AI News: An INSANE Week… Here’s What Matters
Matt Wolfe showed 13 AI tools in this video on . 4 are verified available in the EU. Each row below jumps to the exact second. Part of week 2026-31.
Tools shown in this video, with timestamps
Benchmarks roughly match Fable 5 at lower cost, but community sentiment is mostly negative versus Opus 4.8. It is notably strong at generating good-looking 3JS games; the creator tested an Elden Ring-style game, a Mega Bonk clone and Beauty Bench, and still prefers GPT 5.6.
Live demoGoogle Earth now has a create image button that runs Nano Banana on the current view. The creator tried reimagining Petco Park 100 years in the future, and it appears free to use.
Live demoMeta AI can now connect to calendar and Gmail to manage events and draft email replies. The creator demoed it and noted Meta is late relative to OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
Live demoA free, open-source, decentralized Slack competitor where you can invite AI agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Goose. The creator had three agents build websites and review each other's work.
Live demoxAI's new build mode for Grok creates and shares websites, apps, games and dashboards, similar to OpenAI's sites feature. It is limited to the $100/month plan, so the creator didn't test it.
Gemini on macOS added natural speech input that the creator says looks like Whisper Flow.
Google's Omni video model is free to try in Gemini through August 4, 2026, with 10 videos at no cost.
New Midjourney image model said to be more creative, bold and edgy. The creator hasn't noticed a big difference.
An improved avatar feature claiming industry-leading identity preservation. The creator paid $30 to test it with a Padres fan video and found it looked AI generated.
Live demoA feature that turns documents or links into a two-host video show, like a video version of NotebookLM. The creator generated a 2:40 podcast on the AlphaEvolve paper, but is not a fan of the AI slop it enables.
Live demoLinkedIn added a button to flag posts that seem AI-generated. The creator thinks it's good if used as intended but worries about weaponization.
The new version of the always-listening AI wearable now speaks back and costs $250, up from $100. The creator finds the launch video dystopian.
A new model that acts as the robot's brain for complex tasks. Demos included putting grapes in a Ziploc bag, unscrewing a light bulb and tying a trash bag.
- Here's The AI News From The Past Week! Build with Retool hereretool.com
- Explore AI Tools & Newsfuturetools.io
- Claude Opus 5anthropic.com
- Claude of Duty Promptgithub.com
- Nano Banana Earthblog.google
- Grok Build Modex.ai
- Gemini macOS Voiceblog.google
- Midjourney Version 8.2midjourney.com
- LinkedIn AI Slop Buttontheverge.com
- Friend Wearable Returnstechcrunch.com
- Chinese Robot Banbbc.com
- Gemini Robotics ER 2blog.google