AI teaches itself to understand video

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Friday.

A new model called Video-STaR lets AI teach itself to understand video. The advance could lead to visually aware AI coaches and teachers that can do everything from correct a golf swing to train better surgeons.

Built by Stanford and Google Research, it’s like GPT for actions, not just words.

AI is accelerating quickly…even YouTube’s scrambling because AI is moving faster than their entire ecosystem can handle.

Who owns it? Who gets paid? And how do you stop copyright chaos?

There has never been a better time in history to start your own personal brand.

The more perfect AI gets, the more valuable your flaws become…

Speaking of “perfect” AI…have you heard of Seedream 3.0 from ByteDance?

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Making AI-generated code more accurate in any language

  This new approach developed by researchers at MIT is also error-free.

• Former Army AI leader tapped as Pentagon’s next CDAO

  The Trump administration appointed a new Chief Digital and AI Officer at the Defense Department.

• Johnson & Johnson: 15% of AI Use Cases Deliver 80% of Value

  Now J&J is drilling down into high-value generative AI use cases around drug discovery and supply chains, as well as an internal chatbot to answer questions on company policy.

• ChatGPT will now use its ‘memory’ to personalize web searches

  For example, if the user has “Memory” turned on and asks ChatGPT “what are some restaurants near me that I’d like,” and has memories that the user is vegan and lives in San Francisco, then ChatGPT may rewrite the user’s prompt to “good vegan restaurants San Francisco.”

• Nvidia: The AI chip giant caught between US and China

  Because its chips are seen as so essential to advancements in generative AI, successive US administrations have scrutinised Nvidia's relationship with China.

The numbers:

AI companies raised at least $52bn out of the $126.3bn in global venture capital (VC) deployed during Q1 2025, according to KPMG Private Enterprise’s Venture Pulse Q1 2025 report.

Highlights from the report:

• $126.3 billion in VC funding globally despite significant drop in deal volume

• US attracts a thirteen-quarter high of $91.5 billion in VC investment in Q1’25

• Asia-Pacific region sees VC investment fall to record low of $12.9 billion

Thought starters:

• The religion of AI

• Making sense of venture capital's AI paradox

• Gen Z x AI: Consciousness, careers, and chatbot confessions

Meme of the day:

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

Are we friends on LinkedIn and X? Let’s connect — DM me or hit the follow button.

P.S. If this was valuable, forward it to a friend. If you’re that smart friend, subscribe here.

P.P.S. Interested in reaching other ambitious readers like you? To become a sponsor, reply to this email.