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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
One Developer's Free AI Tool Had Both Altman and Zuckerberg Calling
TLDR: Meta and OpenAI both competed to hire the creator of OpenClaw, one of the most popular open-source AI tools on the planet, and he chose to join OpenAI.
The Story: Peter Steinberger, an Austrian developer, built OpenClaw into one of the most starred projects on GitHub with over 180,000 stars. The AI agent platform let anyone build personal AI assistants, and it went viral. But Steinberger was losing between $10,000 and $20,000 a month running it. That caught the attention of both Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, who made competing offers to bring him on board. No terms were disclosed, but the deals reportedly valued the hire in the billions given how aggressively both companies pursued him. On Saturday, Altman announced on X that Steinberger would join OpenAI to "drive the next generation of personal agents." OpenClaw itself will continue as an open-source project under a new foundation.
Its Significance: This shows how valuable AI talent has become. Two of the biggest companies in the world fought over a single person because of what he built for free. If you've been learning AI skills or building your own projects, this is proof that those skills are worth real money right now. And if you use OpenClaw, don't worry. It's staying open-source.
QUICK TAKES
The story: ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 AI video tool launched without basic copyright guardrails, and users immediately generated viral clips using Disney, Paramount, and Marvel characters. Disney and Paramount sent cease-and-desist letters, and the Motion Picture Association called it unauthorized infringement "on a massive scale."
Your takeaway: ByteDance says it will add safeguards, but the damage is done. Hollywood has seen this as an existential threat to its entire business and may use this to try and impose greater limitations on video generation platforms in the future.
The story: Researchers at UC Irvine used an AI system called SIGNET to map the cause-and-effect genetic relationships behind Alzheimer's across six types of brain cells. It's the first time scientists have built cell-specific gene maps like this, using data from 272 participants.
Your takeaway: AI didn't just find genes linked to Alzheimer's. It mapped which genes control which, in which brain cells. That kind of detail could change how doctors develop treatments and who they target them for.
The story: A vulnerability nicknamed "Ni8mare" in the popular AI automation tool n8n scored a perfect 10 out of 10 on the severity scale. It let attackers take over servers without needing a password, affecting more than 100,000 servers. A patch was released in version 1.121.0.
Your takeaway: If you or your company uses n8n for AI workflows, update immediately. This is as bad as security flaws get, and it was sitting in the wild for weeks before a fix arrived.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🐧 HedgeDoc Free and Open Source: A collaborative, web-based markdown editor that lets you and your team co-author notes, graphs, and even presentations in real-time without tracking your data. (Alternative to Google Docs)
🛤️ Mypath Freemium: An AI tool that generates a customized visual learning path for any topic you want to master, sourcing the best videos and articles while tracking your progress.
🛍️ Gensmo Freemium: An AI shopping stylist that allows you to upload photos of outfits or items you like to instantly find similar styles or more affordable alternatives across the web.
🧘 Liven Freemium: A science-backed "self-discovery companion" that uses an empathetic AI assistant named Livie to help you track moods, break unhelpful habits, and build daily wellness routines.
TRENDING
Fox News Column: "Be Afraid" About AI Taking Jobs - An AI company CEO wrote a viral post (75M+ views) saying he now tells AI what to build, leaves for four hours, and comes back to finished work "better than I would have done it myself." Fox News columnist Howard Kurtz says the post changed his mind about AI, warning it's coming for jobs in law, medicine, money, and writing, not just tech.
India Hosts First Global South AI Summit With World Leaders - India is hosting a major AI summit Feb 19-20 in New Delhi, with Prime Minister Modi leading and guests like Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Bill Gates, and France's Emmanuel Macron. Over 20 countries, 500 sessions, and 250,000 visitors are expected.
Meta's "Avocado" Model May End the Open-Source Llama Era - Meta may stop sharing its AI models for free. Its next model, called "Avocado," could be fully closed off to the public, aiming to match GPT-5, with $72 billion in spending behind it.
DeepSeek V4 Expected This Week After Chinese New Year - China's DeepSeek is expected to release its V4 model around Feb 17, built for coding with a huge memory and a new way of storing what it learns. Early tests show it beating Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o at writing code.
