Stay Ahead on AI.

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Chungin “Roy” Lee, the 21-year-old co-founder of Cluely, just announced that his startup has raised $5.3M for its controversial AI tool to “cheat on everything.”

Cluely, which also dropped a clip showing Lee using the tech to impress a date, argues that AI cheating tools will become as accepted as calculators and spellcheckers. Is this the natural evolution of human-AI collaboration, or are we living in an episode of Black Mirror?

In today’s tech rundown:

Cluely raises $5.3M to ‘cheat on everything’
Netflix eyes video podcasts in next big move
FTC sues Uber for ‘deceptive’ practices
Airbnb to display full prices up front
Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

CLUELY

🤥 Cluely raises $5.3M to ‘cheat on everything’

Image source: Cluely/X

The Rundown: On Sunday, 21-year-old Chungin “Roy” Lee announced that his startup, Cluely, has raised $5.3M in seed funding to expand its controversial AI tool designed to cheat on everything from job interviews to exams.

The details:

The tool operates via a hidden, undetectable in-browser window that provides users with real-time answers and suggestions during interviews or calls.
It “listens” to audio, “sees” the user’s screen, and delivers instant answers invisible to interviewers or anyone else on the other end.
Lee, a former Columbia University student, was suspended after he co-created an earlier version of the tool for software engineer job interviews.
The controversy around “AI cheating” has only fueled Cluely’s growth: the startup launched this month and already boasts $3M+ in annual revenue.

Why it matters: Investors have flocked to the startup despite concerns from recruiters and tech giants like Amazon. But Cluely isn’t the only polarizing new AI startup: Famed AI researcher Tamay Besiroglu has also launched his own startup, Mechanize, with a mission to replace all human workers everywhere with AI.

NETFLIX

🎤 Netflix eyes video podcasts in next big move

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Netflix is reportedly gearing up to expand beyond TV and film, with video podcasts emerging as its next big content play—a strategic move to challenge YouTube’s dominance in the space.

The details:

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last week that “as the popularity of video podcasts grows, I suspect you’ll see some of them find their way to Netflix.”
According to Edison Podcast Metrics, YouTube attracts 31% of weekly podcast listeners, compared to Spotify’s 27% and Apple’s 15%.
Nearly half of podcast listeners watch their shows on smart TVs, and in March, YouTube made up 9.7% of all TV viewing, compared to Netflix’s 8.1%.
Netflix has already dabbled in podcast-adjacent and creator-driven content, licensing a few shows and producing podcasts tied to its original series.

Why it matters: Netflix’s push into video podcasts is fueled in part by their lower production costs compared to scripted shows and films. With Gen Z increasingly tuning into podcasts in video format, the company is now reportedly stepping up efforts to woo creators and stake its claim in this growing trend.

UBER

⚖️ FTC sues Uber for ‘deceptive’ practices

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Uber is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its monthly Uber One subscription service.

The details:

The FTC claims that Uber enrolled customers on Uber One without their explicit consent and then made it extremely difficult to end the subscription.
According to the complaint, the ride-hailing giant promised savings of $25 a month, but this figure did not account for the $9.99 monthly subscription cost.
Plus, it made cancelling the subscription “unreasonably” burdensome for users, requiring them to navigate up to 23 screens.
The commission also alleges that users were billed before their free trial ended, with some asked to contact customer support with no further instructions.

Why it matters: Uber has denied all allegations, asserting that its sign-up and cancellation processes are streamlined, with app cancellations taking just 20 seconds. Nevertheless, the move comes amid a broader FTC crackdown on “dark patterns” that make it hard for users to cancel, targeting giants like Amazon, Adobe, and Match.

AIRBNB

🏠 Airbnb to display full prices up front

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Airbnb has responded to major pushback from both consumers and regulators by introducing a major update to its pricing transparency, now displaying the total price, including all fees, by default to users during the booking process.

The details:

Airbnb said it will now display the total price of a stay, including all service charges, cleaning, and additional fees, by default before taxes.
The guest service fee can be up to 14.2% of the booking subtotal, while cleaning and other maintenance fees set by hosts will also go in the total price.
The change comes ahead of new U.S. federal regulations targeting so-called “junk fees,” set to take effect on May 12.
This move will help travelers make more informed decisions and avoid sticker shock at checkout.

Why it matters: Airbnb has been testing this feature since 2019 in various countries and now plans to bring it worldwide as U.S. regulations tighten. For Airbnb hosts, however, this change may require more strategic pricing, but Airbnb plans to show hosts how much their guests are paying before taxes to help make adjustments.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Nintendo announced that it opened Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S. and that its planned price of $499.99 will remain intact despite tariff concerns.

Instagram is intensifying its efforts to clamp down on teenagers who misrepresent their age by using AI tools to scan accounts for clues indicating that the user is a minor.

Apple has reportedly been assembling its iPhone 16e in Brazil (since the phone launched) as it moves production out of China amid the ongoing tariff war.

Tesla investors are pushing for updates from CEO Elon Musk on the launch timelines of Tesla’s long-promised affordable EV and its robotaxi service in Austin.

The U.S. government has cancelled or downsized $8B worth of clean energy projects since January, according to a report from nonpartisan think tank E2.

China's CATL launched Naxtra, a new brand for its sodium-ion batteries, and the second generation of its fast-charging battery for electric cars.

