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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 published with the intention of making AI news and technology more accessible to everyone.
THE FRONT PAGE
The Youngest Billionaires in History Are 22 and They Train AI for a Living
TLDR: AI minted over 50 new billionaires in 2025, including three 22-year-olds who beat Mark Zuckerberg's record, while established tech titans added another $550 billion to their fortunes.
The Story:
Three friends from a Bay Area high school debate team just became the youngest self-made billionaires in history. Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, all 22, founded Mercor, a startup that pays PhDs, lawyers, and engineers up to $200/hour to train AI models for companies like OpenAI and Meta. When the company raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation in November, they beat Zuckerberg's record (billionaire at 23) by a full year.
They're not alone. According to Forbes, AI created more than 50 new billionaires globally in 2025, as investors poured $202 billion into AI startups. That's roughly half of all global venture funding, up from 34% last year. The new billionaires span data labeling (Surge AI's Edwin Chen, worth $18 billion), customer service automation (Sierra's Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor), and coding tools (Cursor's four co-founders). DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng also joined the club at $11.5 billion.
Its Significance:
While new fortunes emerged, the old guard got richer. The top 10 U.S. tech billionaires added $550 billion to their combined net worth this year, pushing their total to $2.5 trillion. Musk alone jumped nearly 50% to $645 billion, becoming the first person ever past $500 billion. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each grew roughly 60%, riding Alphabet's AI rebound.
The pattern matters. The AI economy is creating wealth at both ends simultaneously. New founders can hit billionaire status before finishing college, while established players with infrastructure positions in GPUs, cloud, and data centers capture the largest gains. MIT researcher Andrew McAfee told CNBC this is unprecedented in over 100 years of data. Whether that concentration creates broader economic opportunity or just more concentration remains the open question heading into 2026.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Google is winning back software engineers who left for competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. About 20% of Google's AI hires in 2025 were "boomerang" employees returning to the company. The move comes as Meta reportedly offers signing bonuses up to $100 million to poach top AI talent, according to OpenAI's Sam Altman.
Your takeaway: The AI talent war is getting expensive, and Google is betting that familiar faces and deep pockets can help it compete with well-funded startups.
The story: Three of the biggest names in tech are preparing to go public. OpenAI (valued at $300 billion), SpaceX ($350 billion), and Anthropic ($60 billion) are all expected to file for IPOs in 2026. The companies need fresh capital to fund massive AI infrastructure and rocket development programs.
Your takeaway: These IPOs could reshape the stock market and give everyday investors a chance to own pieces of companies leading the AI and space races.
The story: OpenAI posted a job listing for a "Head of Preparedness" with a salary up to $555,000. The role involves identifying catastrophic risks from AI systems before they happen. Sam Altman himself warned applicants: "This will be a stressful job." The company recently hit $5 billion in annual revenue but still lost $5 billion this year.
Your takeaway: The hefty salary shows OpenAI is serious about AI safety, but losing money while paying half a million for a stress-filled role raises questions about priorities.
The story: Nvidia struck a deal worth about $20 billion to license technology from AI chip startup Groq and hire its founder and top executives. The non-exclusive agreement lets Groq keep selling its ultra-fast inference chips while Nvidia gains access to the technology. It marks Nvidia's largest deal ever.
Your takeaway: Nvidia is using its massive cash pile to absorb potential competitors, making it even harder for rivals to challenge its dominance in AI chips.
The story: Andrew Ng, who co-founded Google Brain and served as chief scientist at Baidu, says artificial general intelligence is still far off. In an interview with NBC News, Ng said today's AI training is too manual and complex to reach human-level AI anytime soon. He also called recent advice to stop learning to code "some of the worst career advice ever given."
Your takeaway: When one of AI's original architects says the hype is outpacing reality, it's worth paying attention, especially as companies pour billions into promises of human-level AI.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
📊 Rows Freemium: Connect your spreadsheet to 50+ data sources like Google Analytics and Stripe with a built-in AI analyst.
🤝 Attio Freemium: Modern AI-native CRM with Notion-like flexibility and automatic email/calendar sync.
🎙️ Resound Freemium: Cut 80% of your podcast editing time with AI that removes filler words and awkward silences.
🗄️ Baserow Freemium and Open Source: Build databases like Airtable but self-host them with no vendor lock-in—your data stays on your servers.
TRENDING
AI Tracks Student Engagement Through Facial Expressions — Researchers built an AI system that monitors online students for signs of fatigue and distraction using facial expressions and body language. The tool aims to help teachers spot struggling students in real time.
Police Using ChatGPT to Create Suspect Sketches — A police department in Arizona admitted to using ChatGPT to generate photorealistic images of suspects instead of traditional pencil sketches. Officers said the AI images get more engagement on social media, though experts warn about potential bias.
2025 Was the Year Arm Took Over AI Chips — Arm-based chips now power 50% of hyperscale data centers, up from almost nothing a few years ago. The company's designs are showing up in everything from Amazon servers to Nvidia's newest AI hardware.
