Today, we’re diving into the latest AI innovations, from Opera’s agentic Neon browser to DeepSeek’s R1 update and xAI’s big Telegram deal, plus new tools reshaping engineering and video experiences.

1. Opera pitches AI browser ‘that can act on your behalf’: The company is looking for volunteers to try out Neon, a new agentic browser that it says will be able to understand everything happening on your screen and react accordingly. You can chat with it or ask it to take care of more complicated tasks, like filling in forms or booking a trip. And in what might be a first for an AI-powered browser, it can also build apps, games, and other content and even host each of your creations in the cloud.

2. New model could help us build better chips, planes, and more: A YC-backed startup made up of ex-Apple, Google, and Intel engineers has unveiled a new model that can allegedly “solve engineering problems faster” because it’s been trained on real-world physics data. Godela helps researchers simulate real scenarios, like making sure a concept car is aerodynamic or brainstorming how to build an efficient particle accelerator, through simple text prompts. It could speed up engineers’ typical R&D timelines from weeks or months to mere hours.

3. Netflix co-founder joins Anthropic’s board: Reed Hastings, who served as Netflix’s CEO for 25 years, said he was drawn to Anthropic because the company is putting a big focus on safety and ethics. With previous stints on the boards of Bloomberg, Facebook, and Microsoft, the billionaire will likely help Anthropic grow into a major tech brand and expand its user base. He’ll join CEO Dario Amodei, President Daniela Amodei, and two outside investors as the board’s fifth member.

The year of agents is in full swing: Case in point, app building startup Retool just launched an agent platform that it claims has already tackled 100M hours of work for its clients — the equivalent of 5,000 employees working for a decade. While founders might rejoice at that news, some employees are starting to get anxious about what that means for their jobs.

Most agents need humans to act as a go-between in order to get anything done. But that’s changing fast. Retool’s platform is one of the first that lets you “assemble your elite AI team,” then assign them entire workflows while you act more like a manager. It thinks it can automate 10% of US labor by 2030 using this approach.

This echoes comments from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: He recently predicted that unemployment could reach 10-20% within the next five years due to AI’s growing capabilities, with entry-level, white-collar employees getting hit the hardest. At the same time, he thinks plenty of more optimistic scenarios are also possible, especially if governments and companies start preparing now.

For now, AI isn’t replacing most jobs, just enhancing them: Like other technological disruptions, AI could turn out to create as many jobs as it takes away. Another outcome is that companies might continue to get smaller and smaller, with more entrepreneurs deciding to go it alone and using AI to handle tasks they previously couldn’t manage by themselves.

Everything else you need to know today

💭 Reasoning Remix: DeepSeek quietly rolled out an update to its industry-shaking reasoning model, R1, potentially paving the way for the LLM’s long-awaited successor, which is expected to drop any week now.

🎮 Outside the Box: AI lab Odyssey launched a new platform that lets you interact with videos by navigating beyond their frames in real time — a first step toward building an immersive 3D world generator. You can try it here.

🖼️ Memories Reimagined: To celebrate its 10th birthday, Google Photos is getting a new editor packed with AI features — letting you do things like adjust multiple effects at once via text prompts.

🧑‍💻 Crack the Code: French AI startup Mistral just unveiled a state-of-the-art model called Codestral Embed that can tackle programming tasks like finding a missing piece of code or grouping code by function.

🤝 Deals & Funding: Elon Musk’s xAI signed a $300M deal to bring Grok to Telegram, a messaging app used by 1B+ users. Meanwhile, Musk’s Neuralink landed $600M in a new funding round, valuing the company at $9B.

That’s your 3-minute dive into today’s AI and tech highlights! Stay tuned for more breakthroughs, and check out these innovations to see how they can supercharge your projects or spark new ideas.