AI Highlights

My top-3 picks of AI news this week.

ElevenLabs
1. ElevenLabs Talks the Talk

ElevenLabs has launched Conversational AI 2.0, a major upgrade to their voice agent platform that delivers enterprise-grade capabilities and more human-like interactions.

• Natural turn-taking: Advanced models that understand conversational cues like "um" and "ah" to seamlessly handle interruptions and pauses, creating fluid dialogue flow.

• Language detection: Integrated language detection for seamless multilingual discussions.

• Integrated RAG: Built-in Retrieval-Augmented Generation allows agents to access external knowledge bases with minimal latency while maintaining maximum privacy.

Alex’s take: V2 has launched just four months after V1—the speed of iteration here is remarkable. Something I was particularly impressed by was how quickly it switched from English to Japanese in their demo video to showcase its language detection ability. This really does feel like sci-fi coming to life.

Mistral AI
2. Mistral Goes Agentic

Mistral AI has launched their new Agents API, a comprehensive framework designed to transform language models from text generators into active problem-solvers capable of performing real-world tasks.

• Built-in connectors: The API includes ready-to-use tools for code execution, web search, image generation (powered by FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra), and document library access for RAG functionality.

• Persistent memory: Agents maintain context across conversations with stateful conversation management and the ability to branch conversations from any point.

• Agent orchestration: Multiple specialised agents can collaborate through dynamic handoffs, allowing complex workflows where each agent contributes specific capabilities to solve different parts of a problem.

Alex’s take: I’ve found that building truly useful agents requires a high degree of technical understanding so far. Mistral seems to be focusing heavily on the infrastructure layer for enterprise AI agents. Especially for the necessary foundations that are required to make agents truly useful, like persistent memory, tool use and agent handoffs. Their MCP integration just shows this is becoming the de facto standard in the industry for agent-to-system communication.

Anthropic
3. Claude Breaks the Silence

Anthropic has launched voice mode for Claude mobile apps, enabling complete spoken conversations with their AI assistant across iOS and Android devices.

• Natural conversation flow: Users can speak to Claude and receive voice responses, with seamless switching between text and voice within the same conversation.

• Enhanced mobile experience: Key points display on-screen as Claude speaks, with intuitive controls for interrupting, sending messages, and accessing additional features.

• Workspace integration: Paid users can access Google Docs, Calendar, Gmail, and web searches through voice conversations, making Claude a hands-free productivity assistant.

Alex’s take: I'm intrigued to see how we transcend beyond keyboards and implement voice into our workflows, both in personal and professional settings. It seems like the most frictionless way to interface with AI, particularly in making it feel more natural and accessible. I’m a big believer that voice will be the dominant interface over the next few years.

Content I Enjoyed

The Workers Who Lost Their Job to ChatGPT

I came across a Guardian piece this week featuring workers who lost their jobs to AI, and one story in particular stuck with me—that of Annabel Beales.

Annabel was a copywriter at a garden centre who overheard her boss saying, "Just put it in ChatGPT," before eventually being let go.

What fascinates me about Annabel's experience isn't just the personal tragedy (though losing your dream job right before Christmas is genuinely heartbreaking), but how perfectly it illustrates the myopic thinking plaguing so many businesses right now.

When new technology emerges, there's always a cohort of employers who see human labour as the most obvious cost to cut. It's transient, it's expensive, and AI promises to do the same work for pennies on the dollar. The math seems simple enough.

But there’s something staring these employers right in the face that they seem to miss: quantity isn’t quality.

As Annabel pointed out, her former company's website is now "all AI-generated and factual—there's no substance, or sense of actually enjoying gardening." They might be hitting their content quotas, but they've traded authenticity for automation. They've replaced someone who could interview experts and craft engaging narratives with a tool that churns out generic advice.

Customers notice. People can smell AI slop from a mile away, and when your garden centre's content feels soulless, they'll buy their tools elsewhere.

Instead of laying off their skilled copywriter, the company could have educated Annabel on leveraging AI to enhance her work—using it for research, first drafts, or SEO optimisation while maintaining the human touch that made her content valuable.

But that requires thoughtful management, and thoughtful management takes time. Because it's much easier to hand overworked remaining staff a ChatGPT login and tell them to figure it out.

