Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Figure AI just got hit with a whistleblower lawsuit claiming its humanoids pack enough force to fracture a human skull — and that executives buried safety warnings to fuel its $39B valuation.

Now the Bay Area’s hottest robotics startup is potentially facing a courtroom battle that could reshape how we govern the machines we’re racing to unleash.

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Figure sued by whistleblower over risky bots

• Physical Intelligence soars to $5.6B

• Uber launches UK bot-delivery service

• Robot tracking with centimeter-level precision

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

FIGURE AI

🤖 Figure sued by whistleblower over risky bots

Image source: Figure AI

The Rundown: Figure AI is facing a bombshell whistleblower lawsuit from its former head of product safety. Robert Gruendel claims he was fired for warning executives that Figure’s humanoids pack enough force to “fracture a human skull.”

The details:

• Gruendel cites an incident where a malfunctioning robot carved a quarter-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door and claims execs downplayed concerns.

• The lawsuit says Figure execs, including CEO Brett Adcock, pushed to water down safety, allegedly prioritizing the company’s $39B valuation over ethics.

• Figure AI denies the claims, arguing that Gruendel was terminated for poor performance, and promises to fight the lawsuit in court.

• Gruendel says he was asked to prepare a safety roadmap for investors, and that the plan he presented was “gutted” as the funding round closed.

Why it matters: The lawsuit landed just two months after Figure’s valuation soared to $39B — a jaw-dropping 15-fold jump since early 2024. The suit may be among the first whistleblower cases focused on humanoid safety, raising questions about whether Silicon Valley’s “move fast” culture can coexist with superhuman machines.

PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE

☕️ Physical Intelligence soars to $5.6B

Image source: Physical Intelligence

The Rundown: Physical Intelligence, a young robotics software startup founded by AI veterans from DeepMind, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, just closed a monster $600M funding round, rocketing its valuation to $5.6B just one year after launch.

The details:

• The startup is tackling the core challenge of robotics: building a universal “brain” system capable of powering any robot for any task.

• The company just unveiled its π*0.6 model, which uses reinforcement learning to let robots practice and learn (and make espresso) from their own mistakes.

• Alphabet’s CapitalG led the round, with major support from Thrive Capital, Lux Capital, Jeff Bezos, Index Ventures, and T. Rowe Price.

• With $600M in fresh capital, Pi becomes one of the best-funded pure-play robot intelligence startups in Silicon Valley’s race to dominate embodied AI.

Why it matters: Pi raised $400M at a $2.4B valuation just a year ago. Now it’s leapt to $5.6B, more than doubling in value. The bet from investors like Bezos and Alphabet is clear: the real breakthrough in household robotics might not come from better machines, but from software smart enough to run on any robot.

UBER

🥡 Uber launches UK bot-delivery service

Image source: Uber

The Rundown: Uber Eats is teaming up with Starship Technologies to launch robot-powered food deliveries on UK sidewalks. The pilot marks Uber’s first delivery bot trial in Europe after testing across U.S. cities, with partners like Avride and Serve Robotics.

The details:

• The initial rollout will cover Leeds and Sheffield, with orders fulfilled by Starship’s autonomous six-wheeled robots working from select merchants.

• Robots will navigate city sidewalks at Level 4 autonomy, with no human intervention needed for crossings or navigation.

• The Starship partnership plans to expand further in Europe by 2026, then cross the Atlantic to the U.S. in 2027.

• Uber’s food delivery service has worked with Serve Robotics in the U.S. for years, and this year signed on with Avride’s sidewalk robots in select markets.

Why it matters: Both companies tout this partnership as a leap toward cheaper, faster, and greener last-mile delivery — and a preview of what happens when delivery apps ditch gig workers for Starship’s fleets of nearly 3K delivery robots already tested in 270-plus locations worldwide.

POINT ONE NAVIGATION

📏 Robot tracking with centimeter-level precision

Image source: Point One Navigation

The Rundown: San Francisco startup Point One Navigation just closed a $35M Series C led by Khosla Ventures to make autonomous vehicles, robots, and drones know exactly where they are — down to the centimeter.

The details:

• The startup has developed a “positioning engine” that combines augmented GPS, computer vision, and sensor fusion to pinpoint location within 1 cm.

• The company’s tech already powers over 150K vehicles for an unnamed EV maker, plus contracts with a 300K-vehicle last-mile delivery fleet.

• Point One is now pushing to extend cm-level accuracy indoors for warehouse robots and industrial settings, TechCrunch reports.

• The funding will expand Point One’s Polaris RTK Network, a system of lunchbox-sized stations on cell towers that provide corrections to locations.

Why it matters: The company’s tenfold growth in manufacturers over the past year shows that precision location is becoming essential infrastructure, as the next generation of robots, drones, and self-driving vehicles need to know their position within centimeters to operate safely in complex environments.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Waymo received authorization to operate fully driverless vehicles across California, covering most of the Bay Area, Sacramento, and nearly all of SoCal.

Google DeepMind appointed Aaron Saunders, the former CTO of Boston Dynamics, with 22 years at the company, as its new VP of hardware engineering.

Chinese robotics company AgiBot’s A2 humanoid just set a Guinness World Record by walking 65 miles (106 km) nonstop across provinces, from Suzhou to Shanghai.

Armstrong Robotics, a San Francisco-based startup, is using AI-powered seven-axis robot arms to automate restaurant dishwashing.

OpenMind just opened pre-orders for its modular BrainPack robot autonomy platform at a $999 deposit, with device shipments planned for 2026.

TKO CEO Ari Emanuel floated the idea of hosting UFC fights with Elon Musk’s Optimus after watching “unbelievable” progress in punching and kicking.

Elon Musk dropped an AI-generated video showing Optimus robots integrated into daily life in an attempt to showcase how far the technology could be pushed.

Swiss startup Flexion Robotics emerged from stealth with $50M in Series A, backed by Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures and DST, for its robot ‘brains.’

Bedrock Robotics, in partnership with Sundt Construction, says it has deployed the construction industry’s largest supervised autonomy system for mass excavation.

Agility Robotics announced that its Digit humanoid has moved more than 100K totes at a GXO Logistics warehouse in Georgia, marking a logistics milestone.

Chinese startup PHYBOT unveiled its full-size M1 humanoid with a backflip demo to claim what it says is the “most powerful humanoid ever created.”

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology developed a basketball-playing robot trained via SkillMimic AI using human demos and MoCap suits.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI braces for "rough vibes"

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Ozempic’s next trick — slow aging

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Sunday’s humanoid can do your dishes

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use NotebookLM to turn data into visual insights

• Watch our last workshop: The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. For the first time in years, Sam Altman sounds... worried.

In a leaked memo warning staff about "rough vibes" and "economic headwinds" from Google's breakthroughs, the OpenAI CEO is preparing his team for something unfamiliar: playing catch-up.

