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War Prep & Space Dreams
PLUS: Google’s “Universal Plug” for AI Agents, ElevenLabs: $6.6 Billion and Beyond Voice and more.
Wes Roth
December 11, 2025
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Hey, it’s me again with your AI geopolitics fix. And today is peak “chips, smuggling, and militaries rolling out chatbots on the battlefield.”
Let’s go from spiciest to most technical.
Today:
AI Rumors, War Prep & Space Dreams
DeepSeek’s Phantom Chip Heist
The War Department “Unleashes” AI
Nvidia’s Trap for Chip Smugglers
Google’s “Universal Plug” for AI Agents
ElevenLabs: $6.6 Billion and Beyond Voice
Pentagon "Four Months to Prepare for AGI"
GPT-5.2’s expected release caused betting markets to spike, with Thursday now seen as likely launch day. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is legally required to prepare for AGI, creating a steering group by 2026 to plan defenses and shutdown options. Elon Musk teased Grok 5’s arrival and hinted at a SpaceX IPO valued as high as $3 trillion, powered by AI data centers in orbit. Google’s Project Suncatcher backs the concept.
On the policy front, Trump proposed a single federal AI rulebook, sparking debate over state vs. national control. XAI’s hackathon also revealed wild new uses for AI in media, games, and cows.
You know how there are strict bans on sending the most powerful AI chips to China? Well, it turns out those rules might have more holes than a strainer.
There’s a massive report out that the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek—the one that’s been making waves for building cheap, high-performance models—allegedly managed to get their hands on Nvidia’s banned Blackwell chips.
How? It sounds straight out of a heist movie. The report claims they used a "phantom data center" scheme. Basically, they’d set up legitimate-looking data centers in countries where the chips are allowed. Once the chips were delivered and installed, they’d allegedly dismantle the servers, pack the chips into suitcases, and smuggle them into China to be reassembled.
Nvidia says they haven't seen proof of this yet, but the fact that DeepSeek is training world-class models suggests they're getting the compute power from somewhere. It really highlights how hard it is to put a digital fence around hardware in a globalized world.
Okay, this one feels a bit dystopian. Have you noticed the branding shift? The U.S. government just announced they are "unleashing" AI on a new platform called GenAI.mil.
The press release is from the "Department of War" (a very retro, aggressive rebrand from the Department of Defense we’re used to) and quotes Secretary Pete Hegseth. They aren't mincing words about their goals. They’re calling AI "America's next Manifest Destiny" and explicitly stating that there is "no prize for second place."
They are rolling out Google’s Gemini to the entire workforce—civilians, contractors, and military personnel—to create an "AI-first" fighting force. It’s a massive adoption scale. We’re talking about AI agents assisting with everything from logistics to "dominating the digital battlefield." It’s fascinating, but seeing "Department of War" and "Unleashes AI" in the same sentence definitely gives you pause.
Finally, to bring it full circle back to the chip smuggling issue—Nvidia is building a tech solution to stop the "phantom data center" problem.
They’ve developed a new location verification technology. Think of it like a sonar ping for chips. The software measures the time it takes for a chip to communicate with Nvidia’s servers (latency). If a chip is supposed to be in a data center in Singapore, but the response time suggests it’s actually sitting in a server rack in Shanghai, the system flags it.
It’s a clever way to use physics to fight smuggling, but it also raises questions about privacy and how much control hardware makers should have over their products after they're sold.
🧠RESEARCH
This new tool lets creators control movement in AI videos by simply drawing paths for objects to follow. It works with existing systems to produce smooth, specific actions—like a hand waving or a car turning—without complex setups. This makes directing AI scenes easier and rivals professional editing software in quality.
Designed for filmmakers, LivingSwap replaces faces in videos while keeping the original lighting, expressions, and movement intact. It uses reference images to blend the new face seamlessly into the scene frame by frame. This automates difficult editing work, making it faster to produce realistic, cinema-quality face swaps.
OneStory generates long AI videos where multiple clips fit together to tell a logical story. It uses a smart memory system to track details across different scenes, ensuring characters and settings remain consistent. This solves the common problem of disjointed AI videos, enabling smooth, narrative-driven storytelling.
🛠️TOP TOOLS
Each listing includes a hands-on tutorial so you can get started right away, whether you’re a beginner or a pro.
Aria AI — Browser AI Assistant & AI Image Generator - Opera’s built‑in AI assistant for desktop and mobile
Artbreeder AI – AI Image Generator & Animator - AI art platform where you blend images, prompts, and layouts to create new visuals.
Artguru – AI Image Generator - AI platform for creating and editing images.
📲SOCIAL MEDIA
🗞️MORE NEWS
Google's New "MCP" Tools Google is launching a new system called MCP that makes it much easier for AI agents to connect with other software like maps and databases. This technology lets developers plug their existing tools into AI without having to write complex new code from scratch. The goal is to help businesses build smart AI assistants that can actually perform tasks, not just chat.
Google AI Adds Source Links Google is updating its AI search results to clearly show the websites where it found the information it provides. This change helps you see exactly which articles the AI is learning from, making the answers feel more transparent and trustworthy. It is a major step to address complaints from publishers who want credit and traffic for their original work.
ElevenLabs Hits $6.6 Billion Value The voice-cloning company ElevenLabs is now worth over $6 billion, proving that AI audio is becoming a massive industry. Their CEO says the company is making its real money by selling advanced tools to other businesses rather than just making fun voice apps for consumers. This huge growth signals that investors believe AI will completely change how companies create sound and speech.
ChatGPT vs. Gemini User Race ChatGPT is still the most popular AI with nearly 900 million weekly users, but Google’s Gemini is catching up incredibly fast. Recent reports show that Gemini’s user base is growing five times faster than ChatGPT’s as Google integrates its AI into more of its products. The competition is tightening as Google uses its massive global reach to get more people to switch to its tools.
Adobe Apps Inside ChatGPT You can now use powerful design tools like Photoshop and Acrobat directly inside ChatGPT without needing to open a separate app. Adobe and OpenAI have teamed up to let you edit photos or fix PDF documents just by typing simple instructions to the chatbot. This makes professional editing features free and easy for anyone to use right in the middle of a conversation.
Google's $5 AI Plan in India Google has launched a new, very affordable AI subscription plan in India that costs less than $5 a month. This cheaper tier gives people access to Google's smartest AI models and extra digital storage without the high price tag found in other countries. It is a strategic move to win over millions of price-sensitive users in India and compete directly with ChatGPT.
OpenAI Hires Former Slack CEO OpenAI has hired Denise Dresser, the former boss of the messaging app Slack, to be their new head of revenue. She will be in charge of figuring out how to sell OpenAI’s tools to big companies to help make the business profitable. Her experience running a major workplace app is exactly what OpenAI needs to turn its popular technology into a serious money-making machine.
AI Helps Fight Monkeypox Scientists used artificial intelligence to find a hidden weak spot on the monkeypox virus that could help create better vaccines. The AI identified a specific protein on the virus that our bodies can attack, a detail that was previously a mystery to researchers. This breakthrough could lead to simpler, safer shots to protect people from the disease in the future.
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