Welcome Alastair Goldfisher to AiNews.com! 🎙️
We’re thrilled to welcome Alastair Goldfisher as a contributing podcast host and writer for AiNews.com!

Alastair is a veteran journalist with 30 years of experience covering venture capital, startups, and emerging technologies. He served nearly 12 years as editor at Venture Capital Journal and has written for PEHub, Reuters, and Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Today, Alastair hosts The Venture Variety Show podcast, publishes The Venture Lens on Substack, and provides content and media services across the tech and VC space.

At AiNews.com, he’ll be leading interviews for our new podcast series:
AI Cognitive Shift: Voices Shaping the Future, co-branded with The Venture Variety Show. His focus: exploring how AI is transforming culture, business, and society through real stories and actionable insights.

👉 Follow Alastair’s work:
📰 The Venture Lens newsletter: agoldfisher.substack.com
📺 The Venture Variety Show podcast: youtube.com/@agoldfisher/videos

We’re excited for what’s ahead—welcome, Alastair!

Today’s Headlines:

• Breakthrough Brain-to-Voice Device Streams Speech in Near Real Time - For the first time, ChatGPT is loosening its policies for users to generate images of public figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, as well as sensitive symbols and physical features once considered too controversial. The move raises important questions about free expression, ethical boundaries, and the evolving role of AI in our cultural landscape.

  
  
  

  
  

• AI, Data and the Death of Investing From the Gut: Inside TRAC.vc’s Model - Is the warm intro dead? In this guest post, veteran journalist Alastair Goldfisher explores how AI and data are disrupting the way we network, tell stories, and build trust in the startup world. If you’re relying on the old rules of connection—you might want to read this.
  
  
  
  
  

• Runway Launches Gen-4 AI for Consistent, Cinematic Media Generation - Gen-4 preserves stylistic elements such as lighting, mood, and cinematographic tone, while enabling regeneration of subjects from multiple angles and perspectives—without the need for fine-tuning or additional training.
  
  
  
  
  

• Amazon Debuts Nova Act for Building Browser-Based AI Agents - Amazon has introduced Nova Act, a new AI model and SDK (software development kit) designed to help developers build agents that interact directly with web browsers—completing tasks with minimal human oversight.
  
  
  
  
  

• Manus Adds Mobile App, Claude 3.7, and Subscription Plans in Beta - Manus, the AI-powered agent that quickly gained attention on social media, has announced a major beta update including an iOS mobile app, Claude 3.7 integration, and new subscription tiers.
  
  
  
  
  

• OpenAI to Launch First Open-Weight Language Model Since GPT-2 - OpenAI has announced plans to release a new open-weight AI language model as it shifts toward greater collaboration with the AI community. OpenAI is inviting developers, researchers, and broader community members to share their input on the upcoming model.

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AI In Action: Quick Tutorials

In this section, you'll find short, practical tutorials that walk you through using the latest AI tools, helping you quickly unlock their full potential.

Today’s AI in Action: Place your products into any scene

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Google Gemini's image editing capabilities to quickly insert your products into any scene with just a product image and simple text prompts.

Step-by-step:

• Head over to Google AI Studio, select the Image Generation model, upload your base scene, and type "Output this exact image" to establish the scene.

• Upload your product image that you want to place in the scene.

• Write a specific placement instruction like "Add this product to the table in the previous image."

• Save the creations and use Google Veo 2 video generator to transform your images into smooth product videos.

Pro tip: You can create a series of product placements showing different angles and uses before converting to video for more engaging content.

AI Tools:

Please note that AiNews.com does not endorse the following AI tools. We aim to share the tools we come across that you may find helpful in you work or daily lives.

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• MiriCanvas: Design smarter, not harder—with AI-assisted templates and generation.
  
  

• PhonePiMCP: Control your phone with natural language commands, right from your favorite desktop AI tools and automate productivity workflows today!

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