In partnership with
The Lithium Boom is Heating Up
Thanks to growing demand, lithium stock prices grew 2X+ from June 2025 to January 2026. $ALB climbed as high as 227%. $LAC hit 151%. $SQM, 159%.
This $1B unicorn’s patented technology can recover 3X more lithium than traditional methods. That’s earned investment from leaders like General Motors.
Now they’re preparing for commercial production just as experts project 5X demand growth by 2040. They’ve announced what could be one of the US’ largest lithium production facilities and have rights to approximately 150,000 lithium-rich acres across North and South America.
Unlike public stocks, you can buy private EnergyX shares alongside 40,000+ other investors. Invest for $11/share by the 2/26 deadline.
This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.energyx.com. Under Regulation A, a company may change its share price by up to 20% without requalifying the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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
Every Best Picture Nominee May Have Used AI This Year, Says Industry Insider
TLDR: A top Hollywood insider says studios, AI companies, and even creative workers are all lying about how much they're really using AI, and the industry has quietly gone from fighting the tech to adopting it behind closed doors.
The Story:
Janice Min, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and CEO of Ankler Media, told Business Insider that everyone in Hollywood is "lying just a little bit" about AI. Studios are hiding how much they use it. AI companies are exaggerating what their tools can do. And creative workers are pretending they don't touch it. Min went further, claiming she'd bet "every single Best Picture nominee this year has used AI in its production process." She also challenged anyone to find a screenwriter "staring at a blank page and not talking to Claude or ChatGPT at the same time." Even the Academy Awards has taken a don't ask, don't tell approach, with no firm rules about AI disclosure.
Its Significance:
Just two years ago, Hollywood writers and actors went on strike partly over AI. Now, according to Min, those same creatives are using chatbots while they write. The tech didn't slow down because people protested. It just moved behind closed doors. And if AI is already changing how movies and shows get made, it's probably already changed other industries in similar ways, even if nobody is publicly talking about it yet.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Alpha School, a private K-8 school in Scottsdale, Arizona, uses AI to teach all core subjects in just two hours a day. The rest of the day focuses on leadership, entrepreneurship, and life skills. It costs $40,000 a year and has no traditional teachers, only "guides."
Your takeaway: One parent said his son's reading pace grew 10x and math 5x after starting. But at $40,000 per year, this raises a tough question: if AI-powered learning works this well, should only wealthy families have access to it?
The story: Researchers from MIT and Singapore's National University developed an AI system that lets soft robotic arms learn tasks once, then adapt on the fly without retraining. The system mimics how the human brain learns, using two types of connections working together.
Your takeaway: Soft robots are safer around people because they're made from flexible materials, not rigid metal. This could lead to robot helpers for elderly care, physical therapy, and medical procedures that are both gentle and smart enough to handle surprises.
The story: From DoorDash's round-eyed delivery bot "Dot" to a robotic Labrador retriever called Jennie, companies are designing robots with big eyes, friendly faces, and pet-like features. The goal: make you feel comfortable around machines instead of creeped out by them.
Your takeaway: If a delivery robot gets stuck in the rain and you feel sorry for it, that's by design. As robots move from factories into our neighborhoods and homes, how they look and "act" will shape whether people accept them or push back.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🐧 LocalSend Free and Open Source: A cross platform file sharing application that enables secure communication between your devices without needing the internet. It allows you to instantly drop files across Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS over your local network. (Alternative to Apple AirDrop)
🎙️ AudioPen Freemium: A brilliant web and mobile application that takes your unstructured voice ramblings and uses AI to clean them up into perfectly formatted text, meeting notes, or blog posts in seconds.
📊 Plus AI Freemium: A powerful extension that lives directly inside Google Slides and PowerPoint. It allows you to generate complete, professional slide decks from a single prompt while automatically matching your specific company branding and formatting.
🛋️ RoomGPT Freemium: An incredibly user friendly AI room designer that lets you upload a photo of your current space, select a design style, and instantly generate realistic visual concepts of what your room could look like with a completely new aesthetic.
