Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Google just turned its Cloud Next 2025 event into an AI showcase of epic proportions — revealing the company’s most powerful chip ever alongside upgrades across its entire ecosystem.

With a new agentic coding platform, Gemini 2.5 Flash, an agent-to-agent framework, and upgrades to image, video, voice, and music platforms, the tech giant is becoming a one-stop shop for all things AI.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Big AI day at Google Cloud Next 2025

• Google’s protocol for AI agent collaboration

• Build your first AI voice assistant with Vapi

• Samsung’s Gemini-powered Ballie home robot

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🤖 Big AI day at Google Cloud Next 2025

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google announced a flurry of AI news at its Google Cloud Next 2025 event, including a new agentic coding platform, next-gen AI chips, upgrades to its video, audio, and image models, a new Gemini 2.5 Flash model, and more.

The details:

• Google’s Project IDX is merging with Firebase Studio, turning it into an agentic app development platform to compete with rivals like Cursor and Replit.

• The company also launched Ironwood, its most powerful AI chip ever, offering massive improvements in performance and efficiency over previous designs.

• Model upgrades include editing and camera control in Veo 2, the release of Lyria for text-to-music, and improved image creation and editing in Imagen 3.

• Google also released Gemini 2.5 Flash, a faster and cheaper version of its top model that enables customizable reasoning levels for cost optimization.

Why it matters: This quick summary doesn’t do justice to the full breadth of announcements, with Google’s AI advances reaching across every aspect of the ecosystem. Between top models, advanced chips, and now its own competing IDE, Google continues to pack an absolutely massive punch with each new AI reveal.

TOGETHER WITH METRONOME

🧩 Solve the pricing puzzle for AI products

The Rundown: Pricing an AI product right can often feel like solving a puzzle without the box cover. Join 49 Palms (ex-Simon Kucher, Author of Monetizing Innovation) and Metronome CEO Scott Woody to figure out how to build sustainable and effective pricing for AI.

In this session, you'll learn how to:

• Apply a 9-step pricing framework

• Monetize AI–whether it’s your core offering or an add-on

• Treat pricing as a product and confidently run pricing experiments

Register now to save your spot.

GOOGLE

🤝 Google’s protocol for AI agent collaboration

Image source: …

The Rundown: Google launched Agent2Agent, a new open protocol that enables AI agents from different developers and frameworks to communicate and collaborate, with backing from 50+ tech and service giants, including Salesforce, SAP, and PayPal.

The details:

• A2A enables agents to discover capabilities, manage tasks cooperatively, and exchange info across platforms—even without sharing memory or context.

• The protocol complements Anthropic's popular MCP, focusing on higher-level agent interactions while MCP handles interactions with external tools.

• Launch partners include enterprise players like Atlassian, ServiceNow, and Workday, along with consulting firms like Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey.

• The system also supports complex workflows like hiring, where multiple agents can do candidate sourcing and background checks without humans in the loop.

Why it matters: AI agents are rapidly growing in capabilities, but unlocking their true capabilities will require a standard, streamlined way to interact with each other across platforms and frameworks. A2A could build on the success of MCP, helping build an interconnected system that allows multi-agent collaboration to tackle complex tasks.

AI TRAINING

🎙️ Build your first AI voice assistant with Vapi

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Vapi to create AI-powered voice assistants that handle phone calls naturally, with customizable voices and integration capabilities.

Step-by-step:

1. Head over to Vapi and create an assistant by either scratch or selecting a starting template.

2. Select your preferred AI model that will power your conversations and your desired transcriber for accurate speech recognition.

3. Choose a voice from Vapi's library or create your own voice clone.

4. Finally, add tools and integrations that let your assistant take in-call actions, like checking calendars, scheduling appointments, or transferring to human agents when needed.

Pro tip: Focus on optimizing response latency (to under 1.5 seconds) for a natural conversation flow. We just did an extensive workshop on building AI Voice agents at The Rundown University, led by Jordan Dearsley, the Founder & CEO at Vapi.

PRESENTED BY INVISIBLE TECHNOLOGIES

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What you'll learn:

• What's stopping you from getting more value from AI

• What a well-implemented AI application looks like

• How businesses should use AI (hint: not just as a chatbot)

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SAMSUNG & GOOGLE

🤖 Samsung’s Gemini-powered Ballie home robot

Image source: Samsung

The Rundown: Samsung and Google just announced a major partnership to launch Ballie—a soccer ball-sized home robot teased for years at Samsung’s CES events—with Gemini AI models under the hood.

The details:

• Ballie can roam homes autonomously on wheels, project videos on walls, control smart devices, and handle tasks through voice commands.

• The robot will combine Gemini models with Samsung's own AI, delivering multimodal capabilities for voice, audio, and visual inputs.

• It will launch in the U.S. and South Korea this summer, with plans for third-party app support also in the pipeline.

• Ballie, first revealed at Samsung’s CES event in 2020, has gone through several iterations over the years, but is only now getting an official release.

Why it matters: The AI consumer robotics race is shaping up to be the next big tech frontier, and few are as well-positioned as Samsung to lead it—leveraging their expansive SmartThings ecosystem and, now, the power of Google’s Gemini models to deliver truly ‘smart’ home robots that could redefine the category.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🗣️ Nova Sonic - Amazon’s new speech-to-speech AI voice model

• 🤖 Cogito v1 Preview - New open-source LLM model family trained using IDA

• 🔎 Gemini Deep Research - Now available with 2.5 Pro Experimental

• 🧠 Nemotron Ultra - NVIDIA’s 253B parameter open-source reasoning model

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🎨 Palantir Technologies - Product Designer

• 🧑‍⚖️ Horizon3 - Senior Attorney

• 🚀 Faculty - Senior Manager (Growth)

• 📋 OpenAI - Project Manager, Recruiting Operations

📰 Everything else in AI today

Anthropic announced a new premium Claude Max tier, featuring options for $100/mo and $200/mo, offering up to 20x higher rate limits and priority access to new features.

The U.S. government reportedly halted planned restrictions on NVIDIA’s H20 AI chips to China, following CEO Jensen Huang’s promises of new U.S. investments.

Moonshot AI released Kimi-VL, a lightweight 3B-parameter vision-language model that matches the performance of models 10x larger on reasoning tasks.