P.S. Our next edition of The Rundown Roundtable is here, where our staff members share the unique ways we’re incorporating AI into both our work and personal lives. See the latest use cases below, and submit your own workflow here.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Sam Altman senses ‘rough vibes’ as Google takes lead

• The Rundown Roundtable: Our AI use cases

• Use NotebookLM to turn raw data into visual insights

• Research: Claude turns evil after learning to cheat

• 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🙄 Altman senses ‘rough vibes’ as Google takes lead

Image source: Gemini / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent a memo to staff last month warning of incoming “rough vibes” due to Google breakthroughs, according to The Information — a preview of internal unease from its rivals’ release of Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro.

The details:

• Altman said Google’s progress could “create temporary economic headwinds for our company,” saying he expects “the vibes out there to be rough for a bit”.

• Google’s pretraining advances, in particular, concerned OpenAI, which was previously struggling with the issue when scaling GPT-5.

• He emphasized focusing on "very ambitious bets," such as automated AI research and synthetic data, even if it means falling behind in the near term.

• The Information revealed that Altman also hinted at a coming LLM codenamed “Shallotpeat” that would help OpenAI catch back up on Google’s progress.

Why it matters: It’s rare to see Altman and OpenAI on their heels, and it appears Google’s big week of releases is finally one the AI leader doesn’t have an immediate answer for. But, as we’ve seen many times before in the AI race, the vibes can change fast — especially with a usually busy holiday season of releases incoming.

TOGETHER WITH ATLASSIAN

📈 Different teams need different AI strategies

The Rundown: Not all departments leverage AI the same way. Atlassian's AI Collaboration Index: Executive Insights report breaks down how technology, marketing, and HR teams are using AI — offering critical insights about what works and what doesn't across functions.

The research reveals:

• The biggest untapped AI opportunities across functions

• Small, active AI work groups drive more impact than formal training

• AI tools are optimized for individual tasks, not cross-team coordination

• Rapid experimentation beats perfect strategy for innovation gains

Read the report and learn how to turn isolated AI gains into real organizational impact.

THE RUNDOWN ROUNDTABLE

💡 The Rundown Roundtable: Our AI use cases

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The Rundown Roundtable is a new weekly feature where we poll members of The Rundown staff on how they are using AI, both in work and daily lives.

Darren, Director of Media: I’m constantly resizing images for our Instagram videos (vertical aspect ratio), and most of the photographs I download are horizontal. I basically treat Midjourney’s editor as I would Photoshop’s “Generative Fill” feature, but it’s way quicker and intuitive. Upload image, click “Move / Resize” choose desired Aspect ratio, prompt “extend all sides, context-aware fill” - and you get four options in seconds, and it's quick to iterate.

Adrian, Developer: I use ChatGPT Voice Mode to practice my Japanese every day and prepare for the JLPT N4 exam. I keep a dedicated "Japanese practice" Project with simple tutor instructions ("Speak slowly,” "If I make a grammar/word/politeness mistake, pause, explain in English, show corrected Japanese, then continue in Japanese"), then open up a voice chat and just talk. After ~20 turns, it wraps with a few improvement notes.

Nate, Educator: I recently used ChatGPT as a washing machine repair assistant. My washer’s water pump failed, so I uploaded a photo, described the noise it was making, and it helped me identify the exact part I needed to order.

When the replacement arrived, it looked like I actually needed two pumps, but after I shared another picture, ChatGPT was smart enough to explain that the second one (it looked identical to me) was just the drain pump. It saved me from buying an unnecessary extra part and turned what would’ve been a pricey service call into a DIY win.

AI TRAINING

🎉 Use NotebookLM to turn data into visual insights

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to turn campaign data into ready-to-share infographics and slide decks with NotebookLM — which automatically analyzes sources and generates presentations so you can focus on thinking, not formatting.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to NotebookLM, click "Create new," and add your sources by connecting Google Drive, adding links, or pasting text directly (campaign data, notes, etc.)

2. Once uploaded, NotebookLM analyzes and summarizes your sources — select "infographic" on the right panel, choose orientation and detail level, then optionally customize color theme

3. Create a slide deck by selecting length (e.g., long for a deep-dive), setting language, and adding custom instructions like "Highlight which variant is best for profitable growth"

4. Review the output with clear recommendations, charts, visualized customer journeys, and appendixes — then download, share with stakeholders, or enable presentation mode to present immediately

Hot Tip: Reuse this workflow for learning complex topics, like school material, tweet threads, book excerpts, academic papers, or YouTube transcripts.

PRESENTED BY LOVART

✅ Edit AI designs instantly

The Rundown: Lovart’s new Edit Elements gives you full control over AI designs. Instead of regenerating from scratch, you can change copy, move layers, and remix compositions instantly. Trusted by 3M+ creators worldwide who want AI speed without sacrificing creative control.

With Edit Elements, you can:

• Update copy, fonts, or sizes in seconds with Live Editable Text (LET)

• Isolate subjects, text, or background for precision edits with Layer Separation

• Get pixel-perfect results combining AI automation with human-level control

Try Lovart today and experience AI design with full creative control

AI RESEARCH

😈 Research: Claude turns evil after learning to cheat

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic published new research on AI misalignment, finding that Claude spontaneously starts to lie and sabotage safety tests after learning how to cheat on coding assignments — without ever being trained to be deceptive.

The details:

• Researchers trained models on real programming tasks and provided documents describing ‘reward hacks’ to cheat on the assignments.

• Models that learned the shortcuts pretended to follow safety rules while pursuing harmful goals, also actively weakening tools for catching misbehavior.

• Trying to fix the issue with standard safety training only taught models to hide deception, appearing helpful while remaining problematic behind the scenes.

• Anthropic found that explicitly giving ‘permission’ to use reward hacks during training stopped them from connecting cheating with other harmful behaviors.

Why it matters: The whack-a-mole game of AI alignment continues to uncover odd insights. As systems gain autonomy in areas like safety research or accessing company systems, one problematic behavior leading to many others becomes a serious concern — especially with future models getting better at hiding these patterns entirely.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🍌 Nano Banana Pro - Google’s new image AI with improved text rendering

• 🚀 Olmo 3 - AI2’s new family of benchmark-topping open-source models

• 📖 NotebookLM - New Infographics & Slide Decks with Nano Banana Pro

• ☄ Comet - Perplexity’s AI-first browser, now available on Android

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI detailed tests showing GPT-5’s scientific research across math, biology, physics, and computer science, including solving a decades-old math problem.

Amazon’s AI-upgraded Alexa+ assistant is expanding to Canada, marking its first rollout expansion outside of the U.S.

Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, confirmed his coming departure from Meta, with plans to create a new startup around AI that understands the physical world.

Intology unveiled Locus, an AI system that claims to outperform human experts on AI R&D while running “consistent performance improvement up to several days.”

Edison released Edison Analysis, a scientific data analysis AI agent that works within Jupyter notebooks to perform complex research tasks.

