AI crosses new boundaries in Week 52: fake trailers, AI pricing rollbacks, regulation, memory-driven models, and the next wave of AI-native products.
Need-to-Know
- YouTube shut down Screen Culture and KH Studio for monetizing misleading AI-generated fake trailers, underscoring unresolved copyright tensions.
- OpenAI introduced new ChatGPT personalization controls, allowing users to tune warmth, enthusiasm, and emoji usage amid ongoing tone debates.
- UPS’s Happy Returns is testing an AI system that analyzes return behavior and product images to detect fraudulent refunds during peak season.
- The Indie Game Awards revoked Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s GOTY and Debut awards after discovering generative AI assets at launch.
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the RAISE Act, forcing large AI developers to disclose safety practices and report serious incidents.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment filed a patent for AI-driven real-time adjustment and filtering of game audio and video.
- Riyadh Air is launching as an “AI-native” airline, embedding AI across customer service, operations, and internal workflows from day one.
- Sam Altman says near-infinite memory, not stronger reasoning, will define the next major leap in AI systems.
- Anthropic open-sourced Bloom, a framework to automate evaluations of alignment-related behaviors in frontier models.
- Samsung plans to debut Gemini-powered home appliances at CES 2026, marking Google’s first major AI appliance rollout.
- OpenAI acknowledged prompt injection can’t be fully eliminated and is mitigating Atlas risks through simulations and layered defenses.
- Instacart shut down AI-based pricing experiments and cut access to Eversight after regulatory and academic scrutiny.
- ChatGPT is rolling out a yearly recap summarizing user conversations with stats, archetypes, and an AI-generated image.
- The UK government is urging the BBC to educate the public on AI while exploring new AI-driven revenue models.
- Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly clashing with new AI chief Alexandr Wang, revealing internal strain as Meta pursues “superintelligence.”
Weekly AI Launches
- hq0 launched a white-label meeting platform with custom branding and AI-generated summaries.
- NOIZ AI released a voice tool where emojis control emotional tone and delivery pace.
- Wave Browser launched a browser that funds ocean cleanup through a certified partnership with 4ocean.
- NoteGPT introduced an AI tool that captures and summarizes content from any source into study guides.
- Touched Grass launched a gamified platform for creating and sharing badges for real-life achievements.
- MyLens for Chrome released an extension that converts web content into interactive AI visuals in 60+ languages.
- GetProfile launched an open-source, self-hosted memory system for AI agents using PostgreSQL.
- Sparkle introduced a zero-setup email service with high deliverability starting at $4 per 1,000 emails.
- ConnectMachine launched a privacy-first AI contact manager for iOS and Android using voice and digital cards.
- Surgeflow released a tool that automates multi-tab browser workflows from a single command.
- Routine launched its local-first, AI-powered Android workspace for tasks, notes, and calendars.
- Qwen released Qwen-Image-Layered, enabling RGBA-layer image editing for clean object manipulation.