Bluesky launched its own blue checkmark verification system similar to X, but one that allows “trusted verifiers” to distribute the checks

Car rental company Hertz partnered with AI vehicle-inspection service UVeye to scan airport returns for damage and maintenance issues.

Manychat, a startup that provides brands with AI tools for automated messaging and chats across social media, raised $140M in funding.

Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto reportedly teased its secretive EV concept on the streets of California with a “Transformer-like design.”

COMMUNITY

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See you soon,

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

Anthropic maps AI's moral compass

Click here to request access to The AI Consultancy Project.

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Anthropic just pulled back the curtain on AI morality — revealing the first-ever map of Claude's real-world values based on hundreds of thousands of actual conversations.

With AI systems increasingly shaping our decisions (and now even legislation), cracking the alignment code behind models’ moral compass has never been more important.

Reminder: Our next workshop is today at 3 PM EST with Superhuman, where you’ll learn to fully optimize your email system with AI and eliminate inbox chaos. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

Anthropic charts Claude's values
UAE plans to let AI write the laws
Research with NotebookLM web discovery
Hassabis: AI could end all disease
4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ANTHROPIC

🧭 Anthropic charts Claude's values

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Anthropic just published a study analyzing hundreds of thousands of real AI conversations to understand how models like Claude make moral judgements — building the first large‑scale map of the model's values in day‑to‑day interactions.

The details:

Researchers analyzed over 300,000 real (but anonymous) conversations to find and categorize 3,307 unique values expressed by the AI.
They found 5 types of values (Practical, Knowledge-related, Social, Protective, Personal), with Practical and Knowledge-related being the most common.
Values like helpfulness and professionalism appeared most frequently, while ethical values were more common during resistance to harmful requests.
Claude's values also shifted based on context, such as emphasizing "healthy boundaries" in relationship advice vs "human agency" in AI ethics discussions.

Why it matters: AI is increasingly shaping real-world decisions and relationships, making understanding their actual values more crucial than ever. This study also moves the alignment discussion toward more concrete observations, revealing that AI’s morals and values may be more contextual and situational than a static point of view.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

🛡️ Scaling security in the age of AI

The Rundown: Join Vanta, Wiz, and Modo Labs on May 8 for a live fireside chat that demystifies how leading companies evolve GRC and cloud defenses — so you can scale security without stalling innovation.

This interactive discussion will include:

Insights into top-of-mind issues for GRC and security pros
Actionable steps to strengthen your existing program by actioning on risks
Key strategies for integrating AI capabilities into your security operations

AI & GOVERNMENT

🇦🇪 UAE plans to let AI write the laws

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: The United Arab Emirates unveiled plans to become the first nation to integrate AI directly into its lawmaking process, establishing a new government unit to oversee the transformation of how laws are written, reviewed, and updated.

The details:

A new Regulatory Intelligence Office will lead the initiative, which aims to cut legislative development time by 70% through AI-assisted drafting and analysis.
The system will use a database combining federal and local laws, court decisions, and government data to suggest legislation and amendments.
The plan builds on the UAE’s major investments in AI, including a dedicated $30B AI-focused infrastructure fund through its MGX investment platform.
The move was met with mixed reactions, with experts warning of the tech’s reliability, bias, and interpretive issues present in training data.

Why it matters: While many governments have already begun integrating AI into their ranks, this is one of the first examples of giving it legislative power in some capacity. As systems reach superhuman levels of persuasion, reasoning, and more, their use in politics will raise existential questions about AI vs. human judgment in lawmaking.

AI TRAINING

🔎 Research with NotebookLM web discovery

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use NotebookLM's new Discover Sources feature to find and add relevant web sources to your notebook with just a few clicks, streamlining the entire research process.

Step-by-step:

Visit NotebookLM and create a new notebook.
Click the "Discover" button in the Sources panel and enter a specific topic.
Review the curated sources that appear and add the most relevant ones to your notebook with one click.
Use NotebookLM's features with your new sources: generate Briefing Docs, ask questions via chat, or create Audio Overviews.

Pro tip: The more specific your topic description, the more relevant your source recommendations will be. Try describing exactly what you need to learn rather than using broad terms.

PRESENTED BY INNOVATING WITH AI

🚀 Launch a six‑figure AI consultancy in six months

The Rundown: Innovating With AI’s ‘The AI Consultancy Project’ gives you the frameworks, playbooks, and client‑ready templates needed to turn “interesting AI ideas” into a revenue‑generating business – helping you ride the wave of an AI consulting boom expected to grow by 8x this decade.

In this program, you will:

Gain the tools and frameworks to find clients and deliver top-notch services
Follow a 6-month plan to build a 6-figure AI consulting business
Join a 700‑strong cohort where some members landed their first AI client in 72 hours

GOOGLE DEEPMIND

⏰ Hassabis: AI could end all disease

Image source: CBS News

The Rundown: Nobel laureate and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis was interviewed on 60 Minutes, where he provided insights into AGI timeline, progress, and AI’s potential in medicine, while demoing DeepMind’s “Project Astra” assistant.

The details:

Hassabis said AI-driven drug discovery could compress medical timelines from years to weeks, potentially eliminating all disease within a decade.
His Project Astra demo included ID’ing paintings, reading emotions, and even a glasses-embedded version showcasing live features with visual understanding.
Hassabis said AGI will arrive in 5-10 years — and while he doesn’t believe today’s AI is conscious, he said it could emerge in the future in some form.
Another demo previewed an experimental robotics system with reasoning, showing the ability to understand abstract concepts like color mixing.

