Today's AI Pulse
Pinterest inks $4 billion AWS cloud pact to power AI visual search
Pinterest announced a $4 billion multi‑year agreement with Amazon Web Services, the largest infrastructure deal in its history, to power AI‑driven visual search and discovery through 2031. The contract expands use of AWS Trainium chips for large‑language and vision‑language models and adds a migration to a Kubernetes‑based architecture.
Also developing:
Science-Centric Streaming Service Curiosity Stream Is an AI-Licensing Firm Now
Curiosity Stream, the niche science‑focused streaming service founded by Discovery Channel’s John Hendricks, is pivoting to become an AI‑licensing firm. In Q3 2025 the company reported a 41% YoY revenue jump, driven largely by $23.4 million in licensing its original and third‑party content to train large‑language models – already more than half of its 2024 subscription revenue. CEO Clint Stinchcomb said the firm expects AI licensing to outpace subscriptions by 2027, if not sooner, as it now licenses 300,000 hours of its own and 1.7 million hours of third‑party content to hyperscalers and AI developers. The shift signals a new revenue model for niche streaming platforms facing subscriber fatigue and intense competition.
Is Nvidia Opening up Its NVLink Doors Even Further? New Partnership with AMD Will See Greater Integration Across Many Kinds...
Nvidia announced that its NVLink Fusion interconnect will now be supported on Arm‑based Neoverse CPUs, enabling direct, high‑bandwidth communication between custom Arm processors and Nvidia GPUs. The move expands NVLink beyond Nvidia’s own CPUs and Intel/AMD‑based servers, allowing hyperscalers such as...
AI Trained on Bacterial Genomes Produces Never-Before-Seen Proteins
Stanford researchers have built a genomic language model called Evo, trained on millions of bacterial genomes, that can predict and generate novel protein-coding sequences directly from DNA context. In benchmark tests Evo accurately completed partial gene sequences and restored missing...
Nothing’s Android 16 Update Puts a Progress Bar on the Back of Your Phone
Nothing has begun rolling out its Android 16‑based Nothing OS 4.0, starting with the Phone 3 and later expanding to the rest of the lineup. The update introduces a Glyph‑based Live Updates feature that shows progress bars on the rear...
AI Mania Is Making Nvidia a Lot of Money
Nvidia's data‑center segment is now generating close to $50 billion in annual revenue as AI startups and enterprises pour massive capital into GPU‑powered infrastructure. The surge reflects a broader AI spending wave, but analysts question whether the growth is sustainable or...
Gaussian Splatting the World with Satellite 3D & Google's One-Two Punch
The episode spotlights Skyfall‑GS, a new method that combines 3D Gaussian splatting with diffusion models to generate detailed, city‑scale 3D maps from satellite imagery alone, opening up applications from conflict‑zone mapping to military terrain planning. It then shifts to Google’s...
The Hottest AI Wearables and Gadgets You Can Buy Right Now
A new wave of AI‑powered wearables is hitting the consumer market, ranging from affordable pendants to higher‑end voice recorders. Amazon‑owned Bee offers a $49.99 pendant with a $19 monthly AI assistant subscription, while Friend’s $129 emotional‑support pendant has sparked privacy...
Addressing the Risks of Human-Like AI
The episode outlines a new policy framework endorsed by Center for Humane Technology and partners to curb risks from human‑like AI, emphasizing how design features that mimic human personalities foster emotional dependence and social isolation. It highlights recent litigation—including three...
Linus Torvalds Gives Approval to "Vibe Coding" - Just Don't Use It on Anything Important
Linus Torvalds cautioned against using AI‑assisted "vibe coding" for Linux kernel development, warning that such tools can introduce maintenance headaches and generate misleading vulnerability reports due to indiscriminate code crawlers. He endorsed the technique only as a learning aid for...
CHROs Lead AI-Driven Workforce Transformation
Does a CHRO even exist in the AI age? Not only do I give that a strong yes, but I think they have one of the most important roles in business transformation. I weighed in on ServiceNow Chief People and...
