Beginners in AI

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Welcome to this week's 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.

This week, we’re spotlighting Lightrick’s real-time AI video direction—yes, you can now live-edit a movie as it’s being generated. We’ll also look at Delta’s dynamic pricing experiment, Google’s AI-powered calling feature, DuckDuckGo’s new way to clean up your image searches, and China’s underwater strategy for cooling AI data centers. Google’s internal AI even beat hackers to a security flaw—before anyone knew it was there. Plus, in robotics, a Star Wars-themed cargo droid rolls out with charm and utility.

AI TOP STORY
Real-Time AI Filmmaking Takes Center Stage

What Happened
Lightricks just upgraded its open-source LTX Video model so creators can livestream AI-generated video up to 60 seconds long and steer the story while it’s being made. Co-founder Yaron Inger calls it a turning point: “We’ve reached a point where AI video isn’t just prompted, it’s truly directed.”

What it Means
The update lands only weeks after Google began rolling out Veo 3, which adds audio and image-to-video tools to Gemini’s paid tiers, showing that rivals are racing to stretch clips beyond the usual 8-second limit. Together, Veo 3 and LTX Video hint at an era of “always-on” generative video, where scenes can evolve the moment a viewer clicks.

What to Take Away
This new kind of real-time storytelling opens up wild possibilities: indie creators could livestream branching storylines where viewers shape the plot in real time, educators might spin up custom explainer videos on the fly, and virtual worlds could react with near-cinematic flair to user input. The barriers to entry are crumbling fast. But with that ease comes a shift in the creative process itself—when generating a full scene is easier than imagining it, there’s a temptation to outsource not just the work, but the vision. AI as a tool expands what’s possible; AI as the default storyteller might quietly flatten what’s interesting.

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LAST WEEK IN AI AND TECH

Fare Forecast (Delta uses AI to personalize ticket prices)
Delta is rolling out AI-powered pricing through its partner Fetcherr, which will determine roughly 20% of ticket prices by year’s end. “We will have a price that’s available on that flight, on that time, to you, the individual,” said Delta president Glen Hauenstein. The system adapts in real time to shifts in demand and passenger profiles, offering different prices to different people. Critics are raising concerns over price transparency, and some regulators are eyeing it as “predatory.”
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Duck Out, Slop Out (DuckDuckGo adds AI image filter to clean search results)
DuckDuckGo now lets users filter out AI-generated images from search results. It’s using a combination of model metadata, open-source blocklists, and image analysis to reduce low-quality, machine-made results. “While it won’t catch 100% of AI-generated results, it will greatly reduce the number you see,” the company stated. The toggle is a response to increasing complaints about AI-generated spam art cluttering up search.
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Ring-Ring, It’s Gemini (Google lets its AI call businesses for you)
Google’s latest Gemini update includes an AI agent that can call local businesses, ask questions, and summarize responses—all while disclosing it's a bot. This new AI Mode also lets users pull in Gemini 2.5 Pro for deeper research or planning tasks. It’s part of a broader move to make Gemini feel like a virtual assistant you can delegate daily chores to, starting with your phone.
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Sleepless Sentinel (Google’s AI caught a security flaw before hackers did)
Google’s internal AI agent, codenamed Big Sleep, flagged a vulnerability in SQLite before it was exploited in the wild. CEO Sundar Pichai praised it as “a first for an AI agent—definitely not the last.” The system watches for strange patterns in open-source code and proactively recommends patches. If reliable at scale, it could mark a shift from reactive cybersecurity to preventative maintenance powered by AI.
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Cool Running (China uses undersea data centers to power AI growth)
China is building offshore, wind-powered data centers to keep up with energy-hungry AI models. By housing them underwater, the cooling load drops dramatically—by as much as 30%, according to engineers. “It signals a bold shift toward low-carbon digital infrastructure,” said analyst Shabrina Nadhila. But marine scientists warn of unintended side effects, like thermal pollution and disruption to local ecosystems.
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TECH TERMS TO KNOW

Temporal Reasoning: The ability of an AI to understand and reason about the order and timing of events. It’s what lets a model know that “She ate before she left” means the eating happened first.

Example:
In a medical chatbot, temporal reasoning helps it understand that “The patient took aspirin at noon and had chest pain afterward” means the chest pain happened after the medication—critical for diagnosis.

It’s not just what happened—it’s when and in what order.

ROBOTICS AND AI

Piaggio Fast Forward turned its cargo robot into a licensed Star Wars companion dubbed G1T4-M1N1. Decked with lights and “custom droid sounds, similar to R2-D2’s beeps, chirps, and whistles,” the bot still hauls 20 lb and follows users for 21 miles. At $2,875, it’s pricier than the standard Gitamini but taps into fandom—and shows how consumer robots can become lifestyle gadgets as much as helpers. 

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TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, Gemini)

History and Future

Act as a world history professor. I want to learn the complete history of human civilization in an efficient, linear, and well-organized format. Start with early human origins and guide me through all major eras in chronological order—prehistoric cultures, ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, China), classical empires, medieval societies, early modern revolutions, industrialization, and the modern geopolitical world. For each period, include key events, innovations, power shifts, influential figures, and cultural trends. Summarize causes and effects clearly. Insert short quizzes every few eras to test retention. Pause after each major era so I can reflect before continuing.

Once the full timeline is covered, analyze current global events (geopolitical tension, climate change, AI, social movements, economic shifts) and identify parallels from history. Use this to highlight patterns, repeated cycles, and lessons learned—or ignored—from the past.

DID YOU KNOW?

The first hard drive weighed a ton and stored less than one MP3
IBM’s 1956 RAMAC hard drive was the size of two refrigerators, stored 5 MB, and cost over $35,000/month to rent.

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-James

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