Good morning, { AI enthusiasts }. When Google launched the unique Nano Banana last August, it set the bar for AI image generation — now, the sequel is raising it.
The brand new Nano Banana 2 just reclaimed the text-to-image crown across leaderboards, while also effectively ending the tradeoff between top-tier quality and affordability in the method.
In today’s AI rundown:
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Google’s Nano Banana 2 claims No. 1 at half the fee
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OpenAI snags Meta’s $200M+ AI hire after 7 months
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Create an AI Assistant with its own phone number
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Pew study shows how teens are using AI
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4 recent AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Image source: Google
The Rundown: Google just rolled out Nano Banana 2, the upgraded version of its viral image model with enhanced resolution, consistency, text rendering, and speed at half the worth of its predecessor — taking the #1 spot on text-to-image leaderboards.
The main points:
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The model beat each NB Pro and GPT Image 1.5 for the No.1 text-to-image spot on Artificial Evaluation and LM Arena, also coming in at No. 3 on editing tasks.
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Output resolution scales to 4K across aspect ratios, with as much as five characters and 14 objects staying visually consistent throughout a scene.
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At ~7 cents per image, it undercuts each Nano Banana Pro and OAI’s GPT Image 1.5 by nearly 2x — while providing speed at Gemini Flash levels.
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Nano Banana is now integrated because the default image generator across Gemini and Google’s tool ecosystem, with Pro still available for paid subscribers.
Why it matters: The Nano Banana models have been on the frontier of image gen because the original launch in August, and this latest version brings recent SOTA capabilities on the speed and price points of a flash model. With the discharge, the tradeoff of getting to make a choice from very best quality and affordability appears to be on its way out.
TOGETHER WITH GENSTORE
The Rundown: Genstore gives you an AI agent team that works across the clock — handling research, operations, marketing, and analytics within the background so you possibly can give attention to constructing your brand.
With Genstore, you possibly can:
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Wake as much as competitor insights and product recommendations
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Save dozens of hours per week on research, pricing, and customer replies
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Boost conversions with AI-optimized checkout flows and loyalty rewards
OPENAI & META
Image source: Ruoming Pang on X
The Rundown: OpenAI pulled Ruoming Pang away from Meta’s Superintelligence Labs after barely seven months, in keeping with The Information — the identical AI infrastructure lead that Meta had previously poached from Apple with a reported $200M+ pay.
The main points:
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Pang jumped to Meta last summer during its all-out poaching spree, previously running Apple’s models group and helping shape Apple Intelligence.
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OpenAI reportedly spent months courting Pang before he finally left, even after he’d assured colleagues that Meta’s infrastructure was on solid ground.
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OpenAI also hired Riley Walz, the engineer behind viral projects like Jmail and Find My Parking Cops, to hitch a brand new team prototyping AI interfaces.
Why it matters: While the AI talent wars aren’t as intense as they were this summer, there continues to be loads of movement underway — most of it coming from xAI and Meta. But the short departures of among the splashiest poaches in lower than a 12 months show that company fit and direction might ultimately matter greater than the pure dollars.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: On this guide, you will arrange your individual AI personal assistant you could call out of your phone — using ElevenLabs for the voice agent and Twilio for the phone number. The entire process takes about 10 minutes and is free to check.
Step-by-step:
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In Elevenlabs, go to Agents → Latest Agent → Personal Assistant. Pick a voice, time zone, and first message. Then, add your website and calendar to it
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Go to Twilio, create an account ($15 free credits), and buy a phone number (~$1). Copy the number, account SID, and auth token from the dashboard
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Back in Eleven Labs, go to Phone Numbers → Import from Twilio. Paste your SID, auth token, and phone number. Assign your agent and done
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Call the number. Your AI assistant picks up and may answer questions on your calendar, your corporation, whatever you place within the agent’s knowledge base
Pro tip: The knowledge base is static — great for business info. For live data, add a webhook to Make.com/n8n, so your agent can pull real-time calendar events.
PRESENTED BY SERPAPI
The Rundown: Need real-time public web data without scraper headaches? SerpApi turns search results into structured, ready-to-use data with built-in scale and block resilience — powering AI apps, product research, price tracking, web optimization insights, and more without the upkeep.
With SerpApi, you get:
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Real-time, reliable results from any search engine
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ZeroTrace Mode to maintain your searches confidential
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U.S. Legal Shield for scraper legal protection
Try SerpApi at no cost today — Rundown readers can get 50% off for 3 months via chat or email.
AI RESEARCH
Image source: Pew Research
The Rundown: Pew Research Center published a brand new study investigating how teens use AI, finding that the age group leans heavily on the tech for college work, reporting massive AI-fueled cheating, but viewing its overall impact positively.
The main points:
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The survey of 1,458 U.S. teens and oldsters shows adoption at mainstream levels, with primary uses starting from info, schoolwork, and purely for fun.
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Around 60% of those polled believed AI-assisted cheating is widespread amongst their classmates, rising to 75% amongst teens who use the tech.
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Teens tended to see AI as a private positive, with responses including making life easier, learning, and efficiency, with negatives citing job or creativity loss.
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40% of fogeys reported never having a conversation concerning the tech with their child, with a disconnect in knowledge of their child’s chatbot use.
Why it matters: Sam Altman recently said that this generation of children will grow up in a world where AI’s intelligence and use will just be normal. But current teens are caught in an ungainly moment where each the education system and society are struggling to adapt to the change, bringing each serious challenges and large opportunities.
QUICK HITS
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🤖 Scrunch – See how AI interprets your site, run a free audit, and unlock the brand new option to reach customers*
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🎆 Nano Banana 2 – Google’s recent image generation model
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💠 Arrow 1.0 – QuiverAI’s top-ranked SVG generation model, now in public beta
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⚙️ Cursor Agents – Virtual computer control to construct, test, and ship code
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei released a press release rejecting Pentagon’s ‘final offer’ to permit Claude’s safeguards to be removed, saying threats “don’t change our position.”
QuiverAI emerged from stealth and opened public beta access to Arrow 1.0, an SVG model that hit No. 1 on Design Arena’s SVG leaderboard just sooner or later after launch.
Nous Research open-sourced Hermes Agent, an OpenClaw-style agent that lives on Telegram, Slack, Discord, and CLI — learning and constructing reusable skills over time.
Burger King is rolling out an OAI-powered chatbot called “Patty” inside worker headsets, tracking whether employees say “please” and “thanks” as a training tool.
Cursor upgraded its cloud agents with their very own virtual machines and desktop control, letting them construct, test, and validate code autonomously before shipping PRs.
COMMUNITY
Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s workflow comes from reader Jamie T. in Massachusetts:
“My daughter is having trouble learning to read, so I had Claude create an app to assist. I gave it the feedback I used to be getting from her teachers on what needed improvement, and it created a fun speaking app with colours and themes catered to her tastes.
It has 3 games around spelling and word/letter recognition. It even counts “stars” that equate to correct answers, and every game has a streak counter, too. I’ve already edited the words a bit, and I can proceed to achieve this as she improves. Repeating the sounds the pc makes helps too! It’s an HTML app, so she will be able to apply it to a phone, PC, or tablet, so it’s all touch-screen fun for her!”
How do you utilize AI? Tell us here.
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Read our last AI newsletter: Perplexity’s 19-model AI ‘computer’
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Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple goes big on ‘Made in America’
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Read our last Robotics newsletter: Unitree’s strongest robot dog yet
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Today’s AI tool guide: Create an AI Assistant with its own phone number
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RSVP to our next workshop on March 12: AI Coding Bootcamp pt. 1
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