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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
AI Just Got Banned from Shopping for You on Amazon
TLDR: A federal judge blocked Perplexity's Comet AI browser from shopping on Amazon, ruling the startup accessed user accounts without Amazon's permission, in a landmark case that could kill your ability to use AI to shop online anywhere.
The Story:
A federal judge in San Francisco granted Amazon a preliminary injunction this week, temporarily banning Perplexity AI from using its Comet browser to access Amazon accounts and make purchases on behalf of users. The court held that Amazon "has provided strong evidence that Perplexity, through its Comet browser, accesses with the Amazon user's permission but without authorization by Amazon, the user's password-protected account." Amazon sued Perplexity back in November, claiming the startup disguised Comet as a regular Chrome browser to slip past bot-detection tools. Amazon says it warned Perplexity at least five times to stop, even built technical barriers to block Comet's access, and watched Perplexity release an update within 24 hours to get around it. Perplexity has called the lawsuit a "bully tactic" and says it will keep fighting for users' right to choose their own AI tools.
Its Significance:
This case boils down to one question that affects every online shopper: who gets to decide what software can access your own account, you or the platform? The court sided with Amazon, ruling that even though users gave Perplexity permission, Amazon didn't. But consider why Amazon really wants to block AI shopping tools. Amazon makes more money the longer you browse. Every extra minute you spend scrolling means more ads seen, more "recommended" products clicked, and more impulse purchases made. An AI that logs in, finds exactly what you want, and checks out in seconds cuts Amazon out of that loop entirely. If this ruling holds up, it won't just affect Amazon. Every major retailer could use the same legal argument to block AI shopping tools from their sites. That could wipe out the entire idea of using AI to compare prices, find deals, and buy things for you across the internet.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Palantir CEO Alex Karp warned at a recent tech summit that if Silicon Valley keeps threatening white-collar jobs while refusing to work with the military, the government could nationalize AI companies. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed the concern, saying he's thought about the possibility and even mused that building AGI "might be better" as a government project.
Your takeaway: AI spending accounted for about 38% of real GDP growth in the first nine months of 2025, according to St. Louis Fed analysis. When one technology props up that much of the economy, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the government wants more control over it.
The story: A new Brookings Institution report says the US is focused on building artificial general intelligence, while Chinese companies are taking a different path. China is embedding AI into physical products like vehicles, robots, and drones, and spreading open-source models across global markets instead of waiting for a single breakthrough.
Your takeaway: The two biggest AI powers aren't actually running the same race. While US companies pour hundreds of billions into data centers, China is quietly putting AI into everyday products people can buy and use right now.
The story: Researchers at Binghamton University have built a tool called My Music My Choice that protects songs from AI voice cloning. It works by adding tiny, invisible changes to a song's audio. Humans can't hear the difference, but when AI tries to copy the vocals, it only produces distorted noise.
Your takeaway: AI can now clone a singer's voice from just a few seconds of audio, which has created a growing problem for musicians losing control of their own sound. This tool gives artists a way to fight back without changing how their music sounds to listeners.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🐧 Zettlr Free and Open Source: A phenomenal text editor built specifically for researchers and writers who need to manage massive amounts of documentation and citations locally. (Alternative to Obsidian)
📊 Julius Freemium: A powerful data analysis platform that allows you to upload massive spreadsheets and simply ask conversational questions to instantly generate beautiful charts and statistical insights.
📝 Fillout Freemium: An incredibly intuitive form builder that lets you easily create beautiful dynamic surveys and connect them directly to your existing databases to collect user information effortlessly.
🖱️ Arcade Freemium: A brilliant visual recording application that lets you easily capture your software screen and automatically turns those clicks into highly interactive product demonstrations for your website visitors.
TRENDING
AI Can Now Detect Drunk, Tired, and Angry Drivers Just by Looking at Their Face - Researchers at Edith Cowan University built a single AI model that can detect blood alcohol levels with almost 90% accuracy and drowsiness with 95% accuracy, just from video of a driver's face. The system can even tell the difference between someone who's sleepy, angry, or drunk, and it works in low-light conditions using infrared.
Amazon Admits Its Own AI Tools Are Causing Outages Across Its Business - Amazon called an emergency meeting with engineers after a string of outages hit its online retail business, some caused by AI coding tools. The company described the incidents as having a "high blast radius" tied to "Gen-AI assisted changes." Amazon isn't pulling back on AI, though. It's adding more oversight while also laying off 30,000 employees and pushing a target for 80% of its developers to use AI for coding at least once a week.
Meta Acquires Moltbook, the Viral Social Network for AI Agents - Meta bought Moltbook, a Reddit-style platform where AI agents post and interact with each other while humans just watch. The platform claimed 1.6 million agent users, though security researchers found major flaws, including posts that were actually written by humans exploiting vulnerabilities. Moltbook's founders are joining Meta's Superintelligence Labs.
NVIDIA Invests in Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab - NVIDIA announced a multiyear deal with Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. The partnership includes at least one gigawatt of NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin chips and a "significant investment." Murati previously turned down an acquisition offer from Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta Unveils Four New In-House AI Chips - Meta revealed a roadmap of four custom chips (MTIA 300, 400, 450, and 500) designed to power its AI and recommendation systems. The chips will roll out over the next year and a half, with Meta releasing them at six-month intervals to keep pace with its data center expansion. The company expects to spend up to $135 billion on infrastructure this year.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
⏱ Build a Pomodoro focus timer with a circular countdown, task list, and session tracker
Build a Pomodoro focus timer app. Features: circular SVG countdown timer with animated progress ring, adjustable focus and break duration inputs, start/pause/reset controls, mode switch between focus and break, task list with click to set current task, 4 session dots that fill as you complete Pomodoros, today total focus time. Dark rose/pink theme. 900px wide.What this does:
Click a task to set it as your current focus, then hit Start. The circular timer counts down and switches to break mode automatically. Session dots fill in as you complete each Pomodoro, and the stats panel tracks your total focus time.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Shop online, browse products, and make purchases on your behalf using AI browser agents
❌ Still Can't: Write that code reliably, with Amazon admitting AI-assisted changes caused "high blast radius" outages across its business
✅ AI Can Now: Clone a singer's voice from just a few seconds of audio to create fake songs
❌ Still Can't: Get past new audio protection tools that make AI cloning produce only distorted noise
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
Before the HBO series, there was Michael Crichton's original film about a Wild West theme park staffed by robots that start malfunctioning and killing guests. It's the granddaddy of the 'amusement park gone wrong' genre (Crichton also wrote Jurassic Park, naturally). Yul Brynner as the unstoppable Gunslinger is iconic.
Here's how I use Attio to run my day.
Attio's AI handles my morning prep — surfacing insights from calls, updating records without manual entry, and answering pipeline questions in seconds. No searching, no switching tabs, no manual updates.
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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