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

No Medical Degree, No Lab, No Problem: One Man Used AI to Fight His Dog's Cancer

TLDR: A Sydney tech entrepreneur used ChatGPT and Google's AlphaFold to design a custom mRNA cancer vaccine for his dying rescue dog, and within weeks, her tumor shrank by 75%.

The Story:

Paul Conyngham isn't a doctor or a scientist. He's a data engineer from Sydney, Australia, with 17 years of experience in machine learning. When his rescue dog Rosie was diagnosed with mast cell cancer in 2024, the most common skin cancer in dogs, vets said she had one to six months to live. Surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy slowed the cancer but couldn't stop it. So Conyngham turned to AI. ChatGPT suggested he try immunotherapy and pointed him to the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He paid $3,000 to sequence Rosie's tumor DNA, then used ChatGPT and Google DeepMind's AlphaFold to analyze the genetic data and design a custom mRNA vaccine. Professor Pall Thordarson at the UNSW RNA Institute turned that design into a real vaccine. Rosie got her first shot in December 2025.

Its Significance:

Within about a month, one of Rosie's tumors shrank by 75%. By January 2026, she was jumping over fences to chase rabbits again. Scientists say this is the first personalized cancer vaccine ever designed for a dog. Conyngham's story shows how AI tools that are freely available right now can speed up research that used to take teams of scientists months or years. It's important to note this is still a single case, not a clinical trial. One of Rosie's other tumors didn't respond, and Conyngham is already designing a second vaccine. But the researchers involved say the results are genuinely exciting and could open new doors for both animal and human cancer treatment. The downside is that we're beginning to see legislation to restrict people from asking their AI medical questions, such as New York's recent legislation proposal.

QUICK TAKES

ByteDance Freezes Global Rollout of Its AI Video Generator After Hollywood Backlash

The story: TikTok's parent company ByteDance has put a stop on the global launch of Seedance 2.0, its AI video tool, after Disney and Paramount sent cease-and-desist letters over copyrighted content. Viral AI videos of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise set off alarms. The tool launched in China in February but was supposed to go worldwide in mid-March.

Your takeaway: This is the clearest sign yet that AI video tools are running ahead of the copyright rules meant to govern them. Companies can build powerful tools fast, but they can't launch them worldwide without sorting out legal questions first. Expect this pattern to repeat.

A Startup Is Building Data Centers Powered by Human Brain Cells

The story: Australian startup Cortical Labs is building two data centers in Melbourne and Singapore that run on lab-grown human neurons instead of traditional computer chips. Each unit uses about 200,000 brain cells grown from human blood stem cells and runs on just 30 watts of power, compared to roughly 6,000 watts for a single AI chip.

Your takeaway: AI data centers are eating up enormous amounts of electricity and water, and this is one of the more creative attempts to solve that problem. The brain-cell computers can learn and adapt on their own, but they're still very early-stage. The neurons only last about six months, and each unit costs around $35,000. It's wild science, but a long way from replacing Nvidia.

Ukraine Gets First Humanoid Robot Soldiers for Battlefield Testing

The story: San Francisco-based company Foundation delivered two Phantom MK-1 humanoid robots to Ukraine in February for frontline testing. The robots can hold and fire rifles, and are designed for reconnaissance and resupply in areas drones can't reach, like bunkers. Foundation holds $24 million in U.S. military research contracts.

Your takeaway: This appears to be the first time humanoid robots have been deployed to an active war zone. The company says the goal is to replace soldiers in dangerous spots, but experts worry that robot soldiers could make it too easy to start wars and blur who's responsible for what happens on the battlefield. The robots still fall over and need regular recharging. The tech is real, but it's clunky.

TOOLS ON OUR RADAR

⏱️ ActivityWatch Free and Open Source: An automated time tracking application that privately records exactly how you spend your time on your devices without sending any of your sensitive behavioral data to the cloud. (Alternative to RescueTime)

🧠 Scrintal Freemium: A brilliant visual workspace that combines the power of traditional note taking with an infinite digital whiteboard allowing you to visually connect complex ideas and organize your research effortlessly.

🖱️ Tango Freemium: A powerful browser extension that automatically watches your clicks as you navigate through software and instantly generates beautiful step by step training guides for your team members.

🎨 Milanote Freemium: A highly flexible visual organization platform designed specifically for creative professionals to easily collect inspiration arrange mood boards and manage massive design projects in one beautiful space.

TRENDING

Sam Altman Admits AI Is Disrupting the Relationship Between Workers and Companies - OpenAI's CEO acknowledged at a BlackRock summit that AI is shifting power from workers to companies, while many businesses are blaming layoffs on AI even when that's not the real reason. He called the next few years "a painful adjustment."

Hackers Claim They Breached Homeland Security and Leaked 6,000+ ICE Contractor Records - A hacktivist group calling itself "Department of Peace" says it hacked DHS and published contracts between ICE and over 6,000 companies, including Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, and Raytheon. DHS has not confirmed or denied the breach.

EU Quietly Removes AI, Chips, and Quantum Computing From Its "Made in Europe" Industrial Plan - A leaked draft shows the EU dropped its most advanced technologies from a policy meant to counter China, focusing instead on traditional industries like steel, electric vehicles, and solar panels.

AI Warfare Is Here: Drones and Quadcopters Are Reshaping Modern Battlefields - The U.S. deployed 10,000 AI-powered Merops interceptor drones to the Middle East, each costing about $14,000 compared to $4 million for a single Patriot missile. Many were first tested in Ukraine.

A Married Couple Uses AI Translation to Communicate Every Day - A New Haven couple, one English-speaking and one Mandarin-speaking, relies on Microsoft Translator to talk to each other daily. When the app fails, they play charades.

AI Tool Helps Chesapeake Bay Farmers Reduce Fertilizer Runoff - New AI tools are helping farmers around the Chesapeake Bay apply just the right amount of fertilizer, reducing the nutrient pollution that causes algae blooms and "dead zones" in the water.

Fortinet Launches FortiOS 8.0 With AI Governance and Quantum-Safe Protection - The cybersecurity company's new operating system can detect "shadow AI" tools employees use without permission and adds encryption designed to withstand future quantum computers.

TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)

🍳 Build a recipe scaler that parses ingredients, adjusts servings with a slider, converts units between metric and imperial, and estimates nutrition per serving

What this does:

Paste in a recipe, slide the servings up or down, and watch every ingredient scale in real time. Toggle between metric and imperial, check the estimated nutrition per serving, and save your favorites for later. Try it with your go-to recipe.

What this looks like:

WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)

✅ AI Can Now: Design a personalized cancer vaccine from a tumor's DNA using tools available to anyone with data skills, no biology degree required.

❌ Still Can't: Guarantee that a treatment that works on one dog will work on another, or that it will work on every tumor in the same animal.

✅ AI Can Now: Power interceptor drones at $14,000 each that can track and destroy enemy drones autonomously.

❌ Still Can't: Keep a humanoid robot from falling over during a demonstration, or running for more than a few hours without recharging.

FROM THE WEB

RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING

The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick (Book)

The world’s most famous hacker explains how to protect your accounts, passwords, and personal data. Practical chapter on password hygiene explains why your current approach is probably wrong and what to do instead.

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.

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