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Beginners in AI
Good morning and thank you for joining us again!
Welcome to this daily edition of Beginners in AI, where we explore the latest trends, tools, and news in the world of AI and the tech that surrounds it. Like all editions, this is human curated and edited, and published with the intention of making AI news and technology more accessible to everyone.
THE FRONT PAGE
Nvidia CEO: You Don't Need a PhD to Make Six Figures in AI"
TLDR: Nvidia's CEO says the AI infrastructure boom is creating six-figure jobs for electricians, plumbers, and construction workers, not just software engineers.
The Story:
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang painted a surprising picture of who's really winning from the AI gold rush. He says the massive buildout of AI data centers is creating enormous demand for skilled tradespeople. We're talking about $7 trillion in data center infrastructure expected by the end of the decade. According to McKinsey, that means the US needs 130,000 new electricians, 240,000 construction laborers, and 150,000 supervisors between 2023 and 2030. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink put it bluntly at the same event: "We're going to run out of electricians."
Its Significance:
If you've been told you need to learn to code to benefit from AI, here's a different path. Salaries for these skilled trades have nearly doubled and now regularly hit six figures. "You don't need a PhD in computer science to make a great living from AI," Huang said. For anyone considering a career change or advising younger family members, the trades are suddenly looking like a very smart bet. The robots need buildings, and buildings need humans.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Apple is reportedly building a full chatbot replacement for Siri, code-named "Campos," for iOS 27 this fall. It'll be powered by a custom Google Gemini model (Apple is paying Google roughly $1 billion annually) and can do web search, generate content, create images, and analyze files. Separately, Apple is also developing an AirTag-sized AI wearable pin with two cameras and three microphones, possibly arriving in 2027.
Your takeaway: Apple is finally going all-in on AI after years of playing catch-up. For the billion-plus iPhone users, this means your phone's assistant is about to get dramatically smarter. The wearable pin shows Apple learned from Humane's failure and is starting smaller.
The story: Anthropic released the complete document that guides Claude's behavior, published under Creative Commons so anyone can use it. Unlike previous "list of rules" approaches, this constitution is written primarily for Claude itself and explains the reasoning behind its values: be safe, be ethical, follow guidelines, be helpful (in that order).
Your takeaway: This is the most transparent look any major AI company has given into how they train their models to behave. If you've ever wondered why Claude responds the way it does, now you can read the actual source document.
The story: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced creators can now generate Shorts using AI versions of themselves. With Shorts averaging 200 billion daily views, this joins YouTube's growing AI toolkit that already includes auto-dubbing and AI-generated clips. Creators also get new tools to flag and manage unauthorized use of their likeness.
Your takeaway: YouTube is betting that creators want to scale themselves, not replace themselves. If you make content, you'll soon be able to clone yourself for Shorts while you focus on longer videos. The likeness protection tools matter just as much.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🤖 Flowise Freemium- AI/ML Tools Build AI workflows with drag-and-drop, create custom chatbots and automation without coding.
✅ Vikunja Freemium and Open Source- Task Management Self-host your own Todoist alternative with lists, Kanban boards, and team collaboration.
📅 Cal.com Freemium- Calendar/Scheduling Schedule meetings without the Calendly fees, open source scheduling that you can self-host.
💰 Actual Budget Freemium- Task Management (Finance) Take control of your finances with envelope budgeting that syncs across devices and respects privacy. Alternative to YNAB and Mint.
TRENDING
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Backlash - San Diego Comic-Con reversed its AI-friendly policy within 24 hours after artists, led by Karla Ortiz, pushed back on social media. New rule: "Material created by AI either partially or wholly, is not allowed."
Google Invests $2M to Train 100,000 Artists in AI - Google.org partnered with Sundance Institute to teach foundational AI skills to artists, including free curriculum and early access to Flow, Google's AI filmmaking tool. Only 25% of media companies currently invest in AI training.
