Welcome to Friday’s Newsletter

In today’s scoop 🍨 

• 👻 Digital Ghosts in Your Group Chat?

• 📝 Google's New AI Can Show Its Work

• 🖥️ OpenAI's Desktop Game Just Got Upgraded

• 🔧 3 Trending AI Tools

👻 Digital Ghosts in Your Group Chat?

🍪 Ever wished you could text your great-great-grandmother about her secret cookie recipe? Well, that might soon be possible (sort of).

Life's Echo, a new UK-based startup, is developing AI technology that lets you create a digital version of yourself to chat with future generations after you've logged out of life's server, so to speak 👀

Here's the lowdown:

• 🎙️ The service uses an AI interviewer named Sarah who conducts five 45-minute sessions, asking over 1,000 questions about your life story.

• 🎭 Your responses get transformed into an AI model that not only mimics your personality but also clones your voice.

• 🪦 Bonus feature: You can even pre-record your own eulogy. Talk about having the last word!

The founders, Steve and Ruth Endacott (who also run an electric vehicle company - talk about range), want to solve a common family history problem: while most of us know our grandparents' stories, we know almost nothing about our great-grandparents. After three generations, family histories tend to fade away completely.

👻 But let's address the ghost in the room: This tech raises some seriously spooky questions. Will chatting with AI-powered versions of deceased loved ones help people move on, or keep them stuck in a digital purgatory? And who controls your AI clone once you're gone - could your digital self end up selling cryptocurrency in the afterlife?

The company plans to launch in February 2025, joining the growing "digital afterlife" trend alongside services like Eternos and Project Lazarus. Whether you find it fascinating or unsettling, we're quickly approaching a future where "ghosting" someone might take on a whole new meaning.

🗪 While preserving family histories is valuable, but maybe some things should stay in the family photo album rather than the family group chat.

📝 Google's New AI Can Show Its Work

Remember when your math teacher would say "show your work" and you'd groan? Well, Google just launched an AI that does exactly that.

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, Google's latest AI model that doesn't just give you answers – it walks you through its entire thought process.

Here's what makes it interesting:

• 🧩 The model breaks down complex problems into bite-sized pieces, showing its reasoning at each step (no more "trust me, bro" from the AI)

• 🖼️ It can handle both text and images right out of the gate – something OpenAI's similar model, o1, couldn't do at launch

• 🔥 It's blazing fast, taking just 1-3 seconds to solve problems that typically trip up other AI models

But here's where it gets interesting: Unlike OpenAI's more secretive approach, Google's letting users peek behind the curtain with a dropdown menu showing exactly how the AI reaches its conclusions. It's like having a transparent calculator that shows all its math – which is either really cool or slightly unnerving, depending on how you feel about machines thinking out loud.

The details:

• 🗐 Can process up to 32,000 tokens (about 50-60 pages) of input.

• 👩🏻‍💻 Available through Google's AI Studio for developers to experiment with.

• 🎁 Currently showing zero cost per token (free lunch, anyone?).

In early tests, it's apparently crushing it. Independent analysis from LM Arena crowned it the top-performing model across all LLM categories. Though let's be real – in the fast-moving world of AI, being number one is about as permanent as a Snapchat story.

While OpenAI's been getting all the attention lately, Google has been reminding everyone they're still very much in the game with their recent launches and announcements with Gemini 2.0 – and they're playing to win.

🖥️ OpenAI's Desktop Game Just Got Upgraded

Remember when switching between apps felt like juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle? OpenAI feels your pain. On day 11 of their 12 Days announcements , they dropped some desktop features that'll make your ChatGPT experience smoother than your morning cold brew 🧋

The headline feature? ChatGPT is cozying up with your favorite apps like never before. OpenAI dropped support for three major note-taking powerhouses: Apple Notes, Notion, and Quip – meaning your AI buddy can now hang out right where you're already working. No more tab-dancing or copy-paste gymnastics required. Plus, with the new "Work with Apps" button, developers can bring ChatGPT's smarts directly into their coding workflow. It's like having a genius friend peering over your shoulder, minus the awkward breathing sounds.

Here's what's cooking:

• 🪟 Window Management: ChatGPT can now float in a separate window while you work (think picture-in-picture, but for AI)

• 🎯 Drag & Drop: Toss files into ChatGPT like you're feeding treats to a very smart pet

• ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts: Because who doesn't love a good CTRL+something to feel like a power user?

OpenAI is basically turning ChatGPT into your personal desktop assistant. Need to summarize that endless email thread? Want to analyze that spreadsheet that's been giving you existential dread? ChatGPT's got your back, all without leaving your workflow.

🧙‍♂️ The best part? You don't need to be a tech wizard to use any of this. It's as simple as installing a regular app – think Spotify levels of easy, not "build your own computer" levels of complicated.

This move isn't just about convenience; it's OpenAI saying, "Hey, AI isn't just some fancy tech living in your browser – it's ready to be part of your everyday desktop life." And honestly? That's pretty cool.

In an era where we're drowning in apps and tabs, having an AI assistant that plays nice with your desktop setup might just be the productivity boost we didn't know we needed.

🔧3 Trending AI Tools

• 🛠️ Tickle AI - Build, launch, and manage powerful, AI agents, web apps, and forms.

• 🤖 GenFuse - Automate any work with AI Agents - no technical skill required.

• 📧 Mailmeteor - AI to write emails, automate follow-ups, and manage campaigns - all without leaving your inbox.

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See you Monday for another fresh scoop 🍨Stay curious! 👋