Why it matters: Coming from DeepMind's Nobel-winning chief, Hassabis' commentary isn’t just hype, but a signal of intense conviction from a key player in the field. While lofty goals like the end of disease and “radical abundance” sound like a pipe dream, 5-10 years of exponential growth is a scale that is hard to comprehend.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

🤖 Gemma 3 QAT - 27B model that can run on consumer GPUs
📋 Grok Studio - Collaborative workspace for docs, code, and more
🎬 Kling Multi Elements - Add, swap, or delete video elements with prompting
🗣️ Orpheus TTS - Open-source text-to-speech AI with natural emotion

💼 AI Job Opportunities

🚗 Waymo - Software Engineer
⚖️ Hive - Legal Operations Analyst
📝 Grammarly - Senior Marketing Operations Manager
🤝 UiPath - Enterprise Sales Executive

📰 Everything else in AI today

Chinese chipmaker Huawei is reportedly preparing shipments of a new AI chip, 910C, rivaling Nvidia’s H100 and aiming to fill the void left by U.S. export restrictions.

Amazon is facing customer pushback over Bedrock service limitations for Anthropic’s models, with users reporting using Anthropic’s API to bypass the capacity issues.

Elon Musk is reportedly looking to raise $25B+ in fresh capital for his new xAI-X combined venture, which would place the company at a valuation as high as $200B.

ElevenLabs released Agent-to-Agent Transfers, allowing for the ability to transfer conversations between specialized agents for multi-layer workflows.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences officially allowed the use of AI in film production, saying its use will “neither help nor harm the chances” of a nomination.

Anthropic published a new best practices guide to its Claude Code platform, providing detailed tips and patterns for success with the agentic coding tool.

COMMUNITY

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

Robotics

The rise of 'robocops'

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. As U.S. police roll out a range of robots—from Boston Dynamics’ Spot to drones—Thailand is taking it further with its first humanoid police officer, a dystopian-looking machine clad in a full police uniform.

Robots are expected to play a key role in law enforcement as more police departments around the globe embrace physical AI surveillance and response—but can we keep the boundaries of privacy and control in check?

In today’s robotics rundown:

Thailand deploys humanoid police
Robots go the distance at Beijing marathon
Ex-Figure CTO’s ‘Persona’ humanoid
Robot fingers touch and feel more like humans
Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

ROYAL THAI POLICE

👮🏼‍♂️ Thailand deploys humanoid police

Image source: Royal Thai Police/Facebook

The Rundown: Thailand just introduced its first AI-powered police robot, AI Police Cyborg 1.0, during the bustling Songkran festival in Nakhon Pathom province—marking a strategic leap in how humanoids are being used worldwide.

The details:

The robot was deployed to manage the massive crowds that gather for the water festival, where traditional policing resources can be stretched thin.
It is equipped with a 360-degree AI camera system that integrates live feed with CCTV and drone footage, feeding info to the province’s command center.
The cameras enable facial recognition, behavioral analysis, and weapon detection, allowing the robot to identify potential threats.
The system is also reportedly context-aware—with the ability to distinguish between harmless festival items like water guns and actual threats.

Why it matters: Humanoids are still learning to walk on their own, so deploying fully active robo-police feels more like a symbolic gesture than a strategic move. Still, with the global security robot market projected to hit $44 billion by 2030, concerns around privacy are only set to grow.

BEIJING ROBOT MARATHON

🏃🏻 Robots go the distance at Beijing marathon

Image source: CGTN/YouTube

The Rundown: The world’s first humanoid half-marathon took place in Beijing this weekend, where 21 bipedal robots joined 12,000 human runners on a 21 km course—though only four robots made it to the finish line.

The details:

The winning robot, UBTech’s Tiangong Ultra, completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes, after three battery swaps and a fall during the race.
Many robots struggled with the physical demands of the race: some fell at the starting line, others overheated, and one even lost its head.
Bloomberg reports that it took more than three hours for the other three bots to finish the course, while the fastest human finished in 1 hour and 2 minutes.
The robots received technical support throughout the race, including battery swaps, cooling sprays, and navigation assistance from their engineering teams.

Why it matters: Even though only a few robots made it to the finish line and Unitree, one of China’s most hyped robotics companies, addressed the viral clip of its G1 collapsing by clarifying that it wasn’t an official participant, the marathon was surely a success—at capturing public attention and showcasing China’s future in embodied AI.

PERSONA AI

🤖 Ex-Figure CTO’s ‘Persona’ humanoid

Image source: Persona AI/X

The Rundown: Robotics newcomer Persona—a Houston startup founded by three robotics veterans, including former Figure CTO Jerry Pratt—just teased an image of its upcoming humanoid on X.

The details:

Persona, which launched mid-2024, is developing a rugged, five-foot-eight-inch humanoid designed for heavy-duty industrial environments.
The other co-founders include CEO Nic Radford, who co-founded Nauticus Robotics and led NASA’s Valkyrie team, and robotics expert Jide Akinyode.
Persona has already attracted significant attention and raised over $10M in pre-seed funding from investors in the U.S., London, and Singapore.
The company is operating in “anti-stealth mode,” openly sharing its progress and aiming to deliver its first units to customers within 18 to 24 months.