UCL researchers introduced MindGlide, an AI system that analyzes MS brain scans in seconds and outperforms existing tools by up to 60% in detecting disease progression.

The NO FAKES Act was reintroduced to Congress, with YouTube, OpenAI, IBM and others joining entertainment leaders in support of legislation to combat AI deepfakes.

OpenAI launched the 'Pioneers Program’, aiming to partner with startups on creating industry-specific model evaluations and AI systems for real-world applications.

The EU unveiled the “AI Continent Action Plan,” committing €200B to build 13 AI factories and aiming to triple data center capacity across Europe within seven years.

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.

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. AI-generated video has always faced major limitations in length and consistency, but new research may have just unlocked a major leap in storytelling capabilities.

With researchers using a new method and a dataset of Tom and Jerry cartoons to create minute-long, coherent generations, the days of short, disconnected AI video clips may finally be numbered.

In today’s AI rundown:

• NVIDIA and Stanford’s one-minute AI cartoons

• Amazon’s new voice model, video upgrade

• Create eye-catching thumbnails with GPT-4o

• Murati’s Thinking Machines adds ex-OpenAI talent

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AI RESEARCH

🎬 NVIDIA and Stanford’s one-minute AI cartoons

Image source: NVIDIA and Stanford University

The Rundown: NVIDIA and Stanford researchers just unveiled "Test-Time Training," an AI technique that enables longer video generation than previously possible—with demos producing minute-long cartoon clips with improved consistency and storytelling.

The details:

• The system generates full minute-long animations with consistency across scenes, significantly outperforming existing methods in human evaluations.

• TTT layers work by using neural networks as memory, allowing the model to remember and maintain consistency across much longer sequences.

• The team demoed the tech using Tom and Jerry cartoons, showing multi-scene stories with dynamic motion and character interactions.

• This approach modifies existing video models, adding TTT layers and enabling them to handle videos significantly longer than their original capability.

Why it matters: AI video has seen some mindblowing upgrades over the last year, but one of the biggest constraints is still the length of clips and maintaining consistency across shots. This new approach could eventually unlock the ability to tell longer, more coherent stories—without having to stitch together hundreds of generations.

TOGETHER WITH TELY AI

📝 Run a lead-generating SEO blog on autopilot with AI

The Rundown: With Tely AI, you don’t need an SEO expert or content team — AI does it all. It researches your industry, competitors, and website to find the best keywords for ranking on Google, delivering expert-level, well-researched articles that promote your company to customers.

With Tely AI, you can:

• Publish up to 60 articles a month

• See Google index results in just 2 weeks

• Enjoy full automation for writing, SEO, and publishing

• Work in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages

Create your first article for free.

AMAZON

🗣️ Amazon’s new voice model, video upgrade 

Image source: AWS

The Rundown: Amazon just launched Nova Sonic, a new voice model for human-like voice interactions — alongside an upgraded Nova Reels 1.1 video model with upgraded quality and generation length.

The details:

• Nova Sonic processes voice input and generates natural speech with a latency of 1.09 seconds, outperforming OpenAI's voice models by significant margins.

• Sonic achieved a 4.2% word error rate across multiple languages and showed 46.7% better accuracy than GPT-4o for noisy, multi-speaker environments.

• Reel 1.1 extends video generations to 2 minutes through both automated and manual modes, letting users craft content shot-by-shot or with single prompts.

• Both models are available through Amazon Bedrock, with Nova Sonic costing approximately 80% less than comparable OpenAI options.

Why it matters: Amazon's one-two punch in voice and video shows the retail giant getting serious about the genAI race across the board. With its Act agentic browser tool, Alexa+’s AI infusion, and other efforts, Amazon is making a stronger case than ever for developers to give their AI stack a look over more popular competitors.

AI TRAINING

🎨 Create eye-catching thumbnails with GPT-4o

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use ChatGPT's native image generation to create custom YouTube thumbnails instantly — using just simple text prompts, reference images, or even rough sketches.

Step-by-step:

1. Upload a reference image of yourself or the main subject in ChatGPT, then write a detailed prompt describing exactly what you want in your thumbnail.

2. For style consistency, upload both a reference thumbnail you like and your subject image, then ask the AI to maintain the style while swapping elements.

3. Refine results with follow-up prompts or use the edit feature to highlight areas needing changes.

4. For maximum creative control, upload a rough sketch showing your layout, along with any reference images you want to include.

Pro tip: You can also use an image expander tool like Canva or Adobe’s Generative Fill to adjust your thumbnail for perfect YouTube dimensions (16:9).

PRESENTED BY SANA

🦾 AI that works as hard as you do

The Rundown: Sana’s AI agent platform gives your team one powerful interface to build and deploy AI agents grounded in your company’s knowledge — helping tackle complex challenges with intelligence that never stops working.

Sana empowers your team to:

• Build custom AI agents for any department—no coding required

• Unify all your AI tools through one consistent, intuitive platform

• Integrate easily into your current systems with enterprise-grade security

Put your AI to work today.

THINKING MACHINE LABS

🧠 Murati’s Thinking Machines adds ex-OpenAI talent

Image source: Thinking Machines

The Rundown: Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, just added ex-OpenAI CRO Bob McGrew and GPT architect Alec Radford to its list of advisors—bringing the number of OpenAI alumni on its roster to nearly half.

The details:

• 19 of 38 listed ‘Founding Team’ members have previously worked at OpenAI, including OpenAI’s co-founder John Schulman, leading as chief scientist.

• McGrew departed OpenAI in September after eight years, joining Murati just months after announcing a break from the industry.

• Radford was pivotal in creating OpenAI’s GPT technology and left the company last year to pursue independent research.

• The startup was recently reportedly seeking to raise as much as $1B at a $9B valuation, though little has been revealed on its potential products or roadmaps.

Why it matters: Murati continues to gather her former colleagues, with a roster including many of the minds behind ChatGPT, DALL-E, and other AI breakthroughs. With all of the competition we already have in the AI space, there are still labs from multiple OpenAI leaders in Murati and Ilya Sutskever (SSI) quietly waiting in the wings.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 👁️ Gemini Live - Real-time visual AI on Android devices and via screen sharing

• 🎥 Runway Gen-4 Turbo - Produce 10-second videos in just 30 seconds

• 🔎 AI Mode - AI search with expanded visual and multilingual capabilities

• 🤝 ElevenLabs MCP - Create automated voice agents on other platforms

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🧩 Soundhound AI - Senior Director, Project Governance

• 🤝 Parloa - Partner Marketing Manager

• 📊 Deepmind - Senior Applied Data Scientist

• 🧮 Databricks - Accounting Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

NVIDIA released Nemotron-Ultra, a 253B parameter open-source reasoning model that surpasses DeepSeek R1 and Llama 4 Behemoth across key benchmarks.