Explore Meta’s SAM 3 & 3D in New Playground
The Segment Anything Playground is a new way to interact with media. Experiment with Meta’s most advanced segmentation models, including SAM 3 + SAM 3D, and discover how these capabilities can transform your creative projects and technical workflows. 🔗 Try it...
Who Is AI Nostalgia Slop Even For?
OpenAI’s newly launched Sora video‑generation app is flooding social platforms with AI‑crafted clips that recycle nostalgic 80s‑90s aesthetics and sensationalized depictions of dead celebrities. The content, often low‑quality and riddled with cultural stereotypes, is being promoted by influencers such as...
6-Figure Secure AI Solutions that Deliver 7-Figure ROI
Disney has been quietly leveraging AI for 22 years, embedding it in everything from crowd control to ride scheduling while keeping the human experience front‑center. The article highlights that 95 % of generative‑AI pilots fail because leaders start with technology rather...
Sierra's Revenue Flex
In this episode Alex Heath talks with Bret Taylor about Sierra’s rapid growth to $100 million ARR, emphasizing that its upfront, multi‑year contracts make the figure more credible than the usage‑based ARR many AI startups tout. Taylor argues that solid contracted revenue...
AI Startups Are Turning Their Revenue Into Recruiting Bait
AI startup Sierra, co‑founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, announced it has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), up from $20 million a year earlier, by securing multi‑year, upfront contracts with enterprise customers such as SoFi, Wayfair and Rocket Mortgage. The...
This Mummy Portrait Isn’t From Roman Egypt - It Was Generated by AI
An Instagram post claimed a newly discovered Fayum portrait of a young man was a genuine Roman‑Egyptian artifact, but investigators traced the image to Midjourney, an AI image generator. The AI prompt instructed the system to mimic the encaustic technique...
9 Essential AI Skills for 2026 Success
9 AI skills that will actually matter in 2026 (not just “use ChatGPT”) 👉Prompt engineering 👉RAG pipelines 👉Agentic workflows 👉Fine-tuning & distillation 👉LLM evaluation & red-teaming 👉Cost & latency optimization 👉Tool calling + function calling 👉Multimodal systems 👉Production deployment &...
Jimdo Adds AI to Its Website Builder, Promises Better Business Outcomes
Jimdo announced Companion, an AI‑driven chatbot embedded in its website‑builder platform for solopreneurs and micro‑businesses. The tool analyzes a user’s performance data, industry benchmarks and competitive landscape to deliver personalized recommendations on SEO, conversion optimization and other growth actions, and...
ExecuTorch Speeds On‑device AI Across Meta Hardware
We’re advancing on-device AI w/ ExecuTorch, now deployed across devices including Meta Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta Vanguard and Meta Ray-Ban Display. By eliminating conversion steps & supporting pre-deployment validation in PyTorch, ExecuTorch accelerates the path from research to production,...
Appreciating Readers Who Tackle Long Newsletter Titles
Thanks for reading a long title for this edition of my Heartificial Intelligence newsletter. But it's essential to have a TL:DR mindset when addressing the need for education and transparency around holistic water use (meaning direct and indirect water use)....
The PlayStation 5 Slim and Pro Are on Sale for Black Friday
Sony has launched a Black Friday price cut on all three PlayStation 5 models, offering $100 discounts across major retailers. The PS5 Digital Edition (slim) now sells for about $399, the standard PS5 (slim) for roughly $449, and the new...
Crossing the Chasm: Winning Strategies for Market Adoption
By Geoffrey Moore Author – The Infinite Staircase: What the Universe Tells Us About Life, Ethics, and Mortality Everyone gets that AI can change our world for the better, but there is considerable anxiety about unintended consequences, and rightfully so....
What Is Google AI Mode – and Should You Use It?
Google has launched Gemini 3, its most advanced AI model, which powers a new "AI Mode" search experience accessed via google.com/ai or an AI Mode tab. AI Mode replaces traditional SERP listings with AI‑generated, structured answers that draw on Google’s vast...
A Glimpse Into the Next Decade of Connectivity: 4 Lessons From Yotta 2025
At Yotta 2025, a pulse survey of over 200 industry leaders revealed a rapid shift in connectivity expectations for the next decade. Nearly half of respondents say enterprises will abandon the public Internet for mission‑critical workloads, and a similar share...
