Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI’s future may stretch beyond frontier models…to a social network riding ChatGPT’s wave of success.

The move could unlock much-needed real-time data for Sam Altman’s AI ambitions, but the question is: could OpenAI match the scale, engagement, stickiness, and broader cultural pull of X or Meta’s platforms?

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI reportedly building social network

• Kling AI drops new video and image models

• Build a personal data analyst with n8n automation

• AI models play detective in Ace Attorney

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

📱 OpenAI reportedly building social network

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly working on a social network that could leverage ChatGPT's massive user base to take on social media platforms like X and Meta—while giving Sam Altman and team with valuable real-time data for model training.

The details:

• According to sources cited by The Verge, OpenAI has created an internal prototype for a social feed that prominently features ChatGPT's image generation capabilities.

• While the project is still in early stages, CEO Altman has been privately seeking feedback from outsiders on the potential of the service.

• It's still unclear whether the social product will be a standalone app, a ChatGPT integration, or if it will launch at all.

• Previously, Altman joked in response to Meta building an app for its assistant, saying, “ok fine, maybe we’ll do a social app.”

Why it matters: While OpenAI hasn't confirmed these plans, a social network would be a strategic move that provides a continuous stream of user-generated, real-time data for training better AI models. If the recent viral Studio Ghibli-style image trend is any indication, OpenAI could attract an enormous user base almost overnight.

TOGETHER WITH GAMMA

🔥 The only AI tool you need to create content

The Rundown: Gamma's powerful AI allows you to effortlessly turn ideas into stunning presentations, engaging websites, and impactful social media carousels from simple text prompts — helping over 50M users save hours each week.

With Gamma, you can:

• Quickly create presentations, websites, social media content, documents, and more

• Edit and enhance visuals in one click

• Easily export your content to Google Slides, PDFs, and PowerPoint

• Import branding, collaborate live, and share themes with teams

Experience Gamma today at gamma.app.

KLING AI

🎥 Kling AI drops new video and image models

Image source: Kling AI

The Rundown: Chinese AI startup Kling AI just released a massive upgrades to its creative suite, launching KLING 2.0 Master for video and KOLORS 2.0 for images— with enhanced prompt adherence, more realistic outputs, and editing capabilities.

The details:

• KLING 2.0 Master now handles prompts with sequential actions and expressions, delivering cinematic videos with natural speed and fluid motions.

• KOLORS 2.0 generates images in 60+ styles, adhering to elements, colors, and subject positions for realistic images with improved depths and tonalities.

• The image model also comes with new editing features, including inpainting to edit/add elements and a restyle option to give a different look to content.

• Separately, Kling’s recent 1.6 video model is also being updated with a multi-elements editor, allowing users to easily add/swap/delete video from text inputs.

Why it matters: With ByteDance's Seaweed model yesterday and now KLING 2.0, Chinese AI startups continue their rapid advance in AI video generation. While formal comparisons to Western models like Veo and Sora needs more testing, early reactions suggest that KLING 2.0 is quickly narrowing the quality gap.

AI TRAINING

🤖 Build a personal data analyst with n8n automation

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to create n8n workflows that analyze your data from spreadsheets, databases, or other sources, and deliver insights directly to your inbox.

Step-by-step:

1. Create a new n8n workflow and add an "On Chat Message" trigger node.

2. Add an AI Agent node connected to your preferred AI model (like OpenAI).

3. Connect data sources by adding Google Sheets or other database tools.

4. Add communication nodes like Gmail or Slack to deliver your analysis results.

5. Configure the AI Agent's system message with clear instructions about when to use each tool.

Pro tip: 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 INNOVATING WITH AI

🤝 Turn AI passion into a consulting career

The Rundown: Innovating with AI's new program, AI Consultancy Project, transforms AI enthusiasts into professional consultants — tapping into a market projected to reach $54.7B by 2032.

The 6-month program delivers:

• Proven frameworks for client acquisition and service delivery

• A step-by-step path to six-figure consulting income

• Students who land their first AI client in as little as 3 days

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

AI RESEARCH

🕵️ AI models play detective in Ace Attorney

Image source: Hao AI Lab

The Rundown: Researchers at UC San Diego's Hao AI Lab just tested leading AI models on their ability to play Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a popular video game where players must investigate crime scenes and solve cases.

The details:

• The team tasked top models, including GPT-4.1, to play as Phoenix, who has to identify gaps in the case by matching witness statements and evidence.

• When tested, both OpenAI’s o1 and Gemini 2.5 Pro performed best with 26 and 20 correct evidences, reaching level 4, though neither fully solved the case.

• All other models struggled, failing to present even 10 correct pieces of evidence to the judge.

• Surprisingly, the new GPT-4.1 underperformed, matching the months-old Claude 3.5 Sonnet with only 6 correct evidence identifications.

Why it matters: Games like Ace Attorney test a range of AI capabilities, from visual understanding (identifying evidence) to long-context reasoning (cross-referencing) and decision-making (choosing when to present). It will be fascinating to see how models evolve to address more complex challenges in interactive decision-making.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🔎 Claude Research - Anthropic’s new DeepSearch-like feature for Claude

• 🎥 Seaweed - ByteDance’s 7B-parameter video generation model

• 🧠 GPT-4.1 - OpenAI’s new API-only model with 1M-token context window

• 📧 Notion Mail - Notion’s GPT-4.1-powered email client for Gmail

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🎥 Cresta - Video Lead

• 📚 Grammarly - Staff Product Manager

• 🤝 Perplexity AI - Recruiting Coordinator

• 📈 DeepL - Senior Growth Marketing Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI updated its Preparedness Framework, noting it may adjust safety requirements if rivals drop high-risk AI without similar guardrails amid a landscape shift.

OpenAI also added a new library tab in ChatGPT, allowing users (on both free and paid tiers) to access all their image creations from one single place.

xAI dropped a ChatGPT Canvas-like Grok Studio, allowing both free and paying users to collaborate with the AI on documents, code, reports, and games in a new window.

Cohere released Embed 4, a SOTA multimodal embedding model with 128K context length, support for 100+ languages, and up to 83% savings on storage costs.

Google released Veo 2, its state-of-the-art video generation model, in the Gemini app for Advanced plan users, as well as in Whisk and AI Studio.

