The AI monopoly 🧐

Elon fights back

August 27, 2025

Welcome back! The worst-kept secret in AI is finally out: Nano-Banana was Google all along. Shocking, I know. I’ve actually had early access for a while but wasn’t allowed to say a word until now.

The best part? You can finally use it—no more LMArena workarounds or hoops to jump through. It’s live in the Gemini app, and honestly, it’s good enough that I’ve been using it instead of Photoshop for a lot of projects.

Go play with it.

Is AI Rewriting Reality on YouTube?

(Credit: Illustration by Serenity Strull/ Getty Images)

YouTube might have been tweaking your videos without telling you. Creators like Rick Beato and Rhett Shull noticed subtle changes—smoother skin, sharper wrinkles, even warped ears—giving their content an uncanny, “AI-touched” vibe. 

“If I wanted this terrible over-sharpening I would have done it myself,” Shull said.

What YouTube says: The company confirmed it’s experimenting with machine learning on select Shorts to “unblur, denoise, and improve clarity.” But creators argue the problem isn’t the tweaks. It’s the lack of consent and transparency.

Why it matters: AI is slipping between us and the media we consume. These edits blur the line between real and generated, raising big questions about authenticity online. Disinformation researcher Samuel Woolley warns: “What happens when companies edit content from the top down, without even telling the creators themselves?”

The bigger shift: With Netflix quietly remastering sitcoms, Samsung’s AI-enhanced Moon photos, and Google Pixel’s “Best Take” face swaps, AI is layering itself onto our digital world. YouTube’s experiment is just another reminder that we’re entering an era where reality arrives pre-processed.

Breaking it Down: Elon vs. OpenAI and Apple

Elon Musk’s xAI has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of creating an illegal AI monopoly. The complaint centers on Apple’s deep integration of ChatGPT into iPhones through its Apple Intelligence features.

What’s in dispute: Musk claims Apple and OpenAI’s partnership locks up “billions of prompts” from iPhone users, allegedly pushing users toward ChatGPT while burying competitors like Grok and X in App Store rankings. 

The response: OpenAI dismissed the claims as part of Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment,” while Apple insists its App Store is “fair and free of bias.”

The big picture: With Apple hardwiring OpenAI into hundreds of millions of iPhones, rivals like xAI see the risk of falling behind before the next wave of AI even arrives.

IBM and AMD Team Up on Quantum Computing

After falling behind in the generative AI race, IBM and AMD are betting on quantum computing to leapfrog the competition. The two companies announced a partnership to integrate IBM’s quantum systems with AMD’s AI-specialized chips, aiming to build the infrastructure for the next era of computing.

The big play: Their goal is to develop a commercially viable, scalable, and open-source quantum architecture. IBM says this could make advanced quantum tools more accessible to researchers and developers tackling real-world problems, from drug and materials discovery to supply chain optimization.

Why it matters: If successful, this collaboration could give IBM and AMD a shot at reclaiming relevance in an AI landscape currently dominated by Nvidia, OpenAI, and Google. As IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna put it, quantum computing could “represent information in an entirely new way” and finally push past the limits of traditional hardware.

Exterminate Bugs Without the Back-and-Forth

Explaining bugs takes too long. Now you can show, without wasting time telling, exactly what went wrong. Just record your screen. Jam grabs all the context devs (and AI agents) need to fix bugs, automatically.

Jam works by letting you:

  • Record once and having AI write out the repro steps for you

  • Auto-capture logs, network requests, browser + OS details

  • Provide AI agents with complete context by pasting a Jam link

  • Create clear tickets instantly in Jira, Linear, GitHub, and more

Do you want to stop explaining bugs?

Turn Prompts Into Games, Puzzles, and Memes

Gizmo

Gizmo is an iPhone app that lets you transform simple text prompts into interactive experiences, such as 3D toys, memes, and fully shareable mini-games. 

How you can use it:

  • Create and share interactive puzzles, memes, and mini-games instantly

  • Remix other creators’ Gizmos for new ideas and collaboration

  • Publish creations via public links without coding or downloads

Pricing: Free

Your AI-Powered Visual Workspace

Kuse

Kuse combines an infinite canvas with multi-model AI to organize, analyze, and transform information visually. Users can gather text, images, files, and conversations in one space, then generate insights. 

How you can use it:

  • Consolidate research, files, and AI chats into one organized workspace

  • Generate citation-backed insights and summaries across sources

  • Collaborate seamlessly with teammates on large, evolving projects

Pricing: Free & Paid

Jobs, announcements, and big ideas

  • Anthropic reaches a class-wide settlement with authors over claims it trained Claude on 7M pirated books, avoiding a December trial that could have cost the company up to $900B.

  • OpenAI expands safety features for users in emotional distress.

  • Google drops tips for better image prompts in Gemini app.

  • Adobe integrates Gemini 2.5 Flash model into Firefly and Express.

  • Character.AI launches open-source models for AI-driven entertainment.

  • Google Translate adds AI-powered live translation and language learning.

  • HeyGen debuts Avatar IV: a perfect digital twin of you.

  • Tesla teams up with DeepSeek and ByteDance for AI voice assistant in China.

Google goes all in on AI. Watch along as I break down Pixel 10, Gemini upgrades, and new creative tools across Search, Docs, and Photos.

That’s a wrap! See you Friday.

—Matt (FutureTools.io)

P.S. This newsletter is 100% written by a human. Okay, maybe 96%.