Father-Son Team Reclaims World's Fastest Drone Record at 408 MPH - South Africa's Luke and Mike Bell hit 657 km/h with their 3D-printed Peregreen V4, reclaiming the Guinness record from an Australian engineer. The speed matters for drone warfare: Ukraine may need similar velocities to intercept jet-powered attack drones.
Amazon One Medical Launches AI Health Assistant - One Medical members now get a 24/7 AI assistant that reads your medical records, explains lab results, books appointments, and manages medication refills. It's HIPAA-compliant and powered by Amazon Bedrock.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Learning Debt Tracker: Face the skills you've been "meaning to learn" and build a realistic payoff plan
Build a fully functional Learning Debt Tracker as an interactive React app. Render the working application immediately - no code display.
**My field**: [Your industry or role]
**Skills I keep postponing**: [What you've been meaning to learn]
Create these sections:
1. **Learning Debt Score**
• Big credit-score style display (300-850)
• Based on: overdue skills, time postponed, career impact
• Score breakdown:
- 750+: You're current
- 600-749: Some debt accumulating
- 450-599: Falling behind
- Below 450: Skill bankruptcy risk
• "Calculate My Score" button
2. **Debt Inventory**
• List all skills you've been postponing:
- Skill name
- How long on your "someday" list
- Why you haven't started
- Career impact if you don't learn it
• Add/remove skills
• Sort by: oldest, highest impact, easiest win
• Total debt: X skills, Y months overdue
3. **Interest Calculator**
• The cost of waiting:
"Every month you delay [skill], you lose [opportunity]"
• Compounding consequences:
- Jobs you can't apply for
- Money left on table
- Falling behind peers
• "Search [Skill] Job Demand" button
4. **Payoff Prioritizer**
• Rank skills by:
- Urgency (need it now vs. someday)
- Difficulty (quick win vs. major investment)
- ROI (career impact per hour invested)
• Suggested payoff order
• "Start with this one" recommendation
• Minimum viable learning for each
5. **Payment Plan Builder**
• Realistic schedule:
- Hours per week available: [input]
- Skill 1: X weeks to basic competency
- Skill 2: X weeks to basic competency
• Calendar view of your learning plan
• Milestones and checkpoints
• "I can do 30 min/day" mode
6. **Debt Payoff Tracker**
• Progress for each skill:
- Started → In Progress → Competent → Done
• Hours logged
• Streak counter
• "Paid off!" celebration when complete
• Debt score improving over time
Design specs:
- Credit score dashboard aesthetic
- Big circular score gauge (red to green)
- Debt amounts in "dollars" style
- Payment plan calendars
- Progress bars as "balance remaining"
- Financial app color scheme (navy, green, red accents)
- Clean, serious data visualization
- Satisfying payoff animations
When "Search [Skill] Job Demand" is clicked, use web search to find current job market demand for that skill.What this does: What this does: Makes your skill procrastination visible and painful. See exactly how long you've been putting things off, understand the compounding cost of waiting, and build a realistic payoff plan that fits your actual schedule.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Create data center jobs paying electricians six figures
❌ Still Can't: Build those data centers without human tradespeople
✅ AI Can Now: Read your complete medical history and explain what your lab results mean
❌ Still Can't: Replace the judgment call of when you actually need to see a doctor
✅ AI Can Now: Clone a creator's likeness to make YouTube Shorts at scale
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
What if the first human-level AI isn't built from scratch but copied from us? Economist Robin Hanson spends 400 pages working through that scenario in obsessive detail. His premise: within a century, we'll scan human brains and run them as software. Train one "em" (emulated mind) to do a job, copy it a million times, and you've got an instant workforce. The economy doubles every few weeks. Ems live in vast server-farm cities, run at different speeds, split off temporary copies of themselves for specific tasks, and compete ruthlessly for computational resources. Hanson applies standard economics, physics, and social science to predict everything from em mating patterns to em religion to em real estate. The result reads less like futurism and more like an anthropology textbook from 2150. Fair warning: it's dry, dense, and sometimes feels like someone explaining the tax code of a civilization that doesn't exist.
Thank you for reading. We’re all beginners in something. With that in mind, your questions and feedback are always welcome and I read every single email!
-James
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