Why it matters: Persona’s founders see their robot as the “Ford F-150 pickup truck” of humanoids—prioritizing durability and real-world utility over the sleeker but less robust designs of many competitors. While the space is crowded, it does seem to be smartly positioned for a slice of a market projected to reach $7T by 2050.

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

👌🏽 Robot fingers touch and feel more like humans

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Chinese researchers are moving closer to human-like touch sensitivity with a new finger-shaped multimodal tactile sensor, detailed in Advanced Materials, that overcomes challenges of existing sensor tech.

The details:

This sensor can detect not only the magnitude but also the direction of applied forces—a challenge that has limited previous sensor designs.
Its structure consists of an internal force-sensing section featuring silicone microneedle arrays, a silicone bump, and five silver electrodes.
The sensor uses the triboelectric effect for signal generation, enabling it to distinguish 12 common real-world materials with an accuracy of 98.33%.
Interlocking microstructures within the sensor mimic the nuanced touch of human skin, allowing for more sensitive detection of subtle force directions.

Why it matters: Compared to rivals FingerVision and Ras Labs, researchers say their CAS sensor stands out for its ability to discern 12 materials in real time. The team envisions future enhancements, such as expanding the range of detectable materials and tactile cues, for use in smart prosthetics and intelligent manufacturing.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

NYC researchers unveiled RUKA, an open-source, tendon-driven robotic hand (with 15 degrees of freedom) that can operate for 20 hours without performance loss.

Chinese automaker Chery Auto updated its first humanoid, Mornine, with autonomous navigation and walking (while sporting a long blond wig) capabilities.

AI security robot maker Knightscope said that it has secured a 33K-square-foot headquarters in Silicon Valley to “power” its next phase of growth.

Chinese researchers are crafting biodegradable robots and robot parts, made from pork gelatin and plant cellulose, that can decompose within weeks.

U.S. robotics startup Foundation Robotics released a clip on X showing the evolution of its first humanoid Phantom’s legs.

Strawberry-harvesting robots in Japan, which use lidar tech for 3D mapping, are transforming agriculture while eliminating the need for human labor.

EU-funded researchers developed autonomous robots that can sort and remove batteries from electronics in e-waste recycling centers.

Chinese researchers developed the “world’s smallest and lightest” untethered terrestrial-aerial microbot that is capable of transforming into different shapes.

UK-based Open Bionics unveiled a wireless bionic arm, Hero, that the company claims to be the lightest hand available and fully waterproof.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop on Wednesday, April 23rd, at 1 PM EST with Mel, Creative Director at Gamma. By the end of the workshop, you’ll know how to turn raw ideas into polished, on-brand presentations using Gamma’s powerful AI storytelling 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

New AI startup wants to automate everyone

Start building video agents today.

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The AI automation conversation just got uncomfortably direct — with Epoch co-founder Tamay Besiroglu launching Mechanize, a startup with the explicit goal of replacing human workers entirely.

But with job losses already mounting and user trust in AI still lacking, getting the masses on board with the utopian dream of abundance from mass automation may be tougher than expected.

In today’s AI rundown:

AI startup to automate the entire workforce
Cursor AI’s hallucinated policy sparks cancellations
Create full-stack web apps without coding
DeepMind’s shift to 'experiential' AI learning
4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MECHANIZE AI

⚙️ AI startup to automate the entire workforce

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: Epoch co-founder Tamay Besiroglu just launched Mechanize, a new startup developing virtual environments and training data to enable AI agents that can replace human workers for the “full automation of all work”.

The details:

The company plans to create simulations of workplace scenarios to train AI agents in handling complex, long-term tasks currently performed by humans.
Mechanize will initially focus on automating white-collar jobs, with systems that can manage computer tasks, handle interruptions, and coordinate with others.
Backed by tech leaders including Jeff Dean and Nat Friedman, the startup estimates its potential market at $60T globally.
The announcement drew criticism for both the economic implications and potential conflicts with Besiroglu's role at AI research firm Epoch.

Why it matters: Besiroglu and co. likely aren’t the only researchers that think AI is set to automate every aspect of work — but with tensions already high over both negative views of AI and mounting job losses, this goal might be saying the quiet part a bit too loudly. The age of automation is coming, and not everyone will be happy about it.

TOGETHER WITH SALESFORCE

💡Power enterprise AI with unified data

The Rundown: AI transformation is no longer optional — and companies need unified data to drive informed action across the enterprise. Data Cloud is the intelligent activation layer of the Salesforce Platform, bridging data silos and harmonizing info from various sources into a single customer view.

Data Cloud grounds AI agents built with Agentforce enabling:

More relevant, accurate output and actions
Automation through data-triggered workflows
Analytics in the workflow
AI-powered applications

Learn more and explore how Data Cloud powers AI success.

CURSOR

🤖 Cursor AI’s hallucinated policy sparks cancellations

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: Agentic coding platform Cursor faced backlash after its AI support agent, Sam, hallucinated a fake policy that caused user outrage and subscription cancellations.

The details:

A Reddit user experienced unexpected logouts when switching between devices, leading to a support inquiry answered by an AI agent.
The AI hallucinated a policy claiming single-device restrictions were an intentional security feature, with the post sparking backlash and cancellations.
Cursor's co-founder acknowledged the error, explaining a security update caused login issues, with the policy completely fabricated by the AI.
He added that the company is implementing clear AI labeling for support responses going forward and refunding the affected users.

