- ChatGPT alternative that addresses the limitations of ChatGPT (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
* = This is sponsored content
AI TRAINING
💻 Create websites from sketches with ChatGPT
If you have an idea for a website or app layout, but don’t have any coding experience, you can now use ChatGPT’s new vision capabilities turn your simple sketches into functioning code!
Step 1: Sketch your desired webpage layout. Don’t worry about expert design — the tool is surprisingly competent at interpreting the drawings to generate a rough layout.
Step 2: Upload the image. Use the following prompt: "You are an expert developer. Write HTML and CSS code for the webpage layouts I've drawn."
Step 3: Iterate and add details. ChatGPT will provide the code for your design — test the output in your tool of choice. Then, conversationally talk through any changes or additions you’d like!
It’s never been easier to build and execute with the power of AI — shoutout to Brian Marley on X for the demo.
QUICK HITS
⭐️ Research: LLMs outperforming search engines
Is AI about to replace traditional search engines? A new paper from Google found that using GPT-4 and Fresh Prompt (a method of prompting LLMs with web search results) resulted in more factual responses than both traditional search and standalone LLMs.
✅ Meta shares method to watermark AI images
Meta and Inria just released a new technique to create invisible watermarks on images from open-source AI models. Their Stable Signature method traces generated images back to the original model — and potentially offers a solution to one of the more heavily critiqued elements of AI creations.
🗳️ Alexa spreads election fraud claim
Amazon's Alexa was reportedly spreading misinfo that the 2020 election was "stolen by massive fraud” — citing an unverified source for the false claim of a rigged election. Amazon called it a bug, saying it uses credible sources for election info.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
⚡️ Amazon's SpaceX competitor!
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
Amazon launched its first Project Kuiper satellites, kicking off the tech giant's plans to build a massive internet network.
The global internet space race just got a whole lot hotter. Let’s break it down.
In today’s tech rundown:
🛰️ Amazon launches first two internet satellites
🛒 Wingcopter launches grocery delivery drones in Germany
🛠️ 8 New products
📰 7 quick stories
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
AMAZON
🛰️ Amazon launches first two internet satellites
Image source: CNBC
The Rundown: Amazon just launched its first two Project Kuiper internet satellites, a key milestone for the tech giant's internet plans and competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The details:
An Atlas V rocket carried prototypes Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 to orbit, with Amazon testing connectivity from the pair.
Project Kuiper aims to build a network of over 3,000 satellites to provide high-speed internet globally.
Amazon is playing catch up to SpaceX's 2 million subscriber Starlink network. But Kuiper launches are ramping up.
77 launches are booked over 5 years — with ULA, Arianespace and Blue Origin to deploy the full Kuiper constellation.
Why it matters: The space race for global satellite broadband is heating up, with Amazon preparing to go toe-to-toe with SpaceX. The competitors will push each other to expand internet access worldwide — which is likely a win for consumers with more options for accessible, high-speed internet.
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⚡️ Learn from the most successful companies in the world
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Receive concise bi-weekly emails dissecting the playbooks and growth hacks of thriving software, internet, or media firms.
3 Key takeaways to apply in your own company and valuable resources for deeper learning.
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WINGCOPTER
🛒 Wingcopter launches grocery delivery drones in Germany
Image source: Wingcopter
The Rundown: German drone startup Wingcopter just kicked off a pilot project for drone delivery of groceries and household items in rural villages in Germany, emphasizing efficient and eco-friendly drop-offs.
The details:
Customers order via a website with a Wingcopter 198 drone, then flying the goods to a village drop-off point.
Electric cargo bikes complete the last mile of delivery from the drop-off to the customer's door.
The goal is to provide efficient, zero-emission delivery options for remote areas.
The 6-month pilot is funded by the German government as part of a €430k investment into innovative mobility.
The relevance: Rapid grocery delivery could be a lifeline for rural towns lacking transit access — and Wingcopter’s eco-friendly drone-plus-bike solution seems promising.
Despite some minor hiccups in the past— maybe this time, the tech gods have finally figured it out.
NEW PRODUCTS
🤖 FL0- An open-source code builder for deployment and scaling (link)
❌ Spring Xcelerator- A web3 accelerator for founders and investors (link)
🪙 DimeOS- A finance tracker to replace all your finance templates (link)
⚡ Notion4Teachers- The top destination for teachers using Notion (link)
😡 FuryPage- Free, no-code solution for 3D interactive portfolios (link)
👩🎨 Looka- AI-powered platform to design a logo and build a brand in seconds (link)
🧠 Taskade- Five AI-powered tools in one to supercharge your team productivity (link)
🐦 Postwise- Craft viral Tweets in seconds (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
SNIPPETS
RISC-V technology becomes a new frontier in the U.S.-China tech war, with lawmakers urging restrictions on its use by American companies.
Elon Musk's X platform shed traditional news headlines from shared articles, challenging legacy media norms but angering users in the process.
Electric aviation startup Regent secured $60 million in Series A funding to build and test a proof-of-concept for its electric seaglider.
Web browser Brave laid off 9% of its staff (around 100 employees), citing the current challenging economic environment.
Meta is planning a cheaper follow-up to the Quest 3 without bundled controllers, aiming to expand VR adoption by lowering costs to compete with Apple’s Vision Pro.