Nvidia said in a filing that it expects to take a $5.5 billion hit from U.S. export license requirements for shipping its H20 AI chips to China.

Microsoft announced it is adding computer use capabilities to Copilot Studio, enabling users to create agents capable of UI action across desktop and web apps.

COMMUNITY

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Join our next workshop this Friday at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be ready to unlock the full potential of GPT-4.1 and start building with the latest powerful model from OpenAI.

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

See you soon,

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Meta and the FTC are now facing off in a long-awaited antitrust trial that could force the tech giant to sell Instagram and WhatsApp over what the FTC describes as a case of illegally monopolizing social media.

As Zuckerberg faces Big Tech’s biggest stress test to date, will Meta battle its way out, or will regulators prevail in clamping down on “buy or bury” strategies that wipe out competition?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Meta’s stress test in landmark antitrust trial

• Blue Origin’s all-female mission to space

• ChatGPT hits roughly 1B users: Altman

• Nvidia to invest $500B in U.S. AI infra

• Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

⚖️ Meta’s stress test in landmark antitrust trial

Image source: Grok/The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand this week in an antitrust trial that could force the tech giant to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, acquisitions the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says were made to illegally squash competition.

The details:

• The FTC accuses Meta of illegally monopolizing social media through its $1B acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and $19B acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014.

• Internal emails show Zuckerberg called Instagram a "threat" and WhatsApp a "risk," which the FTC cites as evidence of anticompetitive intent.

• The trial began on April 14 and could last 8+ weeks, with 50 witnesses expected, including Sheryl Sandberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom.

• The FTC argues Meta controls 78% of "personal social networking," while Meta counters that it’s only 30% when including YouTube and TikTok.

Why it matters: Zuckerberg testified that the acquisitions benefited users, citing Instagram’s growth from 30M to 2B+ users under Meta. But if the FTC wins, Meta could be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp—a move analysts say would not only disrupt Meta’s $1.3T ad ecosystem but impact how Big Tech grows and competes.

BLUE ORIGIN

🚀 Blue Origin’s all-female mission to space

Image source: Blue Origin

The Rundown: Jeff Bezos’ space startup Blue Origin successfully launched an all-female, star-studded crew into space, featuring pop star Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King, a close friend of Oprah Winfrey.

The details:

• The crew also included Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, activist Amanda Nguyen, and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.

• The fully autonomous New Shepard rocket ascended 62 miles above Earth, with 3–4 minutes of weightlessness during the 11-minute suborbital journey.

• The capsule landed via parachute in the Texas desert, with the reusable booster touching down nearby.

• Blue Origin has now transported 52 civilians to space, with a heavy focus on high-profile celebrities to bring visibility to its space tourism service.

Why it matters: Alongside Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin aims to “democratize” short trips to suborbital space, giving passengers breathtaking panoramic Earth views with the “largest windows ever flown in space.” Of course, ticket prices aren’t disclosed, but the first Blue Origin seat sold for $28M in 2021.

OPENAI

🔥 ChatGPT hits roughly 1B users: Altman

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: At TED 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an off-the-cuff remark that ChatGPT’s user base is “growing very rapidly,” doubling in just a few weeks to around “10% of the world,” roughly around 800M to 1B users.

The details:

• During the interview, Altman implied ChatGPT reached this massive user count, stating: “Something like 10% of the world uses our systems.”

• At the end of March, OpenAI landed a $300B valuation with a reported 500M weekly users and 30M paid subscribers.

• Last month’s viral Studio Ghibli-style generations triggered a major surge, adding 1M users in one hour at its peak and “melting” OpenAI’s servers.

• ChatGPT has seen a 30% jump in revenue since the end of last year and is projected to hit $5B for the assistant and $12.7B total in 2025.

Why it matters: Altman may have revealed more than intended during his TED appearance, later clarifying that the numbers he shared were “not official.” Still, one thing is clear: ChatGPT is growing at breakneck speed, reportedly outpacing TikTok and Instagram to become the fastest-growing app in history.

NVIDIA

💰 Nvidia to invest $500B in U.S. AI infra

Image source: Nvidia

The Rundown: Tech giant Nvidia announced plans to manufacture up to $500B worth of AI infrastructure in the U.S. over the next four years, marking its first large-scale shift in the domestic production of GPUs and related components.

The details:

• The initiative will cover the mass production of AI chips, supercomputers, and servers with partners like TSMC, Foxconn, and Wistron.

• Nvidia has secured over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space across Arizona and Texas, with Amkor and SPIL handling advanced packaging.

• CEO Jensen Huang said the move will strengthen supply chains, meet surging AI demand, and create "hundreds of thousands" of jobs in America.

• Most importantly, it will help Nvidia avoid potential tariffs on imports from other countries (like a 32% tariff on chips made in Taiwan).

Why it matters: Nvidia’s announcement follows similar onshoring moves by Apple, TSMC, and Microsoft, aimed at reducing dependence on foreign production. It comes in the wake of steep tariffs imposed by President Trump — which the White House called the “Trump effect in action.”

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple took the top spot in global smartphone sales for the first quarter of 2025, capturing 19% of the market, according to Counterpoint Research.

The White House reportedly terminated $5.1B worth of tech services contracts with companies including  Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Deloitte.

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

The Trump administration granted exclusions from steep tariffs on smartphones, computers, and electronics imported mostly from China, supporting firms like Apple.

Apple reportedly made $22B worth of iPhones in India over the past year, bumping up production by 60%, as it moves its manufacturing away from China.

Xpeng, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, is reportedly set to begin using its in-house autonomous driving chip, Turing, this year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is reportedly dead set on beating Meta in building true AR glasses, with a version that taps into Siri and Visual Intelligence.  

French startup Dark is developing a world-first hybrid engine capable of capturing spy satellites, with plans to deploy a functional version of the interceptor by 2030.

UK startup Marshmallow, which uses data science to build car insurance policies for migrants or disadvantaged consumers, raised $90M at a $2B valuation.

AI dev platform Hugging Face acquired French startup Pollen Robotics, which sells an open-source humanoid at $70K, for an undisclosed sum.

Adobe reportedly invested an undisclosed amount in British AI startup Synthesia, which sells a platform for generating videos with AI clones.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Watch our last workshop

We just did a full workshop on n8n, where we teach you how to create your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, led by Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor.