Why it matters: The hype surrounding AI agents has never been stronger, but cautionary tales like this one show that hallucinations are still a major issue to consider when deploying customer-facing bots. Despite companies rushing to automate customer service, it may still be too early in the AI boom for complete automation.

AI TRAINING

🚀 Create full-stack web apps without coding

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Google’s new Firebase Studio to build and deploy complex web applications — without writing a single line of code —through AI-powered prototyping.

Step-by-step:

Visit Firebase Studio and log in with your Google account.
Describe your application in detail in the "Prototype an app with AI" section.
Review and customize the AI-generated app blueprint (name, features, colors).
Test your prototype, make adjustments if needed, and click "Publish" to deploy.

Pro tip: Upload sketches or images of your app design to help the AI better understand your vision. Also, for more advanced customization, click the "Switch to code" button in the top right corner.

PRESENTED BY TAVUS

🗣️ AI that speaks — and shows up

The Rundown: A Tavus avatar appeared in a NY courtroom, sparking a national debate — and showcasing a groundbreaking future where AI doesn't just speak, but visually represents and communicates effectively at scale.

With Tavus, you can:

Build real-time video agents and generate realistic videos instantly via simple APIs
Create agents with 30+ languages, natural expressions, and tool-calling capabilities
Deploy versatile video agents anywhere human interaction occurs

GOOGLE DEEPMIND

🧠 DeepMind’s shift to 'experiential' AI learning

Image source: Google DeepMind

The Rundown: DeepMind researchers published “Welcome to the Era of Experience”, proposing AI development that moves beyond human-generated training data with “streams” that let AI learn from real-world interactions and environmental feedback.

The details:

Authored by RL legends David Silver and Richard Sutton, the paper argues that human data training caps AI's potential and prevents truly new discoveries.
Streams would allow AI to learn continuously with extended interactions rather than brief Q&A exchanges, enabling adaptation and improvement over time.
AI agents would use real-world signals like health metrics, exam scores, and environmental data as feedback, rather than relying on human evaluations.
The approach builds on techniques that helped systems like AlphaZero master games, expanding them to handle open-ended real-world scenarios.
The researchers suggest this shift could enable AI to discover solutions beyond current human knowledge while still maintaining adaptable safety measures.

Why it matters: As AI approaches the limits of what it can learn from human-generated data, this pivot to experience-based learning could unlock more advanced capabilities — moving beyond imitating human knowledge towards truly autonomous (and superhuman) learning and discovery.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

🧠 Gemini 2.5 Flash - Fast, cost-efficient model with controllable reasoning
🎞️ Google Whisk Animate - Turn images into eight-second animated clips
🎥 Wan 2.1-FLF2V - Alibaba’s open-source first and last frame video model
📽️ Camera Angle Concepts - Control the video POV with Luma’s Ray2 model

💼 AI Job Opportunities

🧵 Figure AI - Softgoods Developer
🛠️ Shield AI - Prototype Technician
💸 Palantir Technologies - Financial Analyst
📊 Databricks - Product Designer

📰 Everything else in AI today

Third-party testing and internal evaluations revealed that OpenAI’s new o3 and o4-mini models hallucinate significantly more than older models.

Google launched a new version of Gemma 3 with ‘Quantization-Aware Training’, enabling the 27B version to run on consumer GPUs with maintained performance.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that the company has spent “tens of millions of dollars” in compute on users saying “please” and “thank you” to its AI models.

Wikipedia's parent, Wikimedia Foundation, partnered with Google’s Kaggle to publish a dataset for AI developers to discourage scraping of the company’s platform.

MIT published a “sequential Monte Carlo” approach that generates AI code efficiently, allowing small models to outperform larger ones by axing unpromising outputs early.

OpenAI introduced a new Flex processing option, halving API costs for o3 and o4-mini models in exchange for slower responses.

COMMUNITY

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

Tech

Google's ad empire under fire

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Google just lost a major antitrust case after a federal judge ruled it illegally monopolized the digital advertising market — siding with the Justice Department in a case that could break up the company.

The timing couldn’t be worse. With Meta, Apple, and Amazon also facing antitrust challenges, has Big Tech finally reached its day of reckoning?

In today’s tech rundown:

Google loses key antitrust case
Archer’s electric air taxis in NYC
FDA clears Precision’s brain implant
Scientists find clues to extraterrestrial life
Quick hits on other major tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

⚖️ Google loses key antitrust case

Image source: Ideogram

The Rundown: A U.S. federal judge ruled on Thursday that Google illegally monopolized online advertising technology markets, dealing a massive blow to the tech giant in an antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The details:

Google was found to have illegally controlled both publisher ad servers and the ad exchanges that allow marketplaces to connect publishers with ads.
By tightly integrating and tying these tools together through contracts and technology, Google was able to exclude competitors and extract high fees.
In a 115-page ruling, the judge said that Google’s dominance “substantially harmed” publishers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, the consumers.
The ruling marks Google’s second major antitrust defeat in less than a year and opens up the door for prosecutors to seek the breakup of its ad business.

Why it matters: This highly anticipated verdict has the potential to not only reshape Google but also the entire online ad business that website publishers depend on to monetize their content. It also highlights the U.S. government's ongoing efforts to rein in Big Tech’s anticompetitive practices.

