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"AI won’t take your job. A person using AI will."
The real threat isn’t robots. It’s the people adapting faster than you.
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THIS WEEK IN THE AI & TECH WORLD:
OpenAI to allow erotica on ChatGPT
Google announces Veo 3.1 and Flow updates
AI slop nears human content on the web
Anthropic's Skills teach Claude your workflows
Google’s Gemma-based AI finds new cancer treatment
Spotify teams with major music labels to build “Artist-First” AI Music tools
Tips, tricks & tutorials
Free resources & other cool updates
Reading time under 8 minutes
LATEST UPDATES
OpenAI to allow erotica on ChatGPT
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just announced personality improvements planned for ChatGPT, including one that would allow the AI assistant to have mature, erotic conversations with eligible users — much like xAI’s Grok companions.
Here’s what you need to know:
Altman said ChatGPT was made restrictive to protect at-risk users, but that hit enjoyment. Now, with age checks and safeguards, OpenAI will ease those limits.
First, it will release a new version of ChatGPT that behaves more like what people liked about 4o, and then by December, it will add support for erotica.
This will allow verified adults to have mature conversations with the AI, giving them “a great deal of freedom” in how they interact with the assistant.
Previously, the company had said it would let devs build “mature” apps that run inside ChatGPT, with appropriate age-gating and controls.
Here’s what I think:
The AI companion market is huge — and it looks like OpenAI isn’t about to let xAI’s Grok take the lead. While Altman says the mode won’t activate unless users explicitly ask for it, with 800M weekly users, the margin for error is incredibly small, and the risks of emotional dependency on AI companions are not studied.
Google announces Veo 3.1 and Flow updates
Google just rolled out “Veo 3.1” as its latest video generation model, with the company’s Flow AI filmmaking tool receiving several updates to take advantage of its new capabilities.
Here’s what you need to know:
The new model offers improved audio quality, better prompt adherence, enhanced image-to-video output, and more realistic video generation.
Google is adding audio support to existing Flow features such as Ingredients to Video, Scene Extension, and Frames to Video.
Flow is also gaining new editing capabilities, allowing users to add objects that blend naturally with a video’s style, with object removal support coming soon.
Both standard and fast versions of 3.1 are rolling out across Google’s ecosystem, including its Flow filmmaking tool, Vertex AI, and Gemini.
Here’s what I think:
After Sora 2 raised the AI video bar in a massively viral way just weeks ago, Veo 3.1 doesn’t hit with the same hype — despite what the benchmarks may say. The bigger upgrade may be within the editing realm, with abilities like scene extending and start/end frames giving the extra control needed to take outputs to the next level.
AI slop nears human content on the web
A Graphite study just found that AI-written articles briefly surpassed human-created ones on the web in late 2024, but the boom has since leveled off, with the web now split roughly evenly between human and AI authors.
Here’s what you need to know:
Graphite analyzed 65,000 articles from Common Crawl, published between 2020 and 2025, using Surfer’s AI detector to determine authorship.
The study found that the share of AI-written articles surged after ChatGPT’s launch, peaking well above human output in November 2024.
However, since then, the growth has plateaued, with AI slop staying fairly stable and nearly at the same level as human-written articles.
The researchers attributed this stagnation to the widespread realization that AI-generated content does not perform as well as human content on search.
Here’s what I think:
The great AI content wave appears to be cresting. AI tools can churn out text at scale, but their struggle for visibility is turning much of it into background noise. The findings hint at a new balance (not measured in this study) where human, value-driven content maintains credibility, and AI settles as a collaborator.
Anthropic's Skills teach Claude your workflows
Anthropic just released ‘Skills’ for Claude, a folder-based system that lets organizations bundle workflows, procedures, and executable scripts into packages their AI assistant can autonomously access when handling specific tasks.
Here’s what you need to know:
Skills function as directory packages containing instruction files, code scripts, and reference materials that Claude loads dynamically based on task relevance.
The system uses "progressive disclosure,” with Claude first seeing skill names and descriptions, then deciding which components to activate for a workflow.
Users can build custom skills through an interactive "skill-creator" assistant requiring no manual file editing or coding expertise.
