Apple’s AI ‘gap 12 months’

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Apple’s flagship event of the 12 months is just per week away, however the tech giant’s AI ambitions could be temporarily hitting the snooze button.

With insiders revealing the upcoming WWDC shall be a “gap 12 months” event that pushes more impactful AI reveals to 2026, the gap between Apple and the AI competition has never looked wider.

In today’s AI rundown:

• AI letdown expected at Apple’s WWDC

• Record giants, music AI startups eye licensing deals

• Transform deep research into visual infographics

• AI beats humans on emotional intelligence tests

• 4 recent AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

APPLE

🍎 AI letdown expected at Apple’s WWDC

The Rundown: Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference may disappoint on the AI front, according to Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman — with reported plans for a less hyped event as a “gap 12 months” to push for a stronger AI reveal in 2026.

The main points:

• Apple will open its 3B parameter models to developers, enabling custom AI features in third-party apps but with limited capabilities in comparison with rivals.

• The corporate reportedly plans to rebrand existing features as “AI-powered” and introduce a brand new naming system for its OS to shift perception.

• Major AI projects remain in limbo, including an LLM-powered Siri overhaul, health-focused Project Mulberry, and a ChatGPT competitor with web search.

• Gurman added that Apple’s 150B model is nearing ChatGPT quality in testing, but accuracy concerns and exec disagreements have kept it under wraps.

Why it matters: Apple finds itself in a difficult position — with sky-high expectations and accelerating competition paired with a serious lack of progress on the AI front. While a “gap 12 months” could be needed to organize a product that may give what users expect, the AI leaders actually won’t be slowing down during that point.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

📖 The brand new playbook for constructing AI-era startups

The Rundown: Speed alone is not enough anymore — today’s startups need sharper, smarter strategies from day one. Learn from Vanta’s Christina Cacioppo and The Generalist’s Mario Gabriele on this tactical discussion for founders navigating the rapidly shifting startup landscape.

This live session covers:

• Strategies for accelerating product-market fit within the AI era

• Frameworks for selecting tools that 10x what you are promoting impact

• Tactics for constructing competitive moats without funding or brand recognition

Save your spot and discover hard-earned lessons you won’t find in traditional playbooks.

AI & MUSIC

🎵 Record giants, music AI startups eye licensing deals

The Rundown: Music giants Universal, Warner, and Sony are reportedly in talks with AI music leaders Udio and Suno to barter licensing deals that might resolve billion-dollar lawsuits and establish standards for the way artists are compensated by AI firms.

The main points:

• The labels are in search of licensing fees and equity stakes within the startups, making a framework for compensating artists whose work is utilized in training.

• The businesses sued each Udio and Suno in 2024 for copyright infringement, in search of as much as $150k per work infringed, potentially totaling billions in damages.

• A deal would reportedly put an end to the lawsuits, with the negotiations happening “in parallel” and making a race between firms to strike the primary deal.

Why it matters: This showdown echoes the music industry’s past fights with Napster and streaming services — but this time, labels seem able to negotiate relatively than fight to the death. Identical to we’ve seen in journalism and social media platforms, AI licensing is becoming a lucrative revenue stream and alternative to pricey court battles.

AI TRAINING

📊 Transform deep research into visual infographics

The Rundown: On this tutorial, you’ll learn how you can use Google Gemini’s deep research feature to investigate complex topics and robotically generate visual infographics from research findings using its recent visualization capabilities.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to Google’s Gemini website and click on “Deep Research” at the underside of the chat interface

2. Enter your research topic and review the plan Gemini creates, then click “Edit plan” to change or “Start research” to proceed

3. Once your comprehensive report is prepared, click the “Create” button and choose “Infographic” to show your report into an interactive HTML visualization

4. Toggle between Code and Preview views in Canvas to see and customize your infographic.

Pro tip: The more specific your initial query, the higher your results. As a substitute of broad topics, include specific elements, timeframes, or comparisons you would like in your report.

PRESENTED BY RETOOL

🏗️ Construct AI that works for what you are promoting

The Rundown: While most AI tools are only chatbots, Retool Agents perform real work by directly integrating with what you are promoting systems, delivering measurable efficiency and value savings through hands-on tasks, not only conversation.

What makes Retool different:

• Model flexibility that works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, or custom implementations

• True integration along with your existing tech stack, including databases, APIs, and business tools

• An intuitive visual builder combined with code flexibility for a balance of speed and control

• Enterprise-ready security with built-in permissions and role-based access control

Try Retool today and experience AI agents that truly work for what you are promoting.

AI RESEARCH

🧠 AI beats humans on emotional intelligence tests

The Rundown: Researchers from the University of Geneva and the University of Bern found that ChatGPT and other AI systems beat humans on emotional intelligence tests, indicating AI could also be higher at reading emotions and responding than people.

The main points:

• Six AI models were tested on standard emotional intelligence assessments, tasked with choosing emotionally appropriate responses to complex scenarios.

• GPT-4, o1, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Copilot 365, Claude 3.5 Haiku, and DeepSeek V3 scored an 81% average in testing, in comparison with 56% for human participants.

• Beyond just test-taking, GPT-4 also proved able to quickly creating entirely recent and valid emotional intelligence assessments.

• The researchers consider the outcomes show AI’s grasp of emotional concepts and reasoning, not only pattern regurgitation from training data.

Why it matters: While AI cannot actually “feel” emotions like humans do, its ability to mimic and display optimal emotional intelligence in difficult situations could be just as useful — and shows the large promise for integrating LLMs into fields like mental health support, customer support, and education.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 📸 Kontext – BFL’s recent advanced image editing model

• 🔎 Perplexity Labs – Construct reports and dashboards with multi-tool use

• 📋 Manus Slides – Create tailored slide decks with agentic AI

• 🗣️ EVI 3 – Create custom voices through speech-to-speech interactions

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 🤝 The Rundown – Partnerships Manager

• 📝 Mistral AI – Content Marketing Lead, US

• 🛠️ Hebbia – Platform Engineer, Staff

• 📱 Perplexity AI – Mobile Product Manager

📰 All the pieces else in AI today

BoxWorks 2025 – San Francisco & virtual on Sept. 11-12. Use AI to thrive in business and convey order to unstructured data, explore Intelligent Content Management, and more. (Sponsored)

ElevenLabs launched Conversational AI 2.0, featuring recent advanced turn-taking, multilingual detection, and enterprise-grade features, including HIPAA compliance.

OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said in an interview that the hardware devices OpenAI is constructing shall be “ambient” systems designed for more personal real-world experiences.

Anthropic reportedly reached $3B in annualized revenue, tripling from $1B in December 2024, driven by enterprise demand from its code generation capabilities.

Meta is reportedly within the strategy of automating as much as 90% of its privacy and internal safety risk assessments using AI, replacing human reviewers.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis revealed that “thousands and thousands of videos” were generated with Veo 3 within the last week, following an expansion to over 71 recent countries.

COMMUNITY

🎥 Watch our last live workshop

Take a look at our last workshop with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the tip of the workshop, you’ll confidently give you the chance to make use of AI coding agents to enhance your development workflow.

Watch here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

See you soon,

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