AI Meets Mind Reading: Centaur Can Model Human Decisions and Memory
With OpenAI's token rejection and Google's smart home access in tow
TLDR; In today’s Signal
OpenAI Clarifies Robinhood Tokens Don’t Represent Company Equity
Figma Files for $1.5B IPO Amid Continued AI Investment
Centaur: The First Foundation Model of Human Cognition
Google Enhances Smart Home Access
Perplexity Rolls Out $200/Month “Max” Subscription Plan
Baidu Revamps Search with AI, Voice & Image‑to‑Video
Genesis AI Raises $105M to Build General‑Purpose Robot AI
Lovable Eyes $2B Valuation with Accel-Led Round
THE AI SIGNAL PICKS
OpenAI Clarifies Robinhood Tokens Don’t Represent Company Equity
OpenAI has publicly disowned the recently launched “OpenAI tokens” by Robinhood, making it clear that they are not shares in the company. The AI developer emphasized via X that these tokens were neither endorsed by nor affiliated with OpenAI, warning users against any assumptions of ownership or equity rights.
Figma Files for $1.5B IPO Amid Continued AI Investment
Figma, the design and interface-collaboration platform once set to be acquired by Adobe, has officially filed for an IPO in its latest attempt to tap public markets and further fuel its AI-led expansion. Figma plans to list on the NYSE under ticker FIG, aiming to raise approximately $1.5 billion through its initial public offering.
AI Note-Takers Flood Zoom Calls with Workers Opting to Skip Meetings
AI-powered note-taking bots are now showing up en masse in Zoom calls—even outnumbering humans. These bots transcribe, summarize, and extract action items, enabling users to skip meetings entirely while remaining informed. However, this trend is raising serious ethical, privacy, and engagement concerns.
Top CEOs Warn AI Will Slash White-Collar Jobs in Coming Years
In a notable shift from previous corporate messaging, top CEOs are now openly acknowledging that artificial intelligence is likely to eliminate a substantial number of white-collar jobs. Ford CEO Jim Farley was especially blunt, warning that AI could eventually replace nearly half of U.S. white-collar roles. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy echoed similar concerns, stating that while AI will create new opportunities in fields like robotics and model training, it will also reduce the need for many traditional corporate roles.
THE BIG LEAP
Centaur: The First Foundation Model of Human Cognition
Signal Scoop: In a major breakthrough at the intersection of neuroscience and AI, researchers have unveiled Centaur — the first foundation model trained to predict and simulate human cognition across hundreds of psychology experiments.
The Full Picture
Centaur was trained using Psych-101, a curated dataset of over 10 million human responses across 160 behavioral experiments, ranging from gambling tasks to memory recall. It includes data from more than 60,000 individuals.
The researchers fine-tuned LLaMA 3.1‑70B using QLoRA adapters, allowing Centaur to specialize in human cognitive patterns while preserving the power of a large language model.
Centaur significantly outperformed both its original LLaMA base and several established psychology models (like Bayesian or reinforcement learning systems), especially in out-of-distribution tasks.
Centaur’s internal activations correlated with human brain activity (based on fMRI data) even though it wasn’t trained on neural data.
What You Can’t Miss
Centaur marks a paradigm shift of not just in how AI can learn human-like behavior, but in how scientists can use AI to study ourselves. It’s not just a tool that mimics, it models, generalizes, and aligns with the brain in ways previous AI couldn’t
Google Enhances Smart Home Access: Admin & Member Roles for Everyone
Signal Scoop: Google Home now offers distinct Admin and Member roles—including support for kids under 13—making shared smart home control both secure and user-friendly.
The Full Picture
Admins gain full control like adding/removing devices, managing users while Members have basic access (e.g., camera feed, lights) with optional upgrades like settings or activity log viewing.
Parents can now add children under 13 through a single Family Link + Google Home invitation. Kids are default Members with limited permissions, settings and activity access are off by default
This replaces a previously complex process requiring multiple apps and settings significantly improving the setup experience.
What You Can’t Miss
Shared access meets enterprise-level control in homes. Households can safely delegate control (e.g., to babysitters) without compromising sensitive features like cameras or settings. Parental modeling mirrors enterprise roles and audit access—an example of AI-access control extending to personal spaces.
ON THE AI EDGE
Perplexity Rolls Out $200/Month “Max” Subscription Plan
Perplexity AI has launched Perplexity Max, a new $200/month premium tier, thus positioning itself among elite AI search providers like OpenAI and Google by offering high-end features built for power users.
Baidu Revamps Search with AI, Voice & Image‑to‑Video
Baidu has launched a sweeping overhaul of its core search engine, its biggest update in years thus integrating cutting-edge generative AI capabilities. This strategic revamp reflects Baidu’s ambition to reassert its dominance in AI race and better compete with global players like OpenAI and Google.
DeepMind Chief Hints Veo 3 Video Model Evolution
In response to a fan’s plea on X (formerly Twitter) to make Veo 3 videos playable, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis teased the possibility: “now wouldn’t that be something”
ChatGPT Referrals Grow—but Lag Behind Search Losses
ChatGPT’s role as a news referral engine is on the rise: despite a 212% increase in news-related prompts in the past year, the traffic it drives to publishers remains a fraction of what traditional search once provided.
AI START-UP NEWS
Genesis AI Raises $105M to Build General‑Purpose Robot AI
Genesis AI has emerged from stealth with a massive $105 million seed round, co-led by Eclipse Ventures and Khosla Ventures, aiming to build a universal foundation model for robots—ushering in the era of physical AI. Ge
Lovable Eyes $2B Valuation with Accel-Led Round
Lovable, a fast-growing Swedish AI startup, is in advanced discussions to secure over $150 million in fresh funding, thus pushing its valuation to close to $2 billion.
YC-Backed Argon AI Raises $5.5M to Transform Pharma with AI Workspace
YC alum Argon AI has secured a $5.5 million seed round, led by Crosslink Capital and Wireframe Ventures, with support from Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and other AI and digital health investors.
Apple Explores $14B Perplexity AI Deal
Apple is reportedly exploring a potential acquisition or strategic partnership with Perplexity AI, a generative AI search startup valued at around $14 billion as it faces escalating pressure to enhance its AI capabilities and reduce reliance on Google’s $20 billion-a-year search deal.
NEW TOOLS, NEW POSSIBILITIES
Mindly: Capture your thoughts in seconds with automatic organization.
Windsurf: Helps developers understand, modify, and test unfamiliar codebases using natural language
Impakt: A fitness app with personalized AI coaching and accountability.
Kaiber: Video generation engine, using your own images or text
Map This: A tool to convert PDFs into visual mind maps.
AI CAREER HORIZON
micro1: Artificial Intelligence Researcher (Remote, U.S)
SuperAnnotate: Senior Coder - AI Operations (Remote, San Fransisco)
Google: Customer Engineer III, AI/ML, HCLS, Google Cloud (Remote, U.S)
Pinterest: Machine Learning Engineer (Remote, U.S)
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