GPT-4.5 can feel emotions, Alexa+ the hottest upcoming thing & Alibab challenges OpenAI’s Sora

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Welcome Back, AI Geeks!

It’s time to stay updated with What’s Up in AI

I don’t think we’ll talk about GPT after GTA 6 now. Jk. 😋. GPT-5 was supposed to solve hallucinations, fix reasoning, and maybe even take over the world. Well, it got delayed but at least we did get GPT-4.5 and Alexa+.

In today’s issue:

🚀 GPT-4.5, ‘largest model, yet’
💼 Impress your boss with PPTs in just 5 mins with Gamma
🤖 Alexa + LLMs = Alexa+
🦾 Alibaba's Wan2.1
⚡ 5-4-3-2-1 hits you just can’t miss
😽 Cheat sheet for you
😂 Your AI-Powered Laugh
❓️ Give is some feedback please

Read time: 7 mins

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TODAY IN AI ✨

1. GPT-4.5 has feelings? - OpenAI just dropped its "largest model yet," but there's a twist—instead of crushing benchmarks, it's focusing on feeling human. Sam Altman calls it "the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person," but critics aren't convinced.
   🐘 The elephant in the room? GPT-4.5 is absurdly expensive to run—$75/million input tokens and $150/million output tokens (compared to GPT-4o's $2.50/$15). Currently restricted to Pro users due to OpenAI being "out of GPUs," this model highlights the industry's profitability challenges.
   

2. Alexa+ Goes Agentic (Finally!) - Amazon's Alexa+ is here, and it's more than just a voice upgrade. This AI assistant can now juggle multiple LLMs—including Amazon's Nova and Anthropic's Claude—choosing the perfect model for each task. Beyond small talk, Alexa+ handles complex jobs like booking concert tickets, ordering groceries, and analyzing documents. It's FREE for Prime's 100M+ members (otherwise $19.99 monthly). This could trigger another "ChatGPT moment" for mainstream consumers who've missed the AI revolution.
   💡 Fun fact: The integration with Amazon's ecosystem (Ring cameras, Kindle) delayed development but might end up being Alexa+'s secret weapon against competitors.
   

3. Alibaba's Wan2.1: The Sora Challenger - Alibaba's Tongyi Lab has unleashed Wan2.1, an open-source video generation model that's turning heads. It outperforms both open and closed models—including OpenAI's Sora—on key benchmarks, with 2.5x faster video generation. The 14B parameter model excels in motion physics and text rendering (in both English and Chinese). With text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-audio capabilities, China's open-source AI race is accelerating rapidly. Between Qwen for language and Wan for video, 2025 might be Alibaba's breakout AI year.

STOP, DROP and THINK 🧠 

AI’s IQ is doubling every 5.7 months—should we be worried?

QUICK HITS 💥 

It’s time for some quick hits that you’ll love. Let’s go in…..5-4-3-2-1 👇️ 

5-PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

•  Ideogram 2a: faster, cost-efficient text-to-image model optimized for graphic design and photorealistic generations.

• You Labs ARI: analyzes 400+ sources to generate professional reports with charts and visuals in minutes.

• Hume Octave: empathetic AI that uses “emotional tokens” to generate speech with better rhythm, cadence, and emphasis.

• ElevenLabs Scribe: speech-to-text model claiming top accuracy, outperforming Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash and OpenAI’s Whisper v3.

• Phind: search engine with multi-step reasoning for precise, interactive answers.

Looking for a specific AI tool and can’t find it? Post a request 🔍

4-AI JOB OPPORTUNITIES

1. Google is hiring a Software Developer III, Android

2. Meta is hiring a Fundamental AI Research Scientist

3. Amazon is hiring an Software Engineer, Project Kuiper

4. Grammarly is hiring a Software Engineer, Windows

Want us to search for tech related jobs in your country/city ? Post a request 🔍

3-THINGS IN TREND

1. Remember Claude 3.7 Sonnet being tested by playing pokemon. Well we found it! 

2. Sam Altman's thoughts on GPT 4.5 might (not) surprise you!.

3. 9.11 and 9.9 which one is bigger? ChatGPT vs DeepSeek, Who is more intelligent?

2-USEFUL LINKS

1. Learn to build ai-powered chatbots. 🧱 

2. Top tips for prompting with Grok 3, including six sample prompts that you can adapt to your needs. 📈 

1-PROMPT OF THE DAY

Use this prompt to talk to GPT 4.5 and refine your thoughts in real-time:

Each morning, act as my strategic AI assistant. Summarize the top 3 industry trends from the last 24 hours (source them if possible). Then, analyze how they impact my field of [insert industry, e.g., digital marketing, SaaS, finance]. Provide 2 actionable steps I can take today to stay ahead. End with a thought-provoking question that challenges my perspective. Keep it concise yet insightful.

CHEAT SHEET 😉 

Don’t get left behind! The best AI minds are learning from these must-follow YouTube channels in 2025. Want to stay ahead of the curve? Get the list before everyone else does! 👀🔥

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN AI 📰 

📝 ElevenLabs’ Scribe: The Most Accurate Speech-to-Text: The new model claims over 95% accuracy in 99 languages, outperforming OpenAI’s Whisper v3.

⚡ Inception’s Mercury: Diffusion-Powered LLM: The startup’s new model is 10x faster and cheaper than current LLMs.

🎭 Microsoft Drops First-Ever Multimodal Phi Model: The 5.6B parameter Phi-4 excels in speech, vision, and text, topping Hugging Face’s speech recognition leaderboard.

👓 Meta Unveils Aria Gen 2 Smart Glasses: Equipped with advanced sensors, on-device AI processing, and an all-day battery for AI and robotics research.

⚡ Tencent’s Hunyuan Turbo S: AI for Instant Responses: The fast-thinking AI model delivers 2x the speed of competitors while maintaining top-tier performance in knowledge, math, and reasoning.

🌏 China Poised to Overtake US in Tech by 2025: Rapid advancements in AI, 5G, quantum computing, and renewable energy could fuel an eightfold growth by 2029.

💰 Who raised Funds?

• OpenAI’s CTO is cooking up something big—her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab is chasing $1B in funding and could soon be worth a cool $9B! 🚀 

GET AN AI-POWERED LAUGH 😁 

And that’s a wrap!

Do drop a comment to tell us👇️ 

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Stay Tuned! 🤖 
Team What’s Up in AI