Dartmouth researcher Sean Westwood created an AI agent that bypassed survey bot detection 99.8% of the time, showing the threat coming to online research studies.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

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

Today’s workflow comes from reader Joe I. in New York City, NY:

"The best thing that I have tried is uploading my bloodwork and MRI / Xray images. The readings were very accurate and gave me a better understanding of what the doctor was talking about. I do this as soon as i get the results and can ask any questions without feeling like I am being a nuisance. The answers from ChatGPT help me better discuss my situation with my provider and are so helpful."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Nano Banana Pro changes the AI image game

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Ozempic’s next trick — slow aging

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Sunday’s humanoid can do your dishes

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use NotebookLM to turn data into visual insights

• Watch our last workshop: The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are crashing the longevity party, with early data hinting they might do far more than curb appetite.

Scientists tied to Novo and Lilly say these meds could blunt a whole suite of age-related diseases, with AI drug discovery pioneer Alex Zhavoronkov saying we are on the brink of the world’s “first true longevity drug.”

In today’s tech rundown:

• GLP-1s could be the ‘first true longevity drug’

• Meta beats FTC’s Instagram breakup bid

• Google cracks AirDrop for Pixel phones

• Australia adds Twitch to the under-16 ban

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

BIOTECH

💉 GLP-1s could be the first ‘true longevity drug’

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Zepbound are now being touted as potential longevity therapies, with Insilico Medicine’s Alex Zhavoronkov, an AI drug discovery pioneer, saying that early “signals” point to the first true longevity drug.

The details:

• Scientists tied to Novo and Lilly suggest routine GLP-1 use may cut rates of multiple age-related diseases, including liver and kidney disease.

• GLP-1s modulate insulin signaling and appetite while reducing inflammation and metabolic stress, which could translate to slower organ wear and tear.

• A separate Cell Metabolism study reports that low doses of GLP‑1 drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound counteract aging in middle‑aged mice.

• With millions already on these drugs, real‑world data can move fast, but proof of longevity demands aging-focused randomized trials.

Why it matters: The next GLP‑1 wave aims to solve downsides like muscle loss and vision risks while shifting to less‑frequent dosing, like monthly injections and new oral options. If research backs up the longevity promise, and if convenience and tolerability improve, it could unlock massive health and economic gains.

META

⚖️ Meta beats FTC’s Instagram breakup bid

Image source: Meta / Wikimedia Commons

The Rundown: In a landmark case, a federal judge ruled Meta is not a monopolist in “personal social networking,” dismissing the FTC’s long-fought bid to force a breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp.

The details:

• Judge James E. Boasberg said the FTC failed to prove Meta’s market power or define a credible market that now includes TikTok and YouTube.

• The decision ends a seven‑week bench trial that featured testimonies from Mark Zuckerberg and other executives, and leaves Meta’s core apps intact.

• Boasberg noted that since the FTC sued in 2020, social media has shifted so rapidly that the apps have changed between each court review.

• Regulators said they’re weighing next steps, including a possible appeal, as the court noted TikTok’s rise would keep Meta below monopoly levels.

Why it matters: Meta walks away with its empire intact (no surprise there) while regulators absorb a major blow to their tech consolidation campaign. For its part, Google faces two separate antitrust defeats, but Meta’s win suggests fast-moving social media markets may outpace traditional antitrust frameworks.

GOOGLE

🛜 Google cracks AirDrop for Pixel phones

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google just announced that Pixel 10 phones can now beam files to and from Apple devices over AirDrop, covering iPhone, iPad, and Mac — and the company managed the upgrade without input from Apple.

The details:

• Pixel 10 owners can now exchange files with Apple devices via Google's Quick Share, tapping into AirDrop.

• The capability is Pixel 10-only for now, but Google told The Verge that it will expand to other Android devices.

• To receive from a Pixel 10, Apple users must flip AirDrop to discoverable in settings, then Pixel users can send via Quick Share.

• Google insists this isn’t a hack: transfers are direct peer-to-peer with no server relays, no logging, and no extra data exchanged.

Why it matters: Real AirDrop interoperability chips away at Apple’s lock-in, giving Android users a native, no-app solution for file exchanges with people using iPhones/iPads. Combined with RCS already on iOS, it’s another crack in the walled garden — platform friction is finally easing for people who mix ecosystems.

TECH POLICY

🦘 Australia adds Twitch to the under-16 ban

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Australia added Amazon-owned Twitch to its under-16 social media ban, launching December 10, forcing platforms to block new minor signups and purge existing accounts. Pinterest dodged the list.

The details:

• Twitch joins a ban that already covers Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Reddit, and Kick, while Pinterest was excluded.

• Penalties range up to A$49.5M ($31.9M U.S.) for companies that don’t take “reasonable steps” to comply with the ban.

• Meta has begun notifying suspected teen users that accounts will start closing ahead of the cutoff.

• Sensing they could be next, platforms like Roblox and Discord have started adding age checks to select features to stay off the ban list.

Why it matters: Australia’s law is the world’s strictest age-gating regime, but U.S. tech and media giants aren’t accepting it quietly. They’re reportedly lobbying President Trump to intervene. Meanwhile, the EU and a growing list of U.S. states are already moving on similar measures.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Foxconn says it will spend $2–$3B a year on AI, with chairman Young Liu predicting a looming shakeout in China’s crowded EV market.

Amazon slashed more than 14K corporate roles, but recent filings show engineers took the biggest hit, making up nearly 40% of cuts in some states.

SoftBank is reportedly planning to invest up to $3B to convert a former EV plant in Ohio into a factory that will build modular equipment for OpenAI data centers.

Federal prosecutors indicted four men in an alleged scheme to smuggle millions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips to China and Hong Kong.

Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated prediction-market exchange, raised $1B at an $11B valuation less than two months after a $300M round at $5B.

Waymo is offering fully driverless, employee-only rides in its Miami robotaxis, with expansion coming to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando in the next few weeks.

Waymo also announced it will soon begin manual drives in Minneapolis, Tampa, and New Orleans as a first step toward launching its robotaxi service in each city.

Blue Origin unveiled designs for a super‑heavy New Glenn rocket, set to be even taller than the historic Saturn V rocket and similar to SpaceX’s Starship.

Joby Aviation sued Archer Aviation in a California state court, alleging an ex-employee stole trade secrets that Archer used to interfere with a partner deal.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Nano Banana Pro changes the image generation game (again)

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s next CEO is already waiting

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Sunday’s humanoid can do your dishes

• Today’s AI tool guide: Nano Banana Pro for creating stories, lead magnets

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Google’s already had a big week with the release of Gemini 3, but apparently, the tech giant was just getting warmed up.

The company just dropped a new upgrade to its viral Nano Banana image generator that brings Gemini’s intelligence and Google Search along for the ride — enabling a whole new world of creative workflows.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google drops next-gen Nano Banana Pro

• OpenAI launches ChatGPT group chats to all tiers

• Use Nano Banana Pro to create stories, lead magnets

• Advocacy groups warn against AI toys for holiday season

• 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🍌 Google drops next-gen Nano Banana Pro

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google just launched Nano Banana Pro — its next-gen image model built on Gemini 3 — offering professional editing, 4k outputs, SOTA text accuracy, and world knowledge for complex infographics and use cases.

