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Happy Monday! We’ve dropped another actionable guide to level up your social media strategy. Let us know what you think or how we can make it better. Meanwhile, Meta continues its AI arms race, poaching top engineers and reportedly seeking fresh capital to boost its AI push. All eyes are now on Baidu, whose upcoming model could mark a new “DeepSeek moment” in the space. The race isn’t slowing down. Stay curious. Stay sharp.

• Scientists to Build a Human Genome From Scratch

• 📰 News and Trends.

• The 2025 Social Media Playbook: Strategy, Content, and Viral Growth

• 🧰 AI Tools - Trip Assistants

• Will Baidu’s Open-Source ERNIE Be The Next DeepSeek Moment?

• 🧠 Learning Corner - Cohere

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📰 AI News and Trends

• Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly put together a secret list of top AI engineers he hopes to recruit and is willing to pay millions to hire them…

• But OpenAI has responded to the poaching and promised workers fare compensation and a better future if they remain loyal.

• They say AI is just a tool to help workers, but read between the lines, and the message is clear: Your job is already on the line

• Nvidia has acquired Canadian AI startup CentML

• Meta seeks $29bn from private credit giants to fund AI data centers

🌐 Other Tech news

• Canada will rescind a digital services tax to restart US trade talks

• Elon Musk’s Starlink will invest $113 million to provide satellite internet in South Africa and to increase its African

• Tesla says it made its first driverless delivery of a new car to a customer

Scientists to Build a Human Genome From Scratch

In other news that are not as scary. UK researchers, backed by a $11.7M (£10M) grant from the Wellcome Trust, have launched the Synthetic Human Genome Project (SynHG) to synthesize a complete human genome from scratch, a first in science. Led by Oxford professor Jason Chin, the team aims to develop tools over the next 5–10 years to create full synthetic chromosomes and eventually a human genome, which is 700x larger than E. coli’s, their previous success.

This work could unlock new cell-based therapies, virus-resistant tissues, and a better understanding of the human genome, including the vast “dark matter” regions we don’t yet understand. Unlike gene editing, genome synthesis operates on a much larger scale.

While some scientists warn about future risks, like synthetic humans or bioweapons, the team is also funding a parallel ethics study. The Wellcome Trust emphasizes that developing this technology responsibly and transparently now is essential to prevent misuse later.

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The 2025 Social Media Playbook: Strategy, Content, and Viral Growth

Over 5.17 billion people now use social media globally (DataReportal, 2025), with the average user spending 2.5 hours per day on these platforms. But still, 60% of marketers struggle to turn engagement into business impact. This guide provides a practical roadmap to mastering content creation, platform-specific strategies, and achieving viral success with real tools, statistics, and examples.

1. The Social Media Stack (2025 Must-Haves)

Some Key Tools:

• Buffer - Scheduling + analytics

• Canva - Design templates & video editing

• Notion - Content calendar & team workflows

• CapCut - Mobile-first short-form video editing

• TrendTok - TikTok trend tracking

• Metricool - Cross-platform analytics + publishing

2. Platform Strategy in 2025

• Instagram - Reels + carousels + SEO-optimized captions Engagement 0.98%

• TikTok - Hook in first 3s, story-based videos Eng. 4.5%

• LinkedIn - Personal stories + industry insights Eng. 2.5%

• YouTube Shorts - Repurpose TikToks w/ native CTA. Eng. 3.1%

• Threads/X - High-frequency, topical reactions. Eng. 0.3–0.5%

3. What Makes Content Go Viral

• Hook (0–3s): Ask a bold question, show a face, or create suspense.

• Watch Time Boosters: Subtitles, cuts every 2–3s, on-screen text.

• Sound Trends: Use viral audio, and engagement increases 18–25%.

• CTA: Ask to comment, follow, or share mid-video, not just the end.

Stat: 80% of viral videos in 2024 had one or more of these formats:

1. Story-based progression

2. Reaction/commentary mashups

3. “Did you know?” niche facts

4. Controversial or polarizing POVs

4. Content Calendar Example (Weekly Plan)

This is just a suggestion, but if you can follow it for a few weeks, the results will follow. Try it.

5. Case Study: The Rise of Duolingo on TikTok

• Tactic: Embraced meme culture, used their mascot in unhinged, funny videos.

• Result: From 100K to 7.5M+ followers in 18 months.

• Why it worked:

  • Mascot = recognizable brand face

  • Leaned into chaos + Gen Z humor

  • Consistent 2–3 posts/day, high experimentation rate

6. Metrics That Matter

Use UTM links and link-in-bio tools (like Linktree, Beacons) to track conversion by channel.

7. Scaling With AI & Automation

AI Tools for Content:

• ChatGPT: Caption writing, repurposing blogs into threads.

• RunwayML: Generate B-roll, effects for short-form video.

• Opus Clip: Turn long YouTube videos into viral Shorts.

• Lately AI: Generate multi-platform content from one piece.

Social media success isn’t luck—it’s systems, story, and speed. With the right tools, consistent content pillars, and creative risk-taking, marketers can drive real growth. Track what works, follow the data, but don’t forget: audiences crave authenticity more than perfection.

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🧠 Learning Corner.

• Covers how LLMs work, how to build apps with them, and prompt engineering

• Includes hands-on labs and use cases like chatbots, search, and summarization

• No prior coding required to get started

Perfect for: Entrepreneurs, product teams, and AI-curious learners wanting to build real-world AI apps.

Will Baidu’s Open-Source ERNIE Be The Next DeepSeek Moment?

On June 30, Baidu is open-sourcing its ERNIE large language model, marking China’s biggest AI release since DeepSeek. This move directly challenges U.S. giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and even Chinese rival DeepSeek by offering high performance at half the cost.

Key implications:

• Industry Impact: Experts call this a “pricing war” in AI. Open-source ERNIE could lower barriers for global developers, forcing closed platforms to justify premium pricing.

• Strategic Shift: Baidu previously opposed open source. Now, it’s betting on openness to compete globally and empower developers.

• Cost vs. Trust: While ERNIE might be powerful and affordable, enterprise adoption in the U.S. may be slow due to security and trust issues.

• Market Concerns: Critics worry open-sourcing could give China access to apps globally and spread unaccountable AI systems trained on unknown datasets.

Some experts say that “Baidu just threw a Molotov into the AI world,” hinting at a major disruption to both U.S. and Chinese pricing models, but in reality, we just have to get used to this as its becoming easier to launch cheaper and bigger LLMs, adoption and performance is the challenge.

ERNIE's release is a bold move in the AI arms race, potentially accelerating global innovation, but raising new ethical, security, and geopolitical concerns.

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