OpenAI published its EU Economic Blueprint, proposing a €1B AI accelerator fund and aiming to train 100M Europeans in AI skills by 2030.

Deep Cogito emerged from stealth with Cogito v1 Preview, a family of open-source models that it claims beats the best available open models of the same size.

Google rolled out its Deep Research feature on Gemini 2.5 Pro, claiming superior research report generation over rivals and adding new audio overview capabilities.

Chinese scientists used the Origin Wukong quantum computer to finetune 1B-parameter models, seeing 15% training improvements and 76% reduction in model size.

AI2 and Google Cloud announced a $20M joint investment to power and accelerate AI-driven cancer breakthroughs with the Cancer AI Alliance’s research platform.

Snapchat debuted Sponsored AI Lenses for brands, using AI-powered advertising to transform users into personal brand moments.

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.

🤝 Share The Rundown, get rewards

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

See you soon,

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Colossal Biosciences has done the unthinkable: it has brought back dire wolves—extinct for over 12,000 years—using advanced gene editing.

While the breakthrough is a testament to biotech’s power, it’s also stirring deep ethical questions—are we jumpstarting nature’s ancestral heartbeat or playing with fire?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Colossal’s ‘de-extinction’ of the dire wolf

• Apple takes a $638B dive as tariffs ramp up

• Waymo faces backlash over in-car cameras

• SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA win secret launch deal

• Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES

🐺 Colossal’s ‘de-extinction’ of the dire wolf

Image source: Colossal Biosciences

The Rundown: Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotech firm, just announced its successful "de-extinction" of the dire wolf, a species that has been extinct for ~12,500 years, using advanced genetic engineering and cloning techniques.

The details:

• Colossal extracted DNA from a 13,000-year-old dire wolf tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull, sequenced, and compared it to modern-day gray wolves.

• Then, through CRISPR editing, scientists made 15 ancient gene edits and 5 modern edits to gray wolf cells—including adaptations for size and musculature.

• The edited cells were cloned via somatic cell nuclear transfer and implanted into dog surrogates, resulting in dire wolf pups: Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.

• The three pups (or genetically modified gray wolves) currently live on a private preserve in the northern U.S. and are being monitored for health and behavior.

Why it matters: While these dire wolves are not perfect replicas, they represent a leap in gene editing and interspecies cloning, with the startup next targeting to bring back the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. But “de-extinction” also raises ethical debate, with skeptics arguing that this money could be better spent preserving at-risk species.

APPLE

🍏 Apple takes a $638B dive as tariffs ramp up

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: With Trump’s tariffs set to take full effect on Wednesday, April 9, Apple has endured one of its worst weeks ever—with shares plummeting 20% in just three days and wiping out $638B from its market value.

The details:

• Under the new reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. will heavily tax products coming in from different countries, including Indian goods at 26% and Chinese at 54%.

• Apple, which assembles iPhones in both these countries, is said to have flown plane-loads of products to stockpile in the U.S. and beat the tariff deadline.

• Foxconn, Apple’s key supplier, is also shifting its iPhone production from China to India to produce 25-30M iPhones this year, compared to 12–13M last year.

• Further, the iPhone maker is also reportedly considering expanding its manufacturing capacity in Brazil to pay lower import duties.

Why it matters: While companies like Tesla and Dell are also feeling the pressure, Apple is particularly vulnerable as 90% of its iPhones are made in China. Analysts warn that absorbing these costs could slash earnings per share by 15%. Or consumers may end up footing the bill—paying up to $2,300 for flagship models.

WAYMO

🚘 Waymo faces backlash over in-car cameras

Image source: Waymo

The Rundown: Waymo has been trying to quell concerns about the use of videos taken by in-vehicle cameras after a leaked draft policy said that the Alphabet-owned robotaxi business would use the data to sell ads and train its AI models.

The details:

• Reliable software researcher Jane Manchun Wong uncovered the draft, which stated that Wamyo could share personal rider data to tailor ads and services.

• The draft included provisions allowing California users to opt out under the state’s privacy law, including blocking the use of data sharing.

• The policy has since sparked backlash over privacy concerns, as critics flag risks of surveillance and data exploitation in shared autonomous vehicles.

• Waymo denied the policy’s accuracy, calling it just a "placeholder text" and clarifying that no changes to its privacy practices were planned.

Why it matters: The draft lacked clarity on what specific data (e.g., facial expressions, body language) would be collected or how it would be shared with Alphabet subsidiaries. Waymo has been trying to calm the storm, but the issue surely raises flags about privacy and security as AI companies try to feed their models with as much data as possible.

SPACE TECH

🚀 SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA win secret launch deal

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and the United Launch Alliance from Boeing and Lockheed Martin just won a $13.5B launch contract from the U.S. Space Force to send the Pentagon's newest wave of spy satellites into space.

The details:

• SpaceX secured the largest share of the contract, bagging $5.9B for 28 launches (60% of missions) using its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

• Blue Origin grabbed $2.4B for seven missions with its New Glenn rocket, despite the vehicle having only completed a single test flight in January 2025. 

• ULA’s Vulcan rocket, certified in March 2025 after its 2024 debut, will handle 19 missions, including the launch of GPS satellites and classified payloads.

• In all, the contracts will support 54 high-priority launches for satellites and classified payloads, with missions projected to occur between 2027 and 2032.

Why it matters: The contract, which nearly doubles the prior launch rate, signals America’s push to counter China’s growing spy satellite fleet. Plus, the move breaks SpaceX and ULA’s duopoly, bringing Blue Origin into the fold. However, the company still needs to prove its mettle with a second successful mission.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Meta is reportedly planning to build a $1B data center in central Wisconsin as part of its planned $65B investment to expand AI infrastructure.

Google DeepMind’s 145-page AI safety paper warns that human-level AGI could arrive by 2030 and lead to threats that can “permanently destroy humanity.”