TRENDING
America's Largest Military Shipbuilder Taps AI for Autonomous Welding - HII partnered with Path Robotics to bring AI-powered welding into Navy shipbuilding, aiming for a 15% production increase in 2026 after already boosting throughput 14% last year.
Google VP Warns Two Types of AI Startups May Not Survive - Google's Darren Mowry says startups that just slap a nice interface on someone else's AI model (called "LLM wrappers") and startups that bundle multiple AI models together (called "aggregators") are running out of time, as the big tech companies build those same features themselves.
MIT Develops Navigation System That Accounts for Parking - MIT researchers built a system that factors in parking availability when planning a route, saving drivers up to 35 minutes in congested areas and potentially cutting emissions from circling the block.
Pika Labs Launches "AI Selves," Digital Versions of You - The AI video startup now lets users create persistent digital twins with memory and personality that can chat in group texts, generate content, and even call your mom on your behalf.
Woman Submits AI-Written Apology to Judge After Burning Down a House - A New Zealand judge caught a defendant using AI to write her apology letters after she pled guilty to arson and biting a police officer, calling the sincerity of the apology into question.
US Software Firm Bridges the Gap for China's Humanoid Robots - San Francisco-based OpenMind is building an open-source operating system to help Chinese robot makers like Unitree and AgiBot sell their hardware globally, calling China "unquestionably ahead" in robotics hardware.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Build a daily habit tracker that shows your progress, lets you add habits with emoji and category tags, track streaks, and sort by streak count.
Build me a React web app called "Daily Habit Builder" with a dark purple background (#1a1025) and lavender accent color (#c4a0ff).
At the top, show a title "Daily Habit Builder" with tagline "Build the life you want, one day at a time".
Below that, show two side-by-side panels:
- Left panel: "TODAY'S PROGRESS" showing a large percentage (e.g. 50%), a progress bar that fills as habits are completed, and a motivational message based on completion level.
- Right panel: "ADD A HABIT" with an emoji input field, a habit name text input, category selector buttons (Mind, Body, Work, Other), and an "+ Add Habit" button.
Below the panels, show two toggle buttons: "Today's Habits" and "Sort by Streak".
Below that, show a list of habits. Each habit row has: a checkbox (green when checked), an emoji, the habit name (with strikethrough when done), a category tag badge, and a fire emoji with streak count.
Pre-load 6 sample habits with different completion states and streaks. Clicking a habit row toggles it done/undone.
At the bottom, include a "Search Best Practices" button that cycles through habit-building tips when clicked.What this does:
This prompt builds a habit-tracking dashboard where you can check off daily habits, watch your completion percentage climb, add new habits with custom emoji and categories (Mind, Body, Work, Other), and see a fire streak counter grow the longer you stay consistent. Toggle between your daily habit list and a streak leaderboard to stay motivated.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Teach kids core school subjects in two hours a day, with one parent reporting 10x reading growth and 5x math growth at an AI-powered school.
❌ Still Can't: Write a convincing apology letter for burning down a house. A New Zealand judge spotted the AI-generated text immediately.
✅ AI Can Now: Let soft robotic arms learn a task once and adapt to wind gusts, weight changes, and other surprises in real time, without retraining.
❌ Still Can't: Replace the value that startups built purely as "AI wrappers" thought they had. Google's VP says the models are getting so good, the wrapper becomes pointless.
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
A police robot in Johannesburg gets experimental software that gives it consciousness, then gets stolen by gangsters who raise it as their own. Dev Patel plays the inventor, Hugh Jackman plays the rival engineer with a mullet and a grudge, and Sharlto Copley voices the robot with a childlike innocence that makes you care despite the chaos. South African rap group Die Antwoord play the gangster parents, which is exactly as weird as it sounds. The film got mixed reviews, and the plot has holes you could drive through. But Chappie himself is a remarkable creation, and the nature vs. nurture questions about artificial minds hit harder than you'd expect from a movie this loud.
Free email without sacrificing your privacy
Gmail tracks you. Proton doesn’t. Get private email that puts your data — and your privacy — first.
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.
Some * designated product links may be affiliate or referral links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the newsletter at no extra cost to you and Amazon makes a tiny hair less.
