🧭Google Set to Make AI Mode the Default Search Experience

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Google is ready to unleash AI Mode as the new default for search, potentially sacrificing ad revenue to directly challenge ChatGPT and other AI rivals. Will Google dominate the AI search race? Meanwhile, video AI is stepping into the spotlight: Google’s Veo 3 is generating buzz with stunning outputs, OpenAI is co-producing Critterz, and an AI-made animated film set to premiere at Cannes, and Showrunner is using AI to recreate over 40 minutes of lost footage from a classic Orson Welles film. Let’s dive in and Stay curious.

• Amazon Startup Recreates Lost Orson Welles Film With AI
• AI Tools — Gardening
• Google Set to Make AI Mode the Default Search Experience
• What we are reading
• AI Guides — The Economics of Transformative AI
• OpenAI Backs AI-Generated Animated Film ‘Critterz’

📰 AI News and Trends

• Anthropic Reaches $1.5 Billion Author Copyright Settlement, ~$3k per book
• ASML becomes Mistral AI’s top shareholder after leading the latest funding round
• OpenAI’s revenue is growing faster than expected, but so is its burn rate: The company is telling investors it expects to spend $115 billion more than it makes through 2029
• Virginia Tech adopts artificial intelligence into the admissions process
• ‘Godfather of AI’ says the technology will create massive unemployment and send profits soaring — ‘that is the capitalist system’

🌐 Other Tech news

• Apple Watch surpasses $100B in cumulative revenues in Q2
• Global Premium Smartphone Sales Hit Record H1 High in 2025
• Alibaba leads $100 million investment in Chinese humanoid robot startup
• Q3 is shaping up to be a record-setting era for EV sales

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Amazon Startup Recreates Lost Orson Welles Film With AI

Amazon-backed Showrunner is using AI to recreate 43 minutes of missing footage from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), whose original cut was destroyed. Unlike John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow II, recently restored from a lost print, Welles’ footage is gone for good.

The team is rebuilding scenes from Welles’ notes and using AI to map original actors’ faces onto new footage. Critics warn this could lead to uncanny results, as seen with AI recreations in Alien: Romulus. Showrunner’s CEO sees this as a step toward users generating full films with AI, calling it the “Netflix of AI.”

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🧰 AI Tool

Gardening

• PictureThis — Uses AI to instantly identify plants, flowers, trees, and weeds from a photo. Beyond identification, it can also diagnose plant diseases and provide a care guide, including watering schedules and light requirements.
• Planta — Add your plants to the app, and it creates a personalized care schedule with reminders for watering, fertilizing, and repotting. It also offers a “light meter” feature that utilizes your phone’s camera to determine if your plant is receiving sufficient sunlight in a specific location.
• Garden AI — Upload a photo of your yard or outdoor space, and the AI generates multiple landscape design ideas. It can add different plants, pathways, and hardscape, allowing you to visualize your dream garden before you start digging.
• Agrio — Powerful tool for diagnosing plant problems. You take a picture of a sick plant, and its AI algorithms can identify the disease or pest and provide an appropriate treatment plan. It also offers features for monitoring crops over a large area using satellite imagery.
• Plantix — Free app that functions as a plant doctor and a knowledge hub. Users can take a photo of a sick crop, get an instant diagnosis, and receive treatment suggestions.

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Google Set to Make AI Mode the Default Search Experience

Google is preparing to make “AI Mode” the default for Search, replacing classic web links with a conversational AI experience similar to ChatGPT. Already live in 180+ countries (outside the EU), AI Mode now lets users book services or buy tickets directly in the chat.

At the same time, Google’s lawyers argue in an antitrust case that the open web is in “rapid decline”, blaming ad dollar shifts and AI chatbots. Ironically, critics say Google is accelerating that decline by funneling traffic into its own AI platform while using it as a defense against breaking up its ad business.

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NBER — Conducts and disseminates nonpartisan economic research — Check “The Economics of Transformative AI”

Explore our AI Guides — from coding to photography and beyond, find step-by-step tips to put AI to work for you.

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• Career creator for those building a life without a blueprint. Every Monday morning, I send out First Things First, a weekly guide to staying present, productive, and purposeful.
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OpenAI Backs AI-Generated Animated Film ‘Critterz’

AI Generated characters by OpenAI for the movie Critterz

OpenAI is supporting the production of Critterz, an AI-assisted animated feature aiming to debut at Cannes 2026. Created by Chad Nelson, the film tells the story of forest creatures facing disruption by a stranger. It’s being co-produced by Vertigo Films (UK) and Native Foreign (LA), with a budget under $30M, far less than traditional animated films.

The team plans to finish the movie in just 9 months (vs. Hollywood’s typical 3 years), using OpenAI tools like GPT-5 and DALL·E, while still employing human artists and voice actors. The project is positioned as a proof-of-concept that generative AI can make films faster and cheaper, potentially reshaping Hollywood.

The script was written by writers behind Paddington in Peru, and a profit-sharing model is in place for the ~30 creatives involved. While the film lacks a distribution partner, it’s a bold bet by OpenAI to showcase AI’s creative potential on the big screen.