ARCHER AVIATION

✈️ Archer’s electric air taxis in NYC

Image source: Archer Aviation

The Rundown: Archer Aviation, in collaboration with United Airlines, is planning to launch an electric air taxi network in New York, ferrying passengers from vertiports in Manhattan to nearby airports in minutes.

The details:

The startup announced that its proposed air taxi service would allow United Airlines passengers to add on an Archer ride to their airline tickets.
Archer is still waiting on the FAA’s approval for its aircraft—Midnight, a five-seat eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle)—before testing routes.
One of Archer’s longstanding partners is Stellantis, which holds exclusive rights to manufacture its eVTOLs at a newly completed facility in Georgia.
Techcrunch reports that United will help with aircraft storage, maintenance, charging setup, and setting up vertiports at airports.

Why it matters: Archer aims to start with five eVTOLs in NYC before reaching its goal of flying hundreds of aircraft across cities in a few decades. The startup says it will build 650 Midnights a year by 2030. Its rival, Joby Aviation, also has plans to launch in NYC—but both startups need the FAA’s nod before making that happen.

PRECISION NEUROSCIENCE

🧠 FDA clears Precision’s brain implant

Image source: Precision Neuroscience

The Rundown: Precision Neuroscience received FDA clearance for a core component of its brain impact system, a minimally invasive brain implant that the startup hopes will eventually help paralyzed patients regain speech and movement.

The details:

The approved piece of the system is the Layer 7 Cortical Interface, which is thinner than a human hair and contains 1,024 electrodes.
It is designed to sit on the brain’s surface and record, monitor, and stimulate neural activity for up to 30 days.
The implant can be inserted through a sub-millimeter incision without penetrating brain tissue—making it a reversible surgical procedure.
Rivals in the space include Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Synchron, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Why it matters: This is a major win for the four-year-old company, with the long-term goal of helping paralyzed patients regain functions such as speech and movement by translating neural signals into digital commands. Also, Precision’s approach is notably less invasive than that of Neuralink, which penetrates the brain’s cortex.

NASA/UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

🔭 Scientists discover clues to extraterrestrial life

Image source: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI)

The Rundown: Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) identified “the strongest evidence yet” of potential biological activity beyond our planet, marking a pivotal moment in the search for extraterrestrial life.

The details:

JWST found signs of at least one of two life-associated molecules—dimethyl sulphide or dimethyl disulphide—in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b.
The telescope’s advanced instruments are optimized for exoplanet transit spectroscopy and wide-field surveys of faint galaxies.
Since these gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria on Earth, scientists think K2-18b could be teeming with simple life.
The quantity of these gases also appears thousands of times higher than that on Earth, suggesting the gases are being replenished.

Why it matters: Even though K2-18b is 700 trillion miles away, JWST is powerful enough to analyze its atmospheric chemistry by studying light filtered through the red dwarf it orbits. It’s a thrilling breakthrough—but scientists urge caution until more evidence emerges.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Perplexity is reportedly set to debut as a built-in voice assistant on the upcoming Motorola Razr foldable smartphones—to be unveiled on April 24.

Tesla may face a class action lawsuit alleging that it intentionally accelerates vehicle odometers so they fall out of warranty faster and get excluded from free repairs.

Tech company Infinite Reality, which just purchased Napster, agreed to acquire agentic AI startup Touchcast for $500M, hitting a valuation of $15.5B.

OpenAI is reportedly developing a social network prototype, with a strong focus on integrating ChatGPT’s image generation capabilities into a social feed.

Alphabet is spinning off its moonshot project Chorus, which develops AI-driven tools and sensor tech to provide real-time visibility into business supply chains.

Fitness platform Strava purchased the popular UK-based running app Runna for an undisclosed amount.

OpenAI is in talks to buy Windsurf, the maker of a popular AI coding assistant, for $3B, according to Bloomberg.

Deezer, the global music streaming platform, reports that 18% of all new music uploaded to its service is fully AI-generated.

Instagram launched a new feature called Blend, designed to create a personalized, shared Reels feed between you and your friends directly within your DMs.

Smashing, an AI-powered reading curation app by the founder of Goodreads, is shutting down due to its inability to scale.

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

Gemini 2.5 Flash 'thinks' on a budget

Click here to request access to The AI Consultancy Project.

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The AI reasoning revolution just got a lot more affordable — with Google launching its new Gemini 2.5 Flash in preview with performance rivaling top models at significantly lower costs.

With a toggle to control when thinking kicks in and a “budget” for balancing quality, speed, and cost, could this be the model that finally scales reasoning to the masses?

P.S. — our next workshop is TODAY at 4 PM EST. Learn how to unlock the full potential of o3, o4-mini, and GPT-4.1 and build with OpenAI’s newest models. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash with ‘thinking budget’
Profluent finds scaling laws for protein‑design AI
Transform your spreadsheets with AI in Google Sheets
Meta’s FAIR shares new AI perception research
4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🤔 Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash with ‘thinking budget’

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google just launched Gemini 2.5 Flash — a hybrid reasoning AI in preview that matches o4-mini, outperforms Claude 3.5 Sonnet on reasoning/STEM benchmarks, and introduces a new ‘thinking budget’ to optimize cost vs. quality.

The details:

2.5 Flash shows significant reasoning boosts over its predecessor (2.0 Flash), with a controllable thinking process to toggle the feature on or off.
The model shows strong performance across reasoning, STEM, and visual reasoning benchmarks, despite coming in at a fraction of the cost of rivals.
Developers can also set a “thinking budget” (up to 24k tokens), which fine-tunes the balance between response quality, cost, and speed.
It is available via API through Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, and is also appearing as an experimental option within the Gemini app.

