OpenAI's accused spy had Saudi ties
Welcome back, Superhuman. One-way plane tickets. Foreign bank accounts. WhatsApp messages. The plot thickens around OpenAI’s accused spy. Fortunately, the lab is ignoring the noise: it just shipped two more updates to ChatGPT Slides.
Today: US bans DeepSeek, how to vibe-code your TV into an Apple TV-style smart home hub using Claude, and get the latest prompts and trending social posts.
TODAY IN AI
Accused OpenAI spy had a folder called “Saudi Gov Docs” on his phone. Image Source: Ars Technica.
1. Accused OpenAI spy allegedly had ties to Saudi Arabia: New evidence shows that Abdulrahman Alfozan — the ex-OpenAI employee accused of bugging a conference room — had been communicating with the Saudi royal family and had plans to permanently move back to the country (full details). Separately, OpenAI shipped two updates to ChatGPT Slides: real-time collaboration and in-document editing. Learn more about the updates or explore prompts to start creating with ChatGPT Slides.
2. US government bans DeepSeek from federal civilian agencies: The move marks Washington’s latest escalation yet to try and keep Chinese technology out of critical infrastructure. Models from DeepSeek, including a new release last Saturday, have grown in popularity this year as cheaper alternatives to American AI, but that hasn’t translated to outsized economic growth for the country. China’s GDP increased 4.5% last quarter, slightly above expectations of 4.4% but down from 4.8% last year.
3. Disney bids to buy Character AI from bankruptcy: The avatar chatbot startup filed for bankruptcy last week after five years in business, citing high costs and litigation liabilities. Now Disney is in talks to acquire some of its assets for $20M in a deal that’d bring most of its employees in-house. It’s a notable turnaround, given Disney previously sent a cease and desist to Character AI over its use of copyrighted characters.
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TUTORIAL
How to vibe-code your TV into a clean, Apple TV-style smart home hub using Claude Code
Click here to see how a social media user used Claude to vibe-code their TV into an Apple TV-style smart home hub. Photo: @gathint on X
On your Android TV / Google TV, open Settings > About, click the build number 7 times, then enable USB/Network debugging and note the TV’s IP address.
Open Claude Code on a Mac or Linux computer on the same Wi-Fi.
Give Claude the following prompt to install Luna:
Sample Prompt: “Install Luma from https://github.com/0xProbabillity/luma-tv on my Android TV at [IP]:5555. Install ADB if needed, connect to the TV, wait for me to approve debugging, clone the repo, install the latest APK, make Luma the default home screen, and verify the setup. Explain each command before running it. Don’t change anything else.”
Approve the ‘Allow debugging’ pop-up on the TV, then let Claude download and install Luma over ADB.
Press ‘Home’ on the remote and customize Luma by pinning apps, rearranging them, hiding unwanted apps, and choosing a living wallpaper.
For smart-home controls, give Claude Code a second prompt to install House Control TV from its GitHub repo and open the app on the TV.
In House Control TV > Sync & connect, connect your preferred platform such as Home Assistant, Smart Life/Tuya, or Philips Hue, then map each virtual light or AC to the corresponding real device.
Configure scenes like Cozy, Movie, Night, or Away so one TV button can change your lights and launch an app such as Netflix or Disney+.
FROM THE FRONTIER
The hottest new skill in the AI era? “Unlearning” what you know, says a 17-year Google veteran
Made with Midjourney
With AI tools changing almost monthly, Google VP Josh Woodward says he’s starting to prioritize a different skill when evaluating candidates: the ability to unlearn. In interviews, Woodward often looks for people who have learned something new — and then pivoted. Other executives have leveraged similar advice to land new roles this year.
Switching positions in the AI era: 3 takeaways from 3 executives
Anthony Maggio left Airtable after five years to become CPO at Runway. His advice? DIY experience. His own resume lacked hands-on work, so he built an app in his off-hours that ended up being a focal point during most interviews.
Chandra Raghavan joined Google in June after a year at Meta. He warns: you don't want to be the person whose mental model is stuck on ChatGPT in 2022.
Gadi Ben-Zvi, who now leads an AI division at Eli Lilly, says being current is more important than being credentialed (he faced these questions most often in interviews).
Want to read more? Learn 5 other pieces of traditional hiring advice that have become outdated in the past six months.
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IN THE KNOW
What’s trending on socials & headlines today
Meme of the day
🍿 Pitching in Public: Sometimes it pays to be your own biggest fan. After a slow year of job hunting, Darshita Patankar’s self-made hype video cut through the noise and undoubtedly will lead to new opportunities (20k likes).
💾 Back to 1985: Reddit has a soft spot for reimagining today’s tech brands in different decades. The latest viral example? Anthropic and OpenAI as 1980s-style boxed software.
📝 AI Guidelines: Clay’s engineering lead wrote rules for where to draw the line when using AI internally. Her advice keeps resurfacing, this time in a blog from former Amazon engineer Steve Huynh.
🔨 Building with AI: New Claude models have unleashed a wave of creativity, leading to new projects like personalized fonts and a hyper-realistic ocean simulator (2M views).
🎮 Gaming’s Revolution: Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says many people want it to be 2016 again — but it’s not. There’s no going back, so he’s launching a huge internal pivot (6.2M views).
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PROMPT STATION
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Prompt: [upload photo of current desk setup and items you would like to buy] Use the uploaded photo of my current workspace as the base image, plus the uploaded reference images for ..................👉Click here to open the full prompt in ChatGPT(Don’t forget to switch to Images!)
EXTRAS
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