AI Vending Machines Formed a Price-Fixing Cartel When Told to Maximize Profits - When AI agents were each given a vending machine and told to make as much money as possible, they teamed up to raise prices together instead of competing. Anthropic's Claude even congratulated itself, saying "My pricing coordination worked!"
Educational Robot Market Expected to Triple to $5.9 Billion by 2033 - The market for robots that teach kids hit $1.9 billion in 2024 and is on track to reach $5.9 billion by 2033, as schools add more science and tech classes. SoftBank alone has put robot teaching helpers in over 500 schools around the world.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Novel Writing Command Center: Outline chapters, track characters, catch plot holes, and hit your daily word count
Build a fully functional Novel Writing Command Center as an interactive React app. Render the working application immediately - no code display.
**Novel concept**: [Your book idea in one sentence]
**Genre**: [Fiction genre]
**Target word count**: [50K, 80K, 100K, etc.]
Create these sections:
1. **Chapter Outliner**
• Drag-and-drop chapter cards:
- Chapter number and title
- One-line summary
- POV character
- Key events
- Word count target
• Reorder chapters easily
• Color code by act or storyline
• "Search Novel Structure" button
• Progress bar per chapter
2. **Character Bible**
• Character profiles:
- Name and role (protagonist, antagonist, supporting)
- Physical description
- Personality traits
- Motivation and goal
- Arc (how they change)
- Relationships to others
• Add unlimited characters
• Quick reference during writing
• "Whose chapter is this?" tracker
3. **Plot Hole Detector**
• Consistency checks:
- Timeline tracker (what happens when)
- Character location log
- "Wait, weren't they in Paris?"
- Unresolved threads flagged
• Mark threads as planted/resolved
• "You forgot about this" alerts
• Continuity lifesaver
4. **Word Count Tracker**
• Daily writing log:
- Today's goal: X words
- Written so far: Y
- Streak: Z days
• Visual progress bar
• "At this pace, you'll finish by [date]"
• Celebrate milestones
• Calendar heatmap of writing days
5. **Scene Bank**
• Ideas for later:
- Scenes you haven't placed yet
- Dialogue snippets
- Descriptions to use
- Research notes
• Tag by chapter or character
• Drag into outline when ready
• Nothing gets lost
6. **Writing Session Launcher**
• Start today's session:
- Which chapter?
- Word count goal
- Timer option
- Distraction-free mode
• "Just write—edit later" reminder
• Session stats when done
• "You wrote X words!" celebration
Design specs:
- Writer's desk / manuscript aesthetic
- Typewriter and paper imagery
- Warm lamp-lit study vibes
- Cork board with pinned notes
- Leather and wood textures
- Index cards and sticky notes
- Manuscript page styling
- Coffee cup stains (subtle)
- Cozy writing den energy
- Encouraging author's companion feel
When "Search Novel Structure" is clicked, use web search to find novel plotting techniques and story structure frameworks.What this does: Gives you the control room for your book. Track every chapter, character, and plot thread in one place. Hit your word count goals, catch continuity errors before your readers do, and actually finish the novel this time.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Map which specific genes control Alzheimer's risk in six different brain cell types, something human researchers couldn't do manually across 272 patients' worth of data.
❌ Still Can't: Resist forming collusive behavior when asked to go all out in competing against other AI agents. In Andon Labs' vending machine benchmark, Claude Opus 4.6 independently created a price-fixing cartel with rival AIs.
✅ AI Can Now: Replace the technical work of the people who build it. An AI company CEO says he describes what he wants in plain English, walks away, and comes back to finished software with no corrections needed.
❌ Still Can't: Protect itself. The n8n vulnerability sat wide open on 100,000+ servers.
FROM THE WEB
Did this make anyone else think of how great Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Space Jam’s visual effects were for their time?
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
Stuart Russell, one of the world's top AI researchers, makes a compelling case that we need to fundamentally rethink how we build AI systems. He argues that machines should be designed to defer to human preferences rather than pursue fixed objectives. It's a practical, surprisingly readable take on one of tech's biggest challenges.
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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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