Why it matters: OpenAI may have dominated the conversation this week, but Google is shipping right alongside them. The controllable, budgeted reasoning is an interesting customization, with users able to hit the feature only when a task needs it — unlocking affordable, high‑volume use cases and saving thinking for more complex jobs.

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COMPANY

🧬 Profluent finds scaling laws for protein‑design AI

Image source: Profluent

The Rundown: Profluent announced ProGen3, a new family of AI models that can design complex proteins from scratch — with the results marking the first evidence of AI scaling laws in biology, proving larger models and more data create stronger results.

The details:

The Biotech company's 46B model was trained on 3.4B protein sequences, surpassing previous datasets and showing improved protein generation.
It successfully designed new antibodies matching approved therapeutics in performance, yet distinct enough to avoid patent conflicts.
The platform also created gene editing proteins less than half the size of CRISPR-Cas9, potentially enabling new delivery methods for gene therapy.
Profluent is making 20 "OpenAntibodies" available through royalty-free or upfront licensing, targeting diseases that affect 7M patients.

Why it matters: If scaling trends hold, Profluent’s approach could turn drug and gene‑editor design from years‑long lab work into a faster, more predictable engineering problem — rewriting how new therapies are discovered. These trends also suggest we're just at the beginning of AI's impact on drug discovery and medicine.

AI TRAINING

🔢 Transform your spreadsheets with AI in Google Sheets

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Google Sheets' new AI formula to generate content, analyze data, and create custom outputs directly in your spreadsheet—all with a simple command.

Step-by-step:

Open Google Sheets through your Google Workspace account (it’s slowly being rolled out).
In any cell, type =AI("your prompt", [optional cell reference]) with specific prompts like "Summarize this customer feedback in three bullet points."
Apply your formula to multiple cells by dragging the corner handle down an entire column for batch processing.
Combine with standard functions like IF() and CONCATENATE() to create powerful workflows, and use "Refresh and insert" anytime you need updated content.

Pro tip: You can also include formatting instructions directly in your prompt, such as "in table format" or "as a numbered list," to control how your output appears in the cell.

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🔬 Meta’s FAIR shares new AI perception research

Image source: Meta FAIR

The Rundown: Meta’s FAIR research arm just published five new open-source AI research projects focused on perception and reasoning, showcasing advances in computer vision, 3D understanding, and collaborative AI capabilities.

The details:

Perception Encoder shows SOTA performance in visual understanding, excelling at tasks like ID’ing camouflaged animals or tracking movements.
Meta also introduced the open-source Meta Perception Language Model (PLM) and a PLM-VideoBench benchmark, focusing on video understanding.
Locate 3D enables precise object understanding for AI, with Meta publishing a dataset of 130,000 spatial language annotations for training.
Finally, a new Collaborative Reasoner framework tests how well AI systems work together, showing nearly 30% better performance vs. working alone.

Why it matters: This research batch focuses on AI building blocks like perception, 3D understanding, and reasoning — key steps toward more capable embodied agents and machine intelligence. We’re officially crossing into new territory, with systems that can finally understand and interact with the physical world in advanced ways.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

🎯 Gamma 2.0 – Easily craft stunning AI presentations, interactive websites, social carousels and more from simple text prompts*
🧠 o3 and o4-mini - OpenAI’s new models with visual reasoning and tool use
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🖥️ Copilot Computer Use - Build agents that can use and navigate GUIs

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💼 AI Job Opportunities

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📱 OpenAI - iOS Engineer
💰 Harvey - Sr. Compensation Analyst

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI’s new o3 model scored a 136 (116 offline) on the Mensa Norway IQ test, surpassing Gemini 2.5 Pro for the highest score recorded.

UC Berkeley’s Chatbot Arena AI model testing platform is officially breaking out from its research project status into its own company called LMArena.

Perplexity reached a deal with Motorola and is reportedly in talks with Samsung to integrate its AI search platform into their phones as the default assistant or an app.

xAI’s Grok rolled out memory capabilities for remembering past conversations, also introducing a new Workspaces tab for organizing files and conversations.

Alibaba released Wan 2.1-FLF2V-14B, an open-source model that allows users to upload the first and last frame image inputs for a coherent, high-quality output.

Music streaming service Deezer reported that over 20K AI-generated songs are being published daily, with the company using AI to filter out the content.

OpenAI reportedly explored acquiring Cursor creator Anysphere before entering the current $3B discussions with rival Windsurf for its agentic coding platform.

COMMUNITY

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Join our next workshop today at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be ready to start building with OpenAI’s latest models — o3, o4-mini, and GPT-4.1.

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

Robotics

Hugging Face's open-source humanoid

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Hugging Face just acquired the creators of an open-source humanoid — a bold step that fuses open-source AI with robotics in a whole new way.

While critics warn that open-source robots could be easy targets for malicious hackers, Hugging Face is going all in on accessibility — hoping that “democratized” humanoids will fuel the next wave of innovation.

In today’s robotics rundown:

Hugging Face buys Pollen Robotics
Harvard’s RoboBee gently lands on a leaf
RLWRLD raises $15M for robotics AI
ABB spins off massive $2.3B robotics division
Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

HUGGING FACE

🤖 Hugging Face buys Pollen Robotics

Image source: Pollen Robotics

The Rundown: Hugging Face — the leading platform for open-source AI models, data, and other resources — just acquired Pollen Robotics, the French startup behind open-source Reachy 2 humanoid, as part of its mission to “democratize” robotics.

