WednesdAI // Week 15

From Prehistoric Echoes to Digital Brushstrokes AI Evolves and Disrupts!

Let’s get into it!
 
Welcome to WednesdAI – Pixel Dreams’ weekly update with top stories from the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence.

This Week’s News

Dire Wolf Returns After 10,000 Years

Colossal Biosciences has achieved a groundbreaking milestone by bringing the extinct dire wolf back to life after 10,000 years. Using ancient DNA from fossils and advanced gene-editing techniques, the company successfully birthed three dire wolf pups—Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi—marking the first-ever mammalian de-extinction. Colossal is using machine learning to analyze ancient DNA, reconstruct lost genomes, and design plausible gene edits for host animals (likely some kind of dog). It’s CRISPR meets ChatGPT, but for prehistoric predators. AI is fast becoming biotech’s secret weapon—turning wild sci-fi moonshots into actual R&D roadmaps investors can sink their teeth into.

ou can find the articles to read at these links:
Time Magazine
Time Magazine

AI Art Tools Level Up Across the Board

Midjourney just dropped version 7—its first major update in a year—bringing faster rendering, better prompt accuracy, and anatomically correct hands (finally). But it’s not alone in the AI art arms race: Runway’s upcoming Gen-4 is already stealing the spotlight with teaser demos, while Higgsfield, Udio, Pika, and others roll out new creative tools of their own. Even as OpenAI upgraded image generation inside ChatGPT, these platforms are setting a faster pace in the visual content space. The takeaway: AI creative tools are evolving fast, and the competition isn’t waiting around for ChatGPT to catch up.

You can learn more about it on Forbes, Techcrunch and TechRadar.

Shopify Tells Teams to Use AI Before Hiring

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has officially gone full send on AI. Following leaks of an internal memo, he published it himself, revealing that using AI at Shopify isn’t just encouraged—it’s now a job requirement. Lütke described AI as a “baseline expectation” and urged staff to use it for everything from prototyping to decision-making. Teams must now justify headcount growth by first proving that AI can’t do the job. Performance reviews will include AI usage, and tinkering is no longer optional. This shift aligns with Shopify’s “Red Queen” philosophy: evolve constantly or fall behind. Translation for businesses? If your employees aren’t using AI like it’s a second brain, your competitors probably are.

Discover the full story with article on X, Techcrunch and CNBC.

OpenAI Memorize Copyrighted Content

A new study suggests that OpenAI’s AI models, including GPT-4, may have memorized copyrighted content during training, raising concerns about data transparency and fair use. Researchers found that the models could accurately predict missing words from fiction books and news articles, indicating potential unauthorized use of copyrighted material. OpenAI has defended its practices under fair use but faces ongoing lawsuits from authors and rights-holders challenging its approach. The findings highlight the need for clearer regulations on AI training data and ethical considerations in model development.

For more details, visit Techcrunch and Perplexity.AI.

Stanford Said No, 100K Users Said Yes

A high school student with a 4.0 GPA and a viral AI-powered study app—used by over 100,000 people—was rejected by 15 top universities, including Stanford and MIT. Instead of spiraling, he’s taking a gap year to build startups full-time, saying product-building taught him more than school ever did. The real story? Institutions built to signal talent are starting to miss it. In the age of AI, shipping real tools matters more than racking up credentials. For hiring managers and VCs, it’s a clear warning: if you’re still filtering for Ivy League logos, you’re probably missing the builders who will eat your lunch.

Check Techcrunch for the complete article.

Videos of the Week

The images accompanying the news items in this article were generated in Midjourney using the following prompts:

Groovy 70s bohemian illustration, chonky dire wolves with muscle-bound jaws napping on a shag carpet inside a retro-futuristic geodesic dome, surrounded by houseplants and lava lamps, trippy paisley patterns in the background, warm sunset glow through hexagonal windows, one wolf casually gnawing a squeaky toy shaped like a tiny mammoth.

Psychedelic woodcut illustration, AI art tools personified as groovy wizards casting spells from floating crystal balls, Midjourney’s wizard triumphantly holding a glowing hand sculpture while Runway’s wizard conjures neon galaxies, chaotic swirling composition, trippy blacklight glow, a disgruntled bard in the corner strumming a lute made of floppy disks.

Retro office memo collage with rubber stamp aesthetics, a harried manager dwarfed by comically oversized AI robots vacuuming up paperwork and serving coffee, set in a cluttered cubicle farm under flickering fluorescent lights, isometric composition with paperclip sculptures, a rubber stamp reading Denied splattering ink on a résumé shaped like a crying cartoon briefcase.

Retro detective comic strip with linocut textures, a panicked GPT-4 robot wearing a trench coat and fedora frantically shredding glowing book pages in a dimly lit archive room, towering shelves of floating novels labeled Copyrighted, dramatic diagonal shadows, noir-inspired chiaroscuro lighting, a magnifying glass hovering over a telltale phrase bubble reading I swear I’ve never read this before.

Abstract surreal art of a teenage mind bursting with code and light, while paper rejection letters form chains trying to hold him down, symbolism of creativity vs. conformity.