AI Data Centers Creating Memory Chip Shortage — AI data centers are using so many memory chips that prices for phones, computers, and game consoles could rise soon. One chip analyst said she already bought an iPhone 17 before prices jump further.
Humanoid Robots to Patrol China-Vietnam Border — China is deploying human-sized robots to a busy border crossing with Vietnam starting this month. The $37 million contract has the machines guiding travelers, patrolling halls, and checking cargo containers.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini)
Cultural Communication Guide: Navigate cross-cultural conversations and business interactions with country-specific etiquette and communication styles
Build me an interactive Cultural Communication Guide as a React artifact that provides country-specific communication advice for international interactions.
The console should include these sections:
1. **Situation Setup** - Define your context:
• Your country/culture
• Their country/culture (dropdown or search)
• Interaction type: Business meeting, Email, Negotiation, Social event, Interview, Presentation
• Your role: Colleague, Manager, Client, Vendor, Partner
• "Get Cultural Insights" button
2. **Communication Style Map** - Key differences:
• Visual comparison chart showing:
- **Direct vs. Indirect** (say what you mean vs. read between lines)
- **Individual vs. Collective** (I vs. We focus)
- **Hierarchy** (egalitarian vs. authority-focused)
- **Time orientation** (punctual vs. flexible)
- **Emotion display** (expressive vs. reserved)
• Your culture position vs. theirs on each dimension
• Gap analysis: Where misunderstandings likely occur
• "What this means in practice" examples
3. **Do's and Don'ts** - Quick reference:
• Green light behaviors (encouraged):
✓ Greetings and introductions
✓ Appropriate eye contact level
✓ Personal space and touching
✓ Gift-giving customs
✓ Dining etiquette
• Red light behaviors (avoid):
✗ Taboo topics
✗ Offensive gestures
✗ Inappropriate questions
✗ Business card handling
✗ Meeting protocol mistakes
• Context-specific: Business vs. Social
4. **Meeting & Email Templates** - Adapted communication:
• Email greeting/closing for their culture
• Meeting agenda structure preferences
• Decision-making timeline expectations
• How to say "no" politely in their culture
• Conflict resolution approaches
• Follow-up communication style
• Copy-paste templates adjusted for cultural norms
5. **Negotiation Insights** - Business context:
• Relationship vs. transaction orientation
• Silence and pauses (comfortable vs. awkward)
• Bargaining expectations (fixed vs. negotiable)
• Contract formality (handshake vs. legal docs)
• Decision makers (who has final say)
• Timeline expectations (fast vs. relationship-building first)
• Trust-building strategies
6. **Common Pitfalls** - Avoid these mistakes:
• Typical misunderstandings between these cultures:
- "They seem rude" → Actually being direct
- "They won't commit" → Building consensus
- "They're late" → Different time culture
- "They don't speak up" → Hierarchy respect
• How to recover from mistakes
• Clarifying questions to ask
• "Search Cultural Incidents" for real examples
7. **Language & Phrases** - Useful expressions:
• Key phrases in their language:
- Greetings (formal/informal)
- Thank you
- Please/Excuse me
- Yes/No (and polite refusals)
• Pronunciation tips
• When to use formal vs. informal
• Translation pitfalls (idioms that don't work)
• Non-verbal communication (gestures, nods)
Make it look like a professional travel guide with:
• World map interface with country selection
• Flag and cultural icons
• Side-by-side comparison layouts
• Color-coded do's/don'ts (green/red)
• Clean, international business aesthetic
• Professional yet approachable design
• Chart visualizations for style differences
• Quick-reference card format
When I click "Search Cultural Insights" or "Search Cultural Incidents," use web search to find business etiquette guides, cultural communication research, and real-world examples of cross-cultural misunderstandings and successes.What this does: Prevents awkward cross-cultural misunderstandings by providing specific communication styles, do's/don'ts, and adapted templates for different countries—showing exactly how to adjust your approach for successful international business and personal interactions.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND
✅ AI Can Now: Generate photorealistic suspect images from witness descriptions in minutes, replacing the pencil sketches police have used for decades.
❌ Still Can't: Guarantee those AI-generated faces won't reflect the biases baked into the training data, potentially pointing fingers at innocent people.
✅ AI Can Now: Detect when online students are zoning out by reading their facial expressions and body language through a webcam.
❌ Still Can't: Tell the difference between a bored student and one who's struggling to understand the material.
✅ AI Can Now: Run inference so fast on specialized chips that Nvidia paid $20 billion just to access the technology.
❌ Still Can't: Keep up with its own appetite for memory chips, creating shortages that could raise prices on everyday phones and laptops.
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
The Cambridge Analytica scandal: how a data firm harvested information from 87 million Facebook profiles and used it to influence elections around the world. The documentary follows whistleblowers, journalists, and one of the affected users as they expose the operation.
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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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