Unfortunately, ignorant leadership doesn’t understand that good AI output still requires human expertise, creativity, and time.

Right now, it feels as though we’re in uncharted territory with AI. The businesses that will thrive are those that view it as a tool to amplify human capabilities, rather than replace them entirely. The companies taking shortcuts today are building their business on sand.

That’s why learning to leverage AI effectively vs just deploying it as a cost-cutting measure will be what separates the winners from the casualties during this transition.

AI will change how we work. We just need to make sure that we’re thoughtful enough to change with it.

Idea I Learned

Energy Is the Ultimate Economic Lever

David Friedberg dropped a striking statistic on the All-In podcast: China produces three terawatts of energy and is scaling to eight, while the US sits at one terawatt, planning to reach two over the next 15 years.

He made a great point that relates closely to the mounting US debt issue: “If we have enough power, the $38 trillion of debt doesn't matter.”

This connects directly to Elon Musk's recent shift in focus. He's moved from cutting government waste with DOGE to accelerating GDP growth through humanoid robots and his endeavours with Optimus—he believes explosive productivity growth is the only path to outrun America’s debt crisis. Humanity could potentially see humanoid robots having a material effect on GDP growth within 4-5 years.

If the economy grows faster than debt, the debt problem solves itself. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed this, saying we can "grow our way" out of our financial hole.

But all the AI and robotics in the world won't matter if we don't have the power to run them. As one observer put it perfectly: "No watts, no bots."

The math is actually encouraging though. One hour of Earth’s sunlight contains as much energy as humanity uses in an entire year. Jesse Peltan points out that just 1% of Earth's solar resources could power a civilisation that makes today's world look impoverished. A 1 terawatt solar-powered compute cluster could feasibly be online by 2030, requiring less than 0.5% of US land area.

Energy is the ultimate economic multiplier. If we master energy production, the debt will become irrelevant.

Quote to Share

@kimmonismus on the disconnect between AI predictions and public response:

I think there’s a fascinating paradox at play right now.

The world's leading AI researchers are making extraordinary claims about imminent technological breakthroughs, yet most people seem remarkably unmoved.

There's something almost surreal about living through what these experts claim will be the most transformative period in human history, while simultaneously watching society carry on with business as usual.

Perhaps this disconnect stems from "prediction fatigue". We’ve heard “it’ll be different this time” a thousand times. Especially bold tech promises that didn't materialise on schedule.

Or maybe it's psychological self-preservation: if these predictions are true, the implications are so vast that it's easier to mentally file them away into a cabinet than grapple with what they mean for our careers, society, and future.

But there's also wisdom in having healthy scepticism. Even the brightest minds can be wrong about timelines, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

What if the exponential we’re riding today is so steep (and getting steeper) that what we see looking forward is flat, yet in reality, it’s practically vertical?

Source: @kimmonismus on X

Question to Ponder

Whenever a new technology arrives, it undoubtedly requires a change in the way we think.

The calculator, the spreadsheet, the internet, and now AI.

Just because I use the internet to find an answer to a question I have doesn’t mean I’m dumbing down my ability to think. In fact, I often find my pursuit of an answer actually unveils other ideas or concepts that promote further education and growth. Quite the opposite of impairment.

What about Google Maps?

This is a great analogy. I, for one, love going on runs whenever I’m in a new city, wanting to explore and learn it better. But I’d have added miles onto my runs if I didn’t use Strava routes. Much like driving, Google Maps helps you go from A to B with confidence. Tools like Strava routes and Google Maps help us learn places and settings faster than if we were to just navigate them with an ordinary map, or no map at all.

The critical thinking element excites me a lot, too, especially when it comes to writing and repeatedly exercising that muscle to come up with great ideas. I strongly believe that the better questions you ask and the more critical you are with your thoughts, the better the outputs you receive from AI models.

If you decide to renounce your critical thought and let AI do the thinking for you by directing simple, uninformed one-line prompts, the outputs you receive will be reflective of that. They’ll lack substance, be weak in nature, and be full of “it’s not about X, but Y” statements, “Delving”, and “Here’s the kicker…”.

So AI, if used thoughtfully as a companion and not a replacement for your critical thought, can actually unlock your ideas, help you connect concepts together in your mind, and achieve far more than if you were to operate without it. We’re now discovering new muscles we never thought we had.

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