Today’s menu 🍽️👇️ 

Length: 5 minutes ⏰ 

• OpenAI upgrades Codex with GPT-5💡

• xAI cuts 500 annotation jobs ✂️

• Micro1 hits $500M valuation 🚀 

• Oracle–OpenAI deal shocks Wall St 🤯

• MarqVision raises $48M funding 📈

• Level up your study game with NotebookLM & ChatGPT ✨

• Prompt of the week 💬

• Top AI tools of the week ⚒️

FRESH AI NEWS

OpenAI brings GPT-5 to Codex 🚀

OpenAI released GPT-5-Codex, a version of GPT-5 tuned for agentic coding in Codex. It’s smarter, more reliable, and better at long, complex dev work⚡

• GPT-5-Codex spends more or less “thinking” based on task complexity. Small tasks are fast, big projects can run independently for many hours 🧠

• The model now identifies key bugs, reviews pull requests, and gives helpful comments, concentrating on the most important tasks 🧐

• Available in Codex CLI, IDE extensions, cloud, web, GitHub reviews, even mobile. It works where developers already do 💻

• On simpler workflows GPT-5-Codex uses far fewer tokens while still stepping up its work when needed ⚙️

Why You Should Care: GPT-5-Codex marks a shift: Codex is becoming more teammate-like rather than just executing prompts. Developers get tools that help with long workflows, reliability, and deep code tasks, all without rewriting everything manually.

500 laid off at xAI’s data team 😞

Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, has laid off around 500 employees from its data annotation team, about one-third of the department, as it shifts towards specialized AI tutoring roles 🔄

• Affected employees were notified by email on Friday night, with immediate revocation of system access. They will receive compensation until their contracts end or until November 30 🎯

• xAI is shifting from generalist to specialist AI tutors in fields like STEM, finance, medicine, and safety, with plans to expand this team tenfold 📚

• Before the layoffs, xAI assessed employees' suitability for new specialist roles using platforms like CodeSignal and Google Forms 🚀

• The restructuring follows senior staff departures and a reorganization in the data annotation team, now overseen by Diego Pasini, who joined in January ⏳

Why You Should Care: This significant restructuring reflects xAI's evolving approach to AI development, emphasizing specialized expertise over generalist roles. The move may impact the company's ability to scale its AI models and could influence industry trends towards specialized AI training.

AI startup micro1 secures $500M 🚀

Micro1, an emerging AI data labeling startup, has secured $35 million in Series A funding, bringing its valuation to $500 million. The company is positioning itself as a serious competitor to Scale AI in the AI data services sector 📉

• Micro1's annual recurring revenue has surged from $7 million at the start of 2025 to $50 million, with projections to exceed $100 million by September🏷️

• The company has been collaborating with leading AI labs, including Microsoft, and several Fortune 100 companies 🌐

• As part of the new funding, Micro1 has added Bain to its board of directors, alongside Joshua Browder, founder and CEO of the AI legal assistant DoNotPay 🤝

Why You Should Care: Micro1's rapid growth and strategic partnerships position it as a formidable player in the AI data services market, especially as competitors like Scale AI face challenges. The company's focus on high-quality data labeling services is attracting attention from major AI labs and enterprises.

Wall St surprised by Oracle–OpenAI 💼

OpenAI’s $300 billion, five-year Project Stargate deal with Oracle stunned Wall Street. The size and timing of the contract far exceeded expectations, sending Oracle stock up 36 percent in a single day 🚀

• The $300 billion deal is larger than Oracle’s annual cloud revenue, catching investors off guard 💰

• Oracle moves into a major AI infrastructure role, supplying compute for OpenAI’s most demanding models 🏗️

• Oracle shares surged 36 percent, marking its best single-day performance in decades 📈

• The partnership signals how AI demand is reshaping the cloud computing landscape and corporate alliances 🌐

Why You Should Care: The deal highlights the unprecedented scale of AI infrastructure investment and Oracle’s sudden rise as a critical player in AI compute. It also underscores how AI projects can dramatically move markets when contracts exceed expectations.

MarqVision scores $48M to guard IP ⚖️

MarqVision, founded by Harvard Law grads, is pushing forward with AI-powered tools to fight brand abuse with its “Marq AI” system 🚨

• Raised $16 million more in 2024 to strengthen its IP protection platform across marketplaces and social channels 💼

• Tools include generative AI for detecting counterfeit listings, responding across markets, automating takedowns, and offering dashboards for real-time monitoring 🔍

• Serves brands on 1,500+ platforms, supports legal enforcement, and matches sellers to counterfeit cases globally 🌍

Why You Should Care: MarqVision shows how generative AI is being used not only for creative or conversational stuff but also for protecting commerce, brands, and consumers from fraud. It’s a glimpse into how AI is reshaping IP law, enforcement, and brand trust.

UPGRADE YOUR STUDY FLOW

Upgrade your study mode with NotebookLM & ChatGPT 📘

Studying doesn’t have to mean slogging through endless PDFs or re-reading the same chapter five times. With NotebookLM and ChatGPT working together, you can turn dense study material into interactive summaries, quizzes, and even video-style explanations, making it way easier to actually learn (not just skim).

Here’s how to get started 👇️ 

1. Head to NotebookLM, click “+” and upload your PDF (works best with textbooks, research papers, or course material).

   

2. Pick your format: generate a Summary for quick takeaways, a Mind Map to see how ideas connect, or a Video Overview that plays like an explainer podcast.

   

3. Under Reports, create a Study Guide packed with quizzes, glossary terms, essay prompts, and practice questions.

   

4. Open ChatGPT, paste your PDF, and prompt it: “Highlight the confusing parts and explain simply” or “Quiz me on the most exam-worthy concepts.”

5. Use the combo: NotebookLM for instant structure, ChatGPT for deeper understanding. Together, they cut hours off your study grind.

Pro Tip: Got an EPUB or audiobook instead of a PDF? Convert it first. Both NotebookLM and ChatGPT do their best work with PDFs, giving you cleaner summaries and sharper study guides ✨

Check out NotebookLM HERE 👈️

PROMPT OF THE WEEK

Automated LinkedIn outreach campaign 🎯

Simply paste this prompt:

“Design a 30-day AI-driven LinkedIn outreach campaign for selling [product/service]. Include profile optimization tips, connection request templates, personalized follow-ups, content posts to engage leads, and metrics to track engagement and conversion.”

🔧Pro tip: Ask for “industry-specific messaging for maximum engagement.”

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TOOLS OF THE WEEK

These AI tools are going VIRAL 🐝 

Replit Agent 3 - Autonomous agent for building production-ready apps 📈 

Poke - Intelligent AI assistant embedded into text messages 👋

Oboe - Instantly create courses to learn about any topic with AI 🧠

Seedream 4.0  - ByteDance’s unified image creation and editing model 🌱