Good morning, AI enthusiasts. ChatGPT’s latest update was supposed to be a personality upgrade, but even Sam Altman calls the new 4o “annoying” and “sycophant-y.”

With an outpouring of flattery and a tendency to agree with users regardless of what they say, OpenAI’s update reveals the difficult balance of tuning an AI’s personality — and the dark side of one that aims for user satisfaction over truth.

In today’s AI rundown:

• GPT-4o’s new personality problem

• Alibaba drops open-weight Qwen3 AI

• How to swap products in any video with Kling AI

• ChatGPT Search steps up its shopping game

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AI RESEARCH

👎 GPT-4o’s new personality problem

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI is working to fix an unexpected issue with its newly updated GPT-4o after users and tech leaders called out the AI's excessive flattery and tendency to agree with everything users say, even potentially harmful ideas.

The details:

• OpenAI released the updated 4o last week, promising better memory saving, problem solving, and personality and intelligence improvements.

• Users began noticing the update made GPT-4o excessively complimentary and agreeable, sometimes validating questionable or even false statements.

• Sam Altman posted that 4o became “annoying” and “syncophant-y,” noting the need to eventually have multiple personality options within each model.

• OpenAI has already deployed an initial fix to reduce the AI's "glazing" behavior, with updates planned throughout the week to find the right balance.

• Industry veterans warn the issue extends beyond ChatGPT, suggesting it's a broader challenge facing AI assistants designed to maximize user satisfaction.

Why it matters: This personality “upgrade” is revealing a major issue — the difficulty of balancing having positive, longer user interactions with being truthful and responsible. With millions of users having deep conversations and often accepting AI at its word, this 4o situation just unearthed a very slippery slope for model development.

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ALIBABA

🤖 Alibaba drops open-weight Qwen3 AI

Image source: Qwen

The Rundown: Alibaba’s Qwen AI lab just released Qwen3, a new family of eight open-weight language models featuring a hybrid thinking system and new agentic capabilities — with benchmarks rivaling top offerings from OpenAI, DeepSeek, and xAI.

The details:

• The flagship Qwen3-235B model matches the performance of much larger models like OpenAI’s o1, Grok-3, and DeepSeek-R1 on key benchmarks.

• Key upgrades include hybrid "thinking" modes for deep reasoning or fast answers, enhanced coding/agent skills, and support for 119 languages.

• The release includes 8 models, from a lightweight 600M parameter version to the full 235B, with the small models showing big gains over previous versions.

• All eight models are released with open weights and an Apache 2.0 license, and are available via platforms like Hugging Face or via local or cloud deployment.

Why it matters: Yesterday, we wrote about China quickly closing the gap in AI models, and today, Qwen releases an open-weight family that brings both the country and open-source movement even closer to matching the top labs. With Qwen’s impressive drop now out of the way, all eyes turn to DeepSeek and its anticipated R2 launch.

AI TRAINING

🎬 How to swap products in any video with Kling AI

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Kling AI’s new Multi Elements feature to easily add, remove, or replace any object in videos with your own products — without complex video editing skills.

Step-by-step:

1. Log in to Kling AI, navigate to the "Video" section on the left sidebar, and select "Multi-Elements.”

2. Choose the "Swap" option and upload your source video (5 seconds max, 24fps) where you want to showcase your product.

3. Click to select the object you want to replace, then confirm your selection.

4. Upload your product image, adjust if needed, and click "Generate" to create your custom product video.

Pro tip: For the most realistic results, use product images with transparent backgrounds and similar lighting conditions to your source video.

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OPENAI

🛍️ ChatGPT Search steps up its shopping game

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just released new shopping capabilities within ChatGPT’s Search feature, bringing new AI-driven product recommendations, a new visual interface for comparing items, and more.

The details:

• The update offers customized product suggestions based on natural language prompts with images, pricing comparisons, and aggregated review insights.

• Results are currently organic, based on partner metadata like reviews and pricing — with no paid placements or affiliate fees involved for now.

• Pro and Plus users will soon get personalized shopping through ChatGPT's memory feature, which references past conversations for tailored products.

• The Search upgrade also includes new features like WhatsApp integration, improved citations with highlights, and Google-style autocomplete suggestions.

Why it matters: Google still dominates product search today, but LLMs continue to eat into the share of traditional web queries. With platforms like ChatGPT evolving to keep users in chat for all their needs, a change in habits is underway — and having content optimized for LLMs will soon be just as important as SEO.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🤖 Ernie 4.5 Turbo & X1 Turbo - Baidu’s new fast and affordable LLMs

• 🧐 OpenAI Deep Research - A lightweight version powered by o4-mini

• 🔊 Kimi-Audio - Moonshot AI’s new open-source, SOTA audio model

• 🎥 KLING 2.0 - Next-level AI video and image generation and editing

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🛠️ Meta - Technical Program Manager

• 🧩 Together AI - Senior Support Engineer

• 🧑‍💼 Descript - Senior HR Manager

• 📈 UiPath - Data Scientist

📰 Everything else in AI today

Figure AI and the United Parcel Service (UPS) are reportedly discussing a partnership to bring humanoids into shipping and logistics processes.

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn published an all-hands email declaring the company as “AI-first”, focusing the tech on hiring and evaluations and scaling up AI training.

P-1 AI emerged from stealth with $23M in seed funding to build "Archie," an engineering-focused AI agent that automates cognitive engineering tasks.

Cisco launched Foundation AI, a new security-focused organization that plans to develop and open-source specialized AI models for cybersecurity applications.

Luma Labs released a new API for its Ray2 Camera Concepts, allowing developers to integrate the model’s advanced AI video controls into their applications.

Higgsfield AI introduced Iconic Scenes, a new feature that re-creates movie scenes with a different subject using a single selfie.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. In a major shakeup, Apple is moving its secretive robotics team out of the AI division and into hardware engineering.

The move signals a shift from pure research to developing real-world consumer products, as the tech giant races to catch up in robotics. But can we see an Apple robot roaming in homes anytime soon?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Apple reshuffles robotics division

• Flying bots building structures in mid-air

• Figure’s CEO threatens to sue Fortune

• Robots learn from watching how-to videos

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍏 Apple reshuffles robotics division

The Rundown: Amid persistent delays with next-gen AI Siri, Apple is reportedly moving its secret robotics unit from AI chief John Giannandrea's division to the hardware team led by senior VP John Ternus, marking a significant organizational shift.

