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Today:

• Demis Hassabis Talks Simulation Theory

• Dario Amodei’s AI Job Warning

• Musk Threatens OpenAI’s UAE Deal

• Reed Hastings Joins Anthropic Board

• DeepSeek Updates R1 to 685B

Google Deepmind CEO "Are we in a SIMULATION?"

At Google I/O, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Google co-founder Sergey Brin discussed how artificial intelligence might reveal hidden patterns in nature and inch us toward general human-like thinking. 

Hassabis said the universe is “computational,” meaning its rules resemble information processing, but not a video-game-style simulation. They aim to combine language models with the deliberate, step-by-step “thinking” loops that mastered Go and chess to solve real-world tasks and, eventually, invent new scientific ideas.

WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

Dario Amodei’s AI Job Warning

AI pioneer Dario Amodei warns that smarter chatbots could soon erase half of America’s entry-level office jobs within five years, pushing unemployment to 10-20%. He faults politicians and executives for staying quiet while firms race to build “agents” — self-running AI programs — that do coding, legal review and finance faster and cheaper than people. Amodei urges public warnings, worker retraining and a small tax on each AI use to spread gains and cushion upheaval.

Why this matters

1. Job-market shock – Signals that mass replacement of junior white-collar roles by AI could arrive much faster than past tech shifts, forcing urgent discussion on social safety nets.
   

2. Policy vacuum – Exposes a gap between rapid agent development and slow government response, underscoring the need for clear rules, transparency and worker protection.
   

3. Equitable growth blueprint – Floats ideas such as an AI-use tax and large-scale retraining, offering concrete starting points for sharing AI’s benefits while buffering its harms.

Musk Threatens OpenAI’s UAE Deal

Elon Musk tried to block OpenAI’s plan to build an AI server farm in Abu Dhabi. On a call with UAE firm G42, he said President Trump would reject the project unless his startup xAI joined. Musk, who helped start OpenAI but later quit, made the threat days before the deal closed. OpenAI kept the contract to erect one of the world’s biggest data centers.

Why this matters

1. Power politics in compute – The clash shows how national-security sign-offs and hardball lobbying can determine where the huge computing sites that train frontier models get built.
   

2. Lab-on-lab rivalry – Musk’s maneuver highlights escalating competition between xAI and OpenAI, shaping future alliances, investor flows and talent moves in a rapidly consolidating field.
   

3. Emerging AI hotspots – A record-scale data center in Abu Dhabi underlines the Middle East’s growing role as a deep-pocketed, energy-rich hub for global AI infrastructure.

Reed Hastings Joins Anthropic Board

Netflix co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings, 64, has joined the board of AI startup Anthropic. Chosen by the firm’s independent Long-Term Benefit Trust, Hastings brings decades of experience steering tech companies and attention to the social impact of technology. He recently gave $50 million to fund ethical AI research at Bowdoin College. Anthropic says his perspective will guide its push to build powerful yet safe systems like its new Claude 4 model.

Why this matters

1. Seasoned leadership – Hastings’ track record growing Netflix can help Anthropic turn cutting-edge research into reliable, user-friendly products.
   

2. Safety spotlight – His reputation and $50 million gift for ethical AI reinforce the push to build systems that help people without causing harm.
   

3. Mainstream signal – A household-name executive on Anthropic’s board shows that big-league business leaders now view frontier AI as a core, investable technology.

🧠RESEARCH

ScienceBoard: Evaluating Multimodal Autonomous Agents in Realistic Scientific Workflows

ScienceBoard is a new test system to measure how well AI agents handle real scientific tasks. It simulates real lab and research work in areas like chemistry and space science. Tests show today’s best AI tools still struggle, solving only 15% of tasks, but offer clues for future improvements.

Paper2Poster: Towards Multimodal Poster Automation from Scientific Papers

Paper2Poster introduces a new way to turn complex scientific papers into clear, engaging posters using AI. It benchmarks poster quality by accuracy, clarity, and design. Their PosterAgent system outperforms others while using fewer resources, turning a 22-page paper into a polished PowerPoint poster for just $0.005.

MME-Reasoning: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Logical Reasoning in MLLMs

MME-Reasoning is a new benchmark that tests how well multimodal AI models handle different types of logical thinking: inductive, deductive, and abductive. Results show that even the best models struggle with balanced reasoning, revealing major gaps. The study offers clearer ways to measure and improve AI reasoning across varied challenges.

🛠️TOP TOOLS

Clip Interrogator - AI-powered tool that analyzes images and generates descriptive text prompts.

Pika AI - Transform text and images into captivating video content.

Stable WarpFusion v0.15 - AI-powered image manipulation tool that offers users the ability to create stunning visual effects and transformations. 

ValidatorAI - AI-powered platform designed to assist entrepreneurs in validating and developing their startup ideas.

Screenshot to Code Converter - Converts screenshots into clean, functional code for HTML, Tailwind, React, or Vue.

📲SOCIAL MEDIA

🗞️MORE NEWS

• Chinese startup DeepSeek released a minor update to its R1 reasoning AI model on Hugging Face. The model, now 685 billion parameters large, is open for commercial use but requires high-end hardware to run.

• Meta AI has reached one billion monthly users across Meta’s apps. Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to improve personalization and voice features, with future monetization through subscriptions or paid recommendations. A standalone app launched in April.

• Google Photos turns 10 with a redesigned editor featuring AI tools like Reimagine for changing backgrounds and Auto Frame for smart cropping. Updates include AI suggestions, easier edits, and QR code album sharing for events.

• Anthropic has launched voice mode for its Claude app, letting users speak with the AI using five preset voices. The feature supports hands-free use, saves transcripts, and offers added tools for paid users.

• Microsoft has launched a beta version of Copilot for Gaming in the Xbox app on iOS and Android. It answers questions about games, personal stats, and achievements, with plans to add coaching and deeper personalization.

• YouWare, a Chinese startup, offers an AI coding assistant for amateurs, blending creation and community. Backed by top investors, it’s growing globally and aims to reach one million daily users despite high costs and accuracy issues.

• Researchers at UIUC introduced s3, a new open-source RAG framework that trains AI search agents using minimal data. It improves retrieval quality without fine-tuning large models, making it cost-effective, modular, and enterprise-friendly across domains.