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Technology is reshaping how the world works.
The real question is not what it can do — but how we choose to use it.
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⚡ WHAT'S AT STAKE TODAY ⚡
- 🎬🤖 Amazon to begin testing AI tools for film and TV production next month
- 📱✨ Meet Gizmo: A TikTok for interactive, vibe-coded mini apps
- 🚀💼 Accel doubles down on Fibr AI as agents turn static websites into one-to-one experiences
- 🗣️🏠 Alexa+, Amazon's AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the US
- 🎮🌟 Roblox's 4D creation feature is now available in open beta
- 💰🔍 What a16z is actually funding (and what it's ignoring) when it comes to AI infra
- 🦄💸 AI SRE Resolve AI confirms $125M raise, unicorn valuation
- 📈🔥 Google's Gemini app has surpassed 750M monthly active users
- 💎🎯 ElevenLabs raises $500M from Sequoia at an $11 billion valuation
Amazon launches closed beta for AI film production tools
Amazon to begin testing AI tools for film and TV production next month
Amazon MGM Studios is preparing to expand testing of its artificial intelligence tools for television and film production, moving from internal development to industry-wide trials starting in March.
The streaming giant established a dedicated AI Studio last summer to create proprietary tools aimed at streamlining entertainment production. These innovations focus on enhancing character consistency across different shots and supporting both pre-production planning and post-production workflows.
After months of internal development, Amazon is ready to invite external industry partners into a closed beta program. The company expects to share preliminary results from this testing phase by May, though it declined to provide additional specifics about the technology when contacted for comment.
The AI Studio has assembled an impressive roster of collaborators to guide the development process. Notable industry figures include Robert Stromberg, the acclaimed producer behind "Maleficent," actor Kunal Nayyar from "The Big Bang Theory," and Colin Brady, a former Pixar animator. This diverse group brings valuable perspectives on how AI tools can best serve creative professionals.
Amazon Web Services is providing technical support for the initiative, and the company plans to partner with multiple large language model providers to power its AI capabilities.
Albert Cheng, who leads the AI Studios initiative, has been clear about the program's intentions. The goal is to augment creative teams rather than replace human talent, focusing on improving efficiency and reducing production costs while maintaining strict protections for intellectual property. Amazon ensures that AI-generated content won't be incorporated into other AI training models.
The company has already demonstrated practical applications of its AI technology. Amazon's series "House of David" incorporated 350 AI-generated shots in its second season, showcasing the technology's potential for large-scale production use.
However, the integration of AI into Hollywood has sparked considerable controversy throughout the industry. Creative professionals express concerns about job security, the impact on artistic integrity, and the long-term implications for traditional filmmaking practices.
Amazon isn't alone in embracing AI for entertainment production. Netflix has also begun incorporating generative AI into its content creation process. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently revealed that the platform's series "The Eternaut" utilized AI technology to create a realistic building collapse sequence.
The debate surrounding AI adoption in entertainment becomes more complex when considering broader employment implications. Amazon has previously cited AI-driven efficiency improvements as a factor in workforce reductions. The company eliminated 16,000 positions in January following another 14,000 layoffs the previous October.
As the March beta launch approaches, industry observers will be watching closely to see how Amazon's AI tools perform in real-world production environments. The success or challenges encountered during this testing phase could significantly influence how other studios approach AI integration.
The entertainment industry stands at a crossroads between technological innovation and traditional creative processes. While AI tools promise increased efficiency and cost savings, the ongoing debate about their impact on employment and artistic authenticity continues to shape discussions about the future of film and television production.
🔍 Which AI Dilemma Should We Tackle First?
- ⚠️ 1. Speed vs. Understanding The rapid pace of AI development is outpacing our ability to comprehend or regulate it.
- 🧠 2. Lack of Alignment AI systems don’t necessarily optimize for what’s good for humans—even when they seem to.
- 🏢 3. Power Concentration AI is consolidating power into the hands of a few tech giants and governments.
- 🤖 4. Automation Without Purpose AI is replacing jobs faster than society is creating meaningful alternatives.
