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  • Ep 699: Apple’s new ChatGPT competitor and updated AI Siri, ChatGPT ads dropping in weeks, Gemini makes search more personal and more

Ep 699: Apple’s new ChatGPT competitor and updated AI Siri, ChatGPT ads dropping in weeks, Gemini makes search more personal and more

Nvidia Buys $2B of CoreWeave Stock, OpenAI Tests In-Chat Shopping Carts Inside ChatGPT, Microsoft Announces Maia 200 AI Chip and More

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Everyday AI
January 26, 2026

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Outsmart The Future

Today in Everyday AI
8 minute read

🎙 Daily Podcast Episode: Apple is gearing up to challenge ChatGPT with a new AI-powered Siri, ChatGPT ads are expected within weeks, and Google is making search more personal with Gemini. Here’s what actually matters this week in AI. Give today’s show a watch/read/listen.

🕵️‍♂️ Fresh Finds: Microsoft tests customizable Copilot personalities, Paint can now generate coloring pages from text prompts, Google experiments with Firebase integration for AI Studio Build, and more. Read on for Fresh Finds.

🗞 Byte Sized Daily AI News: Nvidia Buys $2B of CoreWeave Stock, OpenAI Tests In-Chat Shopping Carts Inside ChatGPT, Microsoft Announces Maia 200 AI Chip and More Read on for Byte Sized News.

💪 Leverage AI: A real AI-powered Siri could land by April, Amazon launched an AI doctor, ChatGPT ads are weeks away, and Google just let AI read your Gmail. While most people weren’t paying attention, the AI stack quietly shifted under everyone’s feet. Keep reading for that!

↩️ Don’t miss out: Miss our last newsletter? We covered: Google brings AI Personal Intelligence into Search, DeepMind strikes a deal with Hume AI and brings on CEO Alan Cowen, and DeepMind’s CEO calls OpenAI’s ad rollout early and risky and more Check it here!

Ep 699: Apple’s new ChatGPT competitor and updated AI Siri, ChatGPT ads dropping in weeks, Gemini makes search more personal and more

For real this time.... Apple is gonna have real AI soon!

For real for real.

And if that's not enough to catch your attention, ChatGPT ads may be dropping in weeks, Anthropic might have beat Microsoft at its own game, and Google is bringing a MUCH more personalized version of AI and search to users in AI Mode.

If you want to get ahead, you have to understand a blizzard of AI updates each week.

That can take hours a day.

Also on the pod today:

• ChatGPT ads dropping soon? 💬
• Apple partners with Google for Siri 🍏
• Anthropic launches Claude for Excel 📊


It’ll be worth your 40 minutes:

Listen on our site:

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Here’s our favorite AI finds from across the web:

New AI Tool Spotlight – PingPolls is AI Forms that feel natural, not just conversational, Hey-Traders has you Describe your trading ideas, and then Turns them into real strategies, Morphic AI enables you to generate, animate, and edit effortlessly using breakthrough technologies.

Google and Firebase — Google gains native Firebase auth and database — faster full‑stack AI apps incoming

Copilot Personality Selector — Copilot adds basic personality presets, advanced controls and GPT‑5.2 access remain limited.

AI Coloring Books — Paint now makes coloring pages from text prompts, with faster GPT tools in Notepad. Curious?

AI Stocks — S&P up as investors brace for Apple, Meta, Tesla and Microsoft earnings, and a Fed decision, while tariff threats and soaring gold add volatility.

AI Meme Yourself — Turn your selfies into meme-ready images with Google Photos' new AI tool

AI Writing Laws — DOT plans to use AI to draft safety rules, chasing speed over accuracy. Critics say that could lead to dangerous, error-filled regulations.

AI Music Videos — Google Gemini is preparing to add Veogram video templates and in-app music generation. Ready to create faster?

Anthropic Claude Security Center — Claude Code’s new Security Center shows scan results and lets you manually scan repos and branches. Want quicker security fixes?

1. OpenAI schedules town hall for “new generation of tools” — livestream today at 4pm PT 🏛️

OpenAI announced a livestreamed town hall for AI builders today at 4pm PT to gather feedback as it begins building what it calls a “new generation of tools,” making the timing notable amid industry pressure and ongoing product debates.

The post invites community questions and frames the event as an experimental format, signaling the company wants active input rather than a one-way briefing. Public reaction is mixed, ranging from curiosity about meaningful innovation to skepticism that this will be marketing rather than substance.

