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While we all knew Apple Intelligence was the new kid on the block, it turns out Siri needed a little extra muscle to keep up with the cool kids. And that’s where Google comes in.
Apple and Google just officially confirmed what the rumor mill has been whispering about for months: Gemini is now the foundation powering Apple’s next-generation Siri and Apple Intelligence features. This multi-year deal, announced Monday morning, marks one of the most significant AI partnerships in tech history. It is also the clearest sign yet that Apple knows it cannot win the AI race alone.
Here is the breakdown of the heavy lifting:
The $1 Billion Subscription: Apple is reportedly paying Google around $1 billion annually for access to a custom Gemini model.
The Scale: This isn't some lightweight bot. We are talking about a 1.2 trillion parameter model. To put that in perspective, that is eight times larger than Apple’s current 150 billion parameter cloud-based AI.
The Result: We are finally getting the "personalized Siri" we were promised back in 2024. Come spring, Siri might actually know who your mom is and what time her flight lands.
The "White Label" Thing: According to reports, even though Google is providing the brains, you won't see any Google branding. To the user, it is still just Siri.
Now, before you panic about Google harvesting your iPhone data, Apple is keeping the walls high. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute. Meaning: Gemini trains the foundation, but Apple keeps the keys to your data. So no Google branding, no data sharing, just the raw AI horsepower Apple desperately needed.
But hey, the timing here is pure cinema. Apple has delayed its Siri overhaul multiple times, and this deal confirms they tested competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic before finally picking Google. Meanwhile, Google’s market cap briefly hit $4 trillion on Monday, making it the fourth company to reach that milestone.
As of now, they’re officially the default AI engine for both Android and iOS, reaching billions of users instantly.
This isn't replacing the existing ChatGPT integration; that is staying put for now. But Gemini becoming the backbone of Apple’s strategy? That is the real story. Google just won the mobile AI war without even having to sell you a phone.
Our Take: Stay in the loop, and maybe start practicing your "Hey Siri" voice for the spring upgrade.
Here's what we have for you today
🦾 Anthropic Launches Cowork: New AI Agent for Mac File Management & Automation
It’s been a wild week for the "vibe coding" crowd, but Anthropic just threw a curveball that’s going to make every non-coder breathe a massive sigh of relief.
Remember when we were all geeking out over Claude Code? You know, that terminal-based beast that could basically rewrite an entire repo while you were getting coffee? Well, it turns out Anthropic noticed people were using it for literally everything except code. We’re talking about developers using a high-end CLI tool to organize wedding photos and monitor plant growth. (Hah.)
So, they did the logical thing: they stripped away the scary black terminal and birthed Cowork.
Launched on Monday, January 12, 2026, Cowork is effectively "Claude Code for the rest of us." It’s an agentic powerhouse built directly into the Claude Desktop app that can read, edit, and create files in your local folders through the normal chat interface. No terminal required. No "git commit" needed. Just point it at a folder and give it a job.
Why This Is a Big Deal
The magic here is agency. Unlike a standard chatbot that just spits out text for you to copy-paste, Cowork can actually do the work. Here’s what that looks like in the wild:
The Receipt Wrangler: Need to turn 50 messy screenshots of receipts into a clean expense spreadsheet? Point Cowork at the folder and watch it populate the cells.
If your "Downloads" folder looks like a digital junk drawer, Cowork can rename and sort hundreds of files in seconds.
It’s built on the Claude Agent SDK, meaning it has the same high-level reasoning as its developer-focused sibling. It makes a plan, executes tasks in parallel, and keeps you updated on its progress like a (very fast) intern. Plus, it plugs into Anthropic’s Connectors. So if you’ve already linked Claude to Asana, Notion, Paypal or Canva, Cowork can tap into those too.
The "Catch" (And the Cost)
Before you go firing your assistant, there are a few caveats.
First, Cowork is a research preview available only on macOS for Claude Max subscribers ($100-$200/month). Yeah, it’s a steep price tag. But for the power users who need a persistent agent that can browse the web and edit local files, it’s a total productivity cheat code.
Second, because Cowork can take autonomous actions (including the scary ones, like deleting files), Anthropic is being very real about the risks. They’re explicitly warning about prompt injection and the importance of clear instructions. To quote them: "These risks aren't new with Cowork, but it might be the first time you're using a more advanced tool that moves beyond a simple conversation."
In other words: be extremely careful.
But here’s where it gets meta: during a livestream with Dan Shipper, Anthropic’s Felix Rieseberg confirmed the team built Cowork in approximately ten days. The kicker? They allegedly used Claude Code to do it. If this isn't the clearest example yet of AI systems accelerating their own development, I don't know what is.
The Big Picture:
Anthropic just productized user behavior they saw in the wild, built it in record time, and launched it before competitors could blink. Meanwhile, OpenAI is still asking contractors to upload work files for benchmarking (raising all kinds of privacy questions).
The race isn’t about who has the best model anymore. It’s about who can ship the fastest, and who’s bold enough to let AI build itself.
Don’t Forget: we’re open for sponsorships and ad placements in our Newsletter. And to celebrate the New Year, we’re also offering a special price for early partners.
Curious? Feel free to talk to us.
