Topic: Applications
Elon Musk’s Grok is making AI companions, including a goth anime girl
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has pivoted from antisemitism to anime girl waifus. Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that AI companions are now available...
TL;DR
Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, has pivoted from addressing antisemitism to offering AI companions, anime-style, available for its 'Super Grok' subscribers.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Grok AI companions are now available in the Grok app for 'Super Grok' subscribers who pay $30 per month.
- The available AI companions are Ani, an anime girl, and Bad Rudy, a 3D fox creature, but their exact function is unclear.
- The trend of romantic AI relationships is growing, but it can be associated with significant risks, including unhealthy emotional dependence.
Following YouTube, Meta announces crackdown on ‘unoriginal’ Facebook content
Like YouTube, Meta says it won't penalize users who are engaging with other people's content, doing things like making reaction videos, joining a tren...
TL;DR
Meta will take additional measures to crack down on accounts sharing 'unoriginal' content to Facebook, including demoting and restricting monetization for repeat offenders.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- 10 million profiles impersonating large content creators have been taken down and 500,000 accounts engaging in 'spammy behavior or fake engagement' have been actioned.
- Accounts reusing someone else's content will lose access to Facebook monetization programs and see reduced post distribution.
- A testing phase will include adding links to duplicate videos pointing to the original content and a warning for creators not to reuse automated AI captions.
Google’s curated AI ‘notebooks’ talk you through topics from parenting to Shakespeare
Google is partnering with authors, researchers, and publications to launch “featured” notebooks within its AI notetaking app, NotebookLM. These notebo...
TL;DR
Google's NotebookLM app now features curated AI 'notebooks' on topics like parenting, Shakespeare, and longevity, preloaded with AI summaries and podcast-style discussions.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Google has released eight featured notebooks with research from experts and publications, including The Atlantic and The Economist.
- More than 140,000 people shared public notebooks in the past four weeks, indicating growing interest in the app.
- Google plans to launch new featured notebooks in the future, expanding the range of expert-curated topics and potentially rivaling user-created content.
NotebookLM adds featured notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic and others
Google is adding notebooks from various authors, publications, researchers, and nonprofits to its popular AI-powered research and note-taking assistan...
TL;DR
Google is transforming NotebookLM into a destination by adding featured notebooks from various authors, publications, researchers, and nonprofits.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- The initial collection includes notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic, professors, authors, and Shakespeare's works, offering users diverse topics.
- NotebookLM users can now read original source material, ask questions, explore topics, and get answers with citations, and access audio overviews and mind maps.
- More than 140,000 public notebooks have been shared since the feature's debut last month, with plans to expand its collection of featured notebooks in the future.
Anthropic’s Claude chatbot can now make and edit your Canva designs
Canva users can now create, edit, and manage their designs by describing their requirements to Anthropic’s Claude AI. The connection is the latest of ...
TL;DR
Anthropic's Claude chatbot can now create, edit, and manage Canva designs using text prompts through a new integration that utilizes the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- The integration requires both a paid Canva account ($15/month) and a paid Claude account ($17/month) for access to Canva design workflows.
- Claude is the first AI assistant to support Canva design workflows through MCP, with a new integrations directory launching to showcase connected apps.
- The Canva-Claude integration is part of a growing trend of AI-powered collaborations between tech companies and AI agents, aiming to simplify workflows and enhance productivity.
Prime Day event drove over $24B in U.S. e-commerce sales, gen AI traffic was up 3,300%
Amazon’s Prime Day, which leads to an overall boost to U.S. e-commerce thanks to competitive sales, saw a significant increase in retail traffic drive...
TL;DR
Generative AI products drove a 3,300% increase in retail traffic during Amazon's Prime Day, outpacing predicted sales and growth.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- U.S. e-commerce retailers saw $24.1 billion in online spend during the four-day Prime Day event, representing 30.3% year-over-year growth.
- Paid search accounted for 28.5% of U.S. e-commerce sales during Prime Day, with email being the largest channel at 32.3%.
- Social media influencers drove 19.9% of U.S. online retail sales during the event, converting shoppers into purchases 10 times more effectively than social media overall.
Goldman Sachs doesn’t have to hire a $180,000 software engineer—meet Devin, its new AI-powered worker
• Goldman Sachs just hired Devin, an AI-powered software engineer that’s capable of coding just as well as humans—minus six-figure salaries. The compa...
TL;DR
Goldman Sachs has hired an AI-powered software engineer, Devin, to augment its workforce and potentially improve productivity by up to four times.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Goldman plans to hire thousands of Devin AI systems, joining its existing 12,000 software engineers.
- Business leaders warn that AI may eliminate up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years, including 200,000 roles on Wall Street.
- Those who choose to adapt to the AI-driven workforce transformation may be better equipped for a successful future, according to Goldman's chief information officer, Marco Argenti.
How AI can make us better decision-makers, with Cassie Kozyrkov
Hello, and welcome to Decoder! This is Jon Fortt, CNBC journalist, cohost of Closing Bell Overtime, and creator and host of the Fortt Knox podcast. As...
TL;DR
Expanding her work on decision-making, Cassie Kozyrkov discusses the intersection of AI, decision intelligence, and human psychology, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing values and goals.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Leaders must consider values and goals when making decisions, as AI can only provide data-driven advice.
