Gemini goes God mode & more (May 7, 2025)

Happy Wednesday!

From multimodal breakthroughs to governance drama and open-source video tech that runs on your laptop, here’s everything you need to know today in one bite-sized scroll.

Let’s dive in👇

🚀 AI Just Leveled Up

🧠 Gemini 2.5 Pro Flexes Ahead of Google I/O

Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro just rocketed to the top of the AI leaderboard. It excels at web app generation, code transformation, and multimodal workflows — including turning YouTube videos into fully functioning interactive apps. It's live via Gemini API and Vertex AI… and it didn’t even raise prices.

A man sits in a bright white room, pointing at a "PLAY NOW" button on a TV screen showing a hiker in a mountain landscape

🏛️ OpenAI’s Nonprofit Shuffle Raises Eyebrows

OpenAI’s nonprofit will retain control, but they’re ditching the 100x profit cap. Critics (including Elon Musk) say it’s mission creep, while Microsoft reportedly wants investment protections. The restructuring may solve some problems—but creates others.

🎥 Lights, Camera, AI

🎬 Lightricks Drops Open-Source Video Beast

The new LTXV-13B model creates crisp, cinematic video 30x faster than its peers — on consumer GPUs. It includes pro tools like keyframe editing, multi-shot sequencing, and scene-level motion control. Bonus: it’s free for orgs under $10M.

A robot cameraman films a man in a brown suit under studio lights, with a white background

🗣️ HeyGen’s Avatar IV Gets Real

With just one photo and a script, HeyGen’s new model crafts full-body, emotional avatars. It even works with pets and anime. Real gestures, lip sync, and micro-expressions—no uncanny valley here.

Four expressive animals in a park: biking, reading, sitting sadly, and jogging

🧰 Tools of the Day

• Codename Goose – Offline, open-source agent automation
• Tiptap Editor 3.0 Beta – A WYSIWYG editor with SSR + JSX
• Lens – Prompt-based video editing magic

🧭 Prompt of the Day

Find your Ikigai

Act as a purpose-driven coach. Help me find the overlap of what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what I can be paid for — then map out aligned careers or businesses with journaling prompts, experiments, and a 1-page roadmap.

⚡ Quick Hits

• 🧠 Microsoft launches $800+ Surface AI laptops that run models offline
• 🎨 Recraft raises $30M after beating DALL-E and Midjourney on benchmarks
• 🧾 Zapier shows how to automate invoice-to-GSheet workflows
• 🤖 Elon Musk slams OpenAI’s new governance as “a transparent dodge”

🧵 TLDR

Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro is setting the AI bar with video-to-app capabilities and top-tier coding. OpenAI’s nonprofit shift didn’t silence critics, while HeyGen and Lightricks are making it easy to create lifelike avatars and stunning video — fast. The AI stack is getting faster, leaner, and more personal.

See you tomorrow,
—David and the Aloa AI team 🧠✨