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This newsletter brings you the latest AI updates in just 4 minutes! Dive in for a quick summary of everything important that happened in AI over the last week.
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In today’s edition:
🦾 Alterego debuts “near-telepathic” AI wearable
🎧 Stability AI debuts enterprise audio model
🧠 OpenAI cracks why AI hallucinates
🤖 Google’s EmbeddingGemma powers on-device AI
👨👩👧👦 OpenAI brings parental controls to ChatGPT
💡Knowledge Nugget: Agentic AI runs on tools by Richard Demsyn-Jones
Let’s go!
Alterego debuts “near-telepathic” AI wearable
Boston startup Alterego, spun out of MIT Media Lab, has launched a “near-telepathic” wearable that translates unspoken words into digital commands. The device uses tiny cameras to track micro-movements in the jaw and throat, allowing users to code, text, search, or even converse silently with other wearers.
The system, dubbed Silent Sense, works in noisy environments, supports multiple languages, and can interpret both mouthed and motionless “intent to speak.” While the project dates to 2018 research, Alterego only spun out commercially this year, with no release date yet announced.
Why does it matter?
Turning unspoken thoughts into commands feels straight out of science fiction. If Alterego delivers, it could make everyday computing faster, more private, and almost telepathic, bringing non-invasive BCI-like capabilities to wearables.
Stability AI debuts enterprise audio model
Stability AI introduced Stable Audio 2.5, its latest model designed specifically for enterprise sound production. The system can generate three-minute tracks in seconds, produce multi-part compositions with improved musical structure, and even extend existing recordings through audio inpainting, all while being trained on a licensed dataset for commercial safety.
Aimed at branding and creative teams, the model enables custom, recognizable sonic identities across ads, games, in-store music, and devices. Stability AI has also partnered with sound branding agency amp (part of WPP’s Landor Group) to co-develop enterprise-ready generative audio solutions for global clients.
Why does it matter?
Stable Audio 2.5 positions AI as infrastructure for large-scale branding. With most brands still lacking a sonic identity, enterprise-ready generative audio could make custom sound as ubiquitous as logos or color palettes.
OpenAI cracks why AI hallucinates
OpenAI researchers released a paper suggesting that AI hallucinations stem from the way models are trained. Current scoring methods give full credit for correct guesses but nothing for “I don’t know,” pushing models to always answer even when uncertain.
In tests, models confidently generated different wrong answers to factual queries like birthdays or dissertation titles. The team proposes redesigning evaluation metrics to penalize confident mistakes more than admissions of uncertainty, a step that could make AI outputs more trustworthy.
Why does it matter?
Hallucinations are one of AI’s biggest trust barriers. Rewarding model’s honesty instead of guessing could make them more reliable in medicine, law, and other high-stakes domains.
Google’s EmbeddingGemma powers on-device AI
Google DeepMind introduced EmbeddingGemma, a compact model that makes it possible to run multilingual AI search directly on consumer devices. It can process queries in over 100 languages while using less memory than a photo app, making it practical for smartphones, laptops, and even browsers.
The model is designed for privacy-focused applications, like searching across emails, messages, or personal files without sending data to the cloud. Developers can adjust performance settings to balance processing speed and resource use, making EmbeddingGemma practical for a range of real-time applications across devices.
Why does it matter?
Big tech is racing to bring AI assistants fully on-device. With Apple rumored to upgrade Siri and Google rolling out EmbeddingGemma, the future of personal AI is shifting toward faster, private, offline experiences baked into everyday devices.
OpenAI brings parental controls to ChatGPT
OpenAI announced a new set of parental oversight tools for teen ChatGPT users, rolling out in the next 30 days. Parents will be able to link accounts, filter content, and receive alerts if the system detects signs of emotional distress in conversations.
The safeguards were designed with medical input and will redirect sensitive exchanges to reasoning models better equipped to handle complex emotional contexts.
Why does it matter?
While parental oversight features are a welcome addition, the deeper concern is unresolved. Teens and vulnerable users are increasingly turning to AI for emotional support, and distress detection or model redirection may not be enough in crises that require human intervention.
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Knowledge Nugget: Agentic AI runs on tools
In this article, Richard Demsyn-Jones explains what makes an AI system “agentic”: the ability to set goals, plan steps, loop through reasoning, and act with limited human input. A coding agent, for instance, can plan, write, test, and fix code in a loop — while a human using a chatbot still decides when to run or edit. Agenticness is presented as a spectrum, not an on/off switch.
This autonomy depends on tools. Through function calling, LLMs can reach calculators, APIs, or search engines, extending far beyond their static training data. Tool use is what allows agents to persist, adapt, and interact with the outside world, moving them closer to being co-workers rather than simple chatbots.
Why does it matter?
Agentic AI will reshuffle who does knowledge work. Teams that integrate agents without oversight risk building brittle, opaque systems. But those who design them with testing, monitoring, and governance may unlock entirely new levels of productivity.
What Else Is Happening❗
🧠 UCLA engineer’s developed a non-invasive AI brain-computer interface that lets paralyzed users control robotic arms with EEG signals, achieving near-invasive performance.
💉 MIT researcher’s unveiled VaxSeer, an AI that predicts dominant flu strains and outperformed WHO vaccine picks in 15 of 20 past seasons.
🌍 Tencent launched HunyuanWorld-Voyager, an open-source AI that turns a single photo into an explorable 3D world, topping Stanford’s WorldScore benchmark.
🍎 Apple is testing Google’s Gemini to power a new AI-driven Siri search project, aiming to roll out advanced answer features by 2026.
💼 OpenAI announced a Jobs Platform and AI certification program, aiming to train 10M Americans in AI fluency by 2030 with partners like Walmart.
🔧 OpenAI is partnering with Broadcom to mass-produce custom AI chips next year, joining Big Tech rivals in reducing reliance on Nvidia.
📞 An Emory study found AI voice agents helped seniors track blood pressure, cutting costs by 89% while keeping patient satisfaction above 9/10.
📊 Anthropic added workplace tools to Claude, letting users create and edit Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDFs directly in chat.
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