AI Voices, rogue agents & more (April 23, 2025)

Hi friends,

Today’s newsletter has it all: a mind-blowing student-built voice model shaking up the industry, OpenAI playing hardball with Google, and a not-so-distant future where your next coworker might be a chatbot with a login.

Let’s dive in!

🎙️ Voices in Revolt

Two Undergrads Built a Better Voice Model Than the Big Guys
Meet Dia—a 1.6B parameter open-source voice model built by two Korean students with no funding. It mimics emotional tones, laughter, and speaker tags, outperforming ElevenLabs and OpenAI’s mini-tts in expressiveness. It’s trending #2 on HuggingFace and making a compelling case for the DIY AI movement​.

Character.AI’s AvatarFX Animates Still Images
You can now animate your AI avatars with Character.AI’s AvatarFX. Think: turning selfies into emotionally expressive talking heads—mythical creatures included. Social content’s about to get weirdly alive​.

The Virologist Smackdown
AI models crushed human virologists in a new test. OpenAI’s o3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro scored nearly double the accuracy of PhDs in lab scenarios. Impressive, but researchers warn about bioweapon misuse​.

🧠 Workforce Reboot

AI Employees Might Be Here in a Year
Anthropic’s CISO says agentic AIs with corporate accounts and memory could be working alongside you within a year. These “virtual employees” raise serious cybersecurity questions—and an existential one: Are we ready for bot coworkers?​

OpenAI Wants to Buy Chrome
In Google’s antitrust trial, OpenAI’s head of product said they’d buy Chrome if forced into a sale. They also tried integrating Google Search into ChatGPT last year, but Google ghosted them. Regulators are eyeing mandatory licensing of Google’s data​.

WaPo + OpenAI = Content Alliance
The Washington Post joined OpenAI’s partner list, allowing ChatGPT to summarize and link to its articles. It’s a big swing toward collaboration and away from lawsuits (looking at you, NYT)​.

⚒️ Tools You Should Know About

• Descript Co-Editor – New agentic AI-powered video editor
• Sapia – Talent analyzer for AI-based hiring
• Strawberry Browser – AI browser that summarizes and automates
• Superpower – AI app analyzing 100+ biomarkers for health advice​

⚡ Quick Hits

• Google declined OpenAI's ChatGPT search integration in 2023
• IBM + ESA launch satellite-based AI for climate monitoring
• MIT improves AI code accuracy across languages
• Ainos robots can now sniff out danger with “AI noses”
• 25% of Gen Z thinks AI is already conscious​

🎯 Prompt of the Day

Prompt:
“Act as a world-class prompt engineer. First, ask me what I’m trying to achieve. Then ask smart clarifying questions. Once clear, give me 3 prompt variations: one basic, one creative, one expert. End with a tip to improve it next time.”

Try it to level up your AI prompt game.

TL;DR

Open-source AI is punching way above its weight this week, with a student-built voice model outshining industry giants. OpenAI is eyeing Chrome, media alliances are reshaping news delivery, and we may soon work alongside bots. New tools dropped, and Gen Z thinks AI might already be sentient. Buckle up—autonomy isn’t coming, it’s here.

Catch you in the next drop,
— David