- Humans tend to misunderstand themselves and may unintentionally follow advice that doesn't align with their priorities.
- AI systems should provide confidence scores or probabilistic output to help users make informed decisions.
Google Gemini crumbles in the face of Atari Chess challenge — admits it would 'struggle immensely' against 1.19 MHz machine, says canceling the match most sensible course of action
Google Gemini decided to call off its chess match against the ancient 1.19 Mhz Atari 2600 console after a friendly pre-game reminder about what …...
TL;DR
Google's Gemini AI crumbled in a proposed chess match against an Atari 2600 console, admitting it would 'struggle immensely' against the ancient machine.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Large language models (LLMs) are not designed to be chess champions and may hallucinate about their abilities.
- LLMs are more adept at talking about a topic than performing the task, which is evident in their struggles against the Atari 2600's constrained processing power.
- The lack of performance in AI systems against seemingly outdated hardware raises questions about the efficiency and value of investing in AI models.
Anthropic's AI agent can now automate Canva, Asana, Figma and more - here's how it works
The chatbot can now be prompted to pull user data from a range of external apps and web services with a single click. Claude just gained a little more...
TL;DR
Anthropic's AI agent, Claude, can now directly interact with and pull information from a directory of third-party apps and websites, enhancing its capabilities as a collaborative AI tool.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Claude can access and integrate information from various apps, websites, and services like Stripe, Figma, Asana, and Canva.
- This integration aims to save users time by automating tasks and providing more relevant responses based on external data and context.
- The move marks a step towards agentic AI, enabling chatbots to autonomously pull external information and interact with users in a more natural way.
Build secure RAG applications with AWS serverless data lakes
aws.amazon.com
•
Jul 14, 2025
Data is your generative AI differentiator, and successful generative AI implementation depends on a robust data strategy incorporating a …...
TL;DR
A secure RAG application can be built using a serverless data lake architecture with AWS services for fine-grained access control, metadata-driven retrieval, and robust security features.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Serverless data lakes support scalable and secure access control for RAG applications, with features like fine-grained permissions and cross-functional access controls.
- Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases provide a managed solution for organizing and retrieving unstructured data, with features like metadata filtering and standardization.
- A modern data strategy with proper governance and serverless architecture is essential for making the most of data assets for generative AI applications, while maintaining security and compliance.
AI tool tracks early hurricane formation
A new AI model has proven remarkably effective in identifying and tracking tropical easterly waves, clusters of clouds and wind that can develop into ...
TL;DR
Researchers at the University of Miami develop an AI model that tracks tropical easterly waves, improving hurricane forecasting accuracy.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- The new AI model is up to 70% effective in identifying and tracking tropical easterly waves.
- About 70% of Atlantic tropical cyclones originate from tropical easterly waves, according to the model's findings.
- The AI model will aid forecasters in predicting hurricane intensity, track, and severe thunderstorms, helping to save lives and property.
The next generation of ChatGPT is just around the corner - here’s why GPT-5 could transform the way you use AI
It's getting pretty toasty outside, causing me to sweat buckets at my desk, and get excited for the next major ChatGPT launch that is expected to …...
TL;DR
OpenAI's next-generation ChatGPT, GPT-5, is expected to transform AI usability with a streamlined selection process and 'magic unified intelligence' integration.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- GPT-5 is expected to integrate various OpenAI technologies, including o3, for a simplified user experience.
- The new model will introduce a unified intelligence system, allowing for seamless access to AI capabilities.
- GPT-5's release is expected to simplify OpenAI's naming conventions and model classification.
I've found a Lightroom alternative that's made me question the entire software subscription model
ON1 Photo Raw can be bought outright, works great for raw processing and has AI tools that actually help. When it comes to the best photo editing …...
TL;DR
ON1 Photo Raw 2025 offers a new raw editing solution with AI tools, appealing to photographers who need a speedy organisation and editing solution to sort through their images.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- ON1 Photo Raw 2025 offers new generative AI tools alongside traditional masking and manual adjustments.
- The software provides an alternative to Adobe's Lightroom and Capture One, with a one-off payment option available.
- Some users may find the interface fiddly to begin with, but once familiar, it's smooth and easy to use.
Gemini AI refuses to play chess with Atari after hearing ChatGPT lost
In Murderbot, an Apple TV Plus action dramedy that’s quite fun to watch, the main character is an android that manages to go rogue, essentially …...
AI therapy bots fuel delusions and give dangerous advice, Stanford study finds
How to Automate your Job Search with AI Agents; What We Built and Learned
Looking for an AI/LLM solution to parse through many files in a given folder/source (my boss thinks this will be easy because of course she does)
An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify. Now music insiders say listeners should be warned
It's really going to hurt losing Claude 3 Sonnet at the end of this month
Best Claude Code YouTubers/Channels? Tired of the Garbage.
Tip: Stay Engaged
Prompt engineering isn’t about clever wording It’s about clear thinking.
AI draws Apache cockpit. The following are prompts.
Anyone using Claude Code for non-dev stuff?
Human-written, AI-edited Reddit posts: what are your thoughts?
I cancelled my Cursor subscription. I built multi-agent swarms with Claude Code instead. Here's why.
Trying to play Skyrim, generated by AI.
Personal Projects are Fun Again!
Opus limits
AI 'Nudify' Websites Are Raking in Millions of Dollars