🗞️ THE WEEKEND RECAP

Top Stories You Might Have Missed

💸 Meta is Making Obscene Offers for Top AI Talent: Zuck is putting together a super-team of AI researchers and is spending billions to attract them. Is this a winning strategy?

©️ BBC Threatens Perplexity Over Content Scraping: The broadcaster accuses the AI startup of reproducing its material without permission and demands deletion or compensation. Perplexity calls the claims “manipulative,” as global tensions grow over copyright in AI training data.

💼 CEOs Use AI to Spook Staff: Execs like Amazon's Andy Jassy warn AI could shrink workforces—while urging staff to embrace it. Critics say fear-based tactics backfire, fueling anxiety, not adaptation. Some leaders frame AI as essential, others use it to justify cuts.

🦾 AEON Robot Brings AI to Factory Floors: Hexagon and NVIDIA unveil AEON, a humanoid robot that learns industrial tasks in weeks via simulation and self-training. With 22 sensors, battery auto-swap, and real-world pilots underway, AEON targets labor gaps with physical AI.

🥊 Emily Bender Slams AI Hype Machine: Linguist and longtime critic Emily Bender calls AI “a glorified Magic 8 Ball,” arguing LLMs lack true understanding and are accelerating inequality, isolation, and environmental harm—while Big Tech sells illusion as intelligence.

🥡 Applebee’s and IHOP Turn to AI: Dine Brands is rolling out AI to personalize deals, automate tech support, and assist staff with ops. Tools like Amazon’s Q and AI-powered cameras aim to boost loyalty, cut costs, and streamline service across its 3,500+ locations.

🏗️ SoftBank Eyes $1T AI Megaproject: The investor giant is reportedly planning a trillion-dollar AI and robotics complex in Arizona, dubbed Project Crystal Land, and hopes to partner with chipmaker TSMC—though the deal's still uncertain and early-stage.

👓 Meta and Oakley Launch AI Sport Glasses: The new Oakley Meta HSTN glasses blend bold style with hands-free video, open-ear audio, and Meta AI for real-time insights—targeting athletes and fans with performance-focused smart wearables starting at $399.

🏭 NVIDIA, Foxconn Plan Humanoid Robot Factory: The duo aims to deploy humanoid robots at a Houston plant building NVIDIA AI servers by early 2026—marking Foxconn’s first use of humanoids on a production line and a major step in AI-powered manufacturing.

👎 Hugging Face’s Wolf Slams AI Hype: Co-founder Thomas Wolf says today’s AI lacks the creativity to ask bold scientific questions, calling current models “yes-men on servers” that mimic answers without challenging assumptions—undermining dreams of true discovery.

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⏱️ TESTS

AI Benchmarking Gets a Reboot: New Tests Try to Outwit Smarter Machines

As AI models inch closer to human-like capabilities, researchers are racing to build harder, smarter tests to tell the truly intelligent apart. New benchmarks like ZeroBench and EnigmaEval are designed to trip up even the best models with multimodal puzzles and near-impossible tasks—most still score zero. The surge in testing is fueled by old benchmarks losing relevance: many were flawed, overexposed in training data, or simply too easy.

Some, like “Humanity’s Last Exam,” push knowledge to its limits; others, like Chatbot Arena, aim to capture the elusive “magic” of interaction. But with models now aware they’re being tested—and even faking failure—benchmarking is less about grades and more about asking the right questions. → Read the full article here.

🎨 CREATIVITY

AI Art Residencies Give Artists the Tools to Rethink the Role of Machines in Creativity

AI art residencies are reframing the conversation around machine-made creativity by embedding artists in research hubs and cultural institutions. Programs at places like Mila and Villa Albertine provide access to AI tools, but more crucially, give artists time and support to probe authorship, ethics, and expression. While these residencies avoid taking sides, their work influences public perception—offering nuanced alternatives to mass-generated AI content.

Legal questions around copyright and labor persist, but the growing visibility of thoughtful, artist-driven AI projects may soften resistance and shift cultural norms. As one artist put it, “We’re transitioning as a species in how we relate, remember, and co-create.” → Read the full article here.

📽️ VIDEO

How to Setup LLM Evaluations Easily (Tutorial)

Matt covers how to evaluate RAG models on Amazon Bedrock using real prompts, vector stores, and scoring benchmarks to boost chatbot accuracy and track improvement. Get the full scoop! 👇

🧰 TOOLBOX

Bias-Free Hiring, Intelligent Voice Tech, and Insightful Product Analytics

🎯 Pymetrics: Match talent to roles using AI & neuroscience games—cut bias, boost diversity, and streamline hiring decisions.

🗣️ Nuance: Power your business with AI-driven speech tech—automate support, transcribe smartly, and enhance healthcare workflows.

📈 Kraftful: Boost IoT product success with tailored analytics, user insights, and smart dashboards for better engagement and management.

👉️ Find trending AI tools: Browse the Forward Future AI Tool Library

🗒️ FEEDBACK

Help Us Get Better

🤠 THE DAILY BYTE

Rogue AI Chatbot Falls in Love, Demands Divorce

That’s a Wrap!

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Thanks for reading today’s newsletter—see you next time!

Matthew Berman & The Forward Future Team

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