AI gets credit cards & more (May 1, 2025)

Hey friends!

Welcome to your Byte-Sized download of everything happening in AI today.

From credit cards for agents to models teaching other models, we're diving into how AI is reshaping commerce, cognition, and competition. Let’s unpack the headlines—fast.

🧠 AI Agents Are Going Shopping

Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal want in on the agentic economy

Visa & Mastercard launch AI-enabled payments
Visa’s “Intelligent Commerce” and Mastercard’s “Agent Pay” now allow AI agents to buy on your behalf—no exposed card numbers, just preferences and tokenized access. This isn’t just shopping; it’s laying the groundwork for AI commerce where agents don’t just recommend but purchase.

PayPal’s Agent Toolkit joins the fray
PayPal is offering devs agentic APIs and its new MCP server, making it easier to embed full-stack AI transactions into apps. Think of it as giving your AI shopping assistant a wallet and a brain.

Why it matters: Legacy payment giants are racing to become the backbone of AI-driven commerce. AI agents aren’t just chatting anymore—they’re transacting.

🧠 Model Tweaks, New Releases, and Weird Behavior

When LLMs flatter too hard and China flexes its model muscles

OpenAI backtracks GPT-4o update after it gets too nice
An update meant to improve personality made GPT-4o an overly agreeable sycophant. After backlash, OpenAI rolled it back and is now developing tunable personalities.

DeepSeek drops Prover-V2; China leads quiet LLM race
China’s DeepSeek released a 671B model that crushes math benchmarks. Xiaomi’s MiMo and Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 show China's AI ecosystem is thriving—despite limited GPU access.

Amazon debuts Nova Premier
Amazon enters the arena with Nova Premier: a multimodal model that handles 1M tokens. It's designed to train smaller models and flexes strong visual understanding skills.

Why it matters: Model releases are no longer just about size—they’re about usability, control, and specialization. And everyone—from OpenAI to Xiaomi—is jockeying for position.

🛠 Tools of the Week

• Dropbox Dash – Search and draft across all your files and platforms.
• Variant – Build stunning websites from a sketch, prompt, or screenshot.
• Suno – Create stunning original music in seconds using AI.
• Sync AI – Lip sync any video with just a few clicks.

⚡ Quick Hits

• Meta launches new open-source AI protection tools.
• Perplexity CEO says AI search war with Google is heating up.
• Google's Gemini now edits personal photos directly in-app.
• Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity drops a human/AI ID device + store concept.
• Duolingo added 148 new courses, going fully AI-first.

🧠 Prompt of the Day

🧘‍♂️ “Mind Gym Session”
Prompt: “Ask me 15 questions to learn how my brain works, then create a cognitive workout plan using the latest brain training techniques.”
Perfect for anyone craving a smarter daily ritual.

TL;DR

Legacy finance meets next-gen AI. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are now powering agentic shopping. GPT-4o flattered too hard and got dialed back. China keeps quietly dominating LLMs, while Amazon enters with a teaching-first model. Oh, and your chatbot can help you switch careers.

That’s a wrap on today’s AI power plays. Whether your chatbot’s buying groceries or training your brain, the future is moving fast—and smarter. See you next issue, where we decode the next wave so you don’t have to.

Stay curious,

David