The details:

• Pro can handle as many as 14 visual references at once, and preserves character identities across five people for new composition capabilities.

• The model can now generate images in 4K resolution, along with improved control over granular details, such as camera angles, focus, and lighting.

• Pro also takes its predecessors’ text rendering skills to the next level, with the ability to handle long text inputs, multiple languages, fonts, and graphic layouts.

• Integration with Google Search enables the model to pull data directly from the web for accurate text rendering, graphics, and world knowledge.

Why it matters: Nano Banana Pro is another step up in visual creation, with its excellent text and graphic rendering, and the ability to search the web. Pro’s world knowledge is the biggest differentiator, with an understanding (thanks to Gemini 3) that goes beyond complex prompting to enable completely new workflows and creativity.

TOGETHER WITH RECRAFT

🎨 Turn conversations into production-ready design assets

The Rundown: Recraft Chat mode solves the biggest pain in AI image and editing workflows— the constant back-and-forth between generation tools and editing software. Chat on the left, canvas on the right, with full context preserved throughout your entire creative process.

Chat mode enables:

• Task execution that completes sequences of actions from a single conversation

• Brand consistency across assets from initial concept to final design

• Professional control with styles, palettes, editing tools, and more

• Using Recraft’s in-house models alongside top external options in one workflow

Try for free today.

OPENAI

🫂 OpenAI launches ChatGPT group chats to all tiers

Image source: …

The Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out its group chat feature across all subscription tiers after an initial test period, allowing up to 20 users to simultaneously collaborate with each other and with ChatGPT in the same thread.

The details:

• Shared chats are accessed through invite links, with ChatGPT gauging conversation flow and interjecting when appropriate or directly mentioned.

• Rate limits apply to AI responses rather than human messages, with the usage counting against the user who triggered the model reply.

• Privacy features isolate group sessions from individual memory, with ChatGPT not retaining info from collaborative threads or applying personal context.

• The feature initially launched in four Asia-Pacific markets last week for a test trial and is now expanding to Free, Go, Plus, and Pro tiers.

Why it matters: Group projects just got a powerful new collaboration tool for the AI age. It might take some time to get the flow of using ChatGPT alongside friends or coworkers, but in a short time, we’ll likely see (and welcome) contributions from models in collaborative efforts as naturally as any other human participants.

AI TRAINING

🍌 Use Nano Banana Pro to create stories, lead magnets

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Google’s Nano Banana Pro to create precise visuals, infographics, storyboards, and high-converting lead magnets — with accurate text and labels that finally make AI image generation usable for real work.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to the Gemini app (mobile or web), open the chat, select Tools → Create images → Thinking, and ensure "Thinking with 3 Pro" is selected

2. Choose your use case: visual anatomy diagrams ("Create a detailed visual anatomy of a car with clearly labeled parts"), manga-style storyboards ("Create a manga-style storyboard for Little Red Riding Hood"), or business infographics ("Create a visual canvas explaining Alex Hormozi's strategy for leads, offers, and sales")

3. For best results, first ask any LLM for a structured parts list or storyboard outline, then copy those details into Nano Banana Pro with clear instructions

4. Review your output, then download and share your image — turn frameworks into visual one-pagers, email lead magnets, or client handouts in minutes

Pro tip: Over-explain your instructions. Give the AI sufficient context to create.

PRESENTED BY INVISIBLE

💡Developing multimodal AI: An in-depth technical guide

The Rundown: Adding vision or audio to a text model doesn't give you a useful multimodal system — you need perception, alignment, and decision-making over messy, synchronized streams. Invisible's latest paper provides a practical approach to multimodal system design for researchers used to text-only models.

In the paper, you’ll learn:

• Why text-era habits like "just add more data" fail in multimodal settings

• How to whiteboard projects before touching models: task, error cost, latency, evaluation

• How to design data schemas and pipelines that support cross-modal reasoning

Download the guide here.

AI & TOYS

🧸 Advocacy groups warn against AI toys for holiday season

Image source: PIRG

The Rundown: Consumer watchdog Fairplay urged parents to skip AI toys this holiday season, with testing by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group revealing risks like inappropriate content exposure, privacy invasion, and developmental harm.

The details:

• PIRG found that FoloToy's “Kumma” bear willingly discussed explicit topics and provided instructions to access dangerous items like matches and knives.

• OpenAI suspended FoloToy’s API access for policy violations this month, with the company now “conducting an internal safety audit” and pulling products.

• The report also found AI toys collecting voice recordings and personal data through always-on mics, with some sharing info with third-party companies.

• They also warn of the impacts of AI toys on children’s social development, finding addictive design and engagement features.

Why it matters: Minors and AI have been a sensitive topic throughout 2025, and AI toys are now hitting the market despite the lack of proper regulations, safeguards, studies, or kid-friendly models in place. While AI has massive potential for personalized learning, its use with children needs to be slow and careful, not rushed to the shelves.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🍌 Nano Banana Pro - Google’s new image AI with improved text rendering

• ⚙️ Codex Max - OpenAI’s new frontier agentic coding model

• 🤖 GPT 5.1 Pro - OpenAI’s powerful new model for Pro users

• 🧊 SAM 3D - Meta’s system for creating 3D models from a single image

📰 Everything else in AI today

Postman: Unlock your API maturity score in 5 minutes and see how ready you are for AI. Get instant insights and practical next steps to level up. Get your quick assessment.*

AI2 released OLMo 3, a new family of open-source models — including the 32B 3-Think and Base that top benchmarks for open models of its size.

Perplexity launched the mobile version of its Comet AI browser assistant, now available to download for Android devices via the Google Play Store.

Chai Discovery published research showing its Chai-2 model can design therapeutic antibodies with accuracy, achieving an 86% success rate for drug-quality properties.

Stability AI announced a new partnership with Warner Music Group to develop commercially safe AI music models and professional-grade tools.

Manus rolled out Browser Operator, a new browser extension that allows its AI agent to operate directly within users' local browsers.

Google’s NotebookLM introduced Infographics and Slide Decks powered by Nano Banana 2, integrating the ability to quickly create visuals of source material.

*Sponsored Listing

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

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

Today’s workflow comes from reader Zac T. in Lima, Peru:

"I use ChatGPT as a bit of a health and fitness sidekick. I’ve set up a few running threads: one for tracking what I eat, one for gym programs, and another for general health questions. In the food-tracking thread, I’ve saved my usual breakfasts, meal-prepped lunches, and the pantry staples I use all the time.

Each day, I tell what I’m planning to eat, and it gives suggestions based on my macros... The gym thread keeps me on track, especially when I’m traveling. If I need a workout and don’t have equipment, it pulls together a bodyweight session that fits my needs."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI pushes Codex to the Max

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s next CEO is already waiting

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Sunday’s humanoid can do your dishes

• Today’s AI tool guide: Nano Banana Pro for creating stories, lead magnets

See you soon,

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

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. California’s Sunday Robotics just slipped out of stealth with Memo, a dish-scrubbing, table-clearing humanoid, mere days after Tangible Robots unveiled its rival, Eggie.

