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Midweek Briefing, Team. Some people are reacting to the rise of AI with lethargy or all-or-nothing lifestyles ahead of what they call the “AI-pocalypse.” We’ll share how and why. Meanwhile, DeepSeek V3.1 has dropped, touted as the most powerful open model yet. And as always, criminals are quick to exploit these advances. We’ll break it all down. Stay sharp, stay curious.

• How Criminals Are Using AI

• AI Tools - AI tools for a complete video production pipeline

• DeepSeek V3.1: The Most Powerful Open AI Yet

• Life Before the AI-pocalypse

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📰 AI News and Trends

• ChatGPT-6 will be here sooner than expected, letting users define tone and personality, enhanced memory, and, according to Altman, it will understand you better.

• Grok Imagine will enable users to generate images and short videos on the web.

• Databricks says it’s valued at over $100 billion in the latest funding round

• Nvidia is working on a new AI chip for China that outperforms the H20

• How churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance

🌐 Other Tech news

• The White House has a TikTok account now

• Collecting the materials needed for renewable technologies is causing enormous environmental damage and could soon extend to the deep sea and even asteroids

How Criminals Are Using AI

AI is boosting productivity, including for criminals. From phishing to deepfakes, generative AI is giving fraudsters cheap, powerful tools to scam, steal, and scale operations globally. Main risks to be aware of:

1. Phishing at Scale

• ChatGPT-powered tools make scam emails flawless and believable.

• AI translation removes language barriers, enabling global fraud rings.

2. Deepfake Scams

• A year ago, a Hong Kong worker was tricked into wiring $25M via a CFO deepfake. This tech is much advanced today, be aware. Have a code with family and your work team to verify the validity of voice and video calls.

• Audio deepfakes cost little to make and require just seconds of voice.

3. Identity Fraud

• Telegram apps sell Binance KYC bypasses for $70.

• AI face-swapping and deepfakes threaten future biometric systems.

4. Jailbreak-as-a-Service

• Tools like EscapeGPT rent ready-made jailbreak prompts to generate malware or scam content.

• AI firms play constant catch-up, patching exploits.

5. Doxxing & AI Surveillance

• Models like GPT-4 can infer location, job, and ethnicity from text.

• Underground services already sell AI-powered profiling tools.

6. AI-Powered Malware

• Jailbroken AIs generate malicious code, phishing sites, and ransomware kits.

• Hackers trade AI-made malware on dark web forums.

7. Automated Social Engineering

• AI chatbots impersonate colleagues or partners to build trust.

• “Pig butchering” crypto scams helped push U.S. fraud losses to $4.6B in 2023.

8. Disinformation & Fake Content

• AI deepfakes spread fake endorsements, scams, and influence campaigns.

• Fraudulent content markets could exceed $25B by 2030.

Share Yaro on AI and Tech Trends | Your Top AI Newsletter

🧰 AI Tool

Script & Copy Generation

• ChatGPT or Claude - For creating video scripts, outlines, and marketing copy.

Voiceover & Audio

• ElevenLabs - AI voice synthesis with incredibly natural-sounding voices. You can clone voices or use their extensive library.

• Murf.AI - User-friendly interface and good selection of voices for different tones and styles.

Image & Visual Asset Creation

• Midjourney - Best for creating stunning, artistic visuals and concept art for your videos.

• DALL-E 3 - Excellent for more realistic images and precise prompt following, integrated with ChatGPT.

• Runway ML - Offers both image generation and video creation tools in one platform.

Video Creation & Generation

• Pika Labs - Strong competitor to Runway with excellent video generation capabilities and good motion control.

• Stable Video Diffusion - Open-source option that's particularly good for creating video from single images.

Video Editing & Post-Production

• Descript - Revolutionary AI-powered editor that lets you edit video by editing text transcripts. Includes voice cloning, filler word removal, and seamless editing tools.

• Wondershare Filmora - Traditional editor enhanced with AI features like auto-cutting, smart reframing, and AI copywriting for titles.

All-in-One Platforms

• Synthesia - Complete AI video creation platform where you can generate videos with AI avatars, voiceovers, and automated editing from just text input.

• Pictory - Transforms scripts and articles into complete videos with stock footage, voiceover, and music automatically.

• InVideo AI - Creates complete videos from prompts, handling script writing, visuals, voiceover, and editing in one workflow.

Download our list of 1000+ Tools for free.

DeepSeek V3.1: The Most Powerful Open AI Yet

Chinese startup DeepSeek just dropped V3.1, a 685B parameter open-source model rivaling GPT-5 and Claude 4, at up to 68x lower cost. Released quietly on Hugging Face, it scored 71.6% on the Aider coding benchmark, beating Claude Opus 4 and shaking up the AI race.

Why It’s Powerful

• Hybrid model: Combines chat, reasoning, and coding in one system.

• 128K context: Equivalent to a 400-page book.

• Ultra-cheap: Coding tasks cost $1 vs $70 on rivals.

• Hidden features: “Thinking tokens” + real-time search.

• Open access: Free to download, modify, and deploy.

Why the Race Never Ends

• Open vs. closed: U.S. firms gatekeep, DeepSeek opens.

• Global adoption: Open source spreads fast, erasing moats.

• Economic squeeze: Proprietary labs must justify high prices.

• No finish line: Each leap resets the game and V4 may disrupt again.

Life Before the AI-pocalypse

As fears of AGI grow, some tech insiders see a future of superabundance, others of existential collapse, and they’re changing their lives now.

How People Are Responding

• Bunkers & Bioshelters: DIY shelters under $10K, companies selling $39K survival pods.

• Spending Savings: Many stop saving for retirement, opting for travel, bucket-list living, or hedonism, including engaging in orgies.

• Smart-to-Hot Pivot: With AI replacing intellect, people's focus shifts to fitness, charisma, and social life.

• Protest & Activism: Groups like Pause AI push back, even reorganizing personal lives around the cause.

• Wealth Rush: Founders and investors see a last chance to build fortunes before AI erodes jobs.

• Living in the Moment: From weird parties to abandoning long-term plans, many lean into joy or fatalism.

Why It Feels So Urgent

They feel the end is near, and we will be replaced by AGI. The Stakes are all or nothing for many, where they seek either abundance or extinction. People feel time is running out, and they are turning into polarization, survivalists, spenders, activists, and thrill-seekers. The old norms like saving, planning, and settling down do not work for them anymore; everything is now, as the world may not last.