🌏 China ditches AGI race to dominate real-world AI

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Greetings! Your latest quick tech update is here:

☀️ On this day: On September 2, 2008, Google released the first public beta of its Chrome web browser. With its minimalist interface and powerful V8 JavaScript engine, Chrome quickly reshaped the browser landscape, setting new standards for speed, stability, and web app performance.

What’s happening:

• 🌏 China builds practical AI while the US chases AGI

• ❌ Salesforce cuts 4,000 jobs as AI takes over

• 🎥 Dolby Vision 2 brings AI and authentic motion

• 🧠 AI lets paralyzed patients move robots

• 🔐 Musk accuses ex-employee of stealing Grok secrets

• + 📊 Daily poll and results

• + 📈 Trending tools and resources

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Hand-picked news:

🌏 China builds practical AI while the US chases AGI ↗️LINK

• What: China is taking a different path in AI, focusing on real-world applications rather than chasing AGI. Its models are already used in education, agriculture, manufacturing, and weather forecasting. The government is also warning against “disorderly competition” to avoid wasted resources.

• Why: U.S. export controls on advanced chips make it hard for China to scale cutting-edge models, so it's investing $8.4B into practical AI development and open-source tools that reduce costs.

• Impact: If AGI efforts stall in the West, China’s pragmatic AI ecosystem could give it a long-term advantage—and help export its influence globally.

❌ Salesforce cuts 4,000 jobs as AI takes over ↗️LINK

• What: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed cutting 4,000 customer support roles, shrinking the team from 9,000 to 5,000. AI agents now handle 50% of all customer conversations, while humans step in when needed.

• Why: The company’s new “agentic sales” system can now call back 100M leads left untouched for decades, a task previously impossible due to staff limits.

• Impact: Despite the layoffs, customer satisfaction has stayed steady. This shows AI is not only cutting costs but also scaling sales outreach—raising big questions about the future of human support jobs.

🎥 Dolby Vision 2 brings AI and authentic motion ↗️LINK

• What: Dolby has unveiled Dolby Vision 2, its next-gen HDR format that goes beyond brightness and color. It adds “Content Intelligence” AI to optimize picture quality based on content, device, and room lighting, plus features like Precision Black for clearer dark scenes and bi-directional tone mapping for sharper, brighter visuals.

• Why: The upgrade tackles filmmaker complaints about motion smoothing with a new “Authentic Motion” tool, letting creators control smoothing shot by shot to reduce judder without the soap opera effect.

• Impact: Hisense will debut TVs with Dolby Vision 2 this year, with more brands expected to follow. It splits into two tiers—Vision 2 Max for premium sets and Vision 2 for mainstream TVs—pushing HDR closer to a true cinematic experience at home.

🧠 AI lets paralyzed patients move robots ↗️LINK

• What: UCLA engineers built a wearable brain-computer interface that uses AI to decode EEG signals, letting paralyzed patients control robotic arms with their thoughts—no surgery required. In tests, one paralyzed user completed tasks in 6.5 minutes that were otherwise impossible.

• Why: By combining EEG decoding with camera-based AI, the system interprets intent in real time, enabling users to move cursors and direct robots nearly 4x faster than before.

• Impact: This marks a leap for non-invasive BCIs, opening doors for AI-powered wheelchairs, communication tools, and smart homes that anticipate user needs.

🔐 Musk accuses ex-employee of stealing Grok secrets ↗️LINK

• What: Elon Musk’s xAI is suing former engineer Xuechen Li, claiming he copied confidential files about its Grok chatbot onto personal devices before quitting. The company says he then tried to hide his tracks by deleting logs and renaming files.

• Why: xAI argues the stolen data could give rivals like OpenAI or even foreign firms a huge advantage by revealing in-development features and future plans. Li had received $7M in stock options before leaving.

• Impact: The case shows how fierce the AI talent war has become. With so much money and intellectual property at stake, more companies are turning to lawsuits to protect their secrets.

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Today’s Poll:

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Yesterday’s Poll Result:

Do you think AI should be legally required to watermark deepfakes?

• A) Yes – It’s essential for transparency - 88% 🏆

• B) No – It would hurt creative freedom - 12%

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