🤖 Robot Olympics just dropped

The holidays are here, but AI isn’t slowing down. Robots are finally being tested on real-world tasks, AI’s biggest thinkers are openly disagreeing on what “intelligence” even means. Plus, I'll show you how to generate cinematic AI videos with no limits.

In today’s AI newsletter:

• Robots Take On the “Robot Olympics”

• Hassabis Pushes Back on LeCun

• Nvidia Locks In Groq’s AI Chip Tech

• How to generate high quality cinematic AI videos with no limits

• 4 new AI tools worth trying

HOW TO AI

🗂️ How to Generate Cinematic AI Videos With No Limits

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create smooth, high-quality cinematic videos using AI, completely free, with no usage caps.

🧰 Who is This For

• Creators who want cinematic videos without expensive tools

• Social media builders making reels, shorts, and visual stories

• Filmmakers and designers experimenting with AI visuals

• Anyone frustrated with video tools that hit limits too fast

STEP 1: Access the Tool

Open your browser and go to the Skyreels platform. Once the homepage loads, you’ll land on a clean dashboard showing multiple AI tools.

Look for the “AI Video” section. Inside that card, click the black “Create” button. This opens the main video generation workspace where all videos are created.

STEP 2: Upload an Image or Use a Text Prompt

Inside the workspace, you can generate videos from either text or images.

At the bottom menu, make sure the “Image or Text” tab is selected.

If you want to create a video from an image, click the image (paperclip) icon and upload your file. After uploading, a crop window will appear. Choose your aspect ratio:

• 16:9 for cinematic scenes

• 9:16 for Reels, Shorts, or TikToks

Click the blue “Crop” button to continue.

You can also skip images entirely and just describe the scene using text.

STEP 3: Configure Motion, Mood, and Style

In the text box labeled “Describe the content you want to create,” explain how you want the video to move and feel. For example, you can describe camera motion, atmosphere, or emotional tone.

You can turn on Auto Mode to let the AI handle all settings, or manually adjust motion intensity if you want more control.

For advanced control, explore additional tabs:

• Effect for visual styles

• Subject Reference to stay consistent

• Extend to create infinite-length videos

These options are what allow the tool to go beyond short clips.

STEP 4: Generate, Review, and Extend Your Video

When everything is ready, click the blue “+ Create” button at the bottom right.

Your video will first show as “In Queue,” then switch to “Being Generated.” Once finished, click the thumbnail to open the video player and review the result.

You’ll notice smooth motion, cinematic pacing, and emotionally synced sound effects baked directly into the video.

If you want changes, use the Edit button. If you want the scene to continue, click Extend and keep the video going, with no limits on length or generations.

ROBOTICS

🤖 Robots Take On the “Robot Olympics”

Physical Intelligence’s (PI’s) π0.6 generalist robot took on doors, socks, keys, and greasy pans in a standardized “Robot Olympics” benchmark inspired by Benjie Holson’s Humanoid Olympic Games.

• Completed real-world tasks like unlocking doors, washing pans, and opening dog poop bags

• Operated fully autonomously with no human teleoperation between attempts

• Used a single vision-language-action foundation model, fine-tuned per task

• Exposed real limits: brittle contact tasks and hardware bottlenecks still matter

Robotics is finally moving past flashy demos toward honest, repeatable benchmarks. If foundation models + fine-tuning start compounding like they did in AI, useful humanoid robots may arrive sooner, not perfect, but good enough to matter.

AI DEBATE

🧠 Hassabis Pushes Back on LeCun

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis publicly disagreed with Meta AI chief scientist Yann LeCun, calling his view on general intelligence “plain incorrect.”

• LeCun argued human intelligence isn’t truly general, but highly specialized

• Hassabis says LeCun is confusing general intelligence with universal intelligence

• He claims the human brain (and foundation models) are approximate Turing Machines

• Hassabis points to human inventions like chess, science, and airplanes as proof of generality

If Hassabis is right, scaling general-purpose architectures makes sense. If LeCun is right, the future belongs to highly specialized systems. The direction AI research takes next depends on which worldview wins.

AI PARTNERSHIPS

⚡ Nvidia Locks In Groq’s AI Chip Tech

Nvidia is buying key assets from AI chip startup Groq in a ~$20B cash deal, strengthening its grip on real-time and inference-focused AI workloads.

→ Nvidia acquires Groq’s IP and talent, not the company itself
→ Groq’s founders and senior leaders will join Nvidia to scale the tech
→ GroqCloud stays independent and continues operating
→ Groq chips will be integrated into Nvidia’s AI factory architecture

This move signals Nvidia’s intent to dominate AI inference, not just training. By absorbing Groq’s low-latency chip designs and TPU-level expertise, Nvidia is tightening its control over the entire AI compute stack, and making it even harder for rivals to compete.

OpenAI staff discussed prioritizing sponsored content in ChatGPT when users ask relevant queries and created mockups with ads in sidebars or as pop-ups.

Italy's antitrust authority orders Meta to suspend contractual terms that bar rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp; Meta calls the decision “fundamentally flawed”.

Chinese humanoid robot startup Galbot raised over $300M led by China Mobile's industry investment fund at a $3B valuation, bringing its total funding to $800M.

China's AI regulations, which require chatbots to pass a 2,000-question ideological test, have spawned specialized agencies that help AI companies pass.

🎨GPT Image 1.5: OpenAI’s latest, faster and more controllable image model

⚙️ GLM-4.7V: Zhipu AI’s open-source multimodal model

🧪 BioMed Agent: SciSpace’s AI built for biomedical research

🚀 Manus 1.6: Faster, better AI for complex agent workflows

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY

Thanks for making it to the end! I put my heart into every email I send, I hope you are enjoying it. Let me know your thoughts so I can make the next one even better!

See you tomorrow :)

- Dr. Alvaro Cintas