Author HubMatthias Bastian

Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER, exploring how AI is fundamentally changing the relationship between humans and computers.
AI and society

Google downplays AI's environmental impact in new study

AI and society

Meta's human-like chatbot personas can mislead users and result in real-world harm

AI in practice

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince sees trouble ahead for the open web

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AI in practice
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ElevenLabs has released Eleven v3 (alpha), an updated text-to-speech model now available through the API. The new version adds more expressive options, additional controls, and support for over 70 languages. Key changes include a dialog mode that can handle any number of speakers and new audio tags for controlling emotion and voice.

Video: Elevenlabs

The Eleven v3 (alpha) API works with a free account, though some features may require payment. Technical details and examples are in the official documentation. New users can register for free.

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AI in practice
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Yann LeCun, Meta's AI icon and longtime head of the FAIR research group, will now report to 28-year-old Alexandr Wang. Wang, who founded Scale AI, was recently tapped to lead the new Meta Superintelligence Lab (MSL), which is focused on building superintelligent AI.

With this shake-up, Meta is shutting down its former AGI department. LeCun's FAIR will continue as the company's main research hub, developing new ideas that can later be used to train larger models.

Alongside FAIR, Meta is setting up three additional teams: a small group focused on large models (TBD Lab), a unit for product-focused research, and a central team for technical infrastructure. According to Wang's internal memo, the goal is to tightly link all these groups to accelerate Meta's research and development.

AI in practice
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After the rocky rollout of GPT-5, Sam Altman is trying to shift the narrative by focusing on GPT-6. While it took two and a half years to move from GPT-4 to GPT-5, OpenAI now wants to ship GPT-6 on a faster timeline. Altman says the big breakthrough will be memory: the next model should remember user preferences, habits, ideologies, and even tone of voice.

For now, ChatGPT remains OpenAI's main product for consumers. But Altman sees limits to how much further chat-based AI can go. "They won't get much better—maybe even worse," he told CNBC.

OpenAI's bet beyond chatbots is on agentic systems that can perform complex tasks over long periods of time. These systems aren't necessarily better small talkers, which is likely what Altman is getting at.

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AI in practice
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Google is adding new AI features to the Pixel 10 lineup. The Tensor G5 chip, built with Google DeepMind, lets Google's Gemini Nano language model run directly on the device for the first time. Magic Cue relies on Gemini Nano to connect information from apps like Gmail and Calendar, suggesting actions such as displaying an address from a calendar event in Android Messages.

Video: Google

Voice Translate can interpret phone calls in real time in eleven languages. Take a Message transcribes missed calls and suggests next steps. Gemini Live adds visual support through the camera, but it's not new. Other updates include AI notes, a private journal, writing help in Gboard, and music generation from voice recordings. Pixel 10 Pro, Pro XL, and Fold buyers get a year of Google AI Pro with Imagen 4 and Veo 3.

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AI and society
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According to Character.ai CEO Karandeep Anand, users spend an average of 80 minutes a day chatting with AI-generated fictional characters. That puts Character.ai nearly on par with apps like TikTok (95 minutes) and YouTube (84 minutes), and ahead of Instagram (70 minutes). The numbers help explain why Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now putting a bigger emphasis on personalized chatbots across his own platforms.

Character.ai currently has 20 million monthly active users. Half are women, and most are Gen Z or even younger. Critics warn that these kinds of apps can create emotional dependencies among young people and have called for them to be banned for minors. In the US, several lawsuits are underway over alleged harm to children, including one involving a suicide. Character.ai has responded by offering a separate model for users under 18 and now warns against excessive use.

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AI in practice

Microsoft presents its first large AI models and signals greater independence from OpenAI

AI and society

Google downplays AI's environmental impact in new study

AI in practice

Deepseek’s first hybrid model V3.1 surpasses its R1 reasoning model on benchmarks

Google News