Watch it 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 has “a lot of good stuff” lined up this week, according to Sam Altman—and its first release is a step back…in name only.

A newly launched GPT-4.1 (?) family features million-token context windows, improved coding abilities, and significantly lower prices across the board — potentially laying a new foundation for the fast-approaching era of agentic AI development.

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI’s dev-focused GPT-4.1 family

• ByteDance’s efficient Seaweed video AI

• Create conversational branches to explore ideas

• Google’s AI to decode dolphin speech

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🤖 OpenAI’s dev-focused GPT-4.1 family

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just released GPT-4.1, a new API-only model family built specifically for developers — featuring major improvements in coding abilities, instruction following, and the ability to process up to 1M tokens of context.

The details:

• The new API-only lineup includes GPT-4.1, 4.1 mini, and 4.1 nano, significantly outperforming GPT-4o on key developer tasks.

• All three models support 1M token contexts, enough for 8 full React codebases, while being 26% cheaper than GPT-4o for typical queries.

• The models also show gains in real-world tasks like frontend development, with evaluators preferring 4.1's web interfaces 80% of the time over GPT-4o.

• Pricing is reduced across the board, with GPT-4.1 coming in 26% cheaper than GPT-4o and 4.1 nano appearing as OpenAI's fastest and cheapest model yet.

Why it matters: The only thing moving backwards is OpenAI’s naming convention — but GPT-4.1 is a major leap forward for devs. With a massive context window, lower costs, and sharper focus, it sets a new foundation for the agentic coding and may be a precursor to the company’s rumored Agentic Software Engineer.

TOGETHER WITH HUBSPOT

🧠 100+ ChatGPT prompts to revolutionize your workflow

The Rundown: HubSpot’s free, comprehensive  “How to Use ChatGPT at Work” guide provides 100+ ready-to-use prompts to help professionals boost efficiency and adopt AI-driven workflows.

Inside, you’ll find:

• A quick crash course to master ChatGPT in under 30 minutes

• Practical industry use cases to spark real-world inspiration

• 100+ prompts to streamline tasks and accelerate productivity

• Expert tips to tackle common AI roadblocks with confidence

Get your free copy and join 10,000+ professionals leveling up with AI.

BYTEDANCE

🎥 ByteDance’s efficient Seaweed video AI

Image source: ByteDance

The Rundown: ByteDance introduced Seaweed, a hyper-efficient 7B-parameter video generation model that is competitive against much larger models like Kling 1.6, Google Veo, and Wan 2.1, despite using significantly less compute resources.

The details:

• Seaweed features multiple generation modes, including text-to-video, image-to-video, and audio-driven synthesis, with outputs going up to 20 seconds.

• The model ranks highly against rivals in human evaluations and excels in image-to-video tasks, massively outperforming models like Sora and Wan 2.1.

• It can also handle complex tasks like multi-shot storytelling, controlled camera movements, and even synchronized audio-visual generation.

• ByteDance says Seaweed has been fine-tuned for applications like human animation, with a strong focus on realistic human movement and lip syncing.

Why it matters: Between Wan (Alibaba), Kling, and now ByteDance’s Seaweed, China is absolutely crushing the AI video leaderboards. This byte-sized (pun intended) release also shows that scale isn’t the only path to top-tier video generation, opening up efficient, limitless creativity with readily available, near-SOTA video models.

AI TRAINING

🔀 Create conversational branches to explore ideas

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Google AI Studio's new branching feature to explore different ideas by creating multiple conversation paths from a single starting point without losing context.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Google AI Studio and select your preferred Gemini model from the dropdown menu.

2. Start a conversation and continue until you reach a point where you want to explore an alternative direction.

3. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to any message and select "Branch from here."

4. Navigate between branches using the "See original conversation" link at the top of each branch.

Pro tip: You can create branches at key decision points to compare different AI approaches to the same problem without starting over.

PRESENTED BY UNSTRUCTURED

🛠️ Simplifying RAG with Unstructured + AstraDB

The Rundown: Unstructured just introduced a new feature that made building a knowledge graph easier than ever: Custom Prompting for NER to build your nodes and edges.

Join Unstructured’s live session to learn how to:

• Use Unstructured API to load data into Astra DB

• Utilize the Custom Prompting Feature & OSS Graph Retriever library

• Leverage the Graph Retriever for dynamic retrieval

Register here to join live or to get the recording.

AI RESEARCH

🐬 Google’s AI to decode dolphin speech

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google unveiled DolphinGemma, a specialized AI model designed to analyze and generate dolphin vocalizations — designed in collaboration with researchers at Georgia Tech to potentially uncover patterns in their communication.

The details:

• DolphinGemma leverages Google's Gemma and audio tech to process dolphin vocalizations, trained on decades of data from the Wild Dolphin Project.

• The AI model analyzes sound sequences to identify patterns and predict subsequent sounds, similar to how LLMs handle human language.

• Google also developed a Pixel 9-based underwater CHAT device, combining the AI with speakers and microphones for real-time dolphin interaction.

• The model will be released as open-source this summer, allowing researchers worldwide to adapt it for studying various dolphin species.

Why it matters: While previous attempts at dolphin communication have struggled, combining decades of research with modern AI could finally open the door for new understanding of how these intelligent creatures communicate. If successful, DolphinGemma could open new frontiers in understanding animal intelligence.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🧠 ChatGPT - New memory feature that remembers all previous conversations

• ❎ Grok 3 - xAI’s top model, now also with new memory capabilities

• 🎨 Canva Visual Suite 2.0 - Create across all design types with AI

• 🤖 Appsmith Agents - Secure, embedded agents powered by your data

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🧾 Weights & Biases - Deal Desk Manager

• 💼 Horizon3 - Enterprise Account Executive

• 🛎️ Rad AI - Customer Support Engineer

• 🧑‍💻 Perplexity AI - AI Software Engineer

📰 Everything else in AI today

NVIDIA announced its first-ever U.S. AI manufacturing effort, partnering with TSMC, Foxconn, and others to begin chip and supercomputer production in Arizona and Texas.

OpenAI is reportedly planning to release two new models this week, with o3 and o4-mini capable of creating new scientific ideas and automating high-level research tasks.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy published his annual shareholder letter, saying that genAI will "reinvent virtually every customer experience we know."