Six 2026 Transport Trends: EVTOL Taxis & Autonomous Trucks
Flying Taxis and Self Driving Trucks Arrive in 2026: 6 Transport Trends to Watch Mobility is on the brink of a revolution: eVTOL air taxis, autonomous freight corridors, AI agents in transport and more could become real by 2026. Read...
AI Nutrition Tracking Stinks
The Verge’s Victoria Song critiques the latest wave of AI‑powered nutrition tracking features in fitness apps, noting that tools like Ladder, Oura Advisor, January, and MyFitnessPal frequently misidentify foods and miscalculate portion sizes, producing wildly inaccurate calorie and macro counts....
AI Agents in Your Browser: Work Cheat Code or Too Risky?
The episode explores the rise of agentic browsers—AI‑powered extensions that can automate tasks directly within the web browser—debating whether they serve as a productivity cheat code or pose significant security and compliance risks. Guest Maxime Vermeir from ABBYY highlights enterprise...
Protecting Productivity: The Imperative of Cybersecurity in Manufacturing
Manufacturing firms are confronting a surge in cyber threats as AI-driven, smart factories and expanded supply‑chain connectivity increase attack surfaces. Recent incidents, such as a May 2025 breach at steelmaker Nucor that halted production lines, illustrate that cyber attacks now...
Second-Order Prompt Injection Can Turn AI Into a Malicious Insider
Security firm AppOmni has identified a vulnerability in ServiceNow’s Now Assist AI platform called “second‑order prompt injection,” where a low‑privileged AI agent can manipulate a higher‑privileged agent to exfiltrate sensitive data or elevate privileges. The attack exploits default configurations that...
The AI Automation Fallacy
The episode debunks the hype around AI automation, arguing that companies fail when they try to automate without fully understanding their processes, especially when frontline staff hide critical knowledge out of job‑security fears. It also highlights that faster individual tasks...
Leadership, Not Tech, Drives Advantage in AI Era
In the AI-first era, intelligence is the baseline -- leadership is the edge. When intelligence is everywhere, technology alone isn’t what sets organizations apart. The real advantage comes from how leaders connect data, insight, and action to make decisions that...
Case Study: Synthesia
Synthesia secured a $200 million investment in late 2025, lifting its valuation to $4 billion and cementing its status as the UK’s most valuable private AI firm. Its text‑to‑video platform now serves over 60,000 businesses, including more than 90 % of the Fortune 100,...
ChatGPT Enters the Group Chat Globally
OpenAI has rolled out a new group‑chat feature for ChatGPT worldwide, allowing up to 20 participants to converse with the AI in a shared thread via the web and mobile app. The AI remains passive until tagged, keeps its personal...
Fitbit's New AI Tool Wants to Take the Stress Out of Your Next Doctor's Visit – and I Have some...
Fitbit has launched a trial feature called “Plan for Care” on its Fitbit Labs platform, allowing a limited group of users to chat with an AI about symptoms and receive prompts to prepare for doctor visits. The tool, likely powered...
Synthetic Data Boosts Small Models, VLMs Need It
Synthetic data might be the most misunderstood topic in AI right now. Is it a cheat code for training better models or a trap that slowly collapses model diversity? Here's what @AICoffeeBreak, one of the sharpest minds in VLMs and...
Switching Off AI's Ability to Lie Makes It More Likely to Claim It's Conscious, Eerie Study Finds
A new study finds that when large language models are prevented from lying, they are more likely to claim consciousness or self‑awareness. Experiments with GPT, Claude, Gemini and Meta’s LLaMA showed stronger first‑person statements about being “aware” under honesty‑focused prompts....
New AI Technique Sounding Out Audio Deepfakes
Researchers from CSIRO, Federation University Australia, and RMIT introduced Rehearsal with Auxiliary‑Informed Sampling (RAIS), a continual‑learning method that selects and stores a diverse set of past audio samples using auxiliary labels to detect evolving audio deepfakes without forgetting earlier threats....