Nintendo delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the U.S., originally scheduled to begin April 9, citing concerns over new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

The TikTok saga in the U.S. continues with President Donald Trump granting a second 75-day extension to delay enforcement of the ban until June 18.

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire io Products, the AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Major U.S. and UK publishers are running an ad urging lawmakers to implement protections against AI companies using copyrighted content without attribution or pay.

Honda is testing a system that combines solar energy and lunar water resources to generate oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity aboard the International Space Station.

Meta is launching Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger, a new feature that automatically enrolls young users into a version of the app with built-in protections.

Apple is reportedly planning a redesign for the iPhone to mark its 20th anniversary in 2027 — with a new Pro model that will make more extensive use of glass.

Meta ended its third-party fact-checking program across its U.S. platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, on April 7, shifting to a user-driven Community Notes system.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Join our next live workshop

Join our next special workshop this Tuesday at 4 PM EST to learn how to create custom AI-powered workflows with Nick Huber, Ecosystems Lead at Poe.

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. Apple's legendary design wizard and OpenAI's visionary CEO have been quietly building the next generation of AI devices — and now, their creations might become an official part of the OpenAI family.

With concepts like "phones without screens" in development and former Apple execs on the design front, could an OpenAI device be the 'iPhone moment' that AI hardware desperately needs?

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI eyes Jony Ive's AI device startup

• Google expands Gemini Live video features

• Build an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

• Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🎯 OpenAI eyes Jony Ive's AI device startup

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire io Products, a secretive AI hardware startup led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, potentially valuing the company at over $500M.

The details:

• io Products is reportedly developing AI-powered personal devices and household products, including a "phone without a screen" concept.

• Ive and Altman began collaborating over a year ago, with Altman closely involved in the product development and the duo seeking to raise $1B.

• Several prominent former Apple executives, including Tang Tan (who previously led iPhone hardware design) and Evans Hankey, have also joined the project.

• The device in question is reportedly built by io Products, designed by Ive’s studio LoveFrom, and powered by OpenAI’s AI models.

Why it matters: While OpenAI's acquisition of an Altman-associated startup would come with its drama, the AI leader has repeatedly expressed interest in hardware. A unique, powerful OpenAI wearable or device would potentially be an ‘iPhone’ moment for AI hardware, especially as attempts from others have left plenty to be desired.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

🪄 Turn startup struggles into strategic wins

The Rundown: Every startup journey has bumps — but some are avoidable. Hear from startup veterans Shaan Puri (My First Million), Chase Lee (Trustpage, acquired by Vanta), and Travis Good (Workstreet) about what went wrong and what ultimately went right, and gain insider knowledge that could change your company’s future.

In this live session with Vanta, you’ll learn:

• How to sidestep costly early mistakes

• Tactical strategies for building your initial team and culture

• Proven methods to navigate uncertainty with confidence

Reserve your spot for April 24th at 1 PM ET.

GOOGLE

👁️ Google expands Gemini Live video features

Image source: Google

The Rundown: Google just announced an expanded rollout of Gemini Live's “Project Astra” capabilities, bringing real-time visual AI features to more Android devices and introducing new ways to interact with the AI through video and screen sharing.

The details:

• The feature allows users to have multilingual conversations with Gemini about anything they see and hear through their phone's camera or via screen sharing.

• The feature is rolling out today to all Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 devices, with Samsung offering it at no additional cost to their flagship users.

• Initial testing revealed the current "live" feature works more like enhanced Google Lens snapshots rather than continuous video analysis shown in demos.

• Project Astra was initially revealed at Google I/O last May, with the feature rolling out for the first time last month to Advanced subscribers.

Why it matters: AI continues to gain more capabilities to see and understand the world around us — and while this implementation may not be the full Astra we initially saw, real-time visual analysis is coming quickly. Imagining this tech tied into smartglasses or wearables might be the ultimate final form that unlocks fully context-aware assistants.

AI TRAINING

🤖 Build an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how Zapier Agents can help you create an AI-powered sales representative that automatically filters website leads and drafts follow-up emails for qualified prospects.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Zapier Agents and select “+ New Agent”.

2. Give a name, a short description, and click on “Behavior” to connect Google Forms as the trigger for your agent to capture new responses.

3. Use natural language to tell your agent how to identify quality leads based on email domains and other factors.

4. Configure your agent to automatically create personalized email drafts in Gmail for qualified leads.

Pro tip: We just did an extensive workshop on building Zapier Agents at The Rundown University, led by Jane Zhang and Anna Marie Clifton from the Zapier team.

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.

SHOPIFY

🧠 Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

Image source: Getty Images

The Rundown: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke released an internal memo mandating AI proficiency across the commerce giant, declaring that teams must prove AI can’t do the job before seeking additional resources and making AI a “baseline expectation.”

The details:

• The memo establishes "reflexive AI usage" as a baseline expectation for all employees, with AI competency now included in performance evaluations.

• Shopify is providing access to AI tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude for code development, along with dedicated channels for sharing AI best practices.

• Lütke said that teams must now demonstrate why AI solutions can't handle work before being approved for new hires or resources.

• He also described AI as a multiplier that has enabled top performers to accomplish "implausible tasks" and achieve "100X the work”.

Why it matters: The memo highlights a growing divide in corporate AI strategies — while some are banning AI entirely or moving slowly, forward-thinking firms like Shopify are treating AI adoption as non-negotiable. Its use is also clearly becoming a direct alternative to hiring, with Lutke asking what AI can handle before adding more humans.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🦙 Llama 4 - Meta’s newest family of open-weights AI models

• 🤖 Microsoft Copilot - New personalization upgrades and agentic actions

• 📸 Midjourney V7 - New Draft Mode for fast, voice-enabled creation

• 🧠 EverTutor Live - AI-powered voice tutor that teaches, adapts, and interacts

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 💻 UiPath - Software Engineer II

• 🩺 Hippocratic AI - Clinical Customer Success Executive

• 💼 OpenAI - Director of Finance, Strategic Initiatives

• 📣 Cresta - Senior Demand Generation Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

Meta GenAI lead Ahmad Al-Dahle posted a response to claims the company trained Llama 4 on test sets to improve benchmarks, saying that is “simply not true.”

Runway released Gen-4 Turbo, a faster version of its new AI video model that can produce 10-second videos in just 30 seconds.

Google expanded AI Mode to more users and added multimodal search, enabling users to ask complex questions about images using Gemini and Google Lens.