Meta announced plans to train AI models on EU users’ public content, offering an opt-out form and noting the importance of incorporating European culture into its systems.

Hugging Face acquired Pollen Robotics and introduced Reachy 2, a $70k open-source humanoid robot designed for research and embodied AI applications.

LM Arena launched the Search Arena Leaderboard to evaluate LLMs on search tasks, with Google’s Gemini-2.5-Pro and Perplexity’s Sonar taking the top spots.

NATO awarded Palantir a contract for its Maven Smart System to enhance U.S. battlefield operations with AI capabilities, aiming to deploy the platform within 30 days.

COMMUNITY

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

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. China’s Unitree has announced plans to livestream the “world’s first” robot boxing event, pitting its humanoids against each other in the ring.

It’s still unclear whether these robots can compete like humans. But with China embracing robot soccer and marathon running, could humanoid sports be the next big thing?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Unitree’s robot boxing event

• Fourier’s fully open-source humanoid

• MIT’s one-legged jumping bug bot

• Humanoids rely on this tiny screw

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

UNITREE

🥊 Unitree’s robot boxing event

Image source: Unitree/YouTube

The Rundown: Chinese robotics powerhouse Unitree Robotics is pitting its robots against each other in a live-streamed humanoid boxing match—”Unitree Iron Fist King: Awakening!”—scheduled to take place in “about a month.”

The details:

• While the specific models have not been confirmed, the contenders are likely to be the quick, agile Unitree G1 or the more powerful flagship H1 model.

• Unitree robots are trained using LAFAN1 motion capture technology, which enables advanced walking, punching, dodging, and even Kung Fu-style moves.

• The company’s promo video did showcase preliminary sparring sessions, but the child-size G1’s moves are nowhere as smooth or fluid as a human fighter.

• China is actively promoting robotics innovations through events like these, including the upcoming World Humanoid Robot Sports Games in Beijing.

Why it matters: How far robot boxing will go remains to be seen, but Unitree is seizing the moment to show off its robots' capabilities. While the recent boxing promo lacks the excitement of earlier Unitree clips, it’s likely part of the company’s steady push to refine its bots ahead of a bigger main event.

FOURIER

🤖 Fourier’s fully open-source humanoid

Image source: Fourier

The Rundown: Chinese robotic company Fourier Intelligence just launched a short, sturdy humanoid—the Fourier N1—that can outrun most humans and is fully open-source and completely replicable without proprietary constraints.

The details:

• The N1 stands 1.3m tall and weighs 38kg, featuring a 23-degree-of-freedom design with a hybrid aluminum alloy/plastic composite frame.

• The robot also comes with Fourier’s FSA 2.0 actuators to achieve a 3.5 m/s running speed and dynamic stability on slopes, stairs, and rough terrain.

• Under the hood, it leverages NVIDIA’s GR00T N1 model for AI-driven tasks like object manipulation and multi-step reasoning.

• Fourier has released all files—including CAD blueprints, bill of materials, assembly guides, and core control software—for the humanoid on GitHub.

Why it matters: While platforms like Bolt, InMoov, and Poppy also offer open-source humanoids, Fourier claims its model is fully commercial-ready, backed by over 1,000 hours of outdoor testing. The release also reflects a broader trend in open robotics: accelerating innovation while pushing against 'black box' dominance by major players.

MIT

🦟 MIT’s one-legged jumping bug bot

Image source: MIT

The Rundown: MIT researchers unveiled a thumb-sized hopping robot, detailed in Science Advances, that combines the agility of insects with the efficiency of engineered systems—and it can carry 10x its weight.

The details:

• Standing just 5 cm tall and weighing less than a paper clip, the bot can leap 20 cm—four times its height—as four flapping wings help stabilize it mid-air.

• Inspired by grasshoppers, the bot can navigate grass, ice, and uneven terrain—and as per MIT, it outperforms flying robots in energy efficiency by up to 60%.

• It uses just a single elastic leg with a compression spring (similar to a click-pen spring) for energy-efficient hopping.

• Plus, it can withstand midair collisions, perform somersaults, and even land on a hovering drone, hinting at future collaborative applications.

Why it matters: Tiny jumping bots, like those developed by UC Berkeley, EPFL, and Harvard, are having a moment as researchers look to bridge gaps in search and rescue and environmental monitoring. However, MIT’s design stands out as it merges the obstacle-clearing power of flight with ground-based mobility, mimicking real insects.

HUMANOIDS

🔩 Humanoids rely on this tiny screw

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Planetary roller screws are becoming the special sauce in humanoid robotics, enabling high-precision, high-load motion control critical for dynamic tasks. Tesla, 1X, and Figure rely on them, but China controls their supply, at least for now.

The details:

• Fast Company reports that the total market for roller screws is $1.8B and is likely to grow 30% annually, with the part set to replace ball screws entirely.

• These screws are emerging as a next-gen alternative to traditional screws, with higher torque density and durability for 10K-plus hours of continuous operation.

• China dominates the supply chain for them, producing 70–80% of global roller screws through firms like Nanjing Process Equipment and Zendamotion.

• Currently, a single planetary roller screw sells for between $1,350 and $2,700, according to JP Morgan (Tesla’s Optimus, for example, uses four screws).

Why it matters: Producing planetary roller screws demands specialized skills held by only a few companies. Chinese manufacturers, who lead in the category, can produce them at 50-70% lower costs than their Western counterparts, giving Chinese robotic firms a competitive edge.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Borg Robotics, based in Detroit, released a first look at its Borg 01 prototype with a wheeled base in a design that supports a bipedal configuration.

Blue Water Autonomy, a new shipbuilding startup, emerged from stealth and announced $14M in a seed round of funding to develop autonomous naval ships.

Beijing’s first robot half marathon in the city’s Daxing District has been postponed to April 19 due to strong winds, as humanoid robots may topple in the harsh weather.

DoorDash is partnering with food delivery robotics company Coco Robotics to offer sidewalk robot delivery for its customers in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Rock band OK Go, famed for wildly inventive videos, produced a new music video, Love, featuring 29 robotic arms from Universal Robots and filmed in one take.

Researchers in Abu Dhabi developed an underwater research robot with 12 flexible arms that spin like bacterial flagella to glide in any direction.