Turn AI Into Extra Income
You don’t need to be a coder to make AI work for you. Subscribe to Mindstream and get 200+ proven ideas showing how real people are using ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other tools to earn on the side.
From small wins to full-on ventures, this guide helps you turn AI skills into real results, without the overwhelm.
🧱 Around The AI Block
🤦♂️ Why fighting deepfake porn is so much harder than it sounds.
🛒 Google is bringing AI shopping to Search and Gemini
👀 Musk says the Grok deepfake backlash is ‘an excuse for censorship’
🤖 Meta wants to control more of the AI stack.
👍 Amazon says 97% of its devices can now run Alexa+
👨⚖️ The UK moves to criminalize deepfake nudes after the Grok controversy.
🛠️ Trending Tools
For the Prompt Engineers: AI Prompt Copy is a massive, curated library of high-performing prompts for everything from creative writing to technical operations, so you always start with a winning script.
For the Educators: ConceptViz turns complex ideas into pro-level, science-ready diagrams instantly. Whether you’re making K-12 worksheets or graduate-level research figures, it ensures your visual explanations are both accurate and stunning.
For the Global Students: Gurully is your all-in-one practice hub for English proficiency exams. You get free, AI-scored mock tests for PTE, IELTS, Duolingo, and CELPIP to find your weak spots and boost your score before test day.
For the Growth Hackers: Sniffsub locks onto your target Reddit communities and helps you build long-tail traffic by identifying exactly where and when to engage for maximum reach.
For the Animators: Elser AI is the ultimate studio for anime creators. It’s an all-in-one platform that maintains consistent characters across different scenes, so your anime videos actually look like a professional series rather than a bunch of random clips.
Hope these tools help you reclaim some of your time today!
🤖 AI Workout Of The Day: Turning Grandma's Blurry Photos Into Viral Content
Remember that box of dusty family photos sitting in your closet? The ones with the mysterious stains, faded colors, and scratches that make the Great-grands look like a ghost?
Well, AI just made restoring them stupidly easy. And the best part? these "dead" photos are currently the biggest trend on TikTok.
AI photo restoration absolutely exploded over the last year. We are talking over 100 million downloads for apps like Remini and a 441% growth in the AI photo editor market. This isn't just niche tech anymore; it is officially mainstream. Between the "Hug Your Younger Self" trend and the Studio Ghibli-style family portraits, people are literally animating their great-grandparents' wedding photos and watching them blink for the first time in 80 years. It is absolutely wild.
How It Actually Works
Apps like MyHeritage, VanceAI, and Remini aren't just "cleaning" photos. They are using advanced models trained on millions of historical images to literally reconstruct what is missing. They bring:
Detail Recovery: The AI "hallucinates" missing skin textures and facial features to make them crisp.
Smart Colorization: It doesn't just slap a filter on; it adds realistic skin tones and environmental colors based on the lighting.
Deep Nostalgia: This is the viral feature that animates faces. It makes historical figures smile, blink and turn their heads naturally. It is a little "Uncanny Valley," but people are obsessed.
The 2026 Tool Tier List
Most people can get 90% of the way there with free apps, but if you want to go full Hollywood, here is the hierarchy:
The Free/Budget Play: MyHeritage and Remini are the kings of the app store. You get a few free enhancements a day, which is plenty for a one-off "throwback Thursday" post.
The Pro Powerhouse: Pixelbin is the industry standard for upscaling. If you have a massive archive to fix, this is the way to go.
The Creative Suite: Adobe’s Neural Filters ($22/mo) give you the most control. If you want to manually fix a specific pixel, Photoshop is still your best friend.
How to Go Viral (Step-by-Step)
Don't just take a photo of the photo. Use Google PhotoScan to kill the glare and scan at 600+ DPI.
Drop it into an AI tool. If the photo is black and white, scan it in "color mode" anyway. The AI uses the yellowing of the paper to understand the age and depth better.
Use the "Deep Nostalgia" or "Animate" feature to bring the person to life.
On TikTok, use the "Then vs. Now templates,", "AI age morph," or "Hug trend". The emotional resonance is what triggers the algorithm.
The Bottom Line
What used to require a trained professional and $35 per photo now takes 30 seconds and costs zero dollars. Go grab those photos and start "vibe-restoring" your way to the "For You" page.
Stay curious, and maybe go give your younger self an AI hug today.
PS: We've got the tutorials you need to kill it:
⚡Prompt to try for AI Photo Editing:
For Natural Skin Retouching:
"Enhance portrait with natural skin retouching. Smooth skin while preserving texture and pores. Reduce blemishes by 70%, keep realistic appearance. Maintain natural skin tone, avoid plastic look."
For Fashion Editorial Look:
"Transform into high-fashion magazine portrait: elegant pose, studio lighting with soft highlights, sharp facial details, glamorous styling, enhanced color grading with teal shadows and warm skin tones."
For Makeup Enhancement (Subtle):
"Enhance existing makeup subtly: deepen eyeshadow by 15%, sharpen eyeliner edges, increase lip color by 10%. Avoid artificial shine, preserve natural skin texture and pores."
Is this your AI Workout of the Week (WoW)? Cast your vote!
That's all we've got for you today.
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