Krea secured $83M in funding, with the company aiming to add audio and enterprise features to its unified AI creative platform.

Hundreds of leading U.S. media orgs launched a "Support Responsible AI" campaign calling for government regulation of AI models' use of copyrighted content.

ElevenLabs introduced new MCP server integration, enabling platforms like Claude to access AI voice capabilities and create automated agents.

University of Missouri researchers developed a starfish-shaped wearable heart monitor that achieves 90% accuracy in detecting heart issues with AI-powered sensors.

COMMUNITY

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

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Kawasaki just unveiled Corleo — a rideable, wolf-inspired robot concept that uses AI to climb rough terrain, power through snow, and even leap into the air.

The wild concept looks like something straight out of a video game, but Kawasaki believes it could be a practical mode of transport in the coming decades. Is this a preview of how we’ll get around circa 2050?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Kawasaki’s rideable, all-terrain wolf robot

• Hyundai buying Boston Dynamics’ robots

• MIT’s inflatable robot for search & rescue

• H2 Clipper to build airships with bots

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

KAWASAKI

🐺 Kawasaki’s rideable, all-terrain wolf robot

Image source: Kawasaki

The Rundown: Kawasaki just unveiled Corleo — a wolf-inspired, four-legged robot concept that blends cutting-edge robotics, AI, and clean energy to reimagine the future of off-road mobility and sustainable human transportation.

The details:

• Corleo has four independently powered robotic legs that can swiftly move to jump over obstacles and adapt to rocky, steep terrain, snow, or grass.

• A 150cc hydrogen engine under the hood generates electricity to drive the machine’s legs, emitting only water vapor as a byproduct.

• Riders can control Corleo by shifting their body weight, which is detected by sensors integrated into its footpegs and handlebars.

• The robot also has a heads-up display (HUD) that provides real-time feedback on hydrogen levels, navigation, and movement stability.

Why it matters: Unveiled at the Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025, this wild-looking concept offers a new way of thinking about clean mobility and robots. While Kawasaki says it doesn’t see this becoming “commercialized” until 2050, Corleo not only looks insanely fun but could also help in exploration, rescue operations, and beyond.

BOSTON DYNAMICS

🤝 Hyundai buying Boston Dynamics’ robots

Image source: Boston Dynamics

The Rundown: Hyundai announced that it plans to buy “tens of thousands” of robots from its subsidiary Boston Dynamics over the coming years—including both Atlas humanoids and Spot robot dogs.

The details:

• Spot, already used in Hyundai plants, will run inspections and predictive maintenance, while Atlas will debut in factories this year, handling assembly.

• The partnership aligns with Hyundai’s broader $21B U.S. investment plan, which includes $6B for AI innovation and partnerships.

• Boston Dynamics will integrate Nvidia’s newly launched Isaac GR00T N1 AI models into Atlas before deploying it in Hyundai’s plants.

• The carmaker bought 80% of Boston Dynamics from Softbank in 2021, valuing the robotics firm at $1.1B.

Why it matters: Leveraging its global manufacturing scale and Boston Dynamics’ cutting-edge AI and robotics, Hyundai aims to build a vibrant U.S. robotics ecosystem and help Boston Dynamics scale — positioning both companies as dominant global players in automation and robotics technology.

MIT

🤖 MIT’s inflatable robot for search & rescue

Image source: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The Rundown: MIT researchers developed a new soft robot, dubbed SPROUT, to transform urban search-and-rescue operations with its ability to mimic a growing vine and squeeze through otherwise impossibly tight spaces.

The details:

• SPROUT uses an inflatable tube made of airtight fabric to navigate narrow, unstable spaces in collapsed structures. 

• Controlled via joysticks, it extends up to 10 ft (with plans for 25 ft) through pneumatic air pressure, bending around obstacles and squeezing through gaps.

• Equipped with a camera, sensors, and a real-time display, the robot maps debris-filled environments and identifies safe ingress routes for rescuers.

• Researchers say this low-cost, lightweight system overcomes limitations of existing search and rescue tools, such as rigid cameras or expensive robots.

Why it matters: SPROUT’s soft, inflatable design allows it to navigate tight, unstable spaces by bending around obstacles and squeezing through gaps as narrow as a few centimeters. But researchers say its major benefit over other search and rescue bots is its low cost, making it affordable to maintain for underfunded emergency teams.

H2 CLIPPER

🛩️ H2 Clipper to build airships with bots

Image source: H2 Clipper

The Rundown: California-based aerospace company H2 Clipper plans to replace its assembly lines with swarm robots for building its massive hydrogen airships—and its latest patent, granted last week, is a big step toward making that happen.

The details:

• The tech replaces fixed infrastructure with autonomous and semi-autonomous robots that perform airframe assembly, installations, and quality inspections.

• The robotic swarms—comprising ambulatory and floor-mounted units—work in unison to co-construct massive exoskeletons.

• Machine learning and generative AI guide the swarms to self-correct errors, improve precision, and optimize workflows.

• H2 Clipper estimates this approach could reduce costs by 40% and production time by 60%, while eliminating risks to workers through remote supervision.

Why it matters: H2’s airships require massive hangars (1,500 feet long), but swarm robots can bypass this need with in-place construction—robots assemble structures horizontally or vertically without long assembly lines. The company also aims to license the tech to other manufacturers, marking a major shift in the aerospace industry.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Norway’s 1X released some new videos of its NEO Gamma humanoid autonomously picking up leaves and loading a dishwasher using a single neural network.

Westwood Robotics unveiled its next-gen THEMIS, a full-size humanoid with 40 degrees of freedom, enhanced 6-DoF arms, and 200 TOPS of onboard AI computing.

Singapore scientists reportedly deployed 10 insect-robot hybrids to assist earthquake rescue efforts in Myanmar following the deadly March 28 quake.

Serve Robotics announced that it is launching its autonomous sidewalk delivery robots in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area this year, in partnership with Uber Eats.

Evri, a major UK package delivery service, launched its first trial of dog-like electric delivery robots, developed by RIVR to work in tandem with humans.

Physical Intelligence and Agibot posted a clip showing new humanoid progress with Vision-Action-Language models autonomously performing diverse tasks.

Japanese researchers published a study revealing that when humanoids squint and furrow their brow when processing, they appear more relatable and “humanlike.”

