Hey {{first_name|TEDchats Fam}}!

Happy Thursday! Amazon’s Nova Reel just took a giant leap, promising to turn simple words (and a single image) into full-blown, stylish two-minute movies. It’s fast, flashy, and a little bit mysterious—just like Hollywood itself.

🧑‍💻 WEEKLY PROMPT

🍕 QUICK BITES

Amazon has upgraded its AI video generator, Nova Reel, to create videos up to two minutes long. The new Nova Reel 1.1 can stitch together multi-shot clips with a consistent style using prompts up to 4,000 characters. A new feature, Multishot Manual, lets users guide video composition with an image and short prompt. Nova Reel is available through AWS—specifically via Amazon Bedrock in the US East (N. Virginia) region—with pay-as-you-go pricing. While Nova Reel wows with features, its training data remains a black box for now (see Amazon’s announcement).

Google is rolling out multimodal search in AI Mode, a major upgrade to its Search experiment. Users can now upload or snap photos and ask complex questions about the images, powered by Google Lens technology. AI Mode understands scenes, objects, and their relationships, offering richer, more detailed search results. The feature is expanding to millions more U.S. users enrolled in Labs, after being limited to Google One AI Premium subscribers (see Google’s announcement).

A wave of concern swept through the AI world this week after reports suggested Waymo planned to use in-cabin video—tied to individual riders—to train its generative AI models and potentially power personalized ads. The backlash was sparked by a leaked draft of an updated privacy policy, raising alarms over surveillance in robotaxis. But the panic may have been premature. Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina told The Verge the feature is still in development and won’t change the company’s current privacy policy or be used for targeted ads. Instead, it will let riders opt out of data collection for machine learning. With over 200,000 weekly paid rides, Waymo’s growing footprint makes any shift in data practices particularly scrutinized.

🧰 AI TOOLBOX

🤯 MIND SPARK

🛍️AI Takes the Driver’s Seat at Shopify: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has introduced a new policy—teams must prove AI can’t do a job before they can request more staff or resources. In a memo shared publicly, Lütke encouraged employees to rethink their work with autonomous AI agents in mind. The move follows broader concerns about AI's impact on jobs, as experts predict AI could disrupt over 40% of roles globally (see Lütke’s memo).

📊Meta Denies AI Benchmark Manipulation Accusations: Meta’s VP of generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, has denied claims that the company used test sets to boost benchmark scores for its new Llama 4 Maverick and Scout models, following accusations that surfaced on a Chinese social platform. With the controversy addressed, Meta has unveiled the full Llama 4 herd (see Meta’s announcement).

🤖Big Moves in AI Hardware? OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire or partner with io Products, an AI hardware startup focused on smart household devices. Co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the company counts Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective among its investors. The deal, if finalized, could be valued at around $500 million (read more).

🧠 New Power at Thinking Machines Lab: Thinking Machines Lab, founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has added two major AI figures to its roster: Bob McGrew and Alec Radford, both former top researchers at OpenAI. Thinking Machines Lab aims to create AI systems that are more accessible, customizable, and capable than today’s models (see founding team and advisors).

⚡️IBM Expands AI Consulting Power with New Acquisition: IBM has acquired New York-based AI consultancy Hakkoda to expand its data and AI consulting capabilities. The deal brings hundreds of Hakkoda consultants into IBM’s consulting arm to accelerate AI solution delivery, especially in finance, healthcare, and the public sector. Deal terms were not disclosed (see IBM’s announcement).

📸 Snap Unveils Sponsored AI Lenses! Snapchat is taking ads to the next level with the launch of Sponsored AI Lenses, a new ad format powered by its generative AI technology. These interactive lenses let brands place users into AI-generated scenes via selfies, with brands like Tinder and Uber already testing the format (see Snapchat’s announcement).

After two years of siloed experiments, proofs of concept that fail to scale, and disappointing ROI, most enterprises are stuck. AI isn't transforming their organizations — it’s adding complexity, friction, and frustration.

But Writer customers are seeing positive impact across their companies. Our end-to-end approach is delivering adoption and ROI at scale. Now, we’re applying that same platform and technology to build agentic AI that actually works for every enterprise.

This isn’t just another hype train that overpromises and underdelivers.
It’s the AI you’ve been waiting for — and it’s going to change the way enterprises operate. Be among the first to see end-to-end agentic AI in action. Join us for a live product release on April 10 at 2pm ET (11am PT).

Can't make it live? No worries — register anyway and we'll send you the recording!

Save your spot — register today

🎨 AI ART