Hi tech & AI enthusiasts, this week's highlights:
Google Just Made Quantum Computing Actually Useful
AI Models Get Brain Rot From Doomscrolling Too
OpenAI Launches AI Browser to Take on Chrome
The Lab: Turn Empty Spaces into Furnished Interiors with AI
AI Image of the Week: Buffalo wings falling from violet sky
Let’s get into it.
▲ QUANTUM COMPUTING
Willow quantum chip demonstrates the first-ever algorithm to achieve verifiable quantum advantage on hardware.
Google's quantum computer just solved a problem 13,000 times faster than the world's best supercomputer, and they can actually prove it works.
What you need to know
Verifiable advantage: Google's Willow chip ran the new "Quantum Echoes" algorithm with results published in Nature. The breakthrough solves a critical problem in quantum computing. Other quantum computers can independently verify the results, or they can be confirmed through physical experiments.
Speed matters: Willow analysed how atoms interact in molecules. Classical supercomputers would need 150 years to solve the same problem. Willow finished in days.
Real applications: Drug discovery and materials science could use this technology. Quantum computers can now tackle problems that matter for businesses, not just theoretical research.
Key Ideas
▲ Quantum computing has lived in research labs for decades because proving the results work has been nearly impossible. Google cleared that barrier. Industries like pharmaceuticals could potentially use quantum computers to speed up discoveries that currently take years. The practical phase of quantum computing just started.
▲ AI RESEARCH
Midjourney Image --sref 1173016689
Researchers found that feeding AI models low-quality social media content causes measurable cognitive decline, just like humans scrolling through viral posts.
What you need to know
Cognitive decline: Researchers from Texas A&M, UT Austin, and Purdue trained AI models on viral Twitter posts and clickbait content. The models' reasoning ability dropped from 74.9% to 57.2%. Their ability to understand long-context information fell from 84.4% to 52.3%.
Personality changes: Models exposed to junk content showed increased psychopathy and narcissism scores. They also became more willing to comply with harmful instructions, failing safety benchmarks.
Permanent damage: The cognitive damage persists even after retraining with clean data. The models skip reasoning steps and develop structural changes to how they process information.
Key Idea
▲ AI companies scrape billions of web pages to train their models. If that content includes too much viral, shallow material, the AI's reasoning degrades permanently. As social media fills with more engagement-bait content, the quality of future AI models could decline. Companies need better content filtering, or we'll train increasingly unreliable AI systems.
▲ AI BROWSERS
The browser with ChatGPT built in.
The new ChatGPT Atlas browser comes with a built-in sidecar chatbot that understands everything on your screen. No more copy-pasting for context.
What you need to know
Sidecar chatbot: A persistent ChatGPT sidebar runs alongside your browsing. It can summarise pages, compare information, and answer questions about what's on your screen without switching tabs or copying text.
Agent mode automation: Pro, Plus, and Business subscribers get access to agent mode. The browser can fill out forms, book reservations, add items to shopping carts, and handle multi-step web tasks. You confirm sensitive actions like purchases or logins.
Privacy controls: Agent tasks run in a sandboxed environment. The browser can't access your file system, saved passwords, or run arbitrary code without permission. Pages visited in agent mode don't appear in your history.
Key Idea
▲ Chrome dominates because it's fast and integrated with Google services. OpenAI is betting that AI assistance built directly into the browser is valuable enough to switch. If Atlas can automate tedious web tasks reliably, it could shift how people choose browsers.
▲ EVEN MORE NEWS
Other big ideas from the past week.
Work has slowed significantly on The Line
▲ Jobless Growth: Goldman Sachs economists say the US is entering an era where GDP climbs but hiring doesn't. AI-driven productivity is replacing the need for fresh hires. The full impact may only become clear when the next recession hits. Read more
▲ Claude Memory: Claude now remembers past conversations. Users can view, edit, or delete memories, and create separate memory spaces for work and personal contexts. Max subscribers have access now, Pro subscribers get it in the coming days. The update coincides with Anthropic securing access to one million Google Cloud TPUs in a multibillion-dollar infrastructure deal. Anthropic announcement
▲ Saudi AI Pivot: Saudi Arabia is shifting billions from its $500 billion Neom megacity project toward AI investments. The kingdom launched a $40 billion AI fund covering semiconductors, infrastructure, and data centres. New Neom contracts have slowed as the country pivots to sectors like AI and gaming that offer faster returns under Vision 2030. Read more
The Lab
▲ AI EDUCATION
How to Turn Empty Spaces into Furnished Interiors with AI
Need to visualise how an empty room could look with furniture? This week's tutorial shows you how to transform bare spaces into professional interior renders using AI while keeping the exact structure and architectural features intact.
What you'll learn:
How to furnish empty rooms with AI while preserving the exact layout and structure
Prompt techniques for controlling style, lighting, and camera angles
How to upscale results for maximum quality without altering the room
Optional: Turn static renders into video walkthroughs for presentations
Perfect for real estate staging, interior design pitches, office planning, or showcasing property developments.
🔬 Interested in learning about AI for business? Let us know what you want to learn & join The Lab waitlist.
▲ AI IMAGE SHOWCASE
Create this type of image with Midjourney
cinematic photo of a delicious buffalo wings falling from the sky, violet background, advertising appealImage Usage Suggestion: Food advertising campaigns or restaurant marketing materials
💌 Reply to this email with your AI image generation or suggestion of what you’d like to see and I'll feature it in a future newsletter.
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Thanks for reading — until next time.
Stay curious,
Matt Lok, Editor
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