The details:

Reachy 2, which can be teleoperated with VR equipment, is fully open source, can be programmed in Python, and features stereo vision and spatial audio.
The robot moves on a wheeled mobile base and has advanced robotic arms with seven degrees of freedom and a 3kg lifting capacity (per arm).
It is already in use at leading research institutions, such as Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, and can be purchased for research and education at $70K.
The move follows Hugging Face’s 2024 launch of LeRobot, a robotics initiative led by former Tesla robotics lead Remi Cadene.

Why it matters: Hugging Face is blending open-source AI with robotics to unlock new avenues for experimentation and real-world use. It’s a bold sign of where innovation is headed, and part of HF’s push to keep physical AI open, collaborative, and transparent. The company argues this approach actually enhances security, not weakens it.

HARVARD

🐝 Harvard’s RoboBee gently lands on a leaf

Image source: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

The Rundown: Harvard’s RoboBee—a microbot that can fly, dive, and hover—has been outfitted with a new set of long, jointed legs inspired by the crane fly, marking a breakthrough in its ability to softly land on leaves and branches.

The details:

RoboBee weighs less than a tenth of a gram and incorporates “artificial muscles” that enable its wings to beat up to 120 times per second.
The updated control system, detailed in Science Robotics, enables the robot to decelerate as it comes down, further improving landing precision.
It addresses the challenge of protecting the RoboBee’s piezoelectric actuators and other delicate components from damage during landing.
RoboBee uses a modular, easy-to-fabricate structure, with innovative “pop-up book” MEMS manufacturing techniques for lightweight assembly.

Why it matters: The team’s ultimate goal is to build a swarm of interconnected microbots capable of sustained, untethered flight for diverse applications, such as crop pollination. While RoboBee is still tethered to an external power source, Harvard plans to further improve the bot based on other insects and even scale up to larger vehicles.

RLWRLD

🧠 RLWRLD raises $15M for robotics AI

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: South Korean startup RLWRLD announced that it has raised nearly $15M in funding to develop its foundational AI model to help industrial robots shift from repetitive grunt work to more human-level capacities.

The details:

By fusing LLMs with traditional robotics software, RLWRLD aims to empower robots with human-like movement and a capacity for logical reasoning.
The company’s model targets the challenges faced by robots in dynamic environments, such as handling materials and performing nuanced tasks.
It recently secured $14.8M in seed funding to deploy pilot projects with strategic investors, recruit new talent, and acquire advanced robotic hardware.
Its product roadmap includes developing advanced five-finger manipulation skills, which could unlock applications in precision assembly and food service.

Why it matters: RLWRLD is a tiny company—just 13 employees—that has attracted big investors across Asia, such as LG Electronics and SK Telecom. The company says access to real-world data via its investors gives it an edge over rivals in the foundational model game, such as Skild AI and Physical Intelligence.

ABB

🦾 ABB spins off massive $2.3B robotics division

Image source: ABB

The Rundown: Global tech giant ABB, which saw its net profits rise to $1.1B from $905M last year, announced it plans to spin off its robotics division, creating the world’s second-largest industrial robotics business behind Japan’s FANUC.

The details:

Reuters reports that ABB’s robotics division, which employs 7K people, generated $2.3B in revenue last year—about 7% of the group’s total.
Its robotics portfolio includes industrial robots, autonomous mobile robots, and software and AI solutions, with hubs in Sweden, China, and the U.S.
The spin-off, set to be completed in 2026, is reportedly the biggest shakeup for ABB since it sold its power grid division to Hitachi in 2018.
Before this, it acquired Sevensense, a Swiss startup specializing in AI-enabled 3D vision navigation for mobile robots.

Why it matters: The spin-off allows ABB’s robotics business to operate as a pure-play company, optimizing for growth while responding quickly to industry trends. While newer players like Boston Dynamics focus on specific niches, ABB plans to use its vast ecosystem of integrated software and hardware to cast a wide net.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Peppermint, an Indian robotics startup focusing on robots for floor cleaning and material handling, raised $4M in Series A funding.

U.S. robotics startup Cosmic Robotics secured $4M in funding to develop AI-driven robots that can build large-scale solar energy installations.

Daimler Truck North America started delivering its latest flagship on-highway trucks to the autonomous testing fleet of Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler Truck.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech announced that it has completed the first cases in a clinical trial for its soft-tissue surgery robot system, OTTAVA.

Toronto-based startup Xaba raised $6M in funding led by Hitachi to accelerate and scale its “synthetic brains for industrial robots with zero code.”

Kodiak Robotics, a California-based autonomous trucking technology company, announced plans to go public through a SPAC merger, valuing it at $2.5B.

Shanghai-based ViTai Robotics raised nearly 100M yuan ($13.8M) to develop visual-tactile sensing systems for humanoids.

Defense startup Saronic purchased boatmaker Gulf Craft and plans to produce a 150-foot-long autonomous vessel, Marauder, off the coast of Louisiana.

Scout AI emerged from stealth with 15M to build foundational models for robots targeted at the defense sector, while also unveiling a VLA called ‘Fury’

COMMUNITY

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

OpenAI's o3 and o4-mini arrive