😸 Merry Christmas from The Neuron...

Welcome, humans.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya! If you’re reading this today, you like me also have no life; just kidding, hopefully you’re reading this after a hearty day of opening presents, hanging with the family, and finally kickin’ back on the couch for a lil’ late afternoon or early evening edutainment. On that front, we aim to deliver!

But before we get to the Edu, let’s get the ye ole ‘tainment out of the way, shall we?

Can’t go wrong with a cat bonking another cat on the head, can you?? Y’all know this only ends one way, right?

Here’s what happened in AI today:

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Don’t forget: Check out our podcast, The Neuron: AI Explained on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube — new episodes air every week on Tuesdays after 2pm PST!

Merry Christmas from The Neuron…

It's been one heck of a year, y’all. Remember when we thought AI news would slow down because “scaling” was cooked? Hah. Good times.

While the robots were busy learning they could predict the future, burning through OpenAI's $14B+ budget, and winning the Best Papers at NeurIPS, we were busy trying to keep up with all of it—for you.

Here's what we pulled off this year:

• 🎙️ The podcast exploded from ~4K to 20K subscribers/followers across YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. We're still not quite sure how that happened, but we're not complaining!
• 📈 Our newsletter grew to 600,000+ subscribers, which is literally the population of Atlanta. If The Neuron was a city, we'd have traffic problems and overpriced avocado toast. Instead, we just have really engaged readers (way better).
• 🎤 We interviewed top executives from Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI who graciously tolerated our questions and occasional cat puns.
• Looking ahead to 2026: We're coming for Anthropic, xAI, ByteDance, Qwen, and DeepSeek. If you work at any of these companies and your CEO wants to join the pod, our DMs are wide open (Dario, Sam A., Satya, Demis? You’re all welcome anytime too of course).

And you, our readers? You showed up. Every. Single. Day. You all opened our emails, you clicked our links, you shared our articles, and you told your friends about us.

So here's the deal: THANK YOU. Seriously. We wouldn't exist without you. Every subscriber, every read, every forward to a colleague… that's what keeps this little orange cat running.

Until then, enjoy the holidays. Eat too much, sleep in, and maybe give your AI chatbot a break for a few days.

From all of us at The Neuron: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we'll see you in 2026.

Stay curious,

Grant, Corey, and the entire Neuron team 🎄😺

P.S. — I know we just said we’ll see you in 2026, but we’re literally publishing through New Years haha. And on Tuesday, Dec 30th, we’re planning a livestream predictions episode, so make sure to check out the YouTube then!

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Prompt Tip of the Day

Help! This anime grinch stole our Prompt Tip of the Day!

Creator WiiFitBalanceBoard just shared how they made this viral “Grinch: The Anime“ video that took Reddit by storm. Their secret? Running the same scene through 3-4 different AI video models (Kling 2.1, Veo-3 Fast, Grok) and cherry-picking the best output for each shot.

Here's their full workflow using ArtCraft (which consolidates multiple AI video tools):

• Pose figures in 3D editor, generate still images with Gemini.
• Run each still through multiple video models simultaneously.
• Edit/composite the best clips in DaVinci Resolve with traditional techniques (freeze frames, VHS filters).
• Add voiceover with ElevenLabs.

Total time: About a week from script to final 3-minute video.

As you can see, the pros are using a “multi-model workflow”, generating multiple versions and choosing the best (called “best of #”).

You can apply this same approach to your work outside genvideo too: run important prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, AND Gemini, then pick whichever nails it.

Treats to Try

1. NotebookLM recently integrated with Gemini, allowing you to upload notebooks for combining multiple ones, and..
   1. Rolled out chat history syncing across mobile and web so you can pick up conversations seamlessly and delete them anytime for privacy.
   2. Added export options for your study guides, briefing docs, or saved notes directly to Google Docs or Sheets for easy editing on the go.
   3. Introduced data tables to all Pro and Ultra users (coming soon to free) for organizing scattered insights and exporting them to Sheets.
   4. Teased an easter egg in their latest featured notebook hinting at new British voices coming in 2026.
   5. And shared 8 ways to maximize slide decks like turning holiday research into branded presentations.
2. Saner.AI organizes your notes, email, calendar, and to-dos so you can ask “what did I promise Alex last week?” and it pulls the right thread (raised $120K) — free to try, then $8/month.
3. Z-Image-Turbo is a fast 6B image model distilled to run in ~8 steps and fit in ~16GB VRAM, and AWPortrait-Z is a portrait-focused adapter built on top of Z-Image-Turbo.
4. Blocks turns a plain-English request like “make me a lead tracker that follows up automatically” into a working internal app + automated workflow.
5. Scaloom warms up a Reddit account, finds the right subreddits, schedules posts, and auto-replies to comments so you can market on Reddit without tripping spam flags.
6. Slashit expands shortcuts into full messages so you can type “/followup” and drop a complete reply in Gmail/Slack in seconds.
7. GraphBit gives you an open-source framework (Rust core, Python-friendly) to build reliable agent workflows that connect your tools and data in production —free to try (open-source).
8. Google’s Agent Development Kit for TypeScript builds AI agents with code instead of prompts—define logic and tools in TypeScript, then test and deploy like regular software (docs, samples, open-source).
9. Library.fm creates personalized audio stories and songs for your kids—type “bedtime story about a tooth-brushing dinosaur“ and play it screen-free on Toniebox or Yoto—free trial, then $12/month.

Around the Horn

In the spirit of the above, you don’t really don’t want to ruin a cat’s dinner either…

1. UPS bought robots to unload trucks: $120M for 400 Pickle Robot arms that lift 50-lb boxes and unload a trailer in ~2 hours.
2. UPS tested an AI tool to spot fake returns by comparing photos of returned items to catalog images and flagging tiny mismatches.
3. TSMC sped up advanced chipmaking overseas to reduce global exposure to a Taiwan invasion scenario.
4. Everbloom used an AI model to tune machines/chemistry that turn waste fibers into new fabrics.
5. The Universities Space Research Association partnered with Meta to apply the Segment Anything Model (SAM) to U.S. Geological Survey water observing systems, fine-tuning SAM 2 to identify water in drone and satellite imagery for automated real-time flood detection and emergency response.
6. Analog training described in-memory analog computing that could cut training energy use by up to 1,000× by computing inside memory, plus a residual-learning twist to correct analog noise.

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Thursday Trivia

One is AI, one is real. Which is which?

A.

B.

Which is AI, and which is real?

Which is AI, and which is real? The answer is below, but place your vote to see how your guess everyone else (no cheating now!)

A Cat’s Commentary

Trivia answer: A is AI, and B is real (also, that dog is v fast lol).