🔥 Weekly AI news: Did you miss it?!

👨‍🚀 The most important AI updates at a glance

AI-HOI, AInauts!

Maybe you didn't catch all the news, tools, and hacks about AI last week, or maybe you've only recently joined us. Either way, here's our recap with all the headlines from the newsletter - just one click away!

Click the links to jump right to the article - or read our picks below.

• ⭐ 8-year-old builds app with new tool - what can you do with it?

• 📰 AI news quickie: The HAIlights from the industry

• 🤖 The future of AI agents and other news

• 💎 Are Gemini Gems the better GPTs?

• ⌨️ Never type again thanks to this app

→ Selection of the top posts of the last week ←

⭐ 8-year-old builds app with new tool - what can you do with it?

Imagine you could develop complex apps without writing a single line of code. Sounds too good to be true? We assure you: it's real! And: you can do it too.

From idea to app in no time

You can now go from an initial idea to a finished app in record time. Whether it's a task manager, chatbot, website, browser extension or a complex web app - with Cursor, you can turn your vague idea into a concrete project in no time.

The tool has won the hearts of early adopters worldwide. Simply say what you want using natural language - and the AI creates the app for you. THIS is the future present of coding (sorry, devs). Solopreneurs love it!

Just watch this video. If an 8-year-old can create a Harry Potter app with a few tips from her dad, what can you build with it?

Let's get started - your first app in 15 minutes

You know, we're not coders either - but when we saw this video, our ambition got the better of us. And we picked out a simple use case that we can implement together, step by step.

This will turn you into a junior developer in fifteen minutes 😎 And don't worry, it's not complicated - we promise!

Let’s create a simple browser extension together.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Download and install Cursor.com

2. Create a new folder for the app on your computer and open/drag the folder into Cursor

3. Now use the 'secret' key combination: Cmd + I (or Ctrl + I on Windows). This opens the small but powerful "Composer" window - this is the wizard that does everything for you. (There is also the AI pane at the top right - but the Composer is the better choice and can do more).

4. There, you simply enter the prompt for the desired extension ("Create a browser extension that ...") and click Enter.

5. The app now creates the necessary files directly, and you can transfer the generated code with "Accept All".

6. Now save all files with Cmd + Option + S (or Menu File → Save All).

7. Switch to the Extensions in the browser and activate Developer mode. Then drag the extension in there and activate it.

8. Test the extension in the browser. The code might not work straight away. But no problem, just copy the error messages to Cursor and keep optimizing the app.

We love it! If you want to go deeper, YouTube and X have lots of tips.

Our take: Cursor democratizes app development

No question: with Cursor, anyone can develop an app, plugin, etc., using only natural language. And anyone who can code gets a powerful assistant. This marks the beginning of a new era of coding and will be an important building block for AI engineers.

While other AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Codeium or Poolside often come as add-ons, Cursor's AI is deeply integrated into the editor. And if you like, you can even operate it via voice. Models such as GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 are running in the background.

Another super practical feature is that you can simply drag a screenshot of a design into the chat and the AI can generate corresponding code. This allows you to turn your creative visions into functional prototypes or rebuild existing apps at lightning speed.

And thanks to Replit, this can also be deployed immediately and made accessible to others. This is not only super efficient, but also damn cool ... and the $60 million dollars in funding they’ve just received will certainly lead to even more upgrades from Cursor soon!

💎 Are Gemini Gems the better GPTs?

Thanks to feedback from the community, we know that many AInauts work within the Google universe. In other words: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive etc.

We have already received a few requests to go into more detail about Google Gemini. Until now, we have rather neglected it.

Gemini was simply not as good as Claude or ChatGPT! But this is changