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
Netflix Is Buying the Keys to Film History. Here's What AI Could Do With Them.
TLDR: Netflix's $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. isn't just a streaming play. It hands one company the technical capability and legal right to alter a century of film history using AI.
The Story:
Netflix announced Friday it will acquire Warner Bros. in an $82.7 billion deal expected to close in late 2026. The acquisition gives Netflix ownership of Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, the DC Universe, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and thousands of other titles in a library spanning 100 years. Most coverage focuses on streaming market share and theatrical distribution. But analysts note a quieter dimension: the deal positions Netflix to use Warner's massive library as AI training data and "meme-ification" material. That matches Disney's November announcement that it will let subscribers create AI-generated short-form content using its IP. Netflix now has comparable ammunition.
Its Significance:
In 1988, George Lucas testified before Congress warning that future technology would let copyright holders "replace actors with 'fresher faces,' or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match." He called those who alter films for profit "barbarians." That future is here. Netflix already uses AI for dubbing and lip-syncing, and has experimented with AI upscaling on older shows. The results haven't been pretty. Its recent remaster of "A Different World" drew widespread criticism for distorted faces and garbled text. The National Film Preservation Act of 1988, which Lucas helped pass, only requires a disclosure label on altered films. It doesn't prevent modifications. SAG-AFTRA's 2023 contract protects living actors' digital likenesses. But Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman aren't covered.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Chinese toymakers have declared 2025 the year of AI and are making robots and teddy bears that can teach, play, and tell stories. At schools, AI tutors promise personalized learning, and Mattel is partnering with OpenAI to launch AI-powered toys by Christmas. Early trials show AI can boost literacy and language learning, especially where teachers are scarce.
Your takeaway: AI companions may help kids learn faster, but experts worry children could prefer synthetic friends who never argue over real ones—potentially stunting the social skills they need as adults. There are also other risks that we covered in a previous edition AI Toys, From 11 Phrases to Infinite Responses
The story: At the Radiological Society of North America's annual conference in Chicago, more than 100 companies filled an AI showcase larger than two football fields. Major equipment makers GE, Philips, and Siemens have all built AI into their products. But while the technology floods the market, radiology practices are still figuring out how to test and deploy an earlier generation of algorithms.
Your takeaway: Radiology was one of the first medical fields to embrace AI, but the technology is now advancing so quickly that doctors and hospitals can't keep up with validating what actually works.
The story: While companies like Microsoft ($94 billion) and Meta ($70 billion) pour massive amounts into AI infrastructure, Apple plans to spend just $14 billion on AI this year. Investors who once criticized Apple for falling behind are now viewing this as smart caution. When tech stocks dropped last week over AI spending worries, Apple stayed flat while others fell sharply.
Your takeaway: Apple's "wait and see" approach to AI spending is paying off with investors who are nervous about whether other tech giants will ever make money from their massive AI bets.
The story: Meta signed agreements with news outlets including CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and Le Monde to bring real-time news to its AI chatbot. When users ask Meta AI questions about current events, they'll get information and links from these sources. This marks a shift—Meta stopped paying publishers in 2022 and killed its Facebook News tab in 2024.
Your takeaway: Meta is now willing to pay publishers for content it needs to make its AI chatbot competitive, reversing years of pulling back from news on its platforms.
The story: Hundreds of fake videos featuring real doctors are appearing on TikTok and other platforms, using AI to make it look like medical experts are endorsing supplements with unproven effects. One professor discovered he was featured in fake TikTok videos talking about "thermometer leg"—a made-up menopause symptom—even though he's a children's health specialist. When victims report these videos, platforms often say they don't violate rules.
Your takeaway: AI makes it easy for scammers to steal trusted doctors' identities, and social media platforms are struggling to keep up with the flood of medical misinformation.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
📊 Rows
Freemium: Analyze spreadsheets using plain English—ask questions, create charts, and pull live data from 200+ apps without writing formulas.✅ Taskade
Freemium: Manage tasks, notes, and projects in one AI-powered workspace that helps you brainstorm, automate workflows, and collaborate in real time.🖼️ Gamma
Freemium: Create stunning presentations, documents, and websites in seconds by typing a prompt and letting AI handle the design.🔇 Krisp
Freemium: Remove background noise, barking dogs, and echoes from your calls so you sound professional no matter where you work.
TRENDING
AI Model Could Help Radiologists Spot Brain Problems in MRI Scans — Researchers at King's College London built an AI that taught itself to find brain abnormalities by studying 60,000 existing MRI scans and their reports. It can spot conditions like strokes, multiple sclerosis, and tumors, and could help speed up diagnoses as hospitals face growing backlogs.
MIT Researchers "Speak Objects Into Existence" Using AI and Robotics — MIT built a system where a robotic arm can hear a spoken request like "I want a simple stool" and build it from modular parts in about five minutes. The team hopes the technology could one day let anyone create physical objects on demand without design or programming skills.
ChatGPT's User Growth Is Slowing Down — ChatGPT's monthly active users grew just 6% from August to November, reaching about 810 million—a sign the chatbot may be nearing market saturation. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini grew 30% in the same period, partly thanks to its popular image generator.
After Neuralink, Max Hodak Is Building Something Even Wilder — The former Neuralink co-founder's new company, Science Corp., is developing a rice-grain-sized chip that restores vision to blind patients. In trials, 80% of patients could read again. The company expects to launch in Europe next summer.
Startup Builds a "Fitbit for Your Brain" to Combat Chronic Stress — Awear is a small device worn behind the ear that monitors brainwaves to detect stress before it becomes chronic. The $195 device sends results to an app with AI coaching advice, and Stanford is testing it to spot confusion in elderly surgery patients.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude or Gemini(click build first))
Prompt: Patent & Innovation Tracker: Monitor patent filings and spot emerging innovations in any industry before they go mainstream
Build me an interactive Patent & Innovation Tracker as a React artifact that monitors patent activity and identifies innovation trends in any field.
The console should include these sections:
1. **Mission Control Setup** - Configuration panel:
• Industry/technology field input (e.g., "renewable energy," "AI chips," "biotech")
• Geographic focus: US, EU, China, Japan, Global
• Time range selector: Last 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years
• Top companies to track (add/remove with autocomplete)
• Alert keywords (specific technologies to monitor)
• "Initialize Tracking" button
2. **Patent Activity Dashboard** - Main monitoring display:
• Large counter showing total patents filed in timeframe
• Trend graph (line chart) showing filing velocity over time
• Top 10 companies by patent volume (horizontal bar chart)
• Recent filings feed with:
- Patent title and filing date
- Company/inventor
- Key claims summary
- Patent number and link
- Category tags
• "Hot zones" indicator (sudden spikes in activity)
• "Refresh Data" button that searches for latest patents
3. **Innovation Trend Analyzer** - Pattern detection:
• Word cloud of most common terms in patent abstracts
• Emerging technology clusters (grouped by similarity)
• Technology maturity assessment: Early → Growing → Mature → Declining
• Cross-industry connections (which other fields are borrowing ideas)
• Citation network showing which patents build on others
• Convergence indicators (technologies merging)
4. **White Space Mapper** - Opportunity identification:
• Visual grid showing technology categories vs. company activity
• Identify underfunded or underexplored areas (gaps in the grid)
• "Blue ocean" opportunities with low competition
• Adjacent possible: logical next innovations
• Problem-solution gap analysis
• "Search for White Space" button for market research
5. **Competitive Intelligence** - Strategic insights:
• Company deep-dive selector
• Patent portfolio breakdown by category
• R&D direction indicators (where they're investing)
• Collaboration network (who partners with whom)
• Defensive vs. offensive patenting patterns
• Speed metrics (filing frequency acceleration/deceleration)
• Download company intelligence report
Make it look like a NASA mission control center with:
• Dark theme (dark blue/black background)
• Bright accent colors for data (cyan, green, orange)
• Multiple panels showing different data streams
• Large numbers and real-time feeling counters
• Monospace font for data, clean sans-serif for labels
• Grid layout with panels of different sizes
• Glowing borders on active panels
• Technical, data-dense aesthetic
• Subtle radar/scanning animations
• Status indicators with blinking lights
When I click "Refresh Data" or "Search for White Space," use web search to find recent patent filings, technology news, innovation reports, and market analysis for the specified industry.What this does: Creates a command center for tracking patent activity and innovation trends—helping investors spot emerging technologies, companies identify white space opportunities, and strategists understand where competitors are placing their R&D bets.
What it looks like:
WHERE WE STAND
✅ AI Can Now: Teach itself to spot brain problems in MRI scans by reading 60,000 medical reports—no human labeling required.
❌ Still Can't: Get validated fast enough for hospitals to actually use it, as doctors struggle to test tools before newer ones arrive.
✅ AI Can Now: Turn spoken requests like "I want a stool" into physical furniture built by a robot in five minutes.
❌ Still Can't: Build anything sturdy enough to sit on yet—the team is still figuring out how to connect the pieces more securely than magnets.
✅ AI Can Now: Create deepfake videos of real doctors convincing enough that viewers believe the medical advice is genuine.
❌ Still Can't: Be reliably detected by the social media platforms where it spreads, even when the real doctors report it themselves.
FROM THE WEB
If you haven't started using NotebookLM, it is one of the most incredible AI tools that you can use. And the updates are almost too fast to keep up with.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
AUDIO DRAMA: The Orphans (Gimlet)
This is a short audio series about a girl who was raised by an AI after her parents died. The story is told through her therapy sessions as an adult, where she's trying to process what it meant to have a machine as a parent.
What makes this work is how specific it gets about the relationship. The AI couldn't hug her, couldn't understand why she was crying sometimes, but it kept her alive and tried to love her in the only way it could. The sound design is excellent—the AI's voice shifts subtly as the girl grows up, adapting to her needs. It's only a few episodes, and it'll make you think about what parenting actually requires.
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
By the way, this is the link if you liked the content and want to share with a friend.