The details:

• This shift follows a recent reorganization where Siri was also moved out of Giannandrea’s oversight to focus his team on foundational AI.

• Kevin Lynch, who led Apple Watch and the now-cancelled Apple Car projects, currently leads the robotics unit and has several projects in the works.

• Bloomberg reports that his team is developing an iPad-like tabletop device with a robotic arm and stationary robots for smart home use.

• By placing robotics under hardware engineering, Apple aims to better align the development of physical devices with the company’s hardware expertise.

Why it matters: The reshuffle is seen not just as a response to Apple’s lagging position in AI compared to Google and Amazon, but also as a push to speed up innovation in robotics. There’s still no word on when consumers might get a first look as experts say a true Apple home robot is likely years away.

CONSTRUCTION ROBOTICS

 🔨 Flying bots building structures in mid-air

Image source: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

The Rundown: A team of international researchers just unveiled a pioneering autonomy framework for aerial robotic drones capable of building, repairing, and maintaining structures with unprecedented precision while in flight.

The details:

• The new autonomy framework enables drones to collaboratively build and repair structures by depositing materials in mid-air with high precision.

• The project utilizes two types of autonomous drones: BuilDrones, which deposit materials in-flight, and ScanDrones, which handle quality control.

• Inspired by the collective behavior of bees and wasps, the drones operate collaboratively, adapting their construction strategies in real time.

• The research envisions a hybrid construction approach, where ground robots handle accessible areas and aerial robots tackle high or hazardous locations.

Why it matters: This research marks a breakthrough for Aerial Additive Manufacturing—a technology that uses flying robots to build structures in hard-to-reach or hazardous locations. These bots open up new possibilities for rapid repairs and scalable construction at heights where traditional methods often fall short.

FIGURE

🤖 Figure’s CEO threatens to sue Fortune

Image source: Figure AI

The Rundown: Figure AI’s CEO and founder, Brett Adcock, is threatening legal action against Fortune magazine after it published an article alleging that Figure AI overstated the capabilities and deployment of its humanoids at BMW’s Spartanburg factory.

The details:

• In an article published earlier this month, Fortune suggested that Figure AI exaggerated the robot’s current role at BMW’s factory in South Carolina.

• Sources told Fortune that the robots were not yet integrated into regular production, and that claims of “end-to-end” automation were misleading.

• Adcock called the article “downright lies” and announced that his litigation counsel had taken steps to defend Figure’s reputation.

• The Wall Street Journal also published an article this month raising concerns about Figure’s claim, but Adcock hasn’t responded publicly.

Why it matters: Adcock insists that Figure AI has been transparent about the pilot nature of the project, but the dispute raises broader questions about the hype and reality in the robotics and AI industries, where startups often face pressure to demonstrate rapid progress to investors and the public.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

🧠 Robots learn from watching how-to videos

Image source: Cornell University

The Rundown: Researchers at Cornell University developed a new AI framework—RHyME (Retrieval for Hybrid Imitation under Mismatched Execution)—that enables robots to learn new tasks simply by watching just a single how-to video.

The details:

• The system works by tapping into a robot’s memory bank, allowing it to recombine modular components of different demos to perform new tasks.

• RHyME enables robots to learn even if the human demonstrators’ actions differ from what the robot can physically perform.

• Training robots with RHyME requires only about 30 minutes of robot-specific data, compared to the thousands of hours often needed by traditional methods.

• In laboratory tests, robots equipped with RHyME achieved over 50% higher task success rates than those using previous learning approaches.

Why it matters: The framework allows robots to handle unexpected scenarios by drawing on similar actions from their video memory, rather than failing when something goes off-script. Backed by Google and OpenAI, the project is a big shift from traditional robotic training, which can demand exhaustive data and countless hours of demos.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

U.S.-based Medtronic announced that it has tested its Hugo surgical robot in 137 real surgeries on kidneys, prostates, and bladders with a 98.5% success rate.  

Canadian robotics firm Axibo, specializing in automated filmmaking rigs, is launching a humanoid robotics division with $12M in funding.

Chinese robotaxi startup Pony.ai reportedly slashed the cost of its self-driving package range by 70%, with its robotaxis costing up to 30% less than Waymo’s.

Elon Musk posted on X that robots “will surpass good human surgeons within a few years and the best human surgeons within ~5 years.”

Johns Hopkins University researchers found that humans are, in fact, better than current AI models at understanding social dynamics in moving scenes.

South Korean researchers developed an experimental drone that maneuvers with flying-squirrel-inspired silicone-membrane wings.

Tesla launched an employee-only robotaxi pilot in Austin and San Francisco, with the pilot completing more than 1,500 trips and 15K miles.

Chery plans to deploy its new humanoid Mornine as sales consultants in auto dealerships to explain vehicle specs, serve drinks, and speak in multiple languages.

U.S.-based RIC Robotics expects to unveil a working prototype of its 20-feet-tall (6-meter) construction robot in early 2026.

Market researcher SNS Insider cites that the U.S. rehabilitation robotics market is projected to reach $1.33B by 2032.

Locus Robotics announced that it has “surpassed the 5B-units-picked milestone” for its AI-driven mobile warehouse automation.

Market researcher MarketandMarkets predicts the U.S. humanoid robot market will reach $3.83B by 2029.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop today at 3 PM EST with Ellie Jacobs and Noam Markose from LTX Studio. In this live session, you’ll learn how to bring your AI-generated storyboards to life using LTX Studio’s powerful new timeline editor - no editing experience needed.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Chinese president Xi Jinping just hit the accelerator on a “national system” to build home-grown chips, software, and AI talent — with no U.S. supply chain required.

With rumors of breakthrough domestic chips and a potential second 'DeepSeek moment' approaching, the U.S. lead in the AI race may be tighter than ever.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Xi pushes for China’s AI self-reliance

• Anthropic CEO calls for AI interpretability

• Create specialized legal assistants with Grok

• Baidu debuts new Ernie AI, targets DeepSeek

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

CHINA & AI

🇨🇳 Xi pushes for China’s AI self-reliance

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: Chinese President Xi Jinping just declared AI self-sufficiency as a national priority, promising government support to boost the development of AI chips, software, and talent, amid escalating tech rivalry with the U.S.

The details:

• Xi outlined a "new whole national system" approach, aiming to develop high-end chips and software while increasing AI education and talent development.