Hackers are advertising the sale of millions of 23andMe user profiles on forums, escalating concerns around genetic data security.
South Korea warned Apple and Google they could face fines of up to $50 million for allegedly violating fair competition laws.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
🤖 Adobe's revolutionary 'Project Stardust'
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Fresh off yesterday’s Canva announcements comes a ‘revolutionary’ new tool from Adobe.
The creative AI arms race is getting serious! Let’s dive in…
In today’s AI rundown:
🖼️ Adobe teases ‘revolutionary’ AI photo editor
📸 Epik’s AI yearbook photos go viral
🛠️ 8 New AI tools
📫 Boost email marketing with AI copywriting
🤖 3 Quick AI updates
Read time: 3 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
ADOBE
🖼️ Adobe teases ‘revolutionary’ AI photo editor
Image source: Adobe
The Rundown: Adobe just gave a sneak peek of its upcoming AI-powered photo editing tool called ‘Project Stardust.’ The company believes it's set to bring a refreshing wave of change to how we use Adobe tools.
Key points:
Stardust can automatically select objects to move, delete, or alter them — allowing easy edits without manual separation.
The tool can also fill in missing background when items are removed or moved and generate new objects via text prompts.
The company said these teases are ‘a fraction’ of the capabilities, with more news expected at the Adobe Max event on Oct. 10.
Why it matters: With AI announcements from Canva (Magic Studio), Google (Magic Editor), and now Adobe — the creative arms race is reaching escape velocity. When we said “your move, Adobe” in yesterday’s edition, we didn’t expect a response the same day!
TOGETHER WITH 10WEB
🌐 Simplified website creation with 10Web AI Website Builder!
The Rundown: Transforming your website creation is seamless with 10Web AI Website Builder.
With their platform, you can:
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EPIK
📸 Epik’s AI yearbook photos go viral
Image source: Petapixel
The Rundown: Epik's ‘Yearbook’ feature is the latest viral AI app sensation, using selfies to generate vintage school memories — with a wave of social media influencers sharing their AI-generated snaps.
The details:
The app uses AI to combine facial features, producing 60 convincing yearbook-style images in different outfits and poses.
For $4-10, Epik will transform 8-12 selfies into AI-generated photos with realistic quality, surprising (and scaring) users.
Some criticize using personal images to train systems — though Epik claims it doesn't store photos.
The relevance: Epik’s rise follows in the footsteps of apps like Lensa and Remini — and are perfect examples of how viral trends can quickly skyrocket new AI apps to fame. But the hype cycle moves fast, making it difficult for these fleeting moments to keep momentum.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
TRENDING TOOLS
🤖 Gist AI- Free website, YouTube, PDF summarizer, powered by ChatGPT (link)
📚 We Are Learning- Create immersive learning content like a pro (link)
⚙️ GPT Pilot- Dev tool that increases developer’s productivity 20x with AI (link)
🎥 Descript- A powerful all-in-one video and podcast editing tool using AI (link)
⭐️ Jasper- An AI copywriter assistant that can generate any kind of marketing copy (link)
📝 Writesonic- ChatGPT alternative that addresses the limitations of ChatGPT (link)
🌖 MoonBeam- A long-form writing AI assistant to never write from scratch again (link)
🪄 Guidde- Magically create stunning how-to guides with AI (link)
Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.
AI TRAINING
📫 Boost email marketing with AI copywriting
Struggling to craft high-converting email campaigns? Let Claude's AI generate targeted outreach for you perfectly tailored to your audience:
Build customer profiles: Provide Claude with details on your ideal customer — including goals, pain points, and motivators. Prompt: "Act as my ideal customer persona John Smith. He's a 30-year-old marketing manager looking to improve campaign performance."
Set campaign goals: Outline your specific desired outcome — sales, lead gen, re-engagement, etc. Prompt: "I want email copy to re-engage inactive subscribers and drive them to sign up for a webinar."
Brainstorm subject lines: Ask Claude to brainstorm 5-10 subject line options. Prompt: "Suggest 5 subject line options for the campaign goal above that would compel my subscribers to open the email."
Generate body copy: Have Claude write persuasive email content personalized to your customers. Prompt: "Write a 300 word email body focused on the webinar sign up call-to-action while highlighting customer pain points."
QUICK HITS
🛒 Walmart testing new AI features
Walmart is bringing AI features to help customers shop and decorate, with users able to chat with a shopping assistant, search via natural language queries, and get interior design ideas. The consumer-facing additions come on the heels of the company’s corporate AI tool launched in August.
📺 Likewise debuts AI for entertainment recs
Recommendation platform Likewise launched a free AI chatbot called ‘Pix’ on Thursday, giving users personalized entertainment suggestions. Backed by Bill Gates' firm, it taps OpenAI to suggest highly-relevant movies, shows, and books based on user’s data points.
😳 Meta's new AI stickers slip through filters
Meta's recently launched AI-generated stickers are going viral — but not in a good way. The company’s Emu algorithm seems to lack filters, allowing controversial phrases and images that have induced a wave of ridiculous (and oftentimes offensive or copyright-infringing) stickers spreading across social media.
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Keep an eye out and click the star emoji hidden somewhere in today’s email for a free entry into our Ray-Ban Meta AI smartglasses giveaway.
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❤️ Rundown review of the day
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