USC ValeroLab researchers found in a new study that tactile sensors are less important than the order of learning experiences for robotic hands.

EPFL scientists aim to bio-mimic the workings of the brain of the common fruit fly in a digital robot to better understand how neural networks work.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink opened its patient registry to applicants worldwide this month, allowing individuals with quadriplegia to sign up to trial its brain-computer interface.

American YouTuber IShowSpeed, with 38 million YouTube subscribers, went viral in a livestream of him riding an EHang eVTOL air taxi in Shenzhen, China.

LG Electronics started pilot testing a commercial-grade robot vacuum cleaner that it developed with the Marriott Design Lab for use in Marriott hotels.

COMMUNITY

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See you soon,

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Meta’s hotly-anticipated Llama 4 family is here — with a surprise weekend release debuting new open-weights models with massive context windows and benchmark-beating performances.

With a 2T “Behemoth” still in training and claims of outperforming GPT-4.5, is this release a true next-gen step forward? Or will user experience tell a different story?

In today’s AI rundown:

• Meta launches Llama 4 model family

• Copilot’s new personalization upgrades

• Unlock the power of AI across your apps

• ‘AI 2027’ forecasts existential risks of ASI

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

🦙 Meta launches Llama 4 model family

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta just announced its Llama 4 family with multimodal capabilities and industry-leading context length—introducing new open-weights Scout and Maverick models and previewing a 2T parameter Behemoth model still in training.

The details:

• The 109B parameter Scout features a 10M token context window and can run on a single H100 GPU, surpassing Gemma 3 and Mistral 3 on benchmarks.

• The 400B Maverick brings a 1M token context window and beats both GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 Flash on key benchmarks while being more cost-efficient.

• Meta also previewed Llama 4 Behemoth, a 2T-parameter teacher model still in training that reportedly outperforms GPT-4.5, Claude 3.7, and Gemini 2.0 Pro.

• All models use a mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture, where specific experts activate for each token, reducing computation needs and inference costs.

• Scout and Maverick are available for immediate download and can also be accessed via Meta AI in WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

Why it matters: After DeepSeek R1 disrupted the open-source market earlier this year, Meta needed a strong response. Llama 4 represents a step up in efficiency, massive context handling, and multimodal capabilities — but questions remain on whether the models truly feel next-level despite the strong benchmarks.

TOGETHER WITH CONCIERGE

🔑 Unlock the power of AI across your apps

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With Concierge, you can:

• Instantly connect your favorite apps and get real-time answers based on your data

• Use top AI models (GPT, Claude, DeepSeek, etc.) without juggling multiple subscriptions

• Draft emails, update CRMs, create tickets, summarize notes, or do deep research — all with a single prompt

Try Concierge today and get AI to truly work for you.

MICROSOFT

🤖 Copilot’s new personalization upgrades

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft rolled out a major upgrade to Copilot, with new memory capabilities, web browsing actions, vision features, and a host of new tools designed to integrate more deeply into users' digital lives.

The details:

• Copilot can now remember conversations and personal details, creating individual profiles that learn preferences, routines, and important info.

• “Actions” enable Copilot to perform web tasks like booking reservations and purchasing tickets through partnerships with major retailers and services.

• Copilot Vision brings real-time camera integration to mobile devices, while a native Windows app can also now analyze on-screen content across apps.

• Other new productivity features include Pages for organizing research and content, an AI podcast creator, and Deep Research for complex research tasks.

Why it matters: Microsoft is taking Copilot in a similar direction to other competing assistants, pushing for a more proactive and personalized platform. But much of the updates have a consumer focus — and it’s not clear that users will flock to Microsoft over Google, OpenAI, Meta, and others for those types of non-work experiences.

AI TRAINING

💻 Implement the latest coding solutions with Claude

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Claude's new web search feature to find current coding solutions, library documentation, and best practices to solve programming problems with the most up-to-date information.

Step-by-step:

1. Head over to Claude and make sure web search is activated in your settings.

2. Describe your coding challenge clearly, including any specific requirements (e.g., "I need to implement secure password hashing in Python that meets 2025 standards").

3. Ask Claude to analyze and compare the different solutions found with pros and cons for your use case.

4. Request implementation help with code examples based on the most current best practices discovered during the search.

Pro tip: When working with open-source libraries, you can also ask Claude to search for any known security vulnerabilities or deprecation notices before implementing the solution in your production code.

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• Help shape how AI transforms marketing, technology, and beyond

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AI RESEARCH

🔮 ‘AI 2027’ forecasts existential risks of ASI

Image source: AI Futures Project

The Rundown: Former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo and the AI Futures Project published “AI 2027,” predicting advancement to superhuman AI within two years, potentially triggering an intelligence explosion with consequences for humanity.

The details:

• The report outlines a timeline starting with increasingly capable AI agents in 2025, evolving into superhuman coding systems and then full AGI by 2027.

• The paper details two scenarios: one where nations push ahead despite safety concerns, and another where a slowdown enables better safety measures.

• The authors project that superintelligence will achieve years of technological progress each week, leading to domination of the global economy by 2029.

• The scenarios highlight issues like geopolitical risks, AI’s deployment into military systems, and the need for understanding internal reasoning.

• Kokotajlo left OpenAI in 2024 and led the ‘Right to Warn’ open letter, speaking out against the AI labs’ lack of safety concerns and whistleblower protections.

Why it matters: While many dismiss AGI and ASI predictions, this forecast comes from researchers with direct, insider experience at leading AI labs. These scenarios suggest we may have only a brief window to ensure AI remains controllable before it surpasses our abilities — making current safety and policy decisions critically important.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🕺 DreamActor-M1 - Turn images into full-body animations for motion capture

• 📦 ‘Buy for Me’ - Amazon AI agent that makes purchases from other websites

• 🎥 Adobe Premiere Pro - Features like Generative Extend, Media Intelligence

• ✨ ActionKit - Add 1000+ integration actions to your AI agent

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 📑 The Rundown - Account Manager

• 🛠️ Cresta - Senior IT Engineer

• 🗂️ Deepmind - Administrative Business Partner

• 🤝 Horizon3 - Mid-Market Sales Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

Sam Altman revealed that OpenAI is changing its roadmap, with plans to release o3 and o4-mini in weeks and a “much better than originally thought” GPT-5 in months.

