Google’s Gemini update climbs the leaderboard

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The AI leaderboard just got one other shakeup, with Google dropping a brand new Gemini 2.5 Pro version right ahead of its I/O event and taking coding and web development to the following level.

Google can have just taken the following step up the AI ladder — but with GPT-5, DeepSeek R2, and other powerhouse models waiting within the wings, the following generation of rivals will not be far behind.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro climbs leaderboards

• HeyGen brings recent emotion to animations

• Create a private financial assistant with Zapier Agents

• Lighttricks’ recent open-source video model

• 4 recent AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

🏆 Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro climbs leaderboards

The Rundown: Google just released an early preview of Gemini 2.5 Pro I/O Edition, an update that dramatically improves coding and web development capabilities — pushing the model to the highest spot across the AI leaderboard rankings.

The main points:

• The update achieved the highest rating on the WebDev Arena leaderboard, surpassing the previous frontrunner, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, by a major margin.

• The model brings enhanced performance for frontend and UI development, code transformation, editing, and creating sophisticated agentic workflows.

• 2.5 Pro also features recent video understanding capabilities, enabling workflows like converting video content into interactive learning applications.

• Along with coding, the model takes the No. 1 spot across all categories on the LM Arena leaderboard, beating OpenAI’s o3.

Why it matters: Google’s anticipated I/O event remains to be weeks away, however the tech giant couldn’t wait to flex its recent powerhouse to the world. Very like December’s quiet barrage of SOTA upgrades, Google continues to ship top models without the hype. If the demos and early tests are any indication, vibe coding just leveled up in a giant way.

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HEYGEN

🗣️ HeyGen brings recent emotion to animations

The Rundown: HeyGen just rolled out Avatar IV, a brand new AI model capable of making lifelike and expressive animations from a single photo while capturing vocal nuances, natural gestures, and facial movements.

The main points:

• A brand new diffusion-inspired ‘audio-to-expression’ engine analyzes voices to create photorealistic facial motion, micro-expressions, and hand gestures.

• The model requires only a single reference image and a voice script, and works with shots like side angles and various subjects like pets and anime characters.

• Avatar IV also supports portrait, half-body, and full-body formats, allowing for more dynamic and non-traditional video generations.

• HeyGen said the brand new model excels for videos, including influencer-style UGC, singing avatars, animated game characters, and expressive visual podcasts.

Why it matters: HeyGen continues to construct on creating AI avatars which might be virtually indistinguishable from reality, but recent support for various camera shots and formats opens up completely recent workflows that break free from the everyday “talking head” avatars we’ve grown used to in AI generations.

AI TRAINING

💼 Create a private financial assistant with Zapier Agents

The Rundown: On this tutorial, you’ll learn find out how to create an AI-powered system that routinely extracts information from invoices in Google Drive, categorizes expenses, and organizes all the things in a Google Sheet for straightforward financial tracking.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Zapier Agents, click the plus button, and create a Recent Agent

2. Click “Configure,” name your agent, and choose “Add Behavior”

3. Arrange Google Drive because the trigger for when a brand new invoice is uploaded and add three tools: Google Drive to retrieve the file, ChatGPT to extract invoice data, and Google Sheets so as to add the data to your spreadsheet

4. Test your agent and toggle it “On” to activate

Pro tip: Create a dedicated folder named “Invoices” in Google Drive to have the agent only look for brand spanking new files there. Please be certain that to double-check its responses as AI can hallucinate.

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• Real-world approaches to protecting sensitive patient data while adopting AI

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• Future-proofing your compliance strategy as regulations evolve

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LIGHTTRICKS

🎥 Lighttricks’ recent open-source video model

The Rundown: Lightricks unveiled LTXV-13B, an open-source AI video generation model that creates high-quality content 30x faster than existing models while being efficient enough to run on standard consumer hardware.

The main points:

• The model uses “multiscale rendering,” a brand new approach that creates videos in layers of detail, allowing for smoother and more consistent renderings.

• It’s also in a position to run on on a regular basis consumer GPUs while maintaining speed and quality, removing the necessity for expensive, enterprise-level computing power.

• Recent features include precise camera motion control, keyframe editing, and multi-shot sequencing tools for professional-quality results.

• LTXV is open source with free licensing for firms < $10M in revenue, and backed by partnerships with Getty Images and Shutterstock for training data.

Why it matters: There isn’t a shortage of mind-blowing AI video models available on the market, each making the choices from only a yr ago appear to be a totally different era of tech. With motion, consistency, speed, and efficiency continuing to scale and a flurry of high-quality open-source options, video creation is quickly changing without end.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🦜 Parakeet – NVIDIA’s open-source ASR model for high-quality transcriptions

• 🎬 Higgsfield Effects – Cinematic VFX effects for video generations

• 🎥 Recraft Advanced Style Control – Mix ready-to-use styles with images

• ⚙️ Windsurf Wave 8 – Recent updates to the OpenAI-acquired coding platform

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• ⚖️ Cresta – Business Counsel

• 🔧 Figure AI – Maintenance Technician

• 🖥️ Meta – Production Engineering

• 🗂️ Glean – Office Manager

📰 All the things else in AI today

OpenAI is reportedly set to acquire coding platform Windsurf (previously named Codeium) for $3B, which could be the AI giant’s largest acquisition thus far.

Google launched AI Max, a collection of features embedded into Seek for advertisers to optimize and expand the reach of their campaigns.

Elon Musk’s attorney responded to OpenAI’s PBC restructuring, saying the move “changes nothing” and is a “transparent dodge that fails to handle the core issues.”

Microsoft is reportedly a significant holdout in OpenAI’s announced restructuring, wanting assurances that its $13.75B investment within the AI leader is protected in the brand new plans.

Smart ring maker OURA announced two recent AI features that allow users to log their food, nutrition and monitor their glucose while receiving personalized guidance.

FutureHouse released Finch in closed beta, a brand new AI agent designed to handle data-driven biology evaluation and discovery.

COMMUNITY

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See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team