Machine Learning Research
xAI’s Cost-Effective Video Generator: Grok Imagine 1.0 sharply cuts costs for high-quality video generation
xAI launched a video generator that topped an independent quality ranking at a fraction of competitors’ prices.
Analytics DeepLearning.AI
Business
OpenAI Tracks Agent States on AWS: OpenAI’s deal with Amazon to build a stateful runtime environment for AI agents
OpenAI partnered with Amazon to build infrastructure for agents on the world’s largest cloud platform, a further sign that its close relationship with Microsoft is weakening.
Machine Learning Research
Open-Source Speed Demon: Nvidia’s open Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B model sets new paces in its class
Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI chips, released a competitive open-source large language model whose speed tops its size class — the first open-weights leader to come from the United States since last year, when Meta delivered Llama 4.
The Batch Newsletter
Nvidia’s Open Salvo, OpenAI’s Amazon Deal, Grok Cuts Video Prices, Recursive Language Models
The Batch AI News and Insights: The anti-AI coalition continues to maneuver to find arguments to slow down AI progress.
Data Points
Sora no more; OpenAI shuts down video maker: Tencent introduces ClawBot, an OpenClaw wrapper for WeChat
Anthropic’s multi-agent harness design. A new voice agent benchmark. Arm’s chip design for data center CPU. U.S. White House’s AI proposal to Congress.
Data Points
MiniMax’s M2.7 model competes with Gemini and Opus: Cursor’s Composer 2 does the same, but for code
Microsoft’s latest image model. Google’s Stitch, a platform for designers. Claude Code Channels, another step towards OpenClaw parity. Anthropic’s denial of a back door into defense operations.
Machine Learning Research
A Single Tokenizer for Visual Media: Apple’s AToken, a multimodal model with a single encoder and tokenizer for images, videos, and 3D objects
Multimodal models typically use different tokenizers to embed different media types, and different encoders when training to generate media rather than classify it.
Business
DeepSeek Snubs Nvidia for Huawei: DeepSeek made its upcoming 4.0 model available for performance testing to Chinese chipmakers but not U.S, ones
DeepSeek, the Chinese developer of outstanding open-weights models, has withheld an upcoming update of its flagship model from U.S. chip makers, a move that intensifies the AI rivalry between the U.S. and China.
Machine Learning Research
Qwen3.5 Outperforms Bigger Models, Leads Vision Benchmarks: Alibaba’s latest flagship models are open-weights MoE performers in sizes from less than 1B parameters
The Qwen3.5 family of open-weights vision-language models includes impressive larger models as well as a smaller one that outperforms an OpenAI open-weights model 10 times its size.
Business
Drones Hit Persian Gulf Data Centers: Iran struck AWS facilities in Bahrain and the UAE, threatened data centers throughout the region
Iran hit at least three Amazon data centers in the Middle East, an indicator of AI’s critical role in the United States’ war against Iran and possibly the first time such facilities have been targeted during warfare.
The Batch Newsletter
Attacks On Data Centers, Qwen3.5 In All Sizes, DeepSeek’s Huawei Play, Apple’s Multimodal Tokenizer
The Batch AI News and Insights: I’ve been hearing from people at all levels of seniority about a feeling of job insecurity.
Letters
That Feeling Of Job Insecurity (And What You Can Do About It): In times of economic and technological uncertainty, build on things that tend to remain stable. Community and skills are likely to weather shifts in business and society.
I’ve been hearing from people at all levels of seniority about a feeling of job insecurity.