What AI still can’t touch.

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

AI creative is getting really good. Eventually, it might be able to make anything perfect.

But it’s not there yet.

Here’s a quick test: watch the trailer for the latest Superman movie.

It hits differently.

The emotions, the music, the memory of being a kid in a red cape.

Those moments still come from something real.

But what happens after AI gets perfect?

Will the next generation build emotional memories around AI-generated characters, stories, and moments?

I’ll be covering this more in future newsletters.

If you’ve been enjoying these, feel free to forward this to a friend, colleague, or even that one family member who still brings up “how things used to be.”

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it.

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Gemini Diffusion

  Yes, I’ve been covering Google I/O nonstop the past 48 hours, but this one slipped past a lot of people. And it’s a big deal. In short, GPT-style models build step by step, like laying bricks. Diffusion models start with noise and peel it back to reveal structure.

• OpenAI is updating the AI model powering Operator

  They are replacing the existing GPT‑4o-based model for Operator with a version based on OpenAI o3.

• Oracle to buy $40 billion of Nvidia chips for OpenAI's US data center

  The data center, situated in Abilene, Texas, is part of the U.S. Stargate Project, led by top AI firms in the country, to boost America's heft in the artificial intelligence industry amid heating global competition.

• Vercel debuts an AI model optimized for web development

  The v0-1.0-md model is designed for building modern web applications. It supports text and image inputs, provides fast streaming responses, and is compatible with the OpenAI Chat Completions API format.

• AI is making scams smarter...and more dangerous

  Americans lost over $16 billion to online scams in 2024.

The numbers:

• trawa, a Berlin-based AI-powered electricity provider, raised a $27M Series A led by Headline

• David AI, a platform for high-quality audio data used to train voice-based models, raised a $25M Series A

• Rhino Federated Computing, a platform for federated AI collaboration, raised a $15M Series A led by AlleyCorp

• Coworker, an AI “teammate” platform for automating high-level workplace tasks, raised a $13M seed round led by Triatomic Capital

• Throne, an AI-powered gut health startup using smart toilet sensors, raised a $4M seed round led by Moxxie Ventures

Thought starters:

Here’s a Bloomberg exclusive:

Emily Chang visits Abilene, Texas for a first look at OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate megafactory.

She speaks with Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son about their bold vision to build one of the largest AI data centers in the world, in partnership with Oracle.

Also an interesting exchange between Demis (DeepMind) and David (Midjourney):

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.