Midjourney rolled out V7, the company’s first major model update in a year, featuring upgrades to image quality, prompt adherence, and a voice-capable Draft mode.

OpenAI has reportedly explored acquiring Jony Ive and Sam Altman's AI hardware startup for over $500M, aiming to develop screenless AI-powered personal devices.

Microsoft showcased its game-generating Muse AI model’s capabilities with a playable (but highly limited) browser-based Quake II demo.

Anthropic Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan said in a new interview that Claude 4 will launch in the “next six months or so.”

A federal judge rejected OpenAI's motion to dismiss The NYT lawsuit, ruling the latter couldn't have known about ChatGPT infringement before the product's release.

COMMUNITY

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Join our next special workshop this Tuesday at 4 PM EST to learn how to create custom AI-powered workflows with Nick Huber, Ecosystems Lead at Poe.

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

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Silicon Valley startup Aetherflux, founded by Robinhood billionaire Baiju Bhatt, has just raised $50M to harvest solar energy in space and beam it back to Earth.

Using satellites and lasers to transmit power, the company says the idea — straight from Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi — taps into the sun’s boundless energy from space. But is this the next frontier in net-zero energy?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Space solar startup Aetherflux raises $50M

• Musk’s X to face $1B in fines from the EU

• Amazon makes last-minute bid to buy TikTok

• Meta’s $1K smart glasses with a screen

• Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AETHERFLUX

☀️ Space solar startup Aetherflux raises $50M

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Aetherflux, a space-based solar power startup founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, has raised $50M build a power grid in space to beam solar energy to Earth—with an additional $10M coming from Bhatt’s pocket.

The details:

• The California-based company aims to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that harvest solar energy, converting it to infrared laser beams.

• On the receiving end, small “ground stations” made up of photovoltaic arrays convert laser energy to electricity to be stored in batteries for later use.

• The first mission is set for 2026 using Apex Space’s Aries satellite bus to test end-to-end power transmission.

• The startup envisions small, portable ground stations capable of receiving power anywhere, making it ideal for disaster zones or military operations.

Why it matters: Aetherflux is a rising star among startups in the solar space sector, with the UK’s Space Solar too pushing for early demos and modular, rapid prototypes. Of course, transforming sci-fi concepts into reality won’t be easy, but Aetherflux has keen support from the U.S. military looking to power up its remote operations.

X/TWITTER

📱Musk’s X to face $1B in fines from the EU

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: European Union regulators are reportedly preparing to slap Elon Musk’s X with a hefty $1B fine for violating a landmark law on illicit content and disinformation.

The details:

• The fine could exceed $1B and include demands for product changes under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

• A two-year probe deemed X’s recommender algorithms and content moderation tools insufficient to counter hate speech and electoral interference.

• Regulators alleged failures in addressing illegal content and disinformation, including misuse of the “blue checkmark” verification system.

• X faces additional scrutiny for amplifying politically sensitive content, including a live stream featuring Germany’s far-right AfD leader in January.

Why it matters: The case marks the EU’s first major test of DSA enforcement against Big Tech, and Musk has said he will challenge any penalties—meaning a legal battle could have major implications for tech regulation. The EU is also preparing fines against Meta and Apple for violating its digital competition rules.

TIKTOK

 🤑 Amazon makes last-minute bid to buy TikTok

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: With only one day until the deadline for TikTok to spin off from its Chinese-owned ByteDance or else face a ban in the U.S., Amazon is reportedly making a bid to buy the platform.

The details:

• Amazon submitted its bid this week to acquire TikTok, but it is rumored to be not taken seriously due to its timing and lack of detailed plans.

• Analysts say Amazon’s bid shows an aim to tap into TikTok’s market segment, particularly through its e-commerce purchases via the TikTok Shop feature.

• Also in the running, crypto foundation Hbar and Zoop, a startup co-led by Stokely, submitted a last-minute joint proposal to purchase the app.

• Other bidders have reportedly included Blackstone, Andreessen Horowitz and Oracle, Perplexity, Project Liberty, MrBeast, Microsoft, and Rumble.

Why it matters: Saturday, April 5, is the new deadline for TikTok to be sold off or face a ban, after President Donald Trump extended the original January 19 deadline set in 2024 by a bipartisan law. Trump has, however, signalled optimism about a deal and keeping TikTok “alive” for its 170M U.S. users.

META

👓 Meta’s $1K smart glasses with a screen

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta is reportedly set to launch its “Hypernova” smart glasses, a premium AR-enabled device featuring a built-in screen and hand-gesture controls, later this year, with fresh details out about what the glasses may look like.

The details:

• Bloomberg reports that they will feature a monocular display in the lower-right corner of the right lens to show notifications, maps, and app interfaces.

• Hypernova will also run a customized Android OS for apps for photos, videos, and navigation, while integrating Meta’s AI assistant for voice commands.

• Paired with a Ceres neural wristband, users can scroll menus or select items via gestures like wrist rotations or finger pinches. 

• Price is expected to be from $1K to $1.4K, a big step up from its Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which start at $299 and have been a surprise hit.

Why it matters: While the Hypernova glasses are still months away from being introduced and that plans could change, Meta is reportedly hoping its built-in display smart glasses will give the iPhone a run for its money. Samsung is also finalizing its lightweight AR smart glasses with a built-in display and AI features for later this year.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Intel is reportedly forming a strategic partnership with chipmaking rival TSMC in a deal that would create a joint operation to run its manufacturing facilities.

Zelle, the popular peer-to-peer payment service used by 150M people, has shut down its standalone app as of April 1.

TikTok is facing a privacy fine exceeding €500M ($540M) from Ireland's Data Protection Commission for illegally transferring European users' data to China. 

Amazon is testing out a new AI shopping feature called “Buy for me” that lets users purchase products from third-party websites without leaving Amazon’s app.

Plaid, a fintech company specializing in connecting bank accounts to financial applications, has raised $575M for a valuation of $6.1B.  

Amazon is expected to launch the first batch of what will be 3,200 Project Kuiper space internet satellites next week, set to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

TikTok is shutting down Notes, its Instagram-style photos-sharing app on May 8, citing that “all related features will no longer be available.”

AI-powered data security company Cyberhaven has raised $100M in Series D funding for a valuation of $1B.

Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant is reportedly being transformed into a $10B natural gas-powered AI data center.

