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1/ Albania Just Hired an AI Minister—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Albania just pulled a wild first: it gave an AI system named Diella an actual cabinet seat, making her the “virtual minister” in charge of all government procurement contracts. PM Edi Rama says Diella will cut out bribery and shady dealings by handling tenders and contracts herself, while she’s already been helping citizens through the country’s digital services portal. Sounds futuristic, but also kind of terrifying—because handing full control of billions in contracts to an AI feels like opening the door to a whole new kind of corruption if someone figures out how to game the system.

2/ OpenAI’s Worst Launch Became Its Best Growth Driver

Despite a rocky GPT-5 launch that even had Sam Altman apologizing, OpenAI’s business adoption is back on the upswing. Fresh data shows adoption jumped to 44.5% in August, with OpenAI leading growth among AI companies and finally outpacing Anthropic for the first time since May. Finance and manufacturing saw the biggest jumps, proving GPT-5’s better reasoning is pulling in industries that usually move slow on new tech. In short: the messy rollout didn’t stop businesses from piling in—it actually sparked a rebound.

3/ China Just Proved AI Can Run Without Nvidia—And Run Faster

Chinese researchers just dropped SpikingBrain 1.0, an AI that fires neurons more like a human brain instead of running nonstop like ChatGPT—and the results are wild. It runs fully on China’s own MetaX chips (no Nvidia needed), trained massive models with barely 2% of the data others use, and still matched performance. In tests, a smaller version cranked through a 4M-token prompt over 100x faster and stayed stable for weeks. They even released a free demo called “Shunxi,” making this not just a flex of domestic hardware but a signal that China’s carving out serious independence in the AI race.

4/ A Wearable That Lets You Control Robots With Pure Thought

UCLA engineers just pulled off a major breakthrough in brain-computer interfaces: a wearable cap that lets paralyzed users control robotic arms with their thoughts — no brain surgery needed. The system pairs EEG signals with AI vision to figure out what a person wants to do in real time, and early tests showed tasks that were once impossible got done in minutes. One paralyzed participant even used it to move blocks nearly 4x faster than without AI help. By ditching invasive implants, this tech makes BCIs safer while still matching the performance of surgical options. It’s a big step toward everyday AI-powered tools like smart wheelchairs, communication aids, and homes that respond before you even ask.

5/ OpenAI Just Shot Its Shot at Google Chrome

OpenAI says it’d totally be down to buy Google Chrome—if the courts ever force Google to sell it. The comment came during a major antitrust trial where the DOJ is trying to break up Google’s dominance in online search. Google’s not having it, insisting Chrome isn’t up for grabs and calling the lawsuit bogus. OpenAI previously tried partnering with Google (no luck), and now it’s riding with Microsoft and Bing. Meanwhile, Google’s flexing Gemini, and OpenAI might even be cooking up its own social network. The AI wars just keep getting juicier.

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That’s it. See you on the next open. And do me a favor and move this email to your “Primary” inbox - trust me, it’ll be worth it.

- Charlie “Your AI Assistant” Patel