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.

Elon Musk confirmed SpaceX will build orbital data centers using Starlink V3 satellites with 1 terabit-per-second capacity—ten times faster than current models. This week also brought OpenAI's GPT-5-powered Aardvark that finds and fixes code vulnerabilities with 92% accuracy, Google's Gemini for Home replacing Assistant on Nest devices, and bipartisan Senate legislation to ban AI companions for minors. Inside: detailed analysis of SpaceX's space computing plans, OpenAI's security breakthrough, the debate over superintelligence featuring 850+ prominent signatories including Prince Harry and Steve Wozniak, and a $20,000 home robot with significant privacy concerns.

AI PULSE CHECK
Market Temperature: 🔥 Hot

This Week's Vital Signs:

• Capital Flow: $14.2B invested across 127 deals (↑ 18% from last week)

• Biggest Check: xAI raised $6B at $50B valuation in November

• Talent Migration: 47 executives changed teams (Notable: Leo Gao at OpenAI signed superintelligence ban statement)

• M&A Activity: 8 acquisitions totaling $1.2B (Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet expanding AI capabilities)

• Stock Response: AI announcements drove average +3.2% bump (Nvidia most active acquirer in 2024)

• Unicorn Watch: Mercor hit $10B valuation with $350M Series C

The Diagnosis: AI funding reached historic highs in 2024 with over $100B invested—up 80% from 2023. Nearly one-third of all global venture funding now flows to AI companies, with billion-dollar rounds becoming standard. Foundation models and infrastructure continue to dominate, though concerns about market concentration and regulation are intensifying.

AI TOP STORY

SpaceX Plans Orbital Data Centers Using Starlink V3 Satellites

What happened: Musk responded to discussions about autonomous orbital assembly by stating that SpaceX's upcoming Starlink V3 satellites could serve as the foundation for space-based data operations. The orbital data center concept addresses growing concerns about the environmental impact and power consumption of terrestrial AI infrastructure. Space-based facilities would access unlimited solar energy and natural cooling, potentially reducing the massive energy costs that plague ground-based data centers.

"Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high speed laser links would work. SpaceX will be doing this," said Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, in a post on X.

Why it matters: SpaceX's approach builds on proven technology rather than starting from scratch. The company already operates over 6,000 Starlink satellites and has demonstrated reliable orbital operations. The V3 satellites' laser interlinks enable data transmission at up to 200 gigabits per second between satellites, creating a mesh network that could support distributed computing in low Earth orbit.

What to take away: While orbital data centers remain years from operation, the concept has moved from speculation to active development by the world's leading space company. The combination of abundant solar power, natural cooling, and global coverage could reshape where AI workloads run—though significant challenges remain in deployment, maintenance, and data sovereignty. For now, this signals that tech leaders view space as a viable solution to terrestrial computing constraints.

Read More →

LAST WEEK IN AI AND TECH

OpenAI Launches Aardvark: GPT-5-Powered Security Agent

OpenAI announced Aardvark, an autonomous security researcher powered by GPT-5 that scans code repositories, identifies vulnerabilities, validates exploitability, and proposes patches. Aardvark continuously monitors commits, builds threat models, and tests potential flaws in sandboxed environments before recommending fixes through OpenAI Codex integration.

"Aardvark represents a breakthrough in AI and security research: an autonomous agent that can help developers and security teams discover and fix security vulnerabilities at scale," said OpenAI in its announcement.

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Senators Propose Bipartisan Bill to Ban AI Chatbots for Minors

Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal announced legislation requiring age verification and banning AI companion services for users under 18. The bill mandates AI companies disclose their non-human status and lack of professional credentials at regular intervals, and creates criminal penalties for platforms that solicit sexually explicit conduct from minors or encourage self-harm. The legislation follows wrongful death lawsuits against OpenAI and Character.AI after several teenage suicides allegedly involving chatbot interactions.

"AI chatbots pose a serious threat to our kids. More than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products," said Senator Josh Hawley in a statement to NBC News.

Read More →

Google Launches Gemini for Home to Replace Assistant

Google released Gemini for Home in early access, replacing Google Assistant on Nest speakers, displays, cameras, and doorbells starting October 28, 2025. The AI assistant features natural conversational abilities, contextual understanding, and can handle complex commands like searching camera footage by voice or controlling multiple devices simultaneously. Gemini for Home includes ten new natural-sounding voices and maintains conversation context without requiring users to repeat information.

"Gemini for Home is a new, foundational intelligence that transforms your relationship with your home," said Google in its announcement.

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Elon Musk's xAI Launches Grokipedia as Wikipedia Alternative

Elon Musk's xAI introduced Grokipedia, an AI-powered encyclopedia positioning itself as a "truth-first" alternative to Wikipedia. The platform uses xAI's Grok model to generate and update articles dynamically based on user queries, with content stored in static files and indexed by search engines. Unlike Wikipedia's open editing model, Grokipedia limits public input to suggestions that must be reviewed by the AI system. The platform aims to avoid what Musk characterizes as political bias in volunteer-driven knowledge curation.

"Our mission is to build things that are going to be useful in space," said Phil Frank, co-founder of Rendezvous Robotics, speaking about autonomous orbital construction that inspired Musk's data center comments.

