Good morning, it’s Wednesday. AI never sleeps, and neither do ex-OpenAI execs—Mira Murati just launched a new startup. Plus, HP picks up Humane’s scraps (but leaves the doomed AI Pin behind), AI sales agents are gearing up to outsell humans, and researchers use AI to uncover 320 million years of brain cell evolution.
In today’s Forward Future University article, we break down Perplexity’s move into Deep Research.
🗞️ YOUR DAILY ROLLUP
Top Stories of the Day
🚀 Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati Launches AI Startup
Mira Murati has co-founded a new AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab. The company aims to make AI more transparent, customizable, and capable, with a focus on open-source development. Murati left OpenAI following the leadership shakeup surrounding CEO Sam Altman’s brief ouster in 2023. She joins a growing wave of ex-OpenAI executives launching their own AI ventures, as competition heats up in the race to develop next-generation AI models.
📌 HP Acquires Humane's Assets, Discontinues AI Pin
HP Inc. has agreed to acquire key assets from Humane Inc., the company behind the AI Pin wearable device, for $116 million. The acquisition includes Humane's AI platform, CosmOS, over 300 patents, and the integration of its technical team into a new HP division called HP IQ, focused on embedding AI across HP's product lines. Notably, HP is not acquiring the AI Pin device itself, which will cease operations on February 28, 2025, rendering existing units largely non-functional.
🧠 AI 'Brain Decoder' Reads Your Thoughts
Researchers have enhanced an AI-based "brain decoder" that can convert a person's thoughts into text with significantly reduced training time. Previously, such decoders required individuals to undergo hours of MRI scanning while listening to stories, limiting their applicability. The new approach involves training the decoder on a few reference participants and then using a converter algorithm to adapt it for new users with just 70 minutes of brain scan data. This advancement holds promise for assisting individuals with communication disorders, such as aphasia.
🌀 AI-Generated Illusions as the Next CAPTCHA
Researchers have developed IllusionCAPTCHA, a security test using AI-generated optical illusions to differentiate humans from bots. While AI can create these illusions, it struggles to recognize them, unlike humans, who succeeded over 80% of the time. This approach could outperform traditional CAPTCHAs, which AI is learning to bypass. However, experts warn that as AI advances, the battle to outsmart bots will be never-ending.
👤 AGENTS
AI Sales Supremacy: How Machines Will Outsell Humans
The Recap: AI-driven sales agents are on the brink of outmaneuvering human salespeople by leveraging real-time behavioral data and predictive persuasion tactics. Researcher Louis Rosenberg argues that these systems will optimize every interaction, making them vastly more effective at closing deals than their human counterparts.
Advanced AI agents will analyze vocal tone, facial expressions, and word choice in real-time to tailor their sales approach to each individual.
Unlike human salespeople, AI won’t tire, get distracted, or rely on generic scripts—it will continuously refine its tactics based on data.
Existing consumer protection laws do not account for AI-driven persuasive technology, leaving a gap that could be exploited.
These systems could adjust their tone and arguments instantly, maximizing their chances of securing a sale.
The same technology could be applied in politics, negotiations, and even personal relationships, altering how decisions are influenced at every level.
Forward Future Takeaways:
AI-driven persuasion could reshape society by subtly guiding consumer choices, political beliefs, and even personal decisions. Without safeguards, we risk losing autonomy to hyper-personalized, AI-optimized influence. Taking action now could mean the difference between AI as a helpful tool and AI as an invisible manipulator shaping our every move.→ Read the full article here.
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🏫 FORWARD FUTURE UNIVERSITY
Perplexity Enters the Deep Research Arena
Last week, I wrote a piece titled "The Research Revolution: How AI is Rewriting the Rules of Knowledge Work," which focused on AI as a research partner. As this was being published, Perplexity launched a new Deep Research capability that has received high praise, so I wanted to take a look and share my thoughts.
If you haven't tried Perplexity yet, you should. It's excellent at what it does and has become one of my go-to tools for daily use. What is Perplexity? Perplexity is a conversational search engine launched in 2022 that employs artificial intelligence to provide users with direct answers to their questions, complete with citations and sources. Unlike traditional search engines that merely present a list of links, Perplexity AI summarizes information from across the web in natural language, saving users time and effort. Perplexity's value lies in its ability to deliver accurate, well-sourced information, streamline research, and personalize the search experience, making it a user-centric alternative to conventional search engines. It aims to revolutionize how people engage with information by offering a seamless and intuitive conversational search experience.
Perplexity Deep Research lets you generate in-depth research reports on any topic. It's available to everyone for free – up to 5 queries per day for non-subscribers and 500 queries per day for Pro users. It combines advanced web search, reasoning, and coding to iteratively search and refine analysis into clear, comprehensive reports. It also completes most reports in under 3 minutes (OpenAI and Google can take significantly longer). → Continue reading here.
🧬 EVOLUTION
AI Illuminates 320 Million Years of Brain Cell Evolution
The Recap: A recent study harnesses AI-driven deep learning to decode genetic regulatory switches, revealing that while some brain cell types have remained unchanged for over 320 million years, others have uniquely evolved across species.
Certain brain cell regulatory codes have remained unchanged for over 320 million years.
Deep learning models have been utilized to decode genetic regulation across species.
These models hold potential for studying neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers analyzed brain data from humans, mice, and chickens to understand evolutionary trajectories.
Regulatory codes for certain bird neurons resemble those of deep-layer neurons in the mammalian neocortex.
Plans are underway to expand these models to study various animal brains and human disease states.
Forward Future Takeaways:
This research exemplifies the power of AI in unraveling the complexities of brain evolution and gene regulation. By identifying both conserved and divergent genetic instructions, scientists can gain deeper insights into neurological disorders and their treatments. The integration of AI in evolutionary biology not only enhances our understanding of the past but also paves the way for future medical advancements. → Read the full article here.
🛰️ NEWS
Looking Forward: Stories Shaping the Future
🏛️ AI-Driven Government Cuts Raise Risks: Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative plans to use AI for federal budget cuts, but experts warn of inefficiencies, security risks, and flawed decision-making without careful oversight.
☢️ AI Boosts Fusion Energy Research: MIT scientists use AI-enhanced simulations to predict plasma behavior in fusion reactors, improving efficiency and confirming ITER’s expected performance before it even switches on.
💼 AI & Humans – A Workplace Balancing Act: MIT research finds AI-human teams often underperform compared to AI or humans alone, excelling in content creation but struggling with decision-making due to trust issues.
📽️ VIDEO
IBM's Quantum Director Talks AI, Breaking Crypto, Basics of Quantum
Matt interviews IBM’s Jerry Chow for an in-depth look at quantum computing—its fundamentals, impact on AI, encryption, and future applications. Chow explains how quantum circuits differ from classical computing, the importance of error correction, and IBM’s roadmap for scalable quantum systems. Get the full scoop below! 👇
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🤠 THE DAILY BYTE
Building the Future: Italy’s Robot Takes on Construction
📥 FF INTEL
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The Forward Future Team
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