Elon Got Caught Using the Other Guy’s Homework

Welcome back apprentices! 👋

Hey {{first_name|friend}},

Ever feel like your inbox knows too much about you, but isn’t doing nearly enough to help?

Or wonder if Siri ever goes to therapy?

Welcome to Week 2 of 2026, where email gets an assistant, AI goes shopping for you, and Claude just caught Elon Musk sneaking in the back door.

It’s all getting weirder, faster — but also kind of… useful? 

Scroll on.

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🎙️ Alright, Alright, All Rights Reserved. Matthew McConaughey just trademarked his voice, face, and even those iconic camera stares — arming up against AI deepfakes with eight new protections from the U.S. Patent Office. It’s not just about vanity: he wants clear rules on consent and attribution in an AI world where anyone can clone your voice before breakfast. As deepfake tech outpaces legal guardrails, stars like McConaughey are drawing legal lines in the sand — and taking their likeness to federal court, not just the tabloids.

🧬 Evolution Just Got an Upgrade. UK startup Basecamp Research and Nvidia just launched Eden, an AI trained on DNA from over a million species to design new treatments for genetic diseases and superbugs. Unlike CRISPR, Eden’s gene-editing approach doesn’t make cuts — just clean DNA insertions, which could be much safer. In early lab tests, 63% of its gene therapies worked, and a wild 97% of its antibiotic candidates were effective against drug-resistant infections.

🌍 AI’s Rich-Poor Gap Grows. Global AI adoption hit 16.3% in late 2025, but here’s the twist: the U.S. — home of the world’s top AI models — dropped to 24th in actual adoption. Meanwhile, the UAE is sprinting ahead with 64% uptake, and DeepSeek, an open-source model, is quietly winning hearts (and CPUs) in underserved markets like Africa, thanks to free access and Huawei’s backing. Developed nations now adopt AI at nearly twice the rate of developing ones — and the gap’s getting wider.

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We’re just 16 days into the new year, and the AI world has already hit mid-season drama. 

Google finally gave Gmail users the Gemini treatment, with AI that reads your emails and basically becomes your personal (non-judgy) assistant. 

Apple and Google confirmed their long-rumored partnership to overhaul Siri using Gemini tech — awkward for OpenAI, who’s still hanging around like the ex who didn’t get the memo.

Anthropic caught Elon’s xAI secretly using Claude through Cursor, and slammed the door shut. 

Meanwhile, AI agents just learned how to shop thanks to new protocols from Google and Microsoft that let your chatbot buy things mid-chat. 

And under the surface? A full-blown infrastructure war is heating up, with Meta, Microsoft, and others pouring billions into compute… and some major PR campaigns to keep the neighbors calm.

Google’s finally giving Gmail the AI facelift it deserved back in 2021. 

With Gemini now natively integrated, users can just ask their inbox things like, “What did my boss say about next week’s meeting?” — and get a clean summary without digging through 47 threads.

Features include:

Stat to know: Google says users in the Gemini preview saw 30% less time spent managing email and 20% fewer missed follow-ups.

Try starting next Monday by asking, “What meetings did I miss last week?” — Gemini will summarize invites, reschedules, and key threads. No more digging.

Siri’s glow-up is official: Apple is outsourcing her brain. 

In a joint statement, Apple and Google confirmed that Gemini will power Apple’s foundational AI models, as part of a multi-year, billion-dollar licensing deal.

The details:

Translation: Apple just admitted what we all knew — Siri needed help, and Gemini is now the tutor. It’s like if Batman hired Iron Man to rebuild the Batcave.

Expect Siri to go from “Sorry, I didn’t catch that” to “Sure, I moved your 2PM to Thursday and drafted a thank-you note.”

Claude caught Elon’s team red-handed. 

Anthropic discovered that xAI was using Claude through Cursor, a dev tool, in apparent violation of their no-rivals policy. Anthropic yanked access immediately.

Quick context:

Productivity hit incoming: Tony Wu (xAI cofounder) told staff they’d take a hit — but spin-zoned it into “motivation to build faster.”

Claude Code and Opus are increasingly industry-standard tools — even competitors want to use them. Expect more API turf wars in 2026 as assistants and coding agents become core to model development itself.

Why click through 9 tabs when your assistant can just buy it for you? 

Google and Microsoft both dropped shopping integrations that make AI agents full-on retail concierges.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP):

Microsoft Copilot Checkout:

The impact? You’ll soon be able to tell your assistant, “Find a black jacket under $200, and order the best-rated one”, and it’ll just… do it.

Compute is the new oil, and the giants are drilling — or, in Meta’s case, going nuclear. 

The real AI battle isn’t just about models, but who can power them.

Meta Compute Initiative:

Microsoft’s “Community-First AI Infrastructure”:

PR pivot alert: These companies are preparing for regulatory pressure and local pushback. Microsoft is trying to get ahead with a “friendly AI landlord” image.

The real power in AI may literally come down to… power. 

The company that controls the cheapest, cleanest, and most scalable infrastructure could win the entire AI race.

Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or just someone drowning in email and open tabs — this week shows the AI future is rapidly normalizing. 

It’s not about building wild new tech — it’s about weaving AI into everything you already do.

AI is right here, in your workflows, in your browser, in your email thread. Learn the tools that automate your bottlenecks. Let AI summarize your mess, organize your chaos, and maybe even finish your shopping list.

Want to feel like you have your life together even if you don’t?

Ask Gemini: “Summarize everything I’ve been CC’d on this week.”

Then pretend you read it all. 

Hey, you didn’t get all this info for nothing — share it! If you know someone who’s diving into AI, help them stay in the loop with this week’s updates.

Sharing is a win-win! Send this to a friend who’s all about tech, and you’ll win a little surprise 👀

AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.

Download the full report

A playground for your imagination (and low-key prompt skills).

Each send, we give you a customizable DALL·E prompt inspired by a real-world use case — something that could help you in your business or job if you wanted to use it that way. But it’s also just a fun creative experiment.

You tweak it, run it, and send us your favorite. We pick one winner to feature in the next issue.

Bonus: you’re secretly getting better at prompt design. 🤫

Last week, we challenged you to test GPT-4o’s visual generation skills with this prompt.

Here’s the WINNER:

Congrats to Andrew for his creation!🥳

Want to be featured next? Keep those generations coming!

Inside a massive, crystal-clear glass slab embedded deep within the earth, layers of hidden systems are exposed like a cross-section of the future. Cables, light conduits, micro-machines, and data streams flow vertically and horizontally, revealing how invisible forces actually work together. At the very center, a luminous core resolves into a hyper-detailed, photorealistic visualization of [your idea] — not as a logo or object, but as a fully functional system with visible inputs, outputs, and internal mechanics. The camera cuts through the glass at an angled cinematic perspective, with razor-sharp focus, dramatic subterranean lighting, glowing accents, and ultra-high clarity textures — creating the sensation of finally seeing what’s really going on underneath.

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