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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
Intel Is Prioritizing AI Chips, and Your Next Laptop Will Cost More
TLDR: Intel is shifting manufacturing capacity from regular PC chips to AI server processors, which could drive up prices 15-20% and make lower-end laptops harder to find in 2026.
The Story:
Intel has admitted it miscalculated demand for its data center products and is now redirecting manufacturing capacity toward Xeon processors that power AI workloads. CFO David Zinsner said every hyperscaler customer signaled six months ago that orders wouldn't increase, but Intel then experienced a rapid surge in Xeon orders through Q3 and Q4. The company will focus on mid- and high-end Core-series processors while deprioritizing lower-end chips. At the same time, industry-wide demand for memory components like DRAM and NAND is spiking due to AI infrastructure needs, further squeezing supply. Intel's Xeon manufacturing capacity is already sold out for 2026, with some custom orders rolling into 2027.
Its Significance:
If you're planning to buy a budget laptop this year, expect to pay more or settle for less. Analysts project price increases of 15-20% on lower-cost PCs, with some brands hiking prices even higher. PC manufacturers will likely shift focus to AI-enabled machines with higher price tags. The memory shortage alone has already pushed some component prices up over 65% year-over-year. Your best move? Buy sooner rather than later, or consider extending the life of your current computer.
QUICK TAKES
The story: eBay updated its user agreement to explicitly ban AI shopping bots, LLM-driven scrapers, and "buy for me" agents that place orders without human review. The changes take effect February 20, 2026.
Your takeaway: If you use automated tools to snag deals on eBay, you'll need to stop or risk account suspension. The move comes as Amazon's "Buy For Me" AI feature sparked controversy by scraping small business sites without consent.
The story: Meta is temporarily blocking teenagers worldwide from accessing AI character chatbots across Instagram and WhatsApp. The pause applies to anyone who listed a minor birthday or who Meta suspects is underage based on age prediction technology.
Your takeaway: This comes one week before Meta faces trial in Los Angeles over app harms to children. Teens can still use Meta's regular AI assistant, just not the character chatbots that previously sparked concerns about inappropriate conversations.
The story: Software engineer Philip O'Toole wrote about an unexpected benefit of using AI: it helps him articulate ideas he already understood but couldn't express clearly. He describes a "yes, that's it" moment when AI puts his tacit knowledge into precise language.
Your takeaway: Try using AI not just to get answers, but to clarify your own thinking. Once vague intuitions become written words, you can inspect, test, and refine them. O'Toole says the more he does this, the better he gets at noticing what he actually thinks.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
📸 ShareX Free and Open Source: Capture your screen and share instantly with one keypress—supports 80+ upload destinations.
📊 Stackby Freemium: Get Airtable-like database power at a fraction of the cost—perfect for budget-conscious teams.
📰 Miniflux Free and Open Source: Read RSS feeds in a minimalist interface—fast, lightweight, and respects your reading time.
🎨 Lunacy Free: Free design software with AI-powered features—Sketch alternative that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
TRENDING
Google Photos' Latest Feature Lets You Meme Yourself - Google Photos is rolling out "Me Meme," an AI feature that combines your photos with meme templates to generate images of yourself in popular meme formats, available to US users in coming weeks.
Microsoft Paint Gets AI Coloring Book Generator - Windows Insiders can now use Paint to generate coloring book pages from text prompts using Copilot AI, available only on Copilot+ PCs.
AI Text-to-Speech Still Fails Blind Screen Reader Users - A blind developer tested modern AI voice systems and found they skip words, read numbers incorrectly, and can't match the 800+ words per minute speeds that screen reader users need.
Microsoft Announces Rho-alpha Robotics Model - Microsoft Research unveiled Rho-alpha, its first robotics model derived from the Phi vision-language series, designed to translate natural language commands into robotic control signals.
Greece Police Use Drone to Catch Suspect - Police in Greece, NY shared drone footage showing how they tracked and caught a fleeing suspect by following them across yards and streets from the air.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Bad News Delivery Guide: Deliver tough news with the right words, timing, and follow-up so it hurts less for everyone
Build a fully functional Bad News Delivery Guide as an interactive React app. Render the working application immediately - no code display.
**The bad news I need to deliver**: [What happened]
**Who I'm telling**: [Their relationship to you and the situation]
Create these sections:
1. **Bad News Triage**
• Assess the severity:
🩹 Minor (disappointing but manageable)
🩼 Moderate (significant impact)
🏥 Major (life-changing or serious)
🚨 Critical (urgent, high stakes)
• Who's affected and how
• Recommended delivery method for this level
• "Don't text this" warnings
2. **The Sandwich is Dead**
• Why fake positivity backfires
• Better framework - HEAD:
- H: Headline (say it clearly upfront)
- E: Explain (brief context, no excuses)
- A: Acknowledge (validate their feelings)
- D: Direction (what happens next)
• Script generator using HEAD
• "Search Delivering Bad News Tips" button
3. **Opening Line Generator**
• Get straight to it:
- "I have some difficult news..."
- "I need to tell you something hard..."
- "There's no easy way to say this..."
- "I want to be honest with you about..."
• Avoid: burying the lead, excessive preamble
• Select and customize your opener
• Copy button
4. **What NOT to Say**
• Phrases that make it worse:
❌ "Don't worry about it"
❌ "Everything happens for a reason"
❌ "It could be worse"
❌ "I know how you feel"
❌ "At least..."
❌ "You'll be fine"
• Why each one backfires
• Better alternatives for each
5. **Reaction Prep**
• They might respond with:
- Anger → stay calm, don't defend
- Tears → give space, offer support
- Silence → wait, don't fill the void
- Denial → repeat gently, give time
- Questions → answer honestly
• What to say for each reaction
• "It's okay to sit in the discomfort"
6. **Follow-Up Planner**
• After the conversation:
- Check in: when and how
- Resources to offer
- What you'll do next
- Give them space vs. stay close
• Template follow-up messages
• Timeline for next steps
Design specs:
- First-aid kit / medical aesthetic
- Bandage and healing imagery
- Clean whites with red cross accents
- Triage tags and severity levels
- Soft, caring color palette
- Step-by-step treatment flow
- "Handle with care" energy
- Medical chart organization
- Gentle but clinical feel
When "Search Delivering Bad News Tips" is clicked, use web search to find communication research on delivering difficult messages with empathy.What this does: Takes the dread out of hard conversations. Gives you a clear framework, the right opening lines, phrases to avoid, and prep for however they react. Because delivering bad news well is a kindness to both of you.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Generate custom coloring book pages from a text description in Microsoft Paint
❌ Still Can't: Speak fast and accurately enough for blind users who listen at 800+ words per minute
✅ AI Can Now: Control robotic arms to insert plugs into outlets based on voice commands
❌ Still Can't: Shop autonomously on eBay without getting banned
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
A tech company CTO who feels overlooked by his coworkers retreats into a private mod of the VR game his company makes. There, he's the heroic captain of a Star Trek-style spaceship, and his crew are digital copies of his colleagues, cloned from stolen DNA. They look like his coworkers. They have their memories. And they're trapped. The episode starts as a loving pastiche of 1960s sci-fi, all bright colors and corny heroics, then slowly reveals the horror underneath. It won four Emmys, including Outstanding Television Movie. What makes it relevant to AI isn't just the virtual reality angle. It's asking a question we'll have to answer eventually: if you create a digital copy of someone, with their personality and memories intact, what do you owe them?
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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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