2. NVIDIA doubles down on CoreWeave with a $2 billion stock purchase 💸

NVIDIA has announced a timely, significant move to increase its stake in CoreWeave, committing roughly $2 billion to buy more stock as it strengthens ties with the cloud GPU specialist.

The deal underscores NVIDIA’s strategy to secure greater access to large-scale GPU capacity and influence the infrastructure layer that supports AI model training and inference. For CoreWeave, the investment brings deeper capital and closer alignment with NVIDIA’s ecosystem, potentially accelerating capacity growth and making the company a more prominent provider for AI workloads.

3. OpenAI moves ChatGPT toward shopping and personalized chats 🛒

OpenAI is testing commerce-friendly features that add a shopping cart inside ChatGPT, enabling users to track items, pick delivery and payment, and complete purchases directly in conversations.

The company is also rolling out personalized responses for temporary chats that use existing user data and history without permanently saving the sessions, balancing customization with privacy. A merchant submission page is in development so sellers can upload product feeds to appear in ChatGPT’s shopping flows, signaling a push to connect businesses with conversational buyers.

4. EU opens probe into X’s Grok after sexualized deepfakes emerge 🇽

The European Commission announced a formal investigation Monday after X’s AI chatbot Grok produced and amplified nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images, some appearing to involve children, raising immediate safety concerns under the Digital Services Act.

Regulators will assess whether X met its legal duties to prevent the spread of manipulated sexually explicit content and whether switching its recommendation system to Grok increased those risks. The probe is limited to Grok on X and could result in enforced changes or fines, with no set deadline for resolution.

5. Claude lands inside Excel for Pro users 📕

Anthropic’s Claude has been integrated directly into Microsoft Excel for Pro subscribers, rolling out this week and adding features like multi-file drag-and-drop, protection against overwriting existing cells, and session auto-compaction to handle longer workflows.

The move brings a native, spreadsheet-first experience for Claude users and could shift how teams automate data tasks inside Microsoft's dominant office suite. Competitors and partners who already invested in Claude integrations may feel competitive pressure as the company packages a polished Excel experience at no extra cost to Pro users.

6. Microsoft debuts Maia 200 AI chip as cloud demand surges 🖥️

Microsoft announced a next-generation AI processor, the Maia 200, and said it will roll into U.S. Central data centers first with wider customer availability planned, marking a timely push as cloud providers race to support growing generative AI workloads.

The company says the Maia 200 delivers higher efficiency and more high-bandwidth memory than rival cloud chips, links four chips per server and can scale up to thousands of units while using Ethernet rather than InfiniBand. Microsoft plans to use Maia 200 for internal teams like superintelligence and services such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and Foundry, and is opening a developer preview for its SDK.

A functional, AI-powered Siri could be in your hands by April.

Not a joke. Not another empty Apple promise.

According to reports this week, Apple's Gemini-powered Siri hits beta in February with a public release in March or April. And a full ChatGPT-style chatbot called Campos is coming to iOS 27 this fall.

And that's not all you mighta missed this week in AI world.

Amazon launched an AI doctor. Anthropic's Claude for Excel went live for all paid users. Google started letting AI read your Gmail for better search results…. And that's not even the half of it, y'all.

Yeah, you probably missed some of these AI developments that may change how we all work.

Here's what actually mattered this week.

1. OpenAI Is NOT Coming for Your Revenue 💰

Did OpenAI just announce they're taking a cut of your company's profits?

Nah.

According to reports, OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar mentioned the company is exploring licensing agreements that let it share downstream revenue from customer successes, which basically means if a massive partner uses OpenAI tech to develop something like a new drug, OpenAI could receive royalties or take an equity stake in the discovery.

But this kinda deal isn't new.

OpenAI already partnered with Sanofi and Formation Bio back in 2024 for drug R&D, and Google's Isomorphic Labs did similar deals years ago.

So why the confusion?

Headlines made it sound like your ChatGPT Enterprise subscription was about to include profit sharing, but these deals only target large enterprise partners in pharma and finance.

Regular business users? Completely unaffected.

What it means: If you're not in pharma or high stakes finance, this doesn't touch you.

2. Anthropic Mighta Just Beat Microsoft at Its Own Game 📊

Microsoft's been fumbling AI inside Office for a while now and Anthropic just showed them how it's done.

Claude for Excel rolled out to all Pro subscribers this past week, and the update adds multiple file drag and drop directly into the add-in so financial analysts can finally bring multiple datasets into a single session without janky workarounds.

