AI in a Nutshell - Week 50 - OpenAI launches GPT-5.2, Cursor Adds Visual Editor and Claude Code Is Now on Android
OpenAI launches GPT-5.2 after declaring “Code Red”, Disney strikes $1B Sora deal with OpenAI, Trump signs executive order to preempt state AI laws, and Google launches deepest research agent yet.
Fellow human, it’s week 50. AI hasn’t taken over the world yet. And here’s your lazy-man version of what went down in the AI world in the past week.
Summary for extra lazy people: OpenAI launches GPT-5.2 after declaring “Code Red”, Disney strikes $1B Sora deal with OpenAI, Trump signs executive order to preempt state AI laws, and Google launches deepest research agent yet.
What You Must Know
OpenAI launches GPT-5.2 → After declaring ‘code red’ as I mentioned last Sunday, OpenAI threw GPT-5.2 at us as its new flagship model family. From what I read on TechCrunch, the focus is better reasoning, longer context handling, and improved tool use. It’s obviously positioned as a response to Google’s recent Gemini upgrades. Tit for Tat 😎
Google releases Disco, an AI browser-like workspace → Disco is a Google Labs experiment that tries to understand what you’re doing online (researching, planning, learning) and then builds AI tools on top of your open tabs. I had to rewatch the demo like 5 times to fully get the concept, and it’s still waitlist-only 😒
Cursor adds a visual editor that writes real code from UI edits → Cursor now lets developers visually tweak UI elements (drag, resize, adjust spacing) and converts those changes directly into real source code. I’ve seen mixed reactions online; some love it, others think we should be past drag-and-drop workflows by now. I lean slightly toward the second camp.
Disney signs a $1B Sora content and investment deal with OpenAI → Disney agreed to license hundreds of its characters to OpenAI’s Sora video model and also committed roughly $1 billion as part of the partnership. So now it’s no longer “media companies vs AI”, it’s “media companies embedding AI”.
Trump signs executive order to preempt state AI laws → The executive order pushes for a single national AI framework instead of state-level AI laws. Although I read in another article that some policy groups say this could weaken consumer protections. I consider having state-level AI laws a step backward, but what do I know about politics?
What’s Good to Know
Google launches its deepest AI research agent yet → Gemini Deep Research is now more powerful and available to developers over the API. Google doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
McDonald’s pulls AI-generated Christmas ad after backlash → McDonald’s Netherlands removed an AI-generated holiday ad after criticism over its quality and tone. I personally thought the video was dope, but my definition of ‘dope’ seems to be questionable.
A Reddit user trains TimeCapsuleLLM using only 1800s data → The experiment uses 19th-century London texts to reduce modern societal bias. It’s more of a research curiosity than a product, but still an interesting and creative approach to LLM training.
Claude Code launches on Android → Anthropic’s coding-focused Claude experience is now available on Android, extending access beyond desktop and web.
Money Moves This Week
💰 AIR raised $6.1 million to modernise real-time credit intelligence with AI.
💰 Harness raised $240 million to automate AI’s ‘after-code’ gap.
💰 Gracia AI raised $1.7 million for AI-powered ultra-photorealistic volumetric videos.
💰 NeoSapien raised $2 million to scale India’s first AI-native wearable.
💰 Medra raised $52 million to build physical AI scientists.
💰 Matta raised $14 million to develop “sentient factory” technology.
🧠 Kaizen Corner → Argument: AI Doesn’t Create New Ideas, It Just Repackages Old Ones?
I saw this argument floating around on Reddit recently. The claim was that: Today’s AI doesn’t really create new ideas, it just makes old ones look new.
The person's logic was that models like GPT predict the next word based on massive amounts of past text, so every output is shaped by what already exists. From that view, AI isn’t inventing, it’s remixing history with very good packaging.
But the counter-argument I saw in the comments was just as interesting. According to the argument, humans don’t create ideas from nothing either. We remix experiences, culture, and things we’ve seen before. That’s why a toddler cannot invent. You need knowledge, experience, and perspectives to be able to invent new ideas.
So my deduction was: No idea is born out of nothing, even if it’s a new one; everyone and everything needs some past data to make a new one. Safe to say, we’re not that different from the machines we’re building.
Meme of the Week
That’s your week in AI.
If you learned something new, tell a friend. And if you didn’t, blame yourself :)
Until next Sunday,
Kay - your fellow human.
P.S. If this email lands in spam, that’s your inbox trying to stop you from staying plugged in. Fix it.
Quick Note: I’m not an expert, I’m just a curious normie navigating the world of AI (like you). Every Sunday morning, I wake up super early (before the kid wakes up), go online, and read about AI, like my dad used to read newspapers back in the day. Then I write down everything new I discovered and turn it into this newsletter for anyone else who’s curious enough to read it.
Why? Because I learn faster and understand deeper when I have to put it in writing. I’m welcome.