• The initiative includes expanded government policy support, IP protection, and research funding to overcome tech bottlenecks.

• Chinese chipmaker Huawei is reportedly testing a new advanced chip to offer a domestic alternative to NVIDIA processors, currently restricted by the U.S.

• Rumors have also spread about the upcoming release of DeepSeek R2, with price and training cost cuts, and the use of Huawei chips over NVIDIA.

Why it matters: Between a potential second ‘DeepSeek moment’ around the corner, domestic AI chip alternatives making U.S. export controls ineffective, and a quickly closing gap in models, China is putting its foot on the gas with a country-wide effort to grab hold of the AI lead — while proving it doesn’t need U.S. chips to succeed.

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• Conduct hours of deep research in seconds across every app

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• Enterprise-grade security and zero data leakage

Learn more about Sana AI and drive enterprise-wide innovation today.

ANTHROPIC

🔬 Anthropic CEO calls for AI interpretability

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a new blog highlighting the critical need for "mechanistic interpretability" in AI, arguing that understanding models’ inner workings could become humanity’s safeguard as they grow increasingly powerful.

The details:

• Amodei stressed that AI is different from traditional software because decision-making emerges organically, making its operations unclear even to creators.

• He revealed that Anthropic has mapped over 30M "features" in Claude 3 Sonnet, representing specific concepts the model can understand and process.

• The CEO compared the ultimate goal to creating a reliable “AI MRI” for diagnosing models and better understanding their “black box”.

• He said AI is advancing faster than interpretability, leaving us unprepared for AI systems like a “country of geniuses in a datacenter,” coming as early as 2026.

Why it matters: Anthropic has been leading the charge on AI safety, and Amodei’s essay frames understanding models’ inner workings as not just a technical challenge but a prerequisite for safely deploying their advanced versions. The question is if the other frontier labs will be as patient — and so far the answer has been no.

AI TRAINING

🧑‍⚖️ Create specialized legal assistants with Grok

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Grok's new Workspaces feature to create dedicated AI assistants for specific tasks, like reviewing contracts and legal documents, with document upload capabilities.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Grok and click "New Workspace" in the sidebar to create a fresh workspace for legal document review.

2. Set up detailed instructions by clicking the "Instruction" button, telling Grok exactly how to analyze your legal documents.

3. Upload your contracts and legal documents using the "Attach" button for Grok to reference throughout your conversations*

4. Analyze your documents using the "DeepSearch" option for internet research and the "Think" button for deeper document analysis.

*Note: Before uploading any sensitive legal documents, make sure to redact or hide any confidential information you don't want to share. Also, AI might hallucinate, so always double-check its answers.

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BAIDU

🤖 Baidu debuts new Ernie AI, targets DeepSeek

Image source: Baidu

The Rundown: Baidu just unveiled two upgraded, lower-cost ERNIE AI models and new tools at its Create 2025 event — and publicly took aim at rival DeepSeek during the conference.

The details:

• ERNIE 4.5 Turbo costs just 11c / million input tokens, an 80% price reduction from its predecessor and operating at 0.2% of GPT-4.5's cost.

• The ERNIE X1 Turbo reasoning model is priced at 14c / million input tokens — reportedly 75% cheaper than competitor DeepSeek R1.

• 4.5 Turbo brings new multimodal capabilities that surpass GPT-4o on benchmarks, with X1 Turbo topping Deepseek’s R1 and V3.

• Baidu also announced Xinxiang, a multi-agent system that can handle over 200 different tasks, and a new digital avatar platform called Huiboxing.

• Baidu founder Robin Li said the “market is shrinking” for text-based models like DeepSeek’s R1, saying the rival also had a higher rate of hallucinations.

Why it matters: Chinese AI labs continue to push costs down while claiming competitive performance to top models, putting the pressure on rivals, both domestic and in the West, to cut prices and continue shipping. Recent estimates suggest China is just three months behind on AI, a number that is shrinking with each release.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🎙️ Retellio - AI Agent that transforms customer call recordings into concise, AI-curated podcasts, highlighting key insights for business leaders*

• 🎇 Firefly 4 and 4 Ultra - Adobe’s new upgraded text-to-image models

• 🎹 Music AI Sandbox - Google’s new AI tools for creating and editing music

• 🗣️ Hummingbird-0 - Tavus’ new SOTA lip-sync video model

*Sponsored Listing

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🧵 Figure AI - Softgoods Developer

• 🛠️ Shield AI - Prototype Technician

• 💸 Palantir Technologies - Financial Analyst

• 📊 Databricks - Product Designer

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI released an updated version of its GPT-4o model, with better memory saving, problem solving, and improvements to both intelligence and personality.

Elon Musk revealed that X’s social media feed will be getting an algorithm update powered by xAI’s Grok AI model.

Liquid Sciences dropped Hyena Edge, a hybrid AI with a “convolution” architecture that provides faster processing and improved benchmarks on mobile devices.

OpenAI introduced a new lightweight version of deep research, powered by o4-mini, to expand usage limits, saying it’s “nearly as intelligent” and much cheaper to serve.

Digital publisher Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company stole content from its properties (like Mashable, PCMag, and IGN) to train models.

Moonshot AI launched Kimi-Audio, a new open-source, SOTA audio model that excels in speech recognition, audio-to-text, and speech-to-speech conversations.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop today at 3 PM EST with Ellie Jacobs and Noam Markose from LTX Studio. In this live session, you’ll learn how to bring your AI-generated storyboards to life using LTX Studio’s powerful new timeline editor — no editing experience needed.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Netflix wants to join the trillion-dollar club alongside Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft—and its co-CEO says the company is on track, thanks to a rapidly evolving business model.

But as the streaming wars intensify and growth slows, can Netflix sustain the breakneck pace needed to reach that audacious milestone?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Netflix eyes trillion-dollar club

• Bezos’ Slate unveils $25K EV

• EU fines Apple and Meta $800M

• Meta CTO says AI will kill off apps

• Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NETFLIX

🤑 Netflix eyes trillion-dollar club

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos just confirmed the streaming giant’s ambitious goal to hit a $1T market valuation by 2030, which he says could be within reach if the company continues its current trajectory.

The details:

• Netflix aims to more than double its revenue from around $39B in 2024 to $78B by the end of the decade, with operating profits tripling to $30B.

• Currently valued near $450B, Netflix aims to grow its global subscriber base, targeting 410M users by 2030—up from 302M at the end of 2024.