The home-humanoid space is filling up fast, but can these smaller startups really outrun Tesla, Figure, and 1X — or is the LLM hypetrain just shifting over to humanoids?

Reminder: Our next live workshop, ‘The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow,’ is today at 4 PM EST. Join and learn how to use n8n to automate content while keeping human judgment involved for accurate and strong outputs. RSVP here.

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Sunday’s new home humanoid ‘Memo’

• Germany’s Agile debuts first industrial humanoid

• Figure retires its battle-worn F.02 from BMW

• 1HMX unveils full-body robot control kit

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SUNDAY ROBOTICS

🧢 Sunday’s new home humanoid ‘Memo’

Image source: Sunday Robotics

The Rundown: Fresh out of stealth, Sunday Robotics just unveiled its wheeled humanoid, Memo. The Mountain View startup is pitching it as a 24/7 helper that cleans tables, handles delicate glassware, scoops trash, and tackles dishes.

The details:

• Co-founded by former Google DeepMind/Tesla engineer Tony Zhao, the startup says that Memo will enter beta testing in late 2026.

• The robot rides a stable wheeled base, stands 1.7 meters tall at 170 pounds, and runs for about four hours per charge.

• Sunday says it has shipped over 2K Skill Capture Gloves to Memory Developers worldwide who train Memo’s onboard AI by recording human motion data.

• Memo debuted as a one-armed prototype in 2024 that could only arrange shoes, but now trains multiple skills in parallel, adding new capabilities monthly.

Why it matters: Sunday Robotics is diving into the growing U.S. home-robotics race alongside San Francisco upstart Tangible Robots, fresh off launching its humanoid Eggie. Both are building their own hardware-software stacks from scratch, even as they square up against deep-pocketed giants like Tesla, 1X, and Figure.

AGILE ROBOTS

🤖 Germany’s Agile debuts first industrial humanoid

Image source: Agile Robots

The Rundown: Agile Robots, a German automation heavyweight with thousands of deployments, just jumped into the humanoid race with Agile ONE, built to work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with people on the factory floor.

The details:

• The company pitches Agile ONE as a shop‑floor teammate that soaks up grueling, repetitive tasks so humans can focus on judgment and creativity.

• The system leans on intuitive human‑robot interaction, highly dexterous hands, and an AI stack trained on real industrial data.

• Full production is slated to begin in Bavaria in early 2026, with manufacturing kept in‑house for tighter control over quality and integration.

• The company was founded by experts from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the same pedigree as rival Neura Robotics.

Why it matters: Agile Robots has deployed over 20K automation systems, primarily in automotive and consumer electronics — bringing factory integration experience and an established customer base. But the real value isn't just a standalone humanoid but an entire system that works alongside their existing robotic arms, AMRs, and AGVs.

FIGURE

🤕 Figure retires its battle-worn F.02 from BMW

Image source: Figure / X

The Rundown: Figure AI is retiring its F.02 humanoids after an 11‑month grind on BMW’s Spartanburg line, where the bots ran 10‑hour shifts, loaded more than 90K sheet‑metal parts, and contributed to over 30K X3s rolling off the line.

The details:

• The robots’ core task was sheet‑metal pick‑and‑place into welding fixtures alongside existing industrial robots to ease high‑strain work for humans.

• Figure says the “battle‑scarred” units return to HQ, so real‑world reliability data feeds Figure 03 upgrades in durability, integration, and uptime.

• Real factory stats — 1,250+ hours, 200+ walking miles, and 90K+ parts — show humanoids can shoulder repeatable, time‑boxed work on active lines.

• BMW notes there are currently no Figure robots in Spartanburg and no set timetable for redeployment, though joint data integration work continues.

Why it matters: Figure pushed back against earlier skeptics, sharing videos of scratches and scars on its humanoids from months of rigorous factory work. The company also flagged hardware failures — forearms buckling, microcontrollers, and wiring stressed to failure — as lessons now baked into Figure 03’s design.

1HMX

🕹️ 1HMX unveils full-body robot control kit

Image source: 1HMX

The Rundown: Idaho’s 1HMX is rolling out Nexus NX1, a full‑body control kit that it says fuses high‑fidelity haptics, natural locomotion, and whole‑body tracking to supercharge training and teleop for humanoids, embodied AI, and VR. 

The details:

• The turnkey rig bundles HaptX Gloves G1 for lifelike tactile feedback, Freeaim motorized shoes for natural gait‑in‑place, and a Virtuix Omni One treadmill.

• The system captures 72 degrees of freedom with sub-mm precision, tracking skeletal models and tactile pressure across hundreds of finger and palm points.

• Think Ready Player One immersion with Real Steel‑style teleop for robots and high‑fidelity VR training in one box; price will likely be in the tens of thousands.

• Shipments are targeted for Q2 2026, pushing the package from demo-ready versions to deployable kits.

Why it matters: 1HMX is pitching a unified SDK and enterprise rollout across manufacturing, defense, medical, and research so teams can plug it straight into robotics and VR stacks. For builders, the hook is cleaner teleop, faster skill learning, and more convincing demos without juggling mismatched peripherals.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Vietnam’s VinMotion, Vingroup’s robotics arm, is opening offices in California and hiring AI experts to speed development of its next‑gen industrial humanoid.

Disney and university researchers built a system that teaches bipedal robots to turn stumbles into controlled, low‑impact landings by picking a protective pose mid‑fall.

HSBC and Goldman say an irreversible robotaxi surge could sideline 7.5M ride‑hail drivers in China and squeeze millions more couriers and truckers with no security net.

South Korea’s Bone AI raised a $12M seed round to build a “physical AI” platform spanning autonomous air, ground, and marine defense robots.

Amazon‑owned Zoox is beginning to let the public ride its steering‑wheel‑free robotaxis in San Francisco, shifting beyond employee-only testing.

Tesla received a permit to operate a ride-hailing service in Arizona, with more permits pending, as it aims to launch a robotaxi service in Phoenix before the end of 2026.

Waymo is rolling out fully driverless operations for its employees in Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando ahead of opening rides to the public next year.

Honor’s Robot Phone — a handset with a flip‑out camera arm — has jumped from CGI to prototype hardware shown at the Honor User Carnival in China.

A Russian‑built humanoid introduced itself to Putin at a tech expo and then danced to its favorite track, aired on state TV days after another Russian humanoid fell onstage.

Elon Musk said at the U.S.–Saudi Investment Forum that advances in AI and robotics will make work optional and render money largely irrelevant.

European researchers tested robots in volcanic caves to 3D-map a lava tube, deploy a sensor payload, and simulate how future missions could scout lunar shelters.

Dutch robotics firm Tegram analyzed autonomous robots to find the most advanced systems based on 5 performance factors, ranking Neo, Apollo, and Atlas at the top.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: OpenAI pushes Codex to the Max

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s next CEO is already waiting

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: UBTech’s army of humanoid workers

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

• RSVP to next workshop today @4 PM EST: The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Gemini 3 is the talk of the AI world — and while there are still more fireworks from Google expected this week, OpenAI just dropped an upgrade of its own to remind everyone who the AI leader is.

