David Pawlan
Co-Founder
Hi friends,
Today’s newsletter has it all: a mind-blowing student-built voice model shaking up the industry, OpenAI playing hardball with Google, and a not-so-distant future where your next coworker might be a chatbot with a login.
Let’s dive in!
Two Undergrads Built a Better Voice Model Than the Big Guys
Meet Dia—a 1.6B parameter open-source voice model built by two Korean students with no funding. It mimics emotional tones, laughter, and speaker tags, outperforming ElevenLabs and OpenAI’s mini-tts in expressiveness. It’s trending #2 on HuggingFace and making a compelling case for the DIY AI movement.
Character.AI’s AvatarFX Animates Still Images
You can now animate your AI avatars with Character.AI’s AvatarFX. Think: turning selfies into emotionally expressive talking heads—mythical creatures included. Social content’s about to get weirdly alive.
The Virologist Smackdown
AI models crushed human virologists in a new test. OpenAI’s o3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro scored nearly double the accuracy of PhDs in lab scenarios. Impressive, but researchers warn about bioweapon misuse.
AI Employees Might Be Here in a Year
Anthropic’s CISO says agentic AIs with corporate accounts and memory could be working alongside you within a year. These “virtual employees” raise serious cybersecurity questions—and an existential one: Are we ready for bot coworkers?
OpenAI Wants to Buy Chrome
In Google’s antitrust trial, OpenAI’s head of product said they’d buy Chrome if forced into a sale. They also tried integrating Google Search into ChatGPT last year, but Google ghosted them. Regulators are eyeing mandatory licensing of Google’s data.
WaPo + OpenAI = Content Alliance
The Washington Post joined OpenAI’s partner list, allowing ChatGPT to summarize and link to its articles. It’s a big swing toward collaboration and away from lawsuits (looking at you, NYT).
Prompt:
“Act as a world-class prompt engineer. First, ask me what I’m trying to achieve. Then ask smart clarifying questions. Once clear, give me 3 prompt variations: one basic, one creative, one expert. End with a tip to improve it next time.”
Try it to level up your AI prompt game.
Open-source AI is punching way above its weight this week, with a student-built voice model outshining industry giants. OpenAI is eyeing Chrome, media alliances are reshaping news delivery, and we may soon work alongside bots. New tools dropped, and Gen Z thinks AI might already be sentient. Buckle up—autonomy isn’t coming, it’s here.
Catch you in the next drop,
— David
Read by 10,000+ AI professionals and builders.
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