• It also plans to expand its advertising revenue to $9B annually, leveraging its ad-supported subscription tier alongside core paid memberships.

• Sarandos added that Netflix accounts for only about 5% of the $650B consumer expenditure in its market segments, highlighting room for growth.

Why it matters: Netflix’s trillion-dollar ambition is challenged by fierce global competition from major players like Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, slow growth in saturated markets, and the high costs of producing and licensing original content—leaving analysts to suggest the company will need “perfect execution” to reach its goal.

SLATE AUTO

🛻 Bezos’ Slate unveils $25K EV

Image source: Slate Auto

The Rundown: Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto just unveiled its first electric pickup—a no-frills, $25K two-seater called the “Truck,” marking a radical departure from the tech-heavy norm in the EV market.

The details:

• The new electric pickup is defined by its utilitarian approach: there’s no touchscreen, no built-in stereo, and no paint—just a gray composite body.

• It features manual crank windows, physical HVAC knobs, and a universal phone mount with USB ports, allowing owners to “bring your own tech.”

• Options are a standard 52.7kWh battery for 150 miles of range or an 84.3kWh battery for up to 240 miles; with 201 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque.

• Set for 2026 delivery, Slate will come with over 100 accessories—including gear racks, upgraded lights, vinyl wraps (instead of paint), and decal kits.

Why it matters: The base model comes as a two-seater pickup, but customers can bolt on kits to convert it into a five-seat SUV or a fastback crossover. Built in Michigan, the truck also sidesteps import tariffs, pushing the price down to $20K after federal tax credits—which would make it the cheapest EV on the market.

APPLE and META

🇪🇺 EU fines Apple and Meta $800M

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: After a long battle, the European Commission decided to fine Apple €500M and Meta €200M, totaling $798M, for breaking digital antitrust rules—with investigations against X still underway.

The details:

• The EU enforced fines under the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to curb the power of digital “gatekeepers” and foster fairer competition in tech.

• Apple was fined for preventing developers from steering users toward alternative, potentially cheaper offers outside its App Store.

• Meta’s fine stemmed from its "pay or consent" model, requiring users to pay for ad-free access to socials or consent to data collection for targeted ads.

• Both companies have criticized the EU’s decisions, with Apple arguing it has been unfairly targeted and Meta claiming the rules disadvantage US firms.

Why it matters: The fines are modest relative to the companies’ revenues but signal a sharp escalation in the EU’s push to rein in Big Tech and promote fairer competition. The Trump administration, however, called them economic extortion and warned of possible retaliatory tariffs.

META

☄️ Meta’s CTO: AI will kill off apps

Image source: Meta/Facebook

The Rundown: Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, said this week that advances in AI could render traditional apps obsolete, massively disrupting how people interact with technology. Cue the smart glasses.

The details:

• Bosworth said that AI agents will eliminate the need for branded apps by allowing users to accomplish tasks simply by describing to AI what they want.

• Speaking on a podcast, he added that AI-powered interfaces and reasoning models will disrupt the software-as-a-service paradigm.

• While beneficial for consumers, the CTO said the shift poses a significant challenge for companies that rely on brand recognition and app monetization.

• He also said that he believes smart glasses will eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people interact with digital information.

Why it matters: While Bosworth acknowledges this transition will be disruptive—especially for mid-sized software firms caught between nimble AI-native startups and tech giants—he sees it as a net positive for consumers, ushering in a new era where technology is more adaptive, intuitive, and focused on real-world problem-solving.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Elon Musk's Neuralink is reportedly planning to raise about $500M at a pre-money valuation of $8.5B for its brain chip implant tech.

Intel is reportedly preparing to announce a sweeping restructuring that will eliminate more than 20% of its global workforce, around 21K jobs.

YouTube marked its 20th anniversary this week, two decades after co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first clip, called “Me at the zoo,” on the platform.
 
UK regulators are tightening requirements for social media platforms to implement stricter age-assurance tools to protect children, or face £18M ($24M) fines.

Meta rolled out live translations in four languages for its Ray-Ban smart glasses, along with the ability to send messages and make calls through Instagram.

Uber and Volkswagen announced a partnership to deploy thousands of fully autonomous ID. Buzz electric vans as robotaxis across the U.S. over the next decade.

WhatsApp introduced a new feature, “Advanced Chat Privacy,” that blocks others from exporting chats, auto-downloading media, and using messages for AI features.

Meta started rolling out ads to 320M monthly active users of Threads after testing it in select regions, including the U.S. and Japan.

OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT reportedly said that the company would be interested in buying Chrome should Google be forced to sell it as part of its ongoing antitrust suit.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop this Monday, April 28th, at 3 PM EST with Ellie Jacobs and Noam Markose from LTX Studio. In this live session, you’ll learn how to bring your AI-generated storyboards to life using LTX Studio’s powerful new timeline editor - no editing experience needed.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Anthropic just took the AI consciousness debate from science fiction to serious research — launching a new program to develop frameworks for assessing potential model welfare.

With their own researcher estimating a 15% chance that models are already conscious, are we nearing the existential debate on whether digital minds deserve ethical treatment?

In today’s AI rundown:

• Anthropic’s new research explores AI welfare

• Adobe’s new Firefly models, AI integrations

• Turn your terminal into an AI coding assistant

• Google DeepMind expands Music AI Sandbox

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ANTHROPIC

🤖 Anthropic’s new research explores AI welfare

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic just launched a new research program dedicated to “model welfare,” exploring the complex ethical questions around whether future AI systems might gain consciousness or deserve moral consideration in the future.

The details:

• Research areas include developing frameworks to assess consciousness, studying indicators of AI preferences and distress, and exploring interventions.

• Anthropic hired its first AI welfare researcher, Kyle Fish, in 2024 to explore consciousness in AI — who estimates a 15% chance models are conscious.

• The initiative follows increasing AI capabilities and a recent report (co-authored by Fish) suggesting AI consciousness is a near-term possibility.

• Anthropic emphasized deep uncertainty around these questions, noting no scientific consensus on whether current or future systems could be conscious.

Why it matters: Sam Altman previously likened AI to a form of alien intelligence. Soon, these models may reach a level that changes how we understand consciousness and ethics about them. We’ll likely see a polarizing divide—especially since there’s no threshold for when an AI could be considered “conscious” or deserving of rights.