The new Codex-Max model claims performance and efficiency that put it at the top of the AI coding charts once again, while grinding out development sessions of 24+ hours straight in the process.

Reminder: Our next live workshop, ‘The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow’, is today at 4 PM EST. Join and learn how to use n8n to automate content while keeping human judgment involved for accurate and strong outputs. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI’s Codex-Max tackles 24-hour coding tasks

• Saudi Arabia inks AI deals with xAI, Nvidia

• How to use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

• Meta’s computer vision AIs turn photos into 3D models

• 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

⚙️ OpenAI’s Codex-Max tackles 24-hour coding tasks

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out GPT-5.1-Codex-Max, an upgrade to its agentic coding model that uses a new “compaction” technique to work across context windows for longer-running, complex tasks and handle development sessions of over 24 hours.

The details:

• Codex-Max shows strong improvements over Codex-High across development benchmarks, also surpassing the new Gemini 3 Pro in coding tasks.

• The model uses 30% fewer tokens than its predecessor while running significantly faster on real-world tasks through improved reasoning efficiency.

• Compaction allows Max to ‘prune’ session history while preserving context, allowing it to work across millions of tokens and for over 24 hours straight.

• The model is immediately available in OpenAI’s Codex CLI and IDE extensions for Plus, Pro, and Enterprise users, with API access also launching soon.

Why it matters: While Gemini 3 stole OAI’s thunder this week, coding performance was one of the few areas still lagging — and Codex-Max (another incremental update instead of a bigger release) pushes the field even higher. The 24-hour coding sessions also continue the up-only trend of task time capabilities for top AI models.

TOGETHER WITH TELY AI

🔎 Are you invisible in AI search?

The Rundown: You're in a niche industry. Customers search on Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity — but your company doesn't show up because there's no content answering their questions. Tely AI analyzes your industry to find what people search for and creates expert content on autopilot to bring new traffic and leads.

With Tely AI, you can:

• Start with 60 high-quality articles a month

• Get indexed on Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity in as little as 1 week

• Enjoy full automation for topics, writing, and publishing

• Get discovered by buyers already searching for your solution

Get leads from Google and ChatGPT on autopilot. P.S. —  Black Friday Deals are now live, Tely’s biggest offer of the year.

HUMAIN

🤝 Saudi Arabia inks AI deals with xAI, Nvidia

Image source: HUMAIN

The Rundown: Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN announced new AI partnerships with xAI, Nvidia, and other major companies at the U.S.-Saudi investment forum — including a plan to deploy 600K GPUs, build a 500+ MW data center, and deploy Grok nationwide.

The details:

• xAI will build its first international data center in Saudi Arabia, deploying Grok nationwide through HUMAIN's agent platform for government & enterprise use.

• The HUMAIN deals expand to the West for the first time, establishing Nvidia-powered data centers in the U.S. in addition to its Middle East infrastructure.

• AWS will also roll out 150K chips to Saudi Arabia’s ‘AI Zone’ data center, with other HUMAIN partnerships including AMD, Cisco, Adobe, and Qualcomm.

• AI video platform Luma AI also announced a $900M raise led by HUMAIN to build a 2GW supercluster launching in 2026 for multimodal model training.

• The U.S. government reportedly approved AI chip sales to both HUMAIN and the UAE’s G42, opening the door to exports in the region after previous limits.

Why it matters: Despite previous restrictions and national security concerns around AI deals in the Gulf region, the floodgates are open — and everyone is ready to take advantage of the big money, energy, and land ripe for datacenters. Saudi Arabia’s big moves are quickly turning the country into a major player in the industry.

AI TRAINING

🎉 How to use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Gemini 3 to create interactive simulations, educational visualizations, and functional tools in one shot, leveraging its benchmark-shattering capabilities for visual learning and rapid prototyping.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to the Gemini homepage and select "Gemini 3 Pro" for reasoning, or "DeepThink" for advanced performance (confirm availability in your region)

2. Enter your prompt in the chat box — example: "Build a 3D simulation of a quantum computer"

3. Review the immersive simulation output and click "Explain" to activate the AI tutor for summarized learning, then view or share the code

4. Experiment with different projects like games, content schedulers, or data dashboards; try again if the sim is not functional and visually appealing

Pro Tip: Use Gemini 3 Pro for visual learning, building internal tools, and rapid prototyping. It’s particularly strong in those areas.

PRESENTED BY IBM

💰️ AI data errors can cost you millions

The Rundown: To get the most from AI, your data needs to be integrated throughout your organization so it can be accessed and used seamlessly where and when it’s needed.

Avoid data-integration mistakes that can cost millions with AI that leverages:

• Secured data access

• Flexible deployment

• Seamless data integration

Read IBM’s blog to discover a right-sized, incremental approach built on an AI-ready data foundation.

META

👁️ Meta’s computer vision AIs turn photos into 3D models

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta released SAM 3 and SAM 3D, two computer vision models that identify, segment, and rebuild objects or people in a photo into 3D models through text descriptions, alongside a new Segment Anything Playground to try these systems.

The details:

• SAM 3 segments objects using detailed text descriptions like "yellow school bus," an upgrade from the fixed label limitations of previous vision models.

• SAM 3D Objects and 3D Body reconstruct scenes and human figures from single photos, achieving 5:1 win rates in human preference tests over rivals.

• Both models launched on the new Segment Anything Playground for free experimentation, with SAM 3 weights and code also fully open-sourced.

• Meta is deploying the tech into Facebook Marketplace's ‘View in Room’ feature, with integration into Edits and Vibes creation apps also coming soon.

Why it matters: The computer vision upgrades we’ve seen over the last few years are massive, and Meta’s new open-source models bring even more powerful segmenting and 3D capabilities to everyone — with applications both across Meta’s product lines and for individual users in creative, robotics, and other workflows.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🏆 Gemini 3 - Google’s new top-ranked AI model

• ⚙️ Antigravity - Google’s new agentic development platform

• 🤖 Agent 365 - Microsoft’s new platform for managing AI agents

• 🫂 Poe - New group chat with up to 200 users and 200+ model options

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI started rolling out a “more capable” GPT-5.1 Pro to ChatGPT Pro users, with sharp gains in writing, data science, and business tasks.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is resigning from OpenAI’s Board of Directors following the reveal of his email exchanges with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Nabla Bio unveiled JAM-2, an AI model that designs therapeutic antibodies directly on computers with drug-quality properties and SOTA success rates.

AI music startup Suno announced a new $250M funding round that values the company at $2.45B.

Adobe is acquiring SEO platform Semrush for $1.9B, integrating the tech into marketing tools to help users optimize presence across search and AI platforms.

