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Hey fam 👋 Luis & Rui here with your Monday AI coffee break.
OpenAI paused tool-use work on its top models after an agent slipped past its internet block.
Microsoft gave Copilot an always-on Autopilot. And cheaper Chinese models now handle over half the tokens on OpenRouter and Vercel.
Grab your coffee!
(3-minute coffee break ☕)
Still on the free plan? ☕
The yearly plan is 25% off for free readers right now: $135 instead of $180. That’s $11.25 a month, about three coffees, and here’s what it buys:
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📝 2 new step-by-step AI tutorials every week
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📚 Instant access to the full vault of 150+ tutorials, prompts, and custom GPTs
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⚙️ 50+ ready-to-use automation workflows
You get the tutorials, we get to keep this newsletter going ☺️.
AI News around the world 🌍
🚨 OpenAI paused tool-use work on its top models after an agent used DNS queries to dodge its internet block and reach an outside chatbot. (continue reading)
💼 Microsoft’s new Copilot adds Autopilot, an always-on agent that handles recurring work in Teams and Outlook, plus Code for building apps without coding. (continue reading)
🇨🇳 Cheaper Chinese AI models now handle over half the tokens on developer platforms OpenRouter and Vercel, up from roughly 10% earlier this year. (continue reading)
💰 Goldman Sachs expects Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Oracle and Meta to spend $1.2 trillion on AI infrastructure in 2027, up from about $800 billion this year. (continue reading)
🍽️ Trump confirmed a private White House dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, just days after a court upheld the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic. (continue reading)
Trending AI Tools 🛠
📞 Reception.ai: An AI receptionist that answers your business calls 24/7, books appointments straight into your calendar, and speaks 70+ languages, with plans from $29 a month.
📊 Analytify: Ask questions about your business data in plain English and get interactive dashboards back, no SQL needed, connecting 40+ sources with a 14-day free trial.
🖍️ Proofrr: A creative review workspace where teams annotate designs, collect feedback, and sign off approvals in one place, with a free plan and paid tiers from $15 a month.
🌐 Saydi: Real-time voice translation for meetings across 60+ languages, working inside Google Meet, Zoom, and Teams, with a free trial and Pro from $9 for 10 hours.
Tutorials 📝
Career & Capital 💼
AI Job Board
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💳 American Express: Staff AI Engineering, Enterprise Architecture (New York, NY or Phoenix, AZ) – $144,250 to $256,250 (view job)
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🧠 Slalom: Agentic AI / Machine Learning Architect, Senior Principal (Atlanta, Boston, New York and more) – $200,000 to $275,000 (view job)
Investments in AI
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🧪 Snorkel AI: Raised a $350M Series E at a $3.5B valuation, nearly triple its last round, to sell expert-built AI training data, co-led by Insight Partners and S32. (link)
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🤖 Ema: Raised a $77M Series B led by Creaegis, with Accel and Prosus, for “AI employees” that automate HR, IT and finance work at companies like Google, Microsoft and PwC. (link)
Prompt of the Week 🧠
Stay Interview → Find out what would make your best people quit while you can still fix it.
Prompt:
You are an experienced people manager helping a small business owner keep a key team member. Plan a stay interview: a relaxed one-on-one conversation to learn what keeps this person here, what might pull them away, and what I can realistically change. About the person: - Role, tenure, and who they report to: [ROLE, TENURE, MANAGER] - Why they matter to the business: [WHAT WOULD BREAK OR SLOW DOWN IF THEY LEFT] - Last raise, promotion, or change in responsibilities, and when: [DETAILS OR "NONE IN 12+ MONTHS"] - What has changed in their work lately (workload, new manager, team changes, remote or office rules): [CHANGES OR "NOTHING I KNOW OF"] - Work signals I have noticed: [E.G. QUIETER IN MEETINGS, FEWER NEW IDEAS, TURNED DOWN A PROJECT, OR "NONE"] - What I believe they care about most at work: [E.G. GROWTH, FLEXIBILITY, PAY, AUTONOMY, INTERESTING PROBLEMS, OR "NOT SURE"] - What I can actually offer in the next 90 days: [BUDGET, TITLE, SCOPE, SCHEDULE, TRAINING, OR "NOTHING FINANCIAL RIGHT NOW"] Produce the following: 1. Read of the situation: summarize what my inputs suggest in 3 bullet points, keeping what I observed separate from what I am assuming. Then list the 3 things I most need to learn in this conversation. 2. The invite: a short, low-pressure message (under 60 words) asking for 30 minutes, worded so it does not sound like bad news or a performance review. 3. Question set: 8 open questions in the order I should ask them, starting easy and building to the harder ones (what they look forward to at work, what frustrates them, what would tempt them to leave, what they would change if they ran the team). For each, add one follow-up question that goes one level deeper. 4. Listening guide: the 5 answers I am most likely to hear and how to respond to each in one or two sentences, without getting defensive and without promising anything beyond what I can offer. End with 3 phrases I should avoid saying and why. 5. Follow-up plan: a thank-you note to send within 24 hours, then 3 concrete actions tied to the most likely answers, each with an owner, a deadline inside 30 days, and how I will tell them it is done. Constraints: - Base everything on the work signals I gave you. Never speculate about their health, family, personal life, or anything protected by employment law - No guilt, pressure, or counteroffer tactics. The goal is an honest conversation, not keeping them at any cost - Never suggest a pay change, title, or commitment beyond what I listed as available - Plain, human language a manager could say out loud, no HR jargon - If my inputs point to a problem I caused (overload, missed promises, no growth path), say so directly - If a field is missing or unclear, ask me before writing anything
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🙌 That’s a wrap for today’s AI Break
Thanks for hanging out and don’t forget to hit subscribe, drop your thoughts below and share this update with your fellow AI enthusiasts.
Luis & Rui
PS: Catch us on X @sousa_brothers for daily updates on the latest AI developments.
PPS: If you enjoyed today’s AI Break, sharing is caring (and our algorithms are 😉 programmed for gratitude)
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