- 🛑 5. Loss of Human Agency We risk becoming passive consumers of AI decisions, losing creativity and independent thinking.
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New app combines TikTok-style feed with interactive mini experiences
Meet Gizmo: A TikTok for interactive, vibe-coded mini apps
Gizmo transforms the social media experience by combining TikTok's vertical feed with interactive mini-apps. Users can create digital toys, puzzles, and animations using AI-powered natural language prompts—no coding required.
Developed by New York startup Atma Sciences, which raised $5.49 million in seed funding, the app has achieved 600,000 installs in under six months. Users interact through tapping, swiping, and drawing rather than passive scrolling, creating an engaging playground where creativity meets technology in bite-sized interactive experiences.
🎙️ The Supercharged Podcast Is Growing
Conversations with the People Building the AI Future
The Supercharged Podcast is becoming a place where real conversations about AI happen — beyond hype, tools, or surface-level takes.
We sit down with industry leaders, founders, builders, and operators who are actively using AI — or building AI-first businesses — to understand how it’s actually changing the way work gets done.
From strategy and systems to experimentation and execution, these are practical, honest conversations with people shaping what comes next.
⚡ Trends for the Future
ElevenLabs raises $500M from Sequoia at an $11 billion valuation
Voice AI startup secures massive funding round at $11 billion.
Voice AI company ElevenLabs announced today it has secured $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with Sequoia partner Andrew Reed joining the company's board. The startup is now valued at $11 billion, representing more than triple its valuation from its previous round in January 2025.
The funding round saw significant participation from existing investors, with a16z quadrupling its investment and Iconiq, which led the previous round, tripling its stake. Several prior investors including BroadLight, NFDG, Valor Capital, AMP Coalition, and Smash Capital also participated. New investors joining the round included Lightspeed Venture Partners, EvanticCapital, and Bond.
ElevenLabs plans to reveal additional investors, potentially strategic partners, later in February. The company has now raised over $781 million to date and will use the new capital for research and product development, along with international expansion into markets including India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, and Mexico.
Co-founder Mati Staniszewski indicated the company's ambitions extend beyond voice technology, with plans to incorporate video capabilities. In January, ElevenLabs announced a partnership with LTX to produce audio-to-video content. "This funding helps us go beyond voice alone to transform how we interact with technology altogether," Staniszewski stated.
The startup has demonstrated strong growth momentum, closing the year at $330 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). According to Staniszewski's earlier interview with Bloomberg, ElevenLabs achieved the leap from $200 million to $300 million ARR in just five months.
The voice AI sector continues attracting significant investor interest. Rival Deepgram recently raised $130 million at a $1.3 billion valuation, while Google has been actively recruiting talent from voice model companies, including hiring Hume AI's CEO Alan Cowen.
⚡ Let’s Make AI Actually Useful:
What Would Move the Needle in *Your* Industry?
AI has potential — but generic advice rarely helps.
What would be genuinely valuable for AI to do in your industry right now?
• Automate a painful workflow?
• Improve decision-making?
• Replace a manual process that wastes time?
• Help your team upskill faster?
Tell us what you’d want AI to handle — or where you feel stuck.
We’re using these insights to curate **industry-specific trainings, live webinars, and practical guidance** you can actually apply.
AI will be the ultimate enabler of human potential, helping us achieve breakthroughs we never imagined possible and create a future where innovation lifts everyone.
François Chollet is a software engineer and AI researcher at Google, creator of Keras (one of the most widely-used deep learning frameworks), and developer of the ARC (Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus) benchmark for measuring AI progress toward human-like general intelligence. His influential work on making deep learning accessible to developers worldwide and his thoughtful critiques of current AI approaches have shaped both the practice and philosophy of the field, while he advocates for developing AI systems with genuine reasoning abilities rather than just pattern matching.
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The Supercharged is aiming to be the world's #1 AI business magazine and is on a mission to empower 1,000,000 entrepreneurs worldwide by 2025, guiding them through the transition into the AI-driven creative age. We're dedicated to breaking down complex technologies, sharing actionable insights, and fostering a community that thrives on innovation, to become the ultimate resource for businesses navigating the AI revolution.
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