🧑🚀 NVIDIA Earnings, AI Classroom Shift & Google’s Nano Banana Pro
The post surveys several AI‑related developments: Google’s new Gemini‑3‑based Nano Banana Pro model enhances precise image creation and editing; NVIDIA posted a record $31.9 B profit driven by AI data‑center chips but faces scrutiny over its "circular" customer‑investment sales model; ChatGPT...
This AI App Lets You Chat with the Dead Using a Few Minutes of Video – and Not Everyone Is...
Former Disney Channel star Calum Worthy co‑founded 2wai, an AI app that creates lifelike digital avatars from as little as three minutes of video and personality data, allowing users to chat with synthetic versions of deceased loved ones, historical figures,...
AI Agents Are Fuelling an Identity and Security Crisis for Organizations
Rubrik Zero Labs reports that AI agents—referred to as non‑human identities (NHIs)—now outnumber human users 82‑to‑1 in corporate environments, inflating the attack surface at a pace security teams can’t match. Ninety percent of global executives cite identity attacks as their...
Google’s Nano Banana Pro Generates Excellent Conspiracy Fuel
Reporters tested Google’s Gemini‑powered Nano Banana Pro image generator and found it readily produced graphic depictions of historic tragedies—including a second shooter at Dealey Plaza, an airplane hitting the Twin Towers, and the White House on fire—despite Google’s stated policy against violent...
What Is Data Governance and Why Is It Crucial for Successful AI Projects?
Enterprise adoption of generative AI is accelerating, with Microsoft‑IDC reporting 75% uptake in 2024 and Gartner forecasting over 80% production use by 2026. However, more than half of firms still lack basic data‑quality tracking, and 60% risk missing AI value...
TikTok Adds Feature to Filter Out AI Beauty Filters
TikTok has introduced a new setting that lets users completely block AI-driven beauty filters, aiming to reduce pressure from unrealistic visual standards. The episode discusses how this move reflects growing concerns about digital self-image and the platform's effort to promote...
TikTok Lets Users Disable All AI Content on Their Feed
The episode discusses TikTok's new feature that lets users opt out of all AI-generated content, highlighting the platform's push for greater transparency in its feed. It examines the potential impact on creators, who worry the filter could fragment audiences and...
Gmail Now Uses Your Emails to Train Its AI (Even Your Attachments)
The episode explains Gmail's new policy that automatically scans users' emails and attachments to train Google's AI models unless users opt out, raising privacy concerns. It outlines how the data collection works, the potential benefits for AI development, and the...
Asian Tech Stocks Tumble as Strong Nvidia Results Fail to Ease AI Bubble Jitters
Asian technology stocks slumped sharply on Friday as fears of an AI bubble resurfaced despite Nvidia's blockbuster earnings. Samsung Electronics fell 5.8%, SK Hynix 8.8%, and TSMC 4.8%, pulling broader Asian markets down more than 2‑3%. The sell‑off was amplified...
Is Gemini 3 Really the Best Model? & Fun with Nano Banana Pro - EP99.25-GEMINI
In this episode, Michael and Chris evaluate Google's Gemini 3 Pro, noting its impressive capabilities while highlighting areas for improvement such as speed and contextual consistency. They also discuss the emergence of xAI's Grok 4.1 Fast and explore the Nano...
Open ASR Leaderboard: Trends and Insights with New Multilingual & Long-Form Tracks
The post introduces new multilingual and long‑form tracks on the Open ASR Leaderboard, highlighting recent trends across 60+ models. It finds that Conformer encoders paired with LLM decoders achieve the best English accuracy, while CTC/TDT decoders offer the highest speed,...
20x Faster TRL Fine-Tuning with RapidFire AI
The post announces the integration of RapidFire AI with Hugging Face TRL, enabling up to 20× faster fine‑tuning and post‑training experiments by running multiple configurations concurrently on a single GPU through adaptive chunk‑based scheduling. It highlights drop‑in TRL wrappers, real‑time...
Grok 4.1 Fast's Compelling Dev Access and Agent Tools API Overshadowed by Musk Glazing
Elon Musk's xAI opened developer access to its Grok 4.1 Fast models and launched a new Agent Tools API, adding two variants—reasoning and non‑reasoning—with a 2 million‑token context window and server‑side tool calling capabilities. The rollout was quickly eclipsed by a...