Amazon is introducing a new AI feature called “Recaps” for Kindle users that generates series recaps to assist readers in catching up on previously read books.

Samsung is delaying the launch of its ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge, originally slated for April, to May 13 due to reported technical issues.

COMMUNITY

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

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Desperate times call for surprising partnerships, with struggling Intel reportedly nearing a strategic AI chip manufacturing alliance with longtime rival TSMC.

As the tech giant looks to stabilize after heavy losses, is this partnership the beginning of a new semiconductor era in the U.S. — or the final chapter of Intel's legacy?

Reminder: Our next workshop is today at 4 PM EST — attend and learn how to use GPT-4o’s viral image skills effectively in your own work!

In today’s AI rundown:

• Intel, TSMC near historic chip manufacturing partnership

• Adobe launches AI video extension tool in Premiere Pro

• Transferring styles between images with GPT-4o

• Study: AI models often hide their true reasoning

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

INTEL & TSMC

🤝 Intel, TSMC near historic chip manufacturing partnership

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: Intel is reportedly forming a strategic partnership with chipmaking rival TSMC, according to a report from The Information — in a deal that would create a joint operation to run the struggling U.S. semiconductor leader’s manufacturing facilities.

The details:

• The White House reportedly brokered discussions between the two rivals, with TSMC potentially acquiring a 20% stake in the new venture.

• Instead of a cash investment, TSMC will contribute its manufacturing expertise and training programs to help revitalize Intel's production capabilities.

• The arrangement faces internal resistance from Intel executives concerned about layoffs and the future of Intel's own manufacturing tech.

• Newly appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has pushed for major changes to the company's manufacturing approach, following losses totaling $16B in 2024.

Why it matters: Intel is turning to one of its biggest rivals to try and revitalize business. Gaining access to TSMC's world-leading manufacturing techniques could provide a major lifeline for the struggling chipmaker, while TSMC secures a stronger foothold in the U.S. during a time of increasing geopolitical tensions around tech supply chains.

TOGETHER WITH INNOVATING WITH AI

💼 Start your career as an AI Consultant

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

The program offers:

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

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

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

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

ADOBE

🎬 Adobe launches AI video extension tool in Premiere Pro

Image source: Adobe

The Rundown: Adobe just released its first Firefly-powered AI feature in Premiere Pro called Generative Extend, allowing editors to automatically extend video and audio clips in 4K quality — coming alongside new AI search and translation capabilities.

The details:

• The new Generative Extend tool lets editors lengthen video and audio clips, with AI filling in the extra frames to create seamless extensions.

• The tool now supports 4K resolution and vertical video formats, and can extend ambient audio up to ten seconds independently or two seconds with video.

• A Media Intelligence search panel IDs content like people, objects, and camera angles within clips, enabling users to search footage via natural language.

• The new Caption Translation feature instantly converts subtitles into 27 different languages, removing the need for manual translations.

Why it matters: Rather than focusing on full video generations, Adobe’s targeted AI integrations address specific pain points in professional workflows. Tools like extending clips without reshooting, quickly finding footage, and instantly translating captions represent major workflow shifts — saving time while still maintaining creative control.

AI TRAINING

🎨 Transferring styles between images with GPT-4o

The Rundown: ChatGPT’s new native image generation feature can transfer styles between images, allowing you to easily apply the aesthetic of one image to another for striking results.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit ChatGPT and select “Create Image” from the menu options.

2. Upload both your style reference image (the look you want to have as inspiration) and your content image (the one you want to transform).

3. Craft a specific prompt like: "Apply the visual style, lighting, and composition of the first image to the second image."

4. Review the generated result and refine with follow-up instructions if needed.

Pro tip: For best results, be very specific about which style elements you want transferred (colors, lighting, composition) and choose reference images with distinctive visual characteristics.

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AI RESEARCH

🤔 Study: AI models often hide their true reasoning

Image source: Reve / The Rundown AI

The Rundown: A new study from Anthropic's Alignment Science Team found that AI models frequently conceal their true reasoning processes when explaining answers to a user, raising concerns about our ability to monitor and understand AI decision-making.

The details:

• The research evaluated Claude 3.7 Sonnet and DeepSeek R1 on their chain-of-thought faithfulness, gauging how honestly they explain reasoning steps.

• Models were provided hints like user suggestions, metadata, or visual patterns, with the CoT checked for admission of using them when explaining answers.

• Reasoning models performed better than earlier versions, but still hid their actual reasoning up to 80% of the time in testing.

• The study also found models were less faithful in explaining their reasoning on more difficult questions than simpler ones.

Why it matters: CoT monitoring has emerged as a key mechanism in detecting AI’s processes, but if models aren’t reliably expressing their actual reasoning (even for simple decision-making), how can we trust it to reveal more complex, potentially catastrophic behavior? AI’s ‘black box’ still appears far from being fully dissected.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 📚 Claude for Education - AI for higher ed, with a new ‘Learning Mode’ for students

• 🤖 Devin 2.0 - AI software engineer, now with multiple AI agent capabilities

• 🌊 Windsurf Wave 6 - Latest IDE update with app deploys, additional context and improved MCP support

• 🎥 Video Re-style - Change the style of any video while maintaining consistent movement

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🧮 Anthropic - Data Operations Manager

• 🗂️ xAI - Executive Assistant

• 🎨 OpenAI - Design Director, UX/UI

• 📈 Meta - Business Development Manager

📰 Everything else in AI today

Former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo published ‘AI 2027’, a new scenario forecast of how superhuman AI will impact the world over the next decade.

OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap revealed that over 700M images have been created in the first week of 4o’s image release by 130M+ users — with India now ChatGPT’s fastest growing market.

Runway is raising $308M in new funding that values the AI video startup at $3B, coming on the heels of its recent Gen-4 model release.

A new report from the U.N. estimates that 40% of global jobs will be impacted by AI, with the sector expected to become a nearly $5B global market by the 2030s.

Bytedance researchers released DreamActor-M1, a framework that turns images into full-body animations for motion capture.

OpenAI’s Startup Fund made its first cybersecurity investment, co-leading a $43M Series A round for Adaptive Security and its AI-powered platform that simulates and trains against AI-enabled attacks and threats.

Spotify unveiled new AI-powered ad creation tools, allowing marketers to create scripts and voiceovers for audio spots directly in its Ad Manager platform.

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