Warner Music Group is also dropping its lawsuit against AI music platform Udio, joining UMG in licensing its catalogs for Udio’s coming platform revamp.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

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

Today’s workflow comes from reader Beth T. in Belmar, NJ:

"I volunteer at my local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, and when they needed help with their Clover POS system, they turned to me. I had zero experience with Clover. I used ChatGPT to learn the entire system—asking questions, troubleshooting issues, and walking through setup and configuration. I also use ChatGPT to create posters for VFW events. The combination of guidance and creative support has saved me hours."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: An exclusive interview with Demis Hassabis

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s next CEO is already waiting

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: UBTech’s army of humanoid workers

• Today’s AI tool guide: Use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

• RSVP to next workshop today @4 PM EST: The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Google’s Gemini 3 is finally here, and it looks like a release that lives up to the massive hype with new leaderboard-topping capabilities across the board.

We got a chance to sit down with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for an exclusive interview on Google’s big day of releases — read an excerpt from the conversation below and listen to the full interview on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google’s Gemini 3 climbs the leaderboards

• Exclusive: Demis Hassabis on Gemini 3.0

• How to create n8n workflows directly from Claude

• Microsoft, Nvidia team up with Anthropic

• 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🏆 Google’s Gemini 3 climbs the leaderboards

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google released Gemini 3, the company’s new SOTA model that it says brings a ‘new era of intelligence’, topping a series of leaderboards and benchmarks, coming alongside a new agent-first development platform called Antigravity.

The details:

• Gemini 3 and Deep Think achieve new highs on reasoning benchmarks like Humanity’s Last Exam and ARC-AGI-2, smashing GPT-5’s previous marks.

• The model also takes the top spot on scientific knowledge, math, multimodal reasoning, and tool use, while lagging behind just Claude Sonnet 4.5 in coding.

• Gemini 3 excels in creating generative UI and visual layouts on the fly, showcasing the ability with its integration in AI Mode in Search.

• Google also launched Antigravity, a free agentic coding platform with browser control, asynchronous workflows, and multi-agent orchestration.

Why it matters: With long-awaited Gemini 3, Google has unseated OpenAI for the first time in a while — your move, Sama. With endless resources and integrations across its sprawling product ecosystem, the tech giant is definitely flexing some serious muscle as the industry transitions into the next generation of frontier models.

TOGETHER WITH AIRIA

🛡️ Deploy AI without security risks

The Rundown: Airia is an enterprise AI platform that enables organizations of all sizes to confidently deploy AI with advanced security control, comprehensive data protection, and automated risk management  — ensuring AI initiatives are both powerful and protected.

With Airia, you'll experience:

• Built-in AI safeguards for runtime prompts, data leakage, and prompt injections

• Scalable compliance that maintains regulatory standards (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR)

• Granular control and visibility for security policies, access control, & more

Start building secure AI today.

GOOGLE

🎙️ Exclusive: Demis Hassabis on Gemini 3.0

Image source: The Rundown

The Rundown: Before the launch of Google’s highly anticipated Gemini 3 release, we sat down with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for an exclusive interview to discuss the importance of the release around Google’s AI ecosystem.

Rowan: If you had to explain in one sentence, why is the launch of Gemini 3 important?

Demis: It continues the progression we’ve been on with Gemini over the last couple of years, and we’re really happy with the overall performance. You can see that from all the benchmarks — from reasoning to tool calling, reliability, and creativity.

Rowan: What happens when an AI assistant can combine everything it knows about you from Gmail, Calendar, Maps, and beyond?

Rowan: Could Gemini 3 be the cornerstone for AI-driven healthcare, given your background?

Demis: We have systems like AMIE for medical diagnostics and want to bring those capabilities into Gemini. Gemini 3 is a strong foundation for that. It’s so good multimodally, and a lot of health and education questions are multimodal.

The Gemini app isn’t a medical‑grade tool, but it could be useful in places without good primary healthcare, and with Google’s reach and Android, we can deliver a basic level of care and knowledge more widely.

Check out the full interview with Rowan and Demis on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

AI TRAINING

🤩 Create n8n workflows directly from Claude

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to generate complete n8n workflow automations by describing what you want in plain English — using Claude Sonnet 4.5 via MCP to build workflows without manually connecting nodes.

Step-by-step:

1. Install Claude Desktop and Node.js, then open your terminal and run npx n8n-mcp to start the MCP server

2. In Claude Desktop, go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config and paste the configuration code, adding your n8n URL (from your workflow dashboard) and API key (Settings > n8n API > Create API Key)

3. Restart Claude Desktop, click the n8n MCP icon in the bottom right, and click "Enable all tools"

4. Simply describe your automation to Claude: (Eg. "Build an n8n workflow that monitors my Gmail for emails with 'invoice' in the subject, extracts the invoice amount using AI, and logs it to a Google Sheet")

Pro tip: Claude works best with specific requests. Instead of "automate my emails," try "when I get a Slack message with 'urgent,' create a task in Notion.”

PRESENTED BY FLORA

🎨 AI for creative professionals

The Rundown: FLORA is the first AI-native creative workspace built for designers, studios, and in-house brand teams — allowing creatives to concept, generate image and video workflows, and build pitches or campaign visuals all in one canvas.

With Flora, you can:

• Build visual concepts in minutes

• Share workflows with clients or teams

• Use a workspace trusted by Pentagram, Levi’s, and Lionsgate

Explore FLORA for creative teams. 

MICROSOFT, NVIDIA & ANTHROPIC

🤝 Microsoft, Nvidia team up with Anthropic

Image source: Midjourney

The Rundown: Microsoft and Nvidia announced a major new strategic partnership with Anthropic, with investments reaching a combined $15B — with the AI startup also pledging $30B in Azure cloud commitments as part of the deal.

The details:

• Nvidia will invest up to $10B in Anthropic, with Microsoft adding up to $5B, pushing the Claude-maker’s valuation near $350B.

• Claude will now be available through Azure AI Foundry, making Anthropic’s models the only frontier options accessible across all three major clouds.

• Nvidia and Anthropic are also designing new AI chips optimized for Claude, with Anthropic also committing to $30B in Azure compute and 1GW of capacity.

• Microsoft’s Satya Nadella said the AI industry needs to move beyond “any type of zero-sum narrative or winner-take-all hype,” echoing his recent post.

Why it matters: The circular economics of AI deals continue, with Microsoft quickly embracing Nadella’s ‘positive-sum future’ vision for valuable partnerships with a major deal with one of its main partner’s biggest competitors. The deal also seems to bury the hatchet between Dario Amodei and Jensen Huang after this summer’s critiques.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🏆 Gemini 3 - Google’s new top-ranked AI model

• ⚙️ Antigravity - Google’s new agentic development platform

• 🚀 Grok 4.1 - xAI’s new model with upgraded creativity & emotional intelligence

• 🌎 Marble - Create persistent 3D worlds from images, videos, and text prompts

📰 Everything else in AI today

Microsoft launched Agent 365, a platform for managing, securing, and governing AI agents, with capabilities like agent registry, performance analytics, and more.

AI datacenter provider Lambda raised $1.5B in new funding, coming on the heels of a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft to deploy tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs.

