ChatGPT Agent 🤖, iOS Call Screening 📱, Google AI Video API 👨💻
TLDR 2025-07-18
📱Big Tech & Startups
OpenAI's new ChatGPT Agent can control an entire computer and do tasks for you (5 minute read)
ChatGPT Agent is a new tool from OpenAI that completes work on users' behalf using its own virtual computer. It is powered by a new unnamed model that OpenAI developed specifically for the product. The model was trained on complex tasks that require multiple tools, like briefing users on upcoming client meetings, planning and purchasing ingredients for a meal, or creating a slide deck based on an analysis of competing companies. ChatGPT Agent is now rolling out to Pro, Plus, and Team users - it will be available to Enterprise and Education users later this summer. There is no rollout timeline for the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
This upcoming iOS feature will make spam phone calls an issue of the past (2 minute read)
Apple announced two new features to vastly improve the phone calling experience for iPhone users this year at WWDC25: Hold Assist and Call Screening. Hold Assist manages calls for users when placed on hold. Call Screening, designed to deter spam callers, answers calls for users and asks callers for their names and reasoning. iOS 26 will also introduce a screening filter for texts.
🚀Science & Futuristic Technology
IVF breakthrough using 3‑person DNA leads to 8 babies born free of genetic disease (3 minute read)
Eight babies were born healthy thanks to a groundbreaking new DNA-enhanced IVF technique aimed at preventing children from inheriting severe, incurable mitochondrial diseases from their mothers. The babies were born to seven mothers at high risk of passing on severe mitochondrial DNA diseases. The novel IVF method utilizes DNA from the mother's egg, the father's sperm, and healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor. Children conceived via this technique inherit the vast majority of their DNA from their biological parents, but they also receive a minute amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from a third person, a genetic alteration that will be passed down to future generations.
NASA's new Roman Space Telescope aims to discover 100,000 cosmic explosions (4 minute read)
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's. It has the potential to document light from over a billion galaxies over its career. The telescope will help researchers better understand exoplanets, infrared astrophysics, and the nature of dark matter. Roman could potentially find evidence of the very first stars to ever form in the universe. The telescope is scheduled to launch in 2027.
💻Programming, Design & Data Science
Build with Veo 3, now available in the Gemini API (5 minute read)
Veo 3 is now available in paid preview via the Gemini API and Vertex AI. The model is designed to handle a range of video generation tasks with stunning visuals and audio, including dialogue and sound effects. It can simulate real-world physics for authentic motion. Examples of videos generated by Veo 3 are available in the article.
TypeScript Execute (2 minute read)
TypeScript Execute (tsx) is an enhancement to Node.js that allows it to run TypeScript. It features seamless TypeScript execution and CJS/ESM imports and a Watch mode that lets users re-run their files whenever they save them, allowing them to iterate on their code faster and boost productivity. tsx enhances Node.js with TypeScript support in both CommonJS and ESM modes, allowing users to switch between them seamlessly.
🎁Miscellaneous
‘Utopian' city California Forever announces huge tech manufacturing park (1 minute read)
California Forever, a project backed by a group of Silicon Valley billionaires, plans to build a massive manufacturing park in its planned 'utopian' city. The Solano Foundry will host 40 million square feet of advanced tech manufacturing space and have over 175,000 homes. The site will offer expedited permitting, transportation for finished goods, and plenty of power from renewable energy. The project aims to attract hardware, engineering, and AI talent from Silicon Valley, which is about 40 miles away.
How Android phones became an earthquake warning system (6 minute read)
The Android Earthquake Alert system, which is on by default in most Android phones, displays a notification to users when there is an earthquake nearby to warn them to get to a safer location. The system uses accelerometers to detect vibrations - an alert is triggered when there is widespread phone activity that matches the pattern expected for an earthquake. As of the end of March last year, the system has sensed a total of 1,279 events, ranging in magnitude from 1.9 to 7.8, of which only three were false positives.
⚡Quick Links
Fully Homomorphic Encryption and the Dawn of A Truly Private Internet (22 minute read)
Fully Homomorphic Encryption allows arbitrary computations on encrypted data without needing to decrypt it first.
Robinhood CEO says the majority of the company's new code is written by AI, with 'close to 100%' adoption from engineers (2 minute read)
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev claims that it has become difficult to distinguish human-written code from AI-generated code.
Amazing Hand project (GitHub Repo)
The Amazing Hand is an open source 3D printable four-fingered robotic hand - this repository contains the code and model for controlling the device.
Running TypeScript Natively (4 minute read)
It is possible to run TypeScript code directly in Node.js (v23.6.0 onwards) without the need to transpile it first, with some limitations.
Uber inks six-year robotaxi deal with Lucid, invests $300 million in EV company (4 minute read)
Under the agreement, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid, an electric vehicle maker, and Nuro, an autonomous vehicle startup, will develop self-driving technology that Lucid will use to supply Uber with robotaxis over the course of the deal and receive a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment.
My favorite use-case for AI is writing logs (12 minute read)
A look at how JetBrains developed a local model that auto-infers log completion from surrounding text.