The Indian Premier League introduced a quadruped robotic camera dog, covered in brown fur-like material, as part of its 2025 cricket broadcast team.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog successfully undertook the dangerous job of reactivating a dormant crane at the Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland.

Waymo robotaxis are now expanding their service to San Francisco’s “main thoroughfare” Market Street, currently banned to private vehicles.

Korea reportedly launched a national alliance called the “K-Humanoid Alliance” to push innovations in humanoids and “position itself as a top player” by 2030.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Watch our last workshop

We just did a full workshop on n8n, where we teach you how to create your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, led by Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor.

Watch it 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. Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever just reportedly raised another massive round for his AI startup, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), catapulting its valuation to $32B in mere months.

But with no product in sight—just a bold vision for superintelligence and Sutskever's reputation—is this the most audacious bet yet in the AI funding frenzy, or a glimpse of Silicon Valley's new normal?

In today’s AI rundown:

• Ilya’s SSI raises $2B at $32B valuation

• Ex-OpenAI staff push back on for-profit shift

• Build an AI-powered lead outreach automation

• AI surpasses experts in tuberculosis diagnosis

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SAFE SUPERINTELLIGENCE INC.

💰 Ilya’s SSI raises $2B at $32B valuation

Image source: SSI / Stanford University

The Rundown: Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, just reportedly raised $2 billion at a post-money valuation of $32 billion, becoming one of the highest-valued startups just months after launch.

The details:

• The $2B round has been led by Greenoaks (with $500M), with Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz in participation, FT reported.

• A separate report from Reuters noted that Alphabet and Nvidia are also backing SSI, though their investment amount remains undisclosed.

• The AI startup has been laser-focused on building “superintelligence” that goes beyond human-level AGI while making sure “safety always remains ahead.”

• Previously, Sutskever told investors that the company has “identified a different mountain to climb,” hinting at a unique approach to AI development.

Why it matters: Even without a concrete product plan, SSI continues to rise, with its valuation growing sixfold since September 2024. The surge, alongside news of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines planning a raise, reflects growing investor interest in AI startups led by prominent researchers, especially those emerging from OpenAI’s orbit.

TOGETHER WITH SANA

📈 Do real work with AI

The Rundown: Sana provides a powerful enterprise AI platform designed to let every team build no-code AI agents grounded in your organization's unique data.

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• Solve complex, multi-step problems in seconds

Book an intro with Sana today.

OPENAI

🙅 Ex-OpenAI staff push back on for-profit shift

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: Twelve former OpenAI employees, who served in technical and leadership roles between 2018 and 2024, just filed a proposed amicus brief supporting Elon Musk's lawsuit challenging the AI lab's shift away from its nonprofit origins.

The details:

• The brief makes the case that if OpenAI’s non-profit wing cedes its controlling stake in business, it would “fundamentally violate its mission statement.”

• It adds that OpenAI’s restructuring would also “breach the trust of employees, donors, and other stakeholders” who supported the lab for its mission.

• Todor Markov, who is now at Anthropic, called Altman “a person of low integrity” who used the charter merely as a “smoke screen” to attract talent.

• They all noted the court should recognize maintaining the nonprofit is essential to ensure AGI benefits humanity rather than serving narrow financial interests.”

Why it matters: If admitted to the court record, these testimonies from former insiders could strengthen Musk's case ahead of the spring 2026 trial. OpenAI, for its part, says the non-profit remains intact and calls the changes a restructuring of its existing for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation while preserving the original mission.

AI TRAINING

🤖 Build an AI-powered lead outreach automation

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Lindy AI's new loop feature to create an automated system that researches prospects and drafts personalized emails at scale with zero manual effort.

Step-by-step:

1. Set your Lindy AI agent context by adding a description like "You are an outreach agent that has access to spreadsheets, researches leads, and drafts personalized emails".

2. Create a workflow starting with "Message Received" trigger and an AI Agent configured to process spreadsheets of leads.

3. Add an "Enter Loop" node that processes leads in parallel, with "Search Perplexity" and "Draft Email" nodes inside the loop.

4. Finalize with an "Exit Loop" node and a summary AI Agent, then test your workflow with a sample spreadsheet.

Pro tip: The Rundown University members get 15% off Lindy Pro plans here.

PRESENTED BY WRITER

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In this product showcase, you'll:

• Experience real agentic workflows live

• Hear success stories from beta testers

• Learn strategies to align your IT and business teams

Watch on demand and see the first platform for end-to-end agentic AI in action.

AI RESEARCH

🫁 AI surpasses experts in tuberculosis diagnosis

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: A new study led by Swiss researchers from Lausanne University Hospital demonstrated that AI can diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis with greater accuracy than human experts, exceeding WHO standards for non-sputum TB tests.

The details:

• Presented at ESCMID Global 2025, the study introduced ULTR-AI, an AI system trained to read lung ultrasound images from smartphone-connected devices.

• The system uses a combination of three different models to merge image interpretation and pattern detection and optimize diagnosis accuracy.

• When tested on 504 patients (38% of whom had confirmed TB), it achieved 93% sensitivity and 81% specificity, beating human expert performance by 9%.

• The AI can identify subtle patterns that humans often miss, including small pleural lesions invisible to the naked eye.

Why it matters: With TB cases rising and diagnostics scarce or unaffordable in low-resource settings, this AI system could revolutionize triage by providing faster, cheaper, and scalable testing. And since it runs in real time through a smartphone app, even minimally trained healthcare workers can use it effectively in remote locations.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🧠 Seed-Thinking-v1.5 - ByteDance’s reasoning AI that beats Deepseek R1

• 🤖 AI HQ - Writer’s end-to-end platform for building and supervising AI agents

• 🗣️ Amazon Nova Sonic - Amazon's Speech-to-speech AI on Bedrock

• 📊 Gemini in Sheets - Access Google’s Gemini AI models in Google Sheets

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• ✍️ The Rundown - Course Copywriter/Designer

• 🧮 Curai - Revenue Operations Manager

• 📢 Anthropic - Head of Corporate Communications

• 🏛️ Palantir Technologies - Meritocracy Fellowship

📰 Everything else in AI today

Meta’s unmodified, release version of Llama 4 Maverick appeared on LMArena, ranking below months-old models, including Gemini 1.5 Pro and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis mentioned that the company plans to combine Gemini and Veo models into a unified omni model with better world understanding.

