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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
AI robots can now learn to perform surgery just like a (human) medical resident — by watching and imitating their mentors at work.
With human-level precision already achieved in key procedures, could this be healthcare's next revolution? Let’s get into it…
In today’s AI rundown:
AI robot masters surgical tasks
Apple’s new AI home command center
Master any software with ChatGPT
Nous supercharges AI models with Reasoning API
5 new AI tools & 5 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AI, ROBOTICS & HEALTHCARE
Image source: John Hopkins University
The Rundown: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University just achieved a breakthrough in surgical robotics, training a robot to perform complex medical procedures solely by having it watch videos of human surgeons at work.
The details:
The da Vinci Surgical System robot learned and performed critical surgical tasks, such as needle manipulation, tissue lifting, and suturing, with human-level skill.
Using a new imitation learning approach, the system trained with hundreds of surgical videos captured by da Vinci robot wrist cameras.
The AI model combines ChatGPT-style architecture with kinematics, essentially teaching the robot to "speak surgery" through mathematical movements.
The system also showed unexpected adaptability, like automatically retrieving dropped needles — a skill it wasn't explicitly programmed to perform.
Why it matters: The surge in robotic capabilities for both training and dexterity is opening up new use cases — and surgery is next on the list. This video learning approach could do for surgical robotics what LLMs did for AI, allowing robots to rapidly learn and adapt to any procedure instead of hand-coding for each individual movement.
TOGETHER WITH TELY AI
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APPLE
Image source: Midjourney / The Rundown
The Rundown: Apple is preparing to launch a new wall-mounted AI smart home display – positioning the device as a central hub for everything from video calls to appliance management, according to a new report from Apple insider Mark Gurman.
The details:
The tablet-like device will feature a 6-inch screen with a camera, speakers, and proximity sensing to adjust displays based on user distance.
The display will utilize Siri and Apple Intelligence, allowing users to control apps and appliances, use FaceTime as a home intercom, play music, and more.
A premium version with robotic arm is also reportedly in development, which will be marketed as a “home companion with an AI personality.”
The launch is expected as early as March, and pricing is likely competitive with existing smart displays like Google’s Nest Hub and Amazon’s Echo Hub.
Why it matters: After lagging behind Amazon and Google in the smart home space, Apple is finally making its big move. But rather than just another smart display, this appears to be Apple's first dedicated AI hardware product — potentially setting the stage for how we'll interact with home AI in the future.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: ChatGPT’s new Advanced Voice Mode can be your personal guide to navigate and learn any new software or application in real time, getting instant answers and step-by-step guidance.
Step-by-step:
Open the ChatGPT desktop app alongside your new software and position windows side-by-side.
Start with a clear description of what you're seeing (e.g., "I'm looking at the main screen of PowerPoint and see...").
Ask specific questions about features and follow step-by-step guidance.
Troubleshoot any issues by describing exactly what's happening.
Pro tip: Take it one step at a time and confirm each action before moving forward. This ensures you're truly learning rather than just following instructions blindly.
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Fyxer AI increases productivity through:
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NOUS RESEARCH
Image source: Nous Research
The Rundown: Nous Research just introduced the Forge Reasoning API Beta, a system that dramatically enhances language model capabilities through advanced reasoning techniques, enabling smaller models to compete with industry giants.
The details:
The system combines three key technologies: Monte Carlo Tree Search, Chain of Code, and Mixture of Agents to boost model performance.
When powered by Forge, their 70B Hermes model outperformed larger models like o1 and Sonnet on complex math tasks.
Forge works with Hermes 3, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini, GPT-4 and more, with the ability to also combine multiple LLMs to ‘enhance output diversity’.
Nous also launched a free chat platform featuring their Hermes 3 model alongside the limited API release.
Why it matters: While tech giants pour billions into training larger models, Nous shows that reasoning might be the real unlock that levels the playing field. Forge’s ability to boost smaller models is impressive — but even more compelling may be what will happen when these techniques are applied to already industry-leading systems.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
⏰ EarlyAI - AI agent for test code generation to reduce the cost of bugs and deliver higher-quality software
🧠 Cerebrium - Serverless infrastructure for AI/ML apps to build faster and cheaper
✍️ Agree - Securely send and sign any agreement with AI-powered workflows
🖍️ Webdraw - Draw-to-code your own web apps instantly
⚙️ Segwise - AI-powered monitoring of ad campaign data to boost your return on ad spend for games and apps
🚀 The Rundown - Head of Growth
🛠️ Waymo - Software Engineer, Router Eval
💡 Cohere - Senior Member of Technical Staff, RAG
🎉 Writer - Senior Corporate Events Manager
🤝 Meta - Business Development Manager, AI Partnerships
QUICK HITS
Baidu announced a series of new AI products at the company’s Baidu World event, including an I-RAG text-to-image generator, Miaoda no-code development tool, and upcoming AI-powered smart glasses.
Alibaba introduced Accio, an AI-powered B2B search engine that uses natural language processing to connect global buyers and sellers, showing a 40% increase in purchasing intentions during pilot testing.
Enterprise AI platform Writer secured a massive $200M Series C investment boosting its valuation to $1.9B, with the startup set to expand into healthcare, retail, and financial services workflows.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman has returned after a three-month sabbatical, with plans to take on a new technical role within the company.
Amazon unveiled a $110M "Build on Trainium" initiative to accelerate university AI research using its custom chips, providing researchers free access to massive 40,000-chip clusters with open-source requirements for resulting innovations.
AI-powered news app Particle launched on iOS, offering personalized summaries, multi-perspective coverage analysis, and interactive features to help users better understand and engage with current events.
THAT’S A WRAP
That's it for today!Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you. |
See you soon,
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