TOGETHER WITH INNOVATING WITH AI

💼 Start your career as an AI Consultant

The Rundown: Innovating with AI’s new program, AI Consultancy Project, equips AI enthusiasts with all the resources to capitalize on the rapidly growing AI consulting market – which is set to 8x to $54.7B by 2032.

The program offers:

• Tools and framework to find clients and deliver top-notch services

• A 6-month roadmap to build a 6-figure AI consulting business

• Student landing their first AI client in as little as 3 days

Click here to request early access to The AI Consultancy Project.

ADOBE

🎨 Adobe’s new Firefly models, AI integrations

Image source: Adobe

The Rundown: Adobe just launched a major expansion of its Firefly AI platform at its MAX London event, introducing two new powerful image generation models, third-party integrations, a new collaborative workspace, and an upcoming mobile app.

The details:

• The new Firefly Image Model 4 and 4 Ultra boost generation quality, realism, control, and speed, while supporting up to 2K resolution outputs.

• Firefly's web app now offers access to third-party models like OpenAI's GPT ImageGen, Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2, and Black Forest Labs’ Flux 1.1 Pro.

• Firefly’s text-to-video capabilities are now out of beta, alongside the official release of its text-to-vector model.

• Adobe also launched Firefly Boards in beta for collaborative AI moodboarding and announced the upcoming release of a new Firefly mobile app.

• Adobe’s models are all commercially safe and IP-friendly, with a new Content Authenticity allowing users to easily apply AI-identifying metadata to work.

Why it matters: OpenAI’s recent image generator and other rivals have shaken up creative workflows, but Adobe’s IP-safe focus and the addition of competing models into Firefly allow professionals to remain in their established suite of tools — keeping users in the ecosystem while still having flexibility for other model strengths.

AI TRAINING

🤖 Turn your terminal into an AI coding assistant

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to install and use OpenAI’s new Codex CLI coding agent that runs in your terminal, letting you explain, modify, and create code using natural language commands.

Step-by-step:

1. Make sure Node.js and npm are installed on your system.

2. Install Codex typing npm install -g @openai/codex in your terminal and set your API key using export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key-here".

3. Start an interactive session with codex or run commands directly like codex "explain this function".

4. Choose your comfort level with any of the three approval modes, e.g., suggest, auto-edit, or full-auto.

Pro tip: Always run it in a Git-tracked directory so you can easily review and revert changes if needed. For more info, here is the GitHub repository.

PRESENTED BY IMAGINE AI LIVE

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Meet the AI experts on May 28-30 at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas and:

• Bypass months of costly trial-and-error with frameworks built for enterprise scale

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Accelerate your AI transformation with code AISPEAKERS200 to save $200 when you register by April 25th —  limited VIP passes are still available.

GOOGLE DEEPMIND

🎹 Google DeepMind expands Music AI Sandbox

Image source: Google DeepMind

The Rundown: Google DeepMind just released new upgrades to its Music AI Sandbox, introducing its new Lyria 2 music generation model alongside new creation and editing features for professional musicians.

The details:

• The platform’s new “Create,” “Extend,” and “Edit” features allow musicians to generate tracks, continue musical ideas, and transform clips via text prompts.

• The tools are powered by the upgraded Lyria 2 model, which features higher-fidelity, professional-grade audio generation compared to previous versions.

• DeepMind also unveiled Lyria RealTime, a version of the model enabling interactive, real-time music creation and control by blending styles on the fly.

• Access to the experimental Music AI Sandbox is expanding to more musicians, songwriters, and producers in the U.S. for broader feedback and exploration.

Why it matters: Google is targeting professional musicians, positioning Lyria 2 and the Sandbox as co-creation partners rather than just novelty music generators. The creative landscape for musicians is being reshaped by AI, like every other medium, but these tools are a big step in normalizing its currently polarizing use in the industry.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🔍 Dropbox Dash – AI universal search and knowledge management that will find every doc, video, image, or teammate across apps and turn content into first drafts, fast*

• 🎨 gpt-image-1 — OpenAI’s advanced image generation, now available via API

• 🤖 Researcher & Analyst - Copilot agents for research and data science tasks

• 🎆 Seedream 3.0 - Dreamina’s new high-level text-to-image model

*Sponsored Listing

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🧠 Deepmind - Research Scientist

• 🛠️ OpenAI - NOC Technician

• 🌍 Scale AI - Strategic Projects Lead

• 📊 Perplexity AI - Revenue Operations Analyst

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI reportedly plans to release an open-source reasoning model this summer that surpasses other open-source rivals on benchmarks and has a permissive usage license.

Tavus launched Hummingbird-0, a new SOTA lip-sync model that scores top marks in realism, accuracy, and identity preservation.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing an AI Education Task Force and Presidential AI Challenge, aiming to integrate AI across K-12 classrooms.

Loveable unveiled Loveable 2.0, a new version of its app-building platform featuring
“multiplayer” workspaces, an upgraded chat mode agent, an updated UI, and more.

Grammy winner Imogen Heap released five AI "stylefilters" on the music platform, Jen, allowing users to generate new instrumental tracks inspired by her songs.

Higgsfield AI introduced a new Turbo model for faster and cheaper AI video generations, alongside seven new motion styles for additional camera control.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop on Monday, April 28th at 3 PM EST with Ellie Jacobs and Noam Markose from LTX Studio. In this live session, you’ll learn how to bring your AI-generated storyboards to life using LTX Studio’s powerful new timeline editor — no editing experience needed.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. San Francisco-based Physical Intelligence just gave a glimpse of how its decentralized AI model can enable robots to clean homes they have never seen before.

Unlike most bots that rely on environments similar to their training data, Physical Intelligence is thinking outside the box—are we finally approaching adaptable robots that can handle real homes without rigid programming?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Physical Intelligence’s novel robot brains

• U.S.-China trade war hits Tesla Optimus

• A rice-sized bot for precision brain surgery

• This worm-shaped bot jumps 10 feet high

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE

🧠 Physical Intelligence’s novel robot brains

Image source: Physical Intelligence/YouTube

The Rundown: San Francisco-based Physical Intelligence just introduced π-0.5, a robotic foundation model designed to perform household chores — like wiping up spills and making beds — in never-before-seen environments.

The details:

• Built on a VLA model, π-0.5 processes high-level instructions in natural language and translates them into precise low-level motor actions.

• The model can accept a range of commands, from general instructions like “clean the bedroom” to more specific ones like “put that dish in the sink.”