Netflix is reportedly working with OpenAI on a revamped search experience, allowing users to look up content using different new parameters, including their mood.

OpenAI beefed up its security with a new Verified Organization status, which will be required to unlock API access to its advanced models and capabilities.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company plans to release an open-source model that would be "near the frontier.”

Elon Musk’s xAI started rolling out the memory feature to its Grok AI assistant, following a similar move from OpenAI last week.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

We just did a full workshop on n8n, where we teach you how to create your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, led by Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor.

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

See you soon,

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Silicon Valley tech billionaires are eyeing Greenland as the next big hub for innovation, envisioning a “freedom city” where regulation is as sparse as the island’s population.

The tech utopia would host cutting-edge AI, autonomous vehicles, and space launches, turning the icy landscape into a hotbed of innovation. Of course, Denmark isn’t the only one calling the plan “absurd” — what do you think, a billionaire’s fantasy or something that could actually work?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Tech billionaires set sights on Greenland

• Bezos-backed startup’s new $25K EV

• Mira Murati’s AI venture eyes $2B funding

• Instagram finally developing an iPad app

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GREENLAND

🔥 Tech billionaires set sights on Greenland

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, are reportedly pushing for the creation of a deregulated “freedom city” in Greenland, as the Trump administration works to acquire the territory from Denmark. 

The details:

• The idea is to create a libertarian tech hub on the island for AI, autonomous vehicles, and micro-nuclear energy, with minimal government oversight.

• The talks are still early, but Trump’s Denmark ambassador pick, Ken Howery—an ally of Peter Thiel—is reportedly taking the idea seriously.

• The push mirrors existing "freedom city" experiments like the Thiel-backed Próspera in Honduras and California’s Solano County.

• Melting Arctic ice has also heightened Greenland’s importance, offering access to rare-earth minerals and ideal conditions for massive AI data centers.

Why it matters: While proponents say tech cities could drive breakthroughs, critics warn they risk becoming corporate dictatorships with their own rules. Denmark, meanwhile, has dismissed U.S. interest—saying Greenland is “not for sale”—and past “free city” ventures like Próspera have faced government pushback.

SLATE AUTO

🛻 Bezos-backed startup’s new $25K EV

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly a backer of Slate Auto, a Michigan-based auto startup aiming to launch the U.S.’s first $25K EV—a pickup slated to debut sometime in late 2026.

The details:

• Slate Auto launched as part of an incubator run by former Amazon Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke and has been operating in stealth since 2022.

• The company has reportedly poached 200–500 employees from Ford, GM, Stellantis, and failed EV startups like Fisker and Canoo to power its R&D efforts.

• It is differentiating itself by adopting an open-source model and customization tools for its EVs—unlike Tesla and Rivian’s closed proprietary systems.  

• A spy photo also appeared on Reddit, showing what looks like a prototype of its small two-seater pickup with a boxy, minimalist design.

Why it matters: The project faces skepticism, as no automaker has yet delivered an EV at that price, and Slate remains tight-lipped about specs. But, if it manages to hit the price target, Bezos’s stealth bet could disrupt the market—a $25K EV pickup would be less than half the cost of Ford’s F-150 Lightning.

THINKING MACHINES

🦄 Mira Murati’s AI venture eyes $2B funding

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new company, Thinking Machines Lab, is reportedly raising a $2B seed round—one of the largest in startup history—doubling its initial $1B target from February.

The details:

• With this round, Thinking Machines Lab will be valued at an incredible $10B+, despite having no commercial product or revenue roadmap in place.

• The startup aims to solve “black box” AI issues, prioritizing transparency and user control—a stark contrast to opaque models like OpenAI’s GPT family. 

• Murati’s all-star team counts employees from top AI labs, including OpenAI and Google DeepMind, among its ranks.

• She left OpenAI in October after six years at the company, where she led work on ChatGPT, DALL-E, and code-generating system Codex.

Why it matters: Thinking Machines’ massive seed round joins a wave of ex-OpenAI ventures, like Ilya Sutskever’s SSI, raising big bucks. It also signals a shift in AI funding where investors are betting big on frontier AI, elite talent, and bold visions—like Murati’s push to ‘democratize’ AI.

META

⚡️ Instagram finally developing an iPad app

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: After 15 years of constant user complaints, Meta’s Instagram is finally said to be working on a native app for iPad, marking an end to the era of stretched iPhone versions of its service on Apple’s tablets.

The details:

• The Information reports that Meta’s new app will feature full-screen browsing, enhanced Reels playback, and deeper integration with Apple Pencil.

• The move is part of Meta’s push to capitalize on TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S., as Instagram’s Reels competes for short-form video dominance.

• The app may also introduce creator-focused tools, such as advanced analytics and scheduling, tailored for iPad workflows.

• No launch date is confirmed, but the report suggests a rollout later this year—possibly without some advanced creator features.

Why it matters: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri long brushed off iPad demand as a low priority—but growing user frustration and competitive pressure have forced a rethink. Still, it could be scrapped. In 2023, Meta promised an iPad app for WhatsApp, and it never arrived.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple shares skyrocketed 15% on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on “reciprocal tariffs,” but then dropped again on Thursday.

Microsoft said it is buying 3.7M metric tons of carbon removal credits from project developer CO280 to meet its goal of becoming carbon-negative by 2030.

Google is reported to have laid off “hundreds of employees” in the division responsible for Android, Chrome, and Pixel—in a move to operate “more effectively.”

OpenAI launched a massive update to ChatGPT that enhances its memory, allowing the chatbot to reference all past conversations to provide more personalized responses

Senator Josh Hawley called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress over allegations that the company undermined U.S. national security.

Alphabet’s Waymo began its first international testing in Japan by manually driving its vehicles across seven Tokyo wards to collect mapping data.

Nissan announced a partnership with UK-based AI startup Wayve to integrate Wayve's autonomous driving technology into its vehicles.

Blue Origin's NS-31 mission, set for April 14, will feature an all-female crew, including pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez.

Cofertility, a startup co-founded by a former Uber exec that wants to make egg freezing free, raised $7.25M in Series A funding at a $16M valuation.

