Hi Synapticians!

Hope you had a great weekend! Ours was all about board games. Honestly, what better way to keep your brain active in a world where we're handing more and more tasks over to AI?

On that note, we’ve often been quick to critique Google since the rise of ChatGPT. But their new Gemini 2.5 Pro model is seriously impressive. Not just on paper, but in real-life use. More and more users are leaving Claude and OpenAI for Gemini, and many seem happy with the switch (if only Google could fix their UX... please?).

As usual, just when a big player starts to pull ahead, OpenAI fires back with new features that steal the spotlight. Sam Altman has just teased a big week of announcements, starting with an event today, apparently focused on developers.

What's your bet for tonight’s announcement?

Top AI news

1. OpenAI to launch GPT-4.1, o3 and o4 mini models
OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-4.1, an upgraded multimodal model, along with smaller versions (mini and nano). The company also plans to release the o3 reasoning model and a compact o4 mini. These models aim to balance performance and efficiency, enabling broader deployment across devices and use cases. References to these models have already appeared in ChatGPT’s web interface.

2. Sutskever’s AI startup raises $2B with no product
Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has raised $2 billion for Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), a startup with no product or public roadmap. Despite this, the company is valued at $32 billion. SSI aims to develop AI systems far beyond current capabilities, focusing on agent-based superintelligence. This trend mirrors other ventures like Thinking Machines Lab and Reflection AI, which also prioritize long-term vision over immediate commercial output. Investors are betting on founder reputation and future potential, raising questions about transparency, risk, and the direction of AI innovation.

3. Alibaba’s Quark becomes China’s top AI app in March
Alibaba’s Quark AI assistant reached 150 million monthly active users in March, making it the most popular AI app in China. Originally a cloud storage and search tool, Quark was recently transformed into a full AI assistant powered by Alibaba’s Qwen models. It now offers text/image generation, research help, and coding support. It surpassed ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek in usage. This shift reflects a broader trend among Chinese tech giants racing to dominate the AI assistant space. Globally, Quark ranks sixth among AI apps, behind ChatGPT and Baidu’s AI Search.

Bonus. Hugging Face acquires Pollen to open-source robotics
Hugging Face has acquired French startup Pollen Robotics, known for its open-source humanoid robot Reachy 2. The goal is to make the robot’s code available to developers, encouraging community-driven improvements. This move aligns with Hugging Face’s broader mission to democratize AI and now robotics. The acquisition also builds on previous collaborations between the two companies, including a household robot project. Hugging Face’s robotics team is led by a former Tesla engineer, signaling serious ambitions in the field.

Video of the Day

Get a quick look into the very promising Google Agentspace … Google comeback is real!

Theme of the Week

AI for Education - The Concept

AI is starting to change the way we learn—less hype, more real impact. From smarter learning tools to virtual tutors, it's quietly improving how students study and how teachers teach. In this post, we explain how AI fits into education today, in plain language and with real examples.

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