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Matthias Bastian

Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER, exploring how AI is fundamentally changing the relationship between humans and computers.
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 3, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Google's Workspace Studio puts Gemini 3 agents to work automating tasks

Google is rolling out Workspace Studio, a tool for building and managing AI agents inside Google Workspace. The platform lets users automate everything from simple tasks to multi-step processes without writing any code. At the core is the Gemini 3 agent model, which can work independently on long-running tasks and use tools along the way. In Workspace Studio, teams can set up workflows, add instructions, and plug in the tools an agent needs. Microsoft, OpenAI, and other companies are working on similar products.

The agents plug directly into Gmail, Drive, and Chat. They can also connect to services like Asana or Salesforce, though that kind of integration is generally discouraged for security reasons. Google says Workspace Studio will roll out to business customers in the coming weeks. For more background on AI agents, there's an AI Pro webinar and a Deep Dive covering the topic.

Comment Source: Google
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 3, 2025
AI and society
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Read full article about: Google AI rewrites news headlines for its Discover feed, breaking its own anti-clickbait rules

Google is testing an AI feature in its "Discover" news feed that automatically rewrites editorial headlines, often turning them into shorter, more provocative, or simply incorrect versions. The result is the kind of engagement-focused headline the company warns against in its own Discover rules, which explicitly reject clickbait.

Google's guidelines set clear limits on the kinds of headlines Discover should surface. | Image: via Google

Some of the changes are striking. At Ars Technica, the headline "Valve's Steam Machine looks like a console, but don't expect it to be priced like one" was replaced with the inaccurate "Steam Machine price revealed." A Mindfactory report titled "Radeon RX 9070 XT Outsells The Entire NVIDIA RTX 50 Series On Popular German Retailer" was shortened to "AMD GPU tops Nvidia."

Google told The Verge that the feature is a small test meant to help users grasp articles more quickly. Still, the AI-generated rewrites replace newsroom decisions with Google's own automated framing, raising concerns that the company is using AI to tighten its grip on how news is shaped and delivered on top of the influence it already exercises.

Comment Source: The Verge
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 1, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Black Forest Labs secures $300 million to accelerate its vision for advanced image models

Black Forest Labs has raised USD 300 million in a new Series B round, bringing its valuation to USD 3.25 billion. Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP) led the round, with existing investors like a16z and Nvidia joining in, along with new backers including Canva and Figma Ventures.

The company is best known for its Flux image models, which it says are among the most widely used on Hugging Face and support products from partners such as Adobe, Meta, and Microsoft. Black Forest Labs released its newest model, Flux 2, just a few days ago.

The fresh funding will help the Freiburg- and San Francisco-based team accelerate its work on what it calls "visual intelligence" - models intended to combine perception, generation, memory, and logical reasoning. The company also plans to expand its team.

Comment Source: Black Forest Labs
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Nov 30, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: GPT-5 generates the "most impressive LLM output" yet, says OpenAI researcher

OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck says GPT-5's math skills saved him a month of work. In a post on X, Bubeck reports that GPT-5 tackled a highly complex mathematical task for him. The model designed the solution path, ran a simulation to check a formula, and then wrote a complete proof, effectively a seamless calculation. While this process would have previously taken him around a month, GPT-5 finished it in just an afternoon. Bubeck calls it the "most impressive LLM output" he has seen to date.

Generative AI is becoming increasingly apparent in high-level mathematics—and not just because of gold medals in Math Olympiads. Mathematician Terence Tao recently noted that AI saved him several hours of work, though he used the tool to verify his theoretical assumptions rather than relying on it autonomously. An OpenAI report backs this up, showing how GPT-5 can save significant research time across various scientific fields.

Comment Source: Bubeck via X
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Nov 30, 2025
AI research
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Read full article about: Programmers using AI ask fewer questions and may learn less deeply than with peers

Programmers who rely on AI assistants tend to ask fewer questions and learn more superficially, according to new research from Saarland University. A team led by Sven Apel found that students were less critical of the code suggestions they received when working with tools like GitHub Copilot. In contrast, pairs of human programmers asked more questions, explored alternatives, and learned more from one another.

Apel et al.

In the experiment, 19 students worked in pairs: six in human-only teams and seven in human-AI teams. According to Apel, many of the AI-assisted participants simply accepted code suggestions because they assumed the AI's output was already correct. He noted that this habit can introduce mistakes that later require significant effort to fix. Apel said AI tools can be helpful for straightforward tasks, but complex problems still benefit from real collaboration between humans.

Comment Source: Paper | Saarland University
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Nov 29, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Kimi launches 48-hour free trial for its Nano Banana Pro slide generator

Kimi is rolling out a 48-hour free trial for its new slide generator powered by Google's Nano Banana Pro model. During the trial, users can try "Agentic Slides" for free and automatically turn PDFs, images, and documents into presentations. The slides can be edited in the browser and exported as PowerPoint files. The agent-driven K2 search tool is included. You can access the offer through this link, but registration is required.

Infographics generated by Nano Banana Pro can be turned into editable text with one click. The tool extracts the text, removes the original image lettering, and replaces it with editable text that may look different. However, an initial test showed uneven results, with some text converting properly and other parts staying unchanged, especially on slides 6 and 7 of a presentation based on this article. The tool also doesn't apply company design templates, which limits its usefulness. But it's still a cool toy.

Comment Source: via X