IFS, a Swedish provider of cloud enterprise software and industrial AI solutions, achieved a valuation of over €15B ($17B) amid soaring demand.

UK-based climate think tank Ember reported that clean energy sources accounted for 40.9% of electricity produced around the world in 2024.

China said that it has discovered a new mineral—a high-purity quartz—that could potentially foster new developments in semiconductors and photovoltaics.

WordPress launched a new, free AI-powered site builder in early access that allows users to build WordPress webpages “in minutes.”

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

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 have your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, with less manual effort.

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 gave ChatGPT a massive memory boost, enabling it to automatically remember and reference key information across all your conversations without being asked.

Is this persistent memory the breakthrough that finally turns ChatGPT into the truly personalized AI assistant we've been waiting for?

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI gives ChatGPT a memory boost

• Mira Murati’s AI startup eyes record funding

• Turn YouTube videos into high-ranking blogs

• Study: AI still struggles with software debugging

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🧠 OpenAI gives ChatGPT a memory boost

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out a massive update to ChatGPT’s memory, enabling the AI assistant to automatically remember and reference information across all user conversations, delivering more personalized and relevant responses.

The details:

• ChatGPT will cut across all conversations, listening in all the time and capturing users’ preferences, interests, needs, and even things they don’t like.

• With all this information, the assistant will then tailor its responses to each user, engaging in conversations “that feel noticeably more relevant and useful.”

• Unlike previous versions where users had to specifically request that information be remembered, the system now does this automatically.

• If you want to change what ChatGPT knows about you, simply ask in the chat through a prompt.

Why it matters: This feature is a game changer for active users who hate switching between chats or constantly repeating themselves. ChatGPT's extended memory is a start to an exciting future where AI systems genuinely get to know you over time, becoming increasingly personalized and useful.

Privacy note: Users can opt out of the memory feature via ChatGPT's settings or use temporary chat mode for conversations they don't want remembered.

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.

THINKING MACHINES LAB

💰 Mira Murati’s AI startup eyes record funding

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup led by several OpenAI veterans, is reportedly pursuing one of the largest seed funding rounds in history.

The details:

• Fresh out of stealth with nearly half of the founding team from OpenAI, Thinking Machines Lab is in talks to raise $2B at a valuation of “at least” $10B.

• The value of the round is double what Murati was initially targeting, though details can change as the round is still said to be in progress.

• Murati launched the AI startup six months after leaving OpenAI, where she spent nearly seven years working on AI systems, including ChatGPT.

• While much remains under the wraps, the direction of Thinking Machines is towards “widely understood, customizable, and generally capable” AI systems.

Why it matters: With Thinking Machines Lab’s record-setting raise and Ilya Sutskever’s SSI also reportedly raising at a $30B valuation, the AI funding frenzy continues to reach new heights. What’s striking, though, is that both these startups are pulling massive investments without a public product or revenue roadmap.

AI TRAINING

📝 Turn YouTube videos into high-ranking blogs

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use NotebookLM to turn YouTube video content into SEO-optimized blog posts by analyzing transcripts and generating structured, search engine-targeted content.

Step-by-step:

1. Create a notebook in NotebookLM and add your YouTube video transcript as a source via YouTube link or pasted text.

2. Prepare your SEO strategy by identifying primary and secondary keywords (e.g., for AI automation: "AI workflow tools," "business process automation").

3. Craft a detailed prompt including your keywords and desired structure, then generate your content.

4. Enhance your post with images, links, formatting, and a compelling call-to-action before publishing.

Pro tip: For technical topics, include a glossary section defining complex terms to improve search visibility for beginners searching for explanations of these concepts.

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MICROSOFT RESEARCH

🤖 Study: AI still struggles with software debugging

Image source: Microsoft Research

The Rundown: Microsoft Research published a study revealing that AI agents—even those powered by the most advanced models available—still struggle with most software debugging tasks that human programmers routinely solve.

The details:

• Microsoft used nine LLMs, including Claude 3.7 Sonnet, to power a “single prompt-based agent” tasked with 300 debugging issues from SWE-bench Lite.

• In the test, the agent struggled to complete half of the assigned tasks, even when using frontier models that excel at coding as its backbone.

• With debugging tools, 3.7 Sonnet performed best, solving 48.4% of issues, followed by OpenAI’s o1 and o3-mini with a 30.2% and 22.1% success rate.

• The team found that the performance gap is due to a lack of sequential decision-making data (human debugging traces) in the LLMs’ training corpus.

Why it matters: As investors and executives from companies like Google and Meta continue pouring billions into AI coding agents, this study serves as a reality check of the current state. Despite impressive progress in code generation, AI still falls significantly short in debugging, one of programming's most crucial skills.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🧠 Gemini 2.5 Flash - Google’s new faster and cheaper reasoning model

• 🤖 Kimi-VL - Moonshot’s 3B-parameter VLM matching 10x larger models

• 🎥 Pika Twists - Manipulate objects or characters in footage while keeping the scene intact

• 💬 askplexbot - Perplexity’s new Telegram channel, allowing users to interact with or bring the chatbot into group chats

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• ⚖️ OpenAI - Senior IP Paralegal

• 📈 Meta - Product Marketing Manager

• 🛠️ Harvey - User Operations Manager

• 🖥️ Waymo - Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure

📰 Everything else in AI today

Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence (SSI) partnered with Google Cloud to use the company's TPU chips to power its research and development efforts.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that the company will adopt Anthropic’s open Model Context Protocol to let its models connect to diverse data sources and apps.

Canva introduced Visual Suite 2.0, several AI features, and a voice-enabled AI creative partner that generates editable content at Canva Create 2025.

OpenAI countersued Elon Musk, citing a pattern of harassment and asking a federal judge to stop him from any “further unlawful and unfair action.”

OpenAI also open-sourced BrowseComp, a benchmark that measures the ability of AI agents to locate hard-to-find information on the internet.

TikTok parent ByteDance announced Seed-Thinking-v1.5, a 200B reasoning model—with 20B active parameters—that beats DeepSeek R1.

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, made its flagship Grok-3 model available via API, with pricing starting at $3 and $15 per million input and output tokens.

AI company Writer launched AI HQ, an end-to-end platform for building, activating, and supervising AI agents in the enterprise.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop this Friday at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, with less manual effort.