Multiple skills can also coordinate, allowing agents to combine for tasks like brand guidelines with financial reporting templates in a single workflow.
Here’s what I think:
Anthropic’s Alex Albert summed it up well in comparing Skills to “loading in” specialized knowledge, like in The Matrix, and the real upgrade is simplifying the process. By packaging expertise into folders rather than code, Skills can better infuse enterprise knowledge and workflows with real agentic capabilities.
Google’s Gemma-based AI finds new cancer treatment
Google and Yale University researchers introduced ‘C2S-Scale 27B’, a foundation model — based on Google’s open-Gemma family — that discovered a previously unknown cancer treatment pathway, proven to work in living cells.
Here’s what you need to know:
The C2S AI system reads cellular data like a language, capturing how individual cells will behave and respond to treatments.
Researchers tasked the system with finding compounds that can make tumors more visible to the immune system, but only when certain signals were present.
It identified silmitasertib, an existing drug never before linked to helping the immune system spot cancer cells.
Laboratory tests confirmed the AI's prediction, with the drug combination making tumor cells about 50% more visible to immune defenses.
Here’s what I think:
The ‘novel’ discoveries from AI systems are starting to trickle in, something many skeptics thought impossible. With Google also finding that “biological models follow clear scaling laws”, we could be in for an absolutely wild period of scientific progress as models continue to get larger and more capable.
Spotify teams with major music labels to build “Artist-First” AI Music tools
Spotify has struck deals with Sony, Universal, Warner, and Merlin to develop “responsible AI” products that respect copyright and give creators the choice to opt in.
Here’s what you need to know:
Spotify hasn’t shared any details on how the new tools will function, though the company already offers other generative AI experiences for users, such as the AI DJ and prompt-based playlisting.
The music platform announced it is creating a “state-of-the-art generative AI research lab and product team focused on developing technologies that reflect our principles and deliver breakthrough experiences for fans and artists.”
Those principles include developing new tools through upfront agreements — not by asking for forgiveness later — ensuring choice in participation (artists should be able to decide if and how they engage with the AI music ecosystem), guaranteeing fair compensation and new revenue streams, and maintaining that AI tools will not replace human artistry.
The platform will also adopt DDEX labeling so tracks clearly indicate when AI was involved in their creation.
Here’s what I think:
Spotify was recently criticized after an AI band went viral, prompting the company to revamp its AI policy to combat mass AI uploads, duplicates, and ranking manipulation. Still, they are betting that AI will play a key role in the future of the music industry.
RESOURCES
Best ChatGPT FREE Course
📷 X users are going wild over this NanoBanana image prompt — turning photos into ultra-detailed pencil and ink sketches in seconds.
PROMPTS OF THE WEEK
Keyword-based content ideas
Prompt: "You are an expert digital marketing strategist who speaks and writes fluent English. You conceive the best content ideas. Create a content plan that includes content ideas for blogs, videos, and social media posts for my business.
Optimise the content titles for rankings in search engines and social media search results. Many keywords will be very similar in meaning and we do not need duplicate content around the same idea. Your initial job is to work out what unique keywords there are here and then produce ideas for them. Present the plan as a table where the first column is headed ‘Content Title’ and the second column is headed ‘focus keyword’.
Before doing that, ask me to do the following:
1. Go to Google
2. Search for the core keyword we're creating content ideas around
3. Look for 'People also ask'
4. Click any one question to expand it, and repeatedly open and close it at least 10 times to make the list grow longer
5. Copy all of the questions and paste them here, along with the focus keyword.”
Business strategy analysis
Prompt: "I need to evaluate this business idea: [BUSINESS CONCEPT]. Please conduct a comprehensive analysis that: 1. Tests the core assumptions underlying the business model 2. Identifies overlooked market factors that could impact success 3. Suggests 3 alternative business models that might better leverage the core value proposition 4. Evaluates competitive threats beyond obvious direct competitors 5. Proposes unexpected customer segments worth exploring 6. Recommends clear metrics to validate or invalidate key hypotheses 7. Identifies potential pivot opportunities if initial assumptions prove incorrect Focus on challenging conventional thinking rather than standard business plan elements."
PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS
🗣 Hume - The world’s most realistic and instructible speech-to-speech foundation model
⚙️ AI Workflow Builder - n8n’s tool to build workflows from text prompts
📹️ NotebookLM - Generate video overviews in six new visual styles
📱 Grok Image 0.9 - xAI’s updated image and video generation platform
AI TIPS, TRICKS & TUTORIALS
How to ‘Try on’ clothes with Google AI
Google is testing a feature that lets users virtually try on garments using their own photo. It uses an AI model that “understands the human body and the nuances of clothing.”
Follow these steps:
Go to Search Labs and opt into the “try on” experiment.
Browse your style: When you’re shopping for shirts, pants or dresses on Google, simply tap the "try it on" icon on product listings.
Upload a full-length photo of yourself. For best results, ensure it's a full-body shot with good lighting and fitted clothing.
In just a moment, you will see how the garment looks on you.
Save or share your look with friends.
The feature, previously available only to US users, is expanding to Australia, Canada, and Japan in the coming weeks. You can now also try on shoes, not just clothes—the process is the same.
How to translate videos into multiple languages
Follow these steps:
Go to HeyGen and sign up.
Select ‘Translate a Video’ from the dashboard
Now, upload your video file or paste a YouTube or Drive URL
Select your source and target languages
Click ‘Advanced’ to add dynamic duration, captions, voice enhancement, and background music removal, etc.
Once done, click ‘Generate’ to get your video translated into your preferred language
AI IMAGES OF THE WEEK
Cloth Art
Prompt: “An overhead shot of a pile of [adjective] fabrics scattered on a [surface description]. The fabrics are arranged in such a way that the [fabric description] forms a recognizable shape resembling [painting name/subject]. The pile includes [types of fabrics or items], in various colors like [color descriptions]. The fabrics should be [texture description], [arrangement description], yet positioned strategically to create a [style description] composition that mimics the famous [painting/portrait/etc.] [artist's name].”
Paw-fect Chef
Prompt: “Cute [animal name], stuffed animal, wool felt, apron, cooking in the kitchen, frying pan, cutting board, vegetables, kitchen knife.”
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Figure AI unveils ‘Figure 03’, a humanoid robot!
💡 THE LATEST IN AI & TECH
Andrew Tulloch, the co-founder of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machine Lab, just departed the AI startup to rejoin Meta, marking another major talent acquisition for Mark Zuckerberg’s Superintelligence Lab.
Several models achieved gold medal performance at the International Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics, with GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 receiving top marks.
Mark Cuban opened up his Cameo to public use on Sora, using the platform as a tool to promote his Cost Plus Drugs company by requiring each output to feature the brand.
Microsoft introduced ‘MAI-Image-1’, its first text-to-image model developed entirely in-house, to power creative workflows across its products — signaling another step in its push to go beyond offerings from OpenAI.
Google announced that its new image editing model, ‘Nano Banana’, is set to launch across NotebookLM Video Overviews, Google Photos, and in Search via Lens.
Anduril, the military tech company founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, announced ‘EagleEye’, an AI-powered mixed-reality system for soldiers’ helmets.
Walmart is partnering with OpenAI to let ChatGPT users explore and buy its products directly from chat, using the AI assistant’s Instant Checkout feature.
Google is launching a Gemini-powered “Help me schedule” feature that suggests meeting time slots based on a user’s Calendar and the context of the email.
Anthropic released ‘Claude Haiku 4.5’, the smallest variant of its latest model family that delivers performance comparable to the company’s flagship model from just months ago for significantly reduced prices and upgraded speeds.
Runway introduced ‘Apps’, a new collection of streamlined video editing tools with features like element removal, product reshoots, dialogue adding, and more.
OpenAI rolled out new updates to its Sora 2 app, including a Storyboards feature for planning outputs and longer video generations of up to 25 seconds.
Microsoft introduced new AI updates with Windows 11, including a voice-activated ‘Hey Copilot’ command and Vision capabilities that see users’ screens and take actions.
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That’s a wrap, my fellow Sapiens. Until next week:
Stay informed, stay adaptable, and keep thriving!
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