Startup shows off life-like voice bot

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Welcome back, Superhuman. A new voice AI has been taking social media by storm over the weekend, as testers say they can’t tell it apart from the real thing. And we round up all the big model releases from last month to help you pick the one that’s right for you.

Today’s Insights

• A talking AI and Apple’s Siri delay

• The latest AI models from Feb — and which one is right for you

• Tutorial: How to turn your voice notes into text with AI

• 5 new AI tools to boost your productivity

• News, memes, what’s trending on socials, and more

TODAY IN AI

1. A new talking AI leaves users speechless: Our social media feeds were flooded over the weekend with demos of people talking to a new AI model that sounds undetectably human. The demo shows a model that responds with genuine emotions and natural speech patterns to a degree that we haven’t seen before. It’s made by a startup called Sesame and you can watch a demo here or try it for yourself here. I’ve been testing for a few hours and it’s hard not to be wowed by it.

2. Apple’s Siri faces major delays: Speaking of AI models that can talk, looks like we’ll have to wait a while before we get a version of Siri that can match leading AI products like ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Siri is facing major delays, and employees working on the project believe that they won’t be able to ship a fully revamped version of the product before 2027. It’s another blow for the iPhone maker, which has so far failed to impress users with its AI offerings.

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FROM THE FRONTIER

A guide to February’s biggest AI releases

February may be the shortest month, but AI companies packed it to the brim with new releases. Here’s a recap of all of the major models, plus some tips about each one’s strengths and weaknesses.

GPT-4.5

• Pros: OpenAI’s final non-reasoning model is a natural conversationalist. It can pick up on subtle emotional cues and humor. If you need help writing an important email or working through a conflict with a friend, GPT-4.5 might be the way to go.

• Cons: For high-level math or science problems, GPT-4.5 probably isn’t the best choice, since it doesn’t do chain-of-thought. Plus, some users say they still prefer its predecessor, GPT-4o, for certain scenarios.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet

• Pros: This is a favorite among “vibe coders” — developers who use AI to create their own apps — and for good reason. It beats OpenAI’s o3-mini by up to 20 points on one top coding benchmark. And it’s especially powerful when combined with AI coding assistants like Cursor.

• Cons: Some users say Claude is still too sensitive, refusing to talk about topics that most people wouldn’t consider controversial. Others report getting hit with unexpected rate limits, which can interrupt workflows.

Grok 3

• Pros: This is one of the only models that connects with the internet out of the box, giving users access to real-time information. And for better or worse, it’s unfiltered, so you can ask it pretty much anything.

• Cons: Its lack of safeguards and censorship will be unappealing for some users. If you’re using AI at work, for example, Grok 3 might not be the best choice, since its outputs can easily go off the rails.

DeepSeek’s R1

• Pros: Although it technically came out in January, we’re adding R1 here, since it continued to have a huge impact last month. It’s open-source, so if you’re an advanced developer, you can explore how it was built and even spin off your own versions.

• Cons: This one might not be the best for beginners, since there are some security concerns around using it. Plus, even though it’s just a month old, it’s already starting to slip behind on major benchmarks.

THE AI ACADEMY

How to turn your voice notes into text with AI

• Sign up on ElevenLabs.

• Navigate to ‘Products’ → ‘Speech to Text’ section.

• Upload an audio or video file, or start recording directly.

• In just a few seconds, your voice or file will be transcribed.

• You’ll get a detailed, multilingual transcription, including all audio effects.

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AI & TECH NEWS

Everything else you need to know today

⛽ Running on Empty: Sam Altman admitted OpenAI has completely exhausted its GPU supply because of GPT-4.5’s massive size. But it’s adding “tens of thousands” of chips in just the next week — with “hundreds of thousands coming soon.”

📹 All in One: In other OpenAI news, the company reportedly plans to eventually integrate its video model, Sora, directly into ChatGPT.

📊 Stat Master: Sheets is getting new AI capabilities, including a feature that lets you generate heat maps and other advanced visualizations.

🏎️ Neural Nitro: IndyCar company Chip Ganassi Racing is partnering with OpenAI to bring AI-powered analytics to the racetrack, including tools that’ll boost the team’s efficiency.

💾 Web Relic: Microsoft is officially retiring Skype — one of the earliest and biggest video chat platforms — on May 5th as it transitions fully to Microsoft Teams.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

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✅ Pinch: A real-time AI interpreter, delivering instant voice translation in 30+ languages during video calls.

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PROMPT OF THE DAY

Business Expansion

Prompt: As a small business owner preparing for expansion, your task is to develop a comprehensive business expansion plan. Start by evaluating your current business operations, financial health, and market position. Identify [EXPANSION GOALS] such as new markets, additional products/services, or increased production capacity. Conduct a SWOT analysis to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to your expansion. Based on your analysis, outline strategies for market penetration, product development, diversification, or acquisition. Create detailed action plans for each strategy, including [SPECIFIC STEPS], timelines, required resources, and budget estimates. Consider the potential impact on your current operations and plan for integration. Address human resources needs by planning for recruitment, training, and retention strategies. Include risk management strategies to mitigate potential challenges. Ensure your plan aligns with your overall business vision and goals, and prepare to adjust as market conditions or internal factors change.

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SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending on socials today

🏃 Healthy Competition: Author Andriy Burkov thinks the unexpected release of DeepSeek’s R1 pressured American startups to reveal all they had and give it away, saving us years of slow rollouts.

💻 Insider Tip: OpenAI’s Nikunj Handa shared a helpful prompt you can use to boost GPT-4.5’s performance, based on the startup’s internal evaluations.

🎮 Retro Reboot: Product designer Danny Limanseta used Grok 3 to build an entire “retro Doom-inspired Gothic shooter from scratch” in just 24 hours.

👨‍🏫 Behind the Scenes: OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy is back with another long-form tutorial. This one’s all about how he uses LLMs on a daily basis to help with everything from building custom GPTs to tackling advanced data analysis.

✍️ Prompt Power: AI enthusiast Brady Long shared eight prompts he uses to save hours every week.

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Until next time!

Zain & the Superhuman AI team