• It has been trained with a mix of data sources, which enables it to understand the physical execution of tasks as well as their semantic context.

• The task is executed with a network of 100 decentralized “π-nodes” distributed throughout the robots’ bodies, with each node functioning as a mini-brain.

Why it matters: Similar to Google DeepMind’s Gemini, π-0.5 uses embodied reasoning and generalization to enable robots to perform complex tasks in unknown, real-world environments. While the AI isn’t perfect, it is a big step toward robots performing useful work in real homes with minimal manual programming.

TESLA

🤖 U.S.-China trade war hits Tesla Optimus

Image source: Tesla

The Rundown: Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that Tesla’s production of Optimus humanoids has been disrupted by China’s recent export restrictions on rare earth magnets, a key component in the robots’ electric motors.

The details:

• China, which produces nearly all of the world’s heavy rare earth metals and 90% of the magnets made from them, halted exports in response to U.S. tariffs.

• Exporters must now obtain licenses from China’s Ministry of Commerce to ship rare earth magnets, which reportedly can take weeks or even months.

• According to Musk, China is seeking assurances from Tesla that the magnets will not be used for military purposes and only for humanoid robots.

• Last month, Tesla completed a new pilot production line for Optimus at the Fremont Factory, with “legions” of robots expected soon.

Why it matters: The ongoing trade war is fueling concerns about global shortages of critical minerals from China — posing risks for Tesla and other tech companies building EVs, jets, and electronics. Still, Elon Musk says Tesla remains on track to produce thousands of Optimus robots this year.

ROBEAUTÉ

 🍚 A rice-sized bot for precision brain surgery

Image source: Robeauté

The Rundown: French startup Robeauté just secured €27M ($30M) to advance the development of its neurosurgical microbot—a device, no larger than a grain of rice, engineered to navigate the intricate pathways of the human brain.

The details:

• The microbot is injected through a 4-mm opening in the skull and can navigate neural pathways using its own engine, propulsion, and steering system.

• Once in, it can perform pre-programmed tasks such as biopsies, drug delivery, electrode implantation, and real-time data collection.

• Surgeons can monitor and control the robot’s movement in real time using an ultrasonic GPS placed on the patient's head.

• Once the job is done, they can trigger the bot to retrace its path and exit the brain safely, minimizing trauma to healthy tissue.

Why it matters: The microbot’s first human trials involving advanced biopsies of brain tumors are planned for 2026; future uses include targeted therapy delivery. Alongside U.S. rivals like Bionaut Labs, Robeauté’s microbot promises to be a transformative leap in minimally invasive brain surgery and personalized neurological care.

GEORGIA TECH

🪱 This worm-shaped robot jumps 10 feet high

Image source: Georgia Tech

The Rundown: Georgia Tech engineers just developed a 5-inch soft robot, inspired by parasitic worms, that can leap up to 10 feet — or roughly the height of a basketball hoop — despite having no legs.

The details:

• Inspired by the remarkable jumping mechanics of a nematode worm, the robot is made from a silicone rod reinforced with a carbon-fiber spine.

• Nematode worms bend and kink their bodies to store and rapidly release elastic energy, allowing them to leap up to 20 times their body length.

• The robot mimics these movements, using reversible kink instability to accumulate and unleash energy in just a tenth of a millisecond.

• Detailed in Science Robotics, the robot has potential applications in search and rescue or environments where wheeled or legged robots might struggle.

Why it matters: The soft robot leverages "mechanical intelligence" to solve complex movement challenges without relying on heavy computation or rigid components. While still in early phases, this innovation can pave the way for more robust and versatile soft robots targeting a wide range of inventive use cases.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Chinese robotics powerhouse Unitree opened a 107K-square-foot Hangzhou factory to build humanoids as part of its massive three to five-year expansion plan.

Chinese automaker XPeng unveiled its first AI humanoid, IRON, at the Shanghai Auto Show, where it walked fluidly and waved to the crowd.

U.S. engineers created a material that can morph into new shapes and follow electromagnetic commands like a remotely controlled robot, even without motors.

MIT developed a new stamping technique that enables engineered muscles to contract in multiple directions, like the iris of an eye, to power future biohybrid robots.

Ukraine is set to deploy 15,000 AI-powered drones and ground robots to the frontlines this year as the war with Russia intensifies.

San Francisco-based Reborn, which is focused on building an open ecosystem for AGI, announced a strategic partnership with China’s Booster Robotics.

Autonomous vehicle startup Scout AI emerged from stealth with $15M in funding and backing from the Pentagon to make “large robotic armies.”

MIT developed a new approach, dubbed “Relevance,” to enable robots to better understand the real world by tuning into the most relevant data for assisting humans.

Airbus UK won a $194M contract from the European Space Agency to build what will be the first European rover set to touch down on Mars in 2030.

Starship Technologies announced that its sidewalk delivery robots have completed more than 8M autonomous deliveries in some 150 global locations.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop this Friday, April 25th at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be ready to bring your most complex ideas to life using Canva’s powerful creative tools.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI just handed developers the reins to its viral image model, opening up SOTA AI creativity to thousands of apps and services overnight.

With cheap pricing and the power to render accurate text, edit images, and create diverse visual styles now embeddable in any app, OpenAI is muscling into workflows once dominated by its creative-focused rivals.

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI unlocks powerful image creation via API

• Microsoft’s new AI agents, workplace AI research

• Prepare for meetings instantly with Claude

• Ex-staff, experts challenge OpenAI’s restructuring

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🎨 OpenAI unlocks powerful image creation via API

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just launched its advanced image generation model, gpt-image-1, to developers via API — bringing the viral success of ChatGPT's image capabilities to third-party applications and platforms.

The details:

• The gpt-image-1 model powers ChatGPT's image generation feature, which produced over 700 million images in just one week after its launch in March.

• The model enables high-quality image creation with varied styles, accurate text rendering, enhanced image editing, and more.

• OpenAI revealed that major platforms, including Adobe, Figma, and Canva, are already integrating the technology for professional design workflows.

• Developers can also control the moderation level to tailor generated content safety, with standard "auto" filtering or less restrictive "low" moderation.

• Pricing is structured per token usage, with text prompts ($5 / 1M), input images ($10 / 1M), and output images ($40 / 1M), or ≈2-19c per image based on quality.