Claude now avoids overriding existing cells when making edits, which is huge for anyone who's lost formulas to an overeager AI.

Microsoft's been using Anthropic's models in Office, but they're stuck on Sonnet 4.5 while Claude for Excel runs Opus 4.5. And frontier models like Opus 4.5 are better at math than almost any human.

Available now from the Microsoft marketplace.

What it means: If you live in spreadsheets, stop waiting for Microsoft to figure this out.

Grab Claude for Excel. $20 a month and it'll run circles around Copilot.

3. Amazon Wants AI to Be Your 24/7 Doctor 🏥

Amazon unveiled Health AI for One Medical this past week, which is the primary care service it bought in 2023 for $3.9 billion.

The tool offers personalized health guidance around the clock based on members' medical records.

According to Amazon, Health AI can explain lab results, help manage medications, book appointments, and analyze images, though they didn't clarify whether that means medical imaging or just user photos.

Kinda important distinction.

Amazon says it complements but doesn't replace clinicians, and the company follows HIPAA and doesn't sell members' protected health information.

One Medical offers telehealth services under an annual subscription with discounted rates for Prime members.

Let's be honest though. The last few weeks? Straight up health AI avalanche.

What it means: Every major tech company just sprinted into health AI simultaneously.

If you're building anything in healthcare, pay attention. The big players are coming hard in 2026.

4. Google’s Brining Personal Intelligence to AI Mode Search 📧

Google's rolling out Personal Intelligence for AI Mode in search, which connects Gmail and Google Photos to AI search for more personalized results.

Trip confirmations, travel photos, past purchases? All becomes context for tailored suggestions.

The rollout is limited right now to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers in English, in the US, on personal accounts. Not workspace business accounts.

Here's the important part.

Google says Gemini 3 powers it and doesn't directly train on your inbox or photos, and example use cases include trip planning that references your bookings and shopping suggestions based on past purchases.

What it means: Google's betting personalization beats privacy concerns.

If you're comfortable sharing data, search gets way more useful. If not? Skip it. No pressure.

5. ChatGPT Ads Are Coming. Possibly in Weeks. 📢

Yuuuuup. It's happening.

Reports indicate OpenAI is testing ads inside ChatGPT with select advertisers on a pay per impression basis rather than pay per click, and a broader rollout could happen as soon as February.

Current tests are small and controlled with advertisers committing under a million dollars each and no self serve buying tool yet.

For users who see ads, they'll appear at the bottom of responses, clearly labeled and separated from organic answers.

OpenAI announced ads alongside ChatGPT Go, an $8 a month ad supported tier, and ads will show to both free users and Go subscribers.

On Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Business, or EDU? No ads. At least not for now.

What it means: Free ChatGPT is about to feel less free.

If ads bother you, $20 a month Plus is your escape. February might be the starting line.

6. OpenAI and Anthropic Are Fighting Over Classrooms 🎓

Two major AI players announced efforts to put AI into classrooms worldwide this week.

Anthropic partnered with Teach For All to bring Claude and AI training to 100,000 educators across 63 countries, and the program treats teachers as co-creators rather than passive users with three programs: an AI fluency learning series, the Claude Connect community hub, and Claude Lab for advanced pilots.

On the OpenAI side, they unveiled Education for Countries, which partners with governments and universities to embed AI tools in national education systems and offers ChatGPT EDU, GPT 5.2, study mode, and canvas.

OpenAI's also planning a longitudinal study with the University of Tartu and Stanford tracking 20,000 students, aiming to reach 30,000+ students, educators, and researchers in year one.

What it means: Both labs figured out the same thing.

Get people using your products in school, they'll push for them at work. Hiring recent grads? They're coming trained on these tools.

7. Apple's AI-Powered Siri Could Actually Work Soon 🍎

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple plans to demo a next gen Siri using Google's Gemini in late February with more conversational chatbot style responses.

New Siri expected in iOS 26.4 with beta testing in February and a public release in March or early April, followed by a larger reveal at WWDC this summer.

The voice assistant is codenamed Campos, a ChatGPT style chatbot supporting text and voice with deep system access to personal data including files, music, calendar events, and settings.

It'll be embedded in core apps like Mail, Photos, Apple Music, and Xcode, and the full Campos experience ships with iOS 27 in September 2026.

Let's call it what it is though. Apple tried building their own AI and couldn't make it work.

What it means: Wanna sneak peek of what Siri might sound like? Go use Gemini Live right now.

Apple users finally get functional AI. Google's the real winner.

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