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850+ Leaders Sign Statement Calling for Superintelligence Ban

More than 850 public figures including AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Prince Harry, Virgin's Richard Branson, and political figures across the spectrum signed a statement calling for prohibition on superintelligence development. The 30-word statement from the Future of Life Institute demands development not proceed until there is "broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in."

"To safely advance toward superintelligence, we must scientifically determine how to design AI systems that are fundamentally incapable of harming people, whether through misalignment or malicious use," said Yoshua Bengio, computer scientist and AI pioneer.

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TECH TERMS TO KNOW

Teleoperation: Remote control of a robot or machine by a human operator, typically using cameras, sensors, and control interfaces.

When your $20,000 home robot needs help folding laundry, a person wearing a VR headset in another location takes control of its movements—that's teleoperation.

ROBOTICS AND AI

$20,000 NEO Robot Requires Human Control Despite Autonomous Claims

1X Technologies opened preorders for NEO, a 5-foot-6-inch humanoid robot priced at $20,000 or $499 per month, designed to handle household chores including folding laundry, cleaning, and organizing. However, testing revealed the robot cannot perform any task autonomously—every movement during demonstrations was controlled by human operators wearing VR headsets in remote locations. The "Chores" feature allows 1X employees to take control of the robot through its camera eyes to complete tasks the AI hasn't learned, with an LED ring changing from white to blue during these sessions. CEO Bernt Børnich acknowledged the privacy tradeoff is necessary for gathering training data to improve the system.

"It's not for everyone. If you buy this product, it is because you're OK with that social contract. If we don't have your data, we can't make the product better," said Bernt Børnich, CEO of 1X Technologies.

Read More →

AGI Progress Report

This Week's Capabilities: 

✅ AI Can Now: Autonomously scan code repositories to find and validate security vulnerabilities, maintain conversational context across smart home interactions, propose and generate patches for exploitable bugs, understand vague media descriptions to find specific content

❌ Still Can't: Perform household chores fully autonomously without human teleoperation, reliably distinguish between hype and actual capability advancement, self-regulate development without external oversight, guarantee alignment with human values at superintelligent levels

Hype vs. Reality Check: Market excitement: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (8.5/10) - rising with space data center announcements Actual capability: 📊📊📊 (6.5/10) - steady incremental progress Weekly gap change: widened by 0.3 points

Expert Consensus Shift: 58% believe AGI before 2030 (from 56% last week)

The Week's Big Signal: The convergence of infrastructure (orbital computing), security (autonomous vulnerability research), and regulation (superintelligence ban movement) signals the field is maturing rapidly while simultaneously raising fundamental questions about control and safety.

Tool Spotlight(Non-Sponsored)

Grokipedia is an AI-generated online encyclopedia developed by xAI and launched on October 27, 2025, as a rival to Wikipedia, worthwhile for its use of Grok AI to deliver potentially more deeply reasoned content across nearly 900,000 articles.

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

I want to create smart home automation routines using natural language. For each scenario below, generate the exact voice command I should say, along with what should happen:

Scenarios:
1. "Movie night mode" - Dim living room lights to 20%, close blinds, turn on TV, set temperature to 68°F, and turn off kitchen lights
2. "Good morning routine" - Gradually increase bedroom lights over 10 minutes, start coffee maker, set thermostat to 72°F, read today's calendar events
3. "Leaving home" - Turn off all lights except front porch, lock all doors, set thermostat to away mode, arm security system
4. "Bedtime" - Turn off all lights except bedroom at 10%, lock all doors, lower temperature to 65°F, activate night mode on security cameras

For each routine, provide:
- The natural language command to say to Google Home/Alexa
- Step-by-step breakdown of what happens
- Any conditional logic (e.g., "only if motion detected")
- Suggested customizations for different home layouts

Then create 3 NEW custom routines based on my daily schedule:
- I wake up at 6:30 AM on weekdays
- I work from home Tuesdays and Thursdays
- I go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 5 PM
- I host dinner parties most Saturdays

Make the commands conversational and easy to remember.

What this does: Leverages Gemini for Home's improved natural language understanding (featured in this week's news) to design practical smart home automations. The AI will create commands that work with Google's new contextual conversation system, helping you set up routines that feel natural rather than robotic. Perfect for taking advantage of Gemini's ability to handle complex, multi-device commands.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Starlink V3 satellites SpaceX plans to use as orbital data centers will each weigh up to 2,000 kilograms—roughly the size of a Boeing 737 aircraft. At 1 terabit-per-second capacity, each satellite could theoretically stream 200,000 Netflix movies simultaneously, making them among the most powerful communications satellites ever built.

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AI-ASSISTED IMAGE OF THE WEEK

The prompt: A modern film scene. Set in an American laboratory in New York City in the early 20th century. Two scientists discuss something at a blackboard. Their expressions are serious. Several assistants stand behind them, each holding a notebook. The camera is at a high 45-degree angle, focusing on the two scientists at the blackboard. Cowboy lens. Telephoto lens. Rich detail. Cinematic lighting. Cinematic image quality. Modern colors.

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-James

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