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

See you soon,

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

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Amazon is reportedly looking to invest a whopping $15B to expand its U.S. warehouse network and grow its massive fleet of next-gen industrial robots.

The company’s warehouses are seeing a seismic shift, with hundreds of thousands of tireless robots working alongside humans—but are robots truly close to replacing human workers entirely?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Amazon’s $15B robot-driven warehouse push

• Samsung and Google’s new home bot

• Sanctuary seeks $175M in Apptronik sale

• Robots probing melting Antarctic icebergs

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AMAZON

📦 Amazon’s $15B robot-driven warehouse push

Image source: Agility Robotics/YouTube

The Rundown: Amazon is reportedly seeking partners for a massive $15B expansion of its U.S. warehouse network—with the goal to build some 80 highly automated logistic facilities packed with next-gen industrial robots.

The details:

• Bloomberg reports that the plan includes multi-story fulfillment centers with advanced robotics to automate sorting, packing, and inventory management. 

• Key investments are planned for hyper-local delivery hubs, with robotics cutting last-mile times and achieving 65% faster Prime deliveries last year.

• The expansion will leverage Amazon’s latest robotics systems—Sequoia, Proteus, and Cardinal—while introducing next-gen automation.

• For example, Proteus moves without floor markers, navigating alongside workers, while Digit (by Agility Robotics) is being tested for tote handling.

Why it matters: Amazon has rapidly expanded its robotics operations over the years, with the rebranded Amazon Robotics rolling out more than 750K robots and autonomous systems. New facilities, like the prototype in Louisiana, will host 10 times more robots than older warehouses, with the number only rising in the coming years.

SAMSUNG

🤖 Samsung and Google’s new home bot

Image source: Samsung

The Rundown: Samsung’s soccer ball-like home robot “Ballie”—first teased at CES 2020—is finally set to roll into homes this summer, thanks to a major partnership with Google to integrate the Gemini family of multimodal AI models.

The details:

• Under the partnership, Gemini will enable Ballie to process inputs such as voice

  commands, visual data from its camera, and environmental sensor readings. 

• The bot learns user habits over time to automate routines (e.g., morning music, ideal room temperature) and offers tailored advice on fashion, sleep, or health.

• It also functions as a hub for Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem, allowing control of connected devices, with a built-in camera enabling pet monitoring.

• Equipped with LiDAR, 4K/2K cameras, and three-wheel navigation, Ballie also moves seamlessly through homes, avoiding obstacles and people.

Why it matters: Launching in mid-2025, Ballie marks Samsung’s big push into home robotics, leveraging its consumer electronics ecosystem against rivals like Apple and Google. With Gemini integration and a firm launch timeline, Samsung could easily take the lead in the category—price permitting.

SANCTUARY

🎯 Sanctuary seeks $175M in Apptronik sale

Image source: Apptronik

The Rundown: In a major shakeup among robotics startups, Vancouver-based humanoid maker Sanctuary is reportedly seeking to raise $175M by selling its majority stake in Texas-based robotics startup Apptronik.

The details:

• Sanctuary acquired a stake in Apptronik for $10M in 2022, but its value surged after Google and others invested $350M in the company earlier this year.

• Now, the sale of the stake could yield up to $125M, with venture capital firms contributing an additional $50M, aiming to close the round by May 2025.

• Sanctuary reportedly plans to acquire Rapid Robotics, a San Francisco rival valued at $193.7M in August 2021, to expand its U.S. talent pool.

• The company has been facing funding challenges, having raised $140M to date—far less than competitors like Tesla, which secured $700M in a single round.

Why it matters: Sanctuary’s scaling efforts have been slow—highlighted by last year’s CEO exit—but this sale is expected to bring fresh capital to support the development of its Phoenix humanoid. The company remains laser-focused on general-purpose robotics, even as rivals, including Apptronik, double down on manufacturing robots.

BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY

🧊 Robots probing melting Antarctic icebergs

Image source: Yvonne Firing/British Antarctic Survey

The Rundown: Robot gliders were sent underwater to study one of the world’s largest icebergs, A-68, before it melted and broke apart, with a new study published this week in Nature Geoscience detailing how melting icebergs impact ocean dynamics.

The details:

• The gliders—1.5m-long autonomous underwater vehicles with sensors—probed Antarctica’s A-68 after it broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf in 2017.

• Their sensors collected unprecedented data on salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll levels near the massive iceberg.

• Data showed that melting icebergs disrupt a layer of cold water called “Winter Water,” allowing nutrients to rise from deep waters and affecting the ecosystem.

• Piloted from 12K km away during the Covid lockdowns, one of the gliders was also trapped under the iceberg for days before resurfacing with data. 

Why it matters: This mission showcases the potential of robotics in polar research, with gliders operating in high-risk conditions near moving icebergs, collecting data that would have been impossible to gather otherwise. Scientists also say this data is crucial for understanding how icebergs affect ocean ecosystems and global climate systems.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Figure CEO Brett Adcock is facing scrutiny for allegedly exaggerating the deployment of Figure humanoids at BMW’s plant, sparking concerns over transparency.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla’s Optimus humanoids will “hopefully” join a Starship mission to explore the surface of Mars by the end of 2026.

A new report found that industrial robotics will surge to an incredible $291B by 2035, up from the current market value of $55B.

Clone Robotics just released a new clip of its Protoclone V1, a groundbreaking synthetic android with skin, muscles, tendons, and veins (that pump water).

Rodney Brooks, co-founder of iRobot (creator of the Roomba) and a leading robotics expert, criticized the hype around humanoids, calling them "overhyped theater." 

Shenzhen-based robotics company EngineAI has reportedly secured $28M in pre-A funding to further its advancements in humanoid robotics. 

Brinc, a Seattle-based emergency response drone startup founded by 25-year-old Blake Resnick, raised $75M, bringing its total funding to around $157M.

Zoox, Amazon's autonomous vehicle subsidiary, is testing its robotaxi service in Los Angeles, deploying a fleet of Toyota Highlanders equipped with its self-driving tech.

Penn State researchers just developed a soft magnetically controlled robot capable of navigating human blood vessels for targeted drug delivery.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next workshop this Friday at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have your own AI assistant that speeds up your workflow and helps you get more done, with less manual effort.

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