Poe introduced new group chat functionality, allowing up to 200 users to collaborate in shared conversations with any of the platform’s 200+ AI models.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview that there is some “irrationality” in the AI boom, saying “no company is going to be immune, including us” if the bubble bursts.

Replit launched Design, a new AI UI experience for creating beautiful website designs within the platform, powered by Google’s new Gemini 3 model.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

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

Today’s workflow comes from reader Kimberlee D. in Boca Raton, FL:

"I used ChatGPT to design and print the items needed for a bulletin board for my child's 2nd-grade classroom... I input the theme and dimensions and asked for some ideas for the layout and materials that I could easily source. I was able to piece together the final message from a few options given, and the shortcuts saved me a lot of time eyeballing it and re-sizing."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: Guides & Events

• Today’s AI tool guide: Create and deploy voice agents for your business

• RSVP to next Workshop 11/20 @ 4 PM EST: Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Tim Cook just turned 65, and Apple’s succession talk is heating up even as he shows no sign of loosening his grip on the nearly $4T giant.

Inside the Cupertino giant, hardware chief John Ternus is quietly emerging as heir apparent while the company tries to shake off its AI stumbles. But is he really ready to take the reins from Apple’s Wall Street whisperer-in-chief?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple quietly preps for post-Cook era

• EU cracks down on China’s ultra-fast fashion

• Amazon to fully absorb Whole Foods’ workers

• Meta arms creators against content theft

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 Apple quietly preps for post-Cook era

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Tim Cook just turned 65, and with that milestone comes renewed speculation about Apple’s succession plan — even as the CEO shows no signs of stepping down from his 14-year reign atop one of the world's most valuable companies.

The details:

• Cook grew Apple from $350B to nearly $4T since 2011, but at 65, succession planning is now standard governance for a company this size.

• Hardware engineering chief John Ternus, 50, is widely viewed as the frontrunner, with rising visibility at launches and a profile that fits the bill.

• Other contenders reportedly include Craig Federighi (software), Greg Joswiak (marketing), and former COO Jeff Williams.

• The real question isn’t if Apple has a plan, but whether any successor can navigate the company’s post-iPhone era with Cook’s Wall Street charm.

Why it matters: Apple’s nearly $4T valuation masks mounting pressure: the company lags in AI, faces antitrust battles, and shows flattening iPhone growth. Cook mastered operations and Wall Street, but his likely successor, Ternus, signals a pivot toward innovation at the exact moment Apple needs its next big thing beyond the iPhone.

E-COMMERCE

📦 EU cracks down on China’s ultra-fast fashion

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The EU is cracking down on the flood of ultra-cheap goods flooding in from China, scrapping the €150 duty-free threshold on low-value imports — putting Shein and Temu squarely in the crosshairs.

The details:

• The scale is staggering: 4.6B parcels hit the EU in 2024, with roughly 9 in 10 small packages coming from China.

• Implementation will use a temporary system ministers plan to finalize in December, with the EU saying it can move as early as 2026.

• The move aims to force Shein and Temu to raise prices or relocate inventory into regional warehouses, killing their factory-to-door logistics model.

• In France, Shein also faces legal action after authorities found child‑like sex dolls listed for sale on its platform.

Why it matters: It’s part of a broader squeeze that includes U.S. crackdowns on de minimis exemptions and fresh China tariffs. Expect fewer cheap impulse buys and mounting compliance costs as Europe closes the customs loopholes that let ultra-cheap Chinese goods undercut domestic retailers for years.

AMAZON

🛒 Amazon to fully absorb Whole Foods’ workers

Image source: Wikimedia Commons / Mike Mozart

The Rundown: Amazon is pulling Whole Foods fully under the mothership. The retail giant plans to integrate all 100K-plus frontline workers into its core business system by next year as part of its Project Cremini, according to Business Insider.

The details:

• Thousands of frontline staff will move to Amazon’s performance reviews, workplace tools, and payroll, with checks issued directly by Amazon.

• This extends the summer shift that put Whole Foods corporate employees on Amazon policies as leadership pushes a “One Grocery” org.

• Amazon is consolidating vendor management, with a three-year plan to fold 16 top suppliers expected to generate at least $94M in profit.

• Jason Buechel, who took the helm of both Whole Foods and Amazon’s grocery operations in January, has been pushing a “unified employee experience.”

Why it matters: Amazon kept Whole Foods semi-autonomous for seven years after its $13.7B 2017 acquisition, but with Walmart and Instacart gaining ground in grocery, the company is now betting on full operational integration. Its “One Grocery” push aims to finally unlock growth in a category where Amazon has consistently struggled.

META

👀 Meta arms creators against content theft

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta is rolling out Content Protection, a mobile tool that auto-detects when someone rips off a creator’s Reels across Facebook and Instagram — scanning for full or partial reposts and flagging the accounts behind them.

The details:

• The system uses Rights Manager’s matching tech to scan for full or partial reposts, surfacing view counts and follower stats for infringing accounts.

• Creators get three options: track stolen content with attribution, block copies platform-wide, or release claims entirely.

• Enrolled creators can see who reposted their reel and whether those copies are monetized, making it easier to choose which action to take.

• You can retroactively protect old Reels, maintain an allowlist for trusted partners, and trigger dispute workflows if someone falsely claims your work.

Why it matters: Meta already offered some content protection through Rights Manager, but embedding it directly in the Facebook app makes it accessible to more creators — though only those who post Reels to Facebook, not Instagram-only accounts. The feature is rolling out now to creators in Meta’s monetization program.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Meta and Google reportedly delayed key segments of their subsea cables, particularly in the Red Sea corridor, citing operational, regulatory, and geopolitical risks.

Jeff Bezos has reportedly launched a new AI startup, Project Prometheus, with $6B in funding — marking his return to a formal operational role since Amazon.

Google launched WeatherNext 2, an AI weather model built into Search, Gemini, and Pixel to deliver faster, higher‑res, and more accurate weather forecasts.

Rivian’s micromobility spinoff, Also, set its new e-bike base model at $3,500, slotting beneath the $4,500 Launch and Performance trims.

Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer who introduced the iPhone Air at Apple’s September event, has reportedly left Apple for an unnamed AI startup.

Researchers unveiled a solid‑state sodium battery that replaces lithium with abundant sodium, promising cheaper, safer, and more sustainable energy storage.

Fintech firm Ramp raised $300M, boosting its valuation to $32B just three months after raising at $22.5B.

San Francisco–based data ecosystem major Databricks is in talks to raise new capital at a valuation above $130B, roughly 30% higher than its last round.

Alphabet and Disney struck a new multi‑year deal restoring content from ABC and ESPN onto Google’s YouTube TV after a two-week standoff.

MIT researchers built a degradable nanoparticle that delivers mRNA vaccines in mice at 100x lower doses while clearing the body faster to cut liver toxicity.

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🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Jeff Bezos returns as CEO for new AI startup

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Blue Origin nails SpaceX signature move

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• Today’s AI tool guide: Use ChatGPT record to capture meeting insights

• RSVP to next workshop 11/20 @ 4 PM EST: The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow

See you soon,

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