Today’s menu 🍽️👇️ 

Length: 5 minutes ⏰ 

• Plan trips visually with Google AI ✈️

• OpenAI makes equity donations easy 🤝

• Luminal secures $5.3M funding 💸

• Sakana AI lands $135M Series B 💰

• Create No-Code AI Chatbots Fast ⚡

• Prompt of the week 💬

• Top AI tools of the week ⚒️

AUTOMATE WITH AI CHATBOTS

Build Custom AI Chatbots in Zapier 🤖

Learn how to create a custom AI chatbot in Zapier that automatically answers customer queries, pulls data from your tools, and even takes real actions like sending emails or updating CRM records. All without writing a single line of code ✅

Here’s how to get started 👇️ 

1. Sign in to Zapier.com and click “Chatbots” in the left sidebar, then select “New Chatbot.” You’ll see a setup screen that allows you to define how your bot will behave and which tools it connects to.
   

   

2. Use natural language prompts like: “You’re a customer support bot for an online skincare brand that answers FAQs and collects contact info.”

   Zapier will automatically configure your bot’s tone, intent, and capabilities based on your description.
   

   

3. Click “integration” and link tools like Google Sheets, HubSpot, or Gmail.

   For example, connect Sheets to log customer details, or Gmail to send follow-up emails. The chatbot can trigger these automatically when a user interacts with it.

   

4. Type a few sample questions, such as: “What’s your return policy?” or “Can I book a demo?”

   Zapier will show how your chatbot responds and which actions it triggers. Adjust responses or logic if needed.

5. Once it’s ready, click “Publish” to get a shareable link or embed code.

   You can add it to your website, Notion docs, or even Slack for internal team use.

Pro Tip: Give your chatbot a personality and a clear objective. For example, “Act as a friendly marketing assistant that helps users draft emails or schedule follow-ups.” This helps Copilot generate more accurate responses and action flows ✨

Check out Zapier HERE 👈️

FRESH AI NEWS

Google AI now maps your travel plans 🧳

Google's new AI Mode is making travel planning more visual and interactive, making it feel like the future of trip preparation has arrived 🗞️

• Share your travel plans, and Google’s new AI Canvas will quickly make a visual trip plan for you, including flights, hotels, and things to do 🎨

• Looking for cheaper hotels or want to visit a museum? Just ask, and the AI will quickly update your plans 🧠

• See real photos, reviews, and proximity details through Google Maps directly in your plan 🗺️

• A new tool helps you find the cheapest flights worldwide in over 60 languages, ideal for budget travelers 💺

• You can now reserve tables at restaurants, and soon you'll also be able to book flights and hotels, all from your screen 🛎️

• Available on desktop in the US for users opted into Google Labs testing 💻

Why You Should Care: Gen Z is now using AI to plan vacations, including creating visuals, making bookings, and providing live updates. Google is developing a powerful travel assistant, potentially eliminating the need for manual trip planning.

OpenAI lets staff turn equity into charity 💖 

OpenAI allows employees to donate their stock-equity to charity, enhancing employee philanthropy and corporate social responsibility 🤖

• OpenAI now allows team members to transfer their equity (shares/options) directly to approved nonprofit organizations 💼

• The program supports a wide range of nonprofits, enabling donations to causes aligned with OpenAI’s mission 🤝

   

• Employees may be eligible for tax deductions or favorable treatment when gifting equity (depending on local regulations) 📈

• OpenAI has set guardrails to responsibly handle donated equity, preventing charities from gaining voting power unless explicitly permitted 🔒

• More tech companies are starting programs to donate shares, showing a growing trend of combining business with charitable giving 🌐

Why You Should Care: This aligns employee incentives with philanthropic impact, allowing OpenAI employees to direct financial gains toward meaningful causes. It promotes sustainable, socially responsible tech growth and could set a precedent in the AI and startup sectors.

Luminal raises $5.3M for GPU code 🚀 

Luminal, a startup aiming to enhance GPU compute efficiency, secured $5.3 million in seed funding to optimize the software layer between models and GPUs 💸

• Luminal raised $5.3 M, led by Felicis Ventures with angel backing from Paul Graham, Guillermo Rauch, and Ben Porterfield 💰

• Joe Fioti (ex-Intel), plus co-founders Matthew Gunton (ex-Amazon) and Jake Stevens (ex-Apple) bring deep systems and hardware experience 🧠

• Rather than producing more GPUs, Luminal optimizes the compiler layer to enhance code efficiency and cost-effectiveness 💻

• A lot of GPU compute relies on Nvidia’s CUDA compiler. Luminal uses parts of CUDA and builds extra layers on top to boost performance 🔧

• Their stack compiles models (especially PyTorch) into highly optimized GPU kernels, offering “serverless” inference and reducing idle GPU costs 🏗️

Why You Should Care: AI compute is costly, and GPUs are scarce. Luminal aims to reduce costs for companies by improving model efficiency on GPUs. Their technology could influence how major players like NVIDIA approach GPU software, emphasizing smarter software over just better hardware.

AI startup Sakana raises $135M 🎯

Tokyo-based Sakana AI just closed a ¥20 billion (~$135 million) Series B, valuing the company at $2.65 billion 💸

• Founded in 2023 by former Google researchers, Sakana AI develops efficient generative AI models for Japanese language and culture 🌟

• The round includes heavyweights like MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), along with Khosla Ventures, NEA, Lux Capital, Macquarie, and In-Q-Tel 💼

• The $135M will go into R&D (building advanced AI models), plus scaling up engineering, sales, and distribution in Japan 🔬

• While they've already got partnerships in finance (e.g. Daiwa, MUFG), they plan to expand into manufacturing, government, and even defense by 2026 🏭

• Sakana focuses on "doing more with less" by using efficient architectures, evolving models, and developing "sovereign AI" for Japan 🌱

Why You Should Care: Sakana AI develops efficient, Japan-native models that perform well with limited data and reflect local culture, avoiding large, costly LLMs. With new funding, they aim to be Japan's "sovereign AI," supporting enterprises, government, and sensitive sectors with a reduced carbon footprint.

PROMPT OF THE WEEK

AI Partnership Builder 📈 

Simply paste this prompt:

“Identify potential business partners (tools, creators, or agencies) that would complement an AI business. Include collaboration ideas and outreach templates.”

🔧 Pro Tip: Request an “co-marketing plan for one high-value partner.”

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TOOLS OF THE WEEK

These AI tools are going VIRAL 🐝 

️Iconic Marketplace - ElevenLabs licensing platform for celebrity voices ⭐️

Holo 2 - Lightweight models for powering computer use agents 🖥️

ERNIE 5.0 - Baidu’s new SOTA omnimodal foundation model 🔎

GPT-5.1 - OpenAI’s upgraded model with personality customization 🤖