Why it matters: After ChatGPT's image generator went viral last month, OpenAI is positioning itself to power the next wave of AI-enhanced creative tools — and there will be a TON of them. The API release also deepens the broader creative ecosystem’s reliance on OpenAI, a position previously held by other rivals.

TOGETHER WITH WORKOS

🔑 Scale your AI app for enterprise

The Rundown: AI tools are reshaping how teams work—but enterprise adoption takes more than innovation. It demands security. WorkOS provides drop-in APIs to help you meet enterprise requirements fast—without months of custom development.

With WorkOS, you'll:

• Quickly integrate SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and more

• Get Enterprise Ready in days, not months

• Join OpenAI, Perplexity, and Cursor in scaling faster

Make your app Enterprise Ready with WorkOS today.

MICROSOFT

🤖 Microsoft’s new AI agents, workplace AI research

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft just released two new Copilot agents, Researcher and Analyst, alongside its 2025 Work Trend Index report — which maps out the rise of AI-centric, human-led “Frontier Firms” set to reshape the workplace.

The details:

• Researcher and Analyst bring deep reasoning to M365 Copilot for complex research and data science tasks like forecasting.

• The agents are rolling out as part of Copilot’s “Frontier” early access program, alongside updates that let companies build autonomous multi-agent systems.

• Microsoft's research across 31,000 workers shows companies leading in AI adoption are seeing major results:

  • 71% report their company is thriving vs 37% globally

  • 55% say they can handle increased workloads vs 20% globally

  • Workers show higher optimism about career opportunities

• Microsoft also believes that every employee will become an “agent boss,” with all companies becoming AI-human “Frontier Firms” for operations in 2-5 years.

Why it matters: Microsoft’s agent release coincides nicely with how the company views the future of work: one dominated by AI agents, but managed by humans. We’re in the beginning stages of a complete shift in how work gets done — with human-agent teams becoming the norm and companies moving to fully hybrid, AI-infused structures.

AI TRAINING

🤝 Prepare for meetings instantly with Claude

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Claude's integration with Calendar and Gmail to easily research meeting participants, analyze previous communications, and get detailed company information all in one place.

Step-by-step:

1. Head over to Claude and click the settings menu to toggle Gmail and Calendar search.

2. Ask Claude to check your calendar and research participants by using a prompt like: "Check my calendar for Thursday and provide a brief summary about the participants and company."

3. Review past communications by asking: "Check my email for previous conversations with [name] or someone from [company]."

4. Request to recommend talking points based on the combined insights.

Note: Only connect your accounts if you feel comfortable sharing your information with Claude. Also, you can toggle these features on or off at any time for privacy control.

PRESENTED BY QWIET

🛡️ Revolutionizing AppSec with agentic AI

The Rundown: Qwiet AI’s Multi-AI Agent Approach revolutionizes application security (AppSec) by using multiple AI agents to provide enhanced code security and significantly improve efficiency between security and developer teams.

In this webinar, you’ll discover:

• Why multiple AI agents outperform single-agent solutions

• How Agentic AI corrects code vulnerabilities even when standard AI copilots fail

• The critical partnership between humans and AI in effective AppSec

Learn more and experience smarter AppSec with Qwiet AI.

OPENAI VS. THE INDUSTRY

❌ Ex-staff, experts challenge OpenAI's restructuring

Image source: Not For Private Gain

The Rundown: More than 30 AI experts and ex-OpenAI staffers published an open letter urging the attorneys general of Delaware and California to block OpenAI’s restructuring, warning it would undermine its original mission to benefit humanity.

The details:

• 9 former OpenAI employees joined notable figures like AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton in calling to block the startup’s transition from nonprofit to for-profit.

• They argue the move will remove vital nonprofit oversight and safeguards, and redirect AGI development from public benefit to shareholder returns.

• OpenAI needs transition approval from both state AGs by year-end to secure a pending $40B SoftBank investment contingent on the restructuring.

• The letter follows an earlier motion by 12 former employees seeking to weigh in on Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company and CEO Sam Altman.

Why it matters: With billions in investments hanging in the balance and both former employees and AI heavyweights lining up against the AI leader, the opposition continues to mount against OpenAI’s for-profit shift — but we’ve seen little movement to suggest the transition is in jeopardy, despite the red flags being raised.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🗣️ Dia 1.6B - Open-source text-to-speech AI with emotion controls and more

• 🎬 AvatarFX - Create long-form, coherent talking avatars from a reference photo

• 🤖 Kortix Suna - Open-source AI agent built to work like a human

• 📋 ShumerPrompt - Discover and share powerful AI prompts

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 📱 Pika - Software Engineer

• 🤖 Snorkel - AI Solutions Engineer

• 🧾 Synthesia - Financial Accountant

• 💼 Glean - Strategic Finance Lead

📰 Everything else in AI today

Perplexity released its Perplexity Assistant app on iOS, allowing users to take agentic actions, access web browsing, and more on mobile using voice commands.

ByteDance’s Dreamina launched Seedream 3.0, a new text-to-image model that ranks No. 2 on Artificial Analysis’ Image Arena Leaderboard behind only GPT-4o.

OpenAI is reportedly forecasting sales of $125B in 2029 and $174B in 2030, powered by AI agents, “new products,” and API and user growth.

NVIDIA released its NeMo microservices suite, allowing enterprises to easily build AI agents with optimized company data flywheels for high-quality performance.

BMW announced plans to integrate Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI models into its new vehicles in the region starting later this year.

Tempus AI is partnering with biotech giants AstraZeneca and Pathos to develop the industry’s largest multimodal foundation model for cancer treatment discovery.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop this Friday, April 25th, at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be ready to bring your most complex ideas to life using Canva’s powerful creative tools.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Two Korean undergrads with little AI experience took Sam Altman’s “you can just build things” quote to heart — building an open-source speech model that outperforms industry leaders — with zero funding.

With AI tools and resources becoming more accessible globally, the era of solo builders competing with billion-dollar labs has officially arrived.

P.S. — Our next workshop is today at 1 pm, where you’ll learn how to turn raw ideas into polished, on-brand presentations with Gamma. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Two undergrads unveil SOTA speech AI

• The Washington Post joins OpenAI's alliance

• Automate your sales with personalized emails

• Anthropic CISO: AI employees are coming

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NARI LABS

🗣️ Two undergrads unveil SOTA speech AI

Image source: Nari Labs

The Rundown: Korean startup Nari Labs released Dia, an open-source text-to-speech model that claims to exceed the capabilities of leading commercial offerings like ElevenLabs and Sesame — developed by two undergraduate techies with zero funding.

The details:

• The 1.6B parameter model supports advanced features like emotional tones, multiple speaker tags, and nonverbal cues like laughter, coughing, and screams.

• The work was inspired by Google’s NotebookLM, with Nari also using Google’s TPU Research Cloud program for compute access.

• Side‑by‑side tests show Dia outshining ElevenLabs Studio and Sesame CSM‑1B in timing, expressiveness, and handling nonverbal scripts.

• Nari Labs founder Toby Kim said the startup plans to develop a consumer app focused on social content creation and remixing based on the model.

Why it matters: Dia is a living testament to Sam Altman’s ‘you can just do things’ tweet, with two inexperienced undergrads training an open-source model that competes with the top voice tech on the market. There’s never been a better time to try and build something, with AI unlocking new access to learning like never before.

TOGETHER WITH GAMMA

🚀 Create stunning content in minutes, not hours

The Rundown: For consultants, educators, marketers, and sales pros drowning in content creation, Gamma's all-in-one platform is the lifeline you need — helping you create beautiful presentations, websites, and social media content with minimal effort.

Gamma allows you to:

• Generate content from simple text prompts or import and improve existing work

• Edit images with a single click — change subjects, styles, or remove backgrounds

• Easily export content to Google Slides/PDFs/PowerPoint

• Experience an upgraded AI and UI for a powerful content creation experience

Click here to experience Gamma and join 50M other users creating 700k presentations a day.

OPENAI

📰 The Washington Post joins OpenAI's alliance

Image source: Washington Post

The Rundown: The Washington Post just announced a new partnership with OpenAI, allowing the AI leader to bring summaries and links from its reporting directly into ChatGPT answers.

The details:

• ChatGPT will now feature summaries, quotes, and direct links to relevant Washington Post articles in its responses to user questions.

• The deal adds the Jeff Bezos-owned Post to OpenAI's expanding roster of media partners, with over 20 major news publishers.

• It also comes amid ongoing legal battles between OpenAI and other major publishers, including the NYT, over training data and copyright issues.

• The Washington Post has been actively experimenting with AI, launching tools like Ask The Post AI and Climate Answers over the past year.

Why it matters: Another major news outlet is choosing partnership over litigation, with a bet that visibility via ChatGPT will be key to reaching audiences worldwide. OpenAI also gains more trustworthy content for its AI, and a giant like WaPo joining on further isolates publishers like the NYT, who are fighting back in court.

AI TRAINING

📊 Automate your sales with personalized emails

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use n8n to turn your static contact lists into dynamic sales outreach machines by automatically sending personalized emails to prospects based on their company, role, and interests.

Step-by-step:

1. Create a new n8n workflow and set up a Google Sheets trigger that monitors when new leads are added to your spreadsheet.

2. Add an AI Agent node and connect it to a language model to process your contact information.

3. Configure a Gmail node to create drafts of personalized emails instead of sending them directly.

4. Write detailed instructions in the AI Agent's system message telling it exactly how to craft sales emails.

Pro tip: Fine-tune your AI's writing style by testing different system message instructions. We did an extensive workshop showing how to create your own AI Agent to automate tasks and run local AI models with n8n here.

PRESENTED BY AXOLOTL

⚙️ Post‑train LLMs without limits

The Rundown: Axolotl v0.8.0 is an open‑source toolkit built by devs, for devs — giving you full transparency and the freedom to customize large language models through simple configuration.

With Axolotl, you can:

• Post‑train LLaMA, Gemma, Mistral, and other leading models from one workflow

• Scale effortlessly — from a single local GPU to multi‑node cloud clusters

• Get started fast thanks to an easy, plug‑and‑play setup

Dive into Axolotl v0.8.0 to start post‑training today.

ANTHROPIC

💼 Anthropic CISO: AI employees are coming

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic's Chief Information Security Officer, Jason Clinton, just predicted that AI-powered virtual employees will begin operating on corporate networks within the next year, bringing major new challenges in security management.

The details:

• These AI employees would have their own corporate accounts, passwords, and "memories," a significant step up from current task-specific AI agents.

• Clinton said security challenges will include managing AI account privileges, monitoring access, and determining responsibility for autonomous actions.

• He sees virtual employees as the next “AI innovation hotbed,” with virtual employee security also emerging as an area of focus alongside it.

• Anthropic said it's focused on securing its own AI models against attacks and watching out for potential areas of misuse.

Why it matters: Work is about to change completely in the AI age, and so will the security measures needed for this brand-new type of employee. The question is if cybersecurity practices will update fast enough to keep up — or if it will take a major breach or exploit as a wake-up call for new threats that autonomous AI workers present.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🗣️ Agent-to-Agent Transfers - Hand off conversations between AI agents

• 📽️ AI Co-Editor - Descript’s new agentic video editor

• ⚡️ Genspark AI Slides - Agentic tool for quickly creating presentation slides

• 🎥 Edits - Meta’s new video creation app with AI features

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🔐 Runway - Member of Technical Staff

• 🎧 Soundhound AI - Customer Success Representative

• 📈 Abridge - Director, GTM Strategy + Pricing

• 🗣️ Captions - Community Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI’s head of product, Nick Turley, testified in Google’s antitrust trial that the AI leader would be interested in buying its Google Chrome browser if a sale were forced.

Apple removed "available now" claims from its Apple Intelligence marketing page following the National Advertising Division's concerns about misleading availability.

Character AI launched AvatarFX, an AI platform that allows users to create long-form, coherent talking avatars from a single reference photo and voice selection.

IBM and the European Space Agency released TerraMind, an open-source AI system that uses nine data modalities and satellites for real-time climate monitoring.

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez joined the board of electric automaker Rivian, aiming to integrate AI tech more broadly into the company’s products and manufacturing.

Motorola debuted SVX, a new AI-powered device that combines a body camera, speakers, and an AI assistant to reduce emergency response times.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop today at 1 PM EST with Mel, Creative Director at Gamma. By the end of the workshop, you’ll learn how to turn raw ideas into polished, on-brand presentations using Gamma’s powerful AI storytelling tools — no design skills needed.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

🤝 Share The Rundown, get rewards

We’ll always keep this newsletter 100% free. To support our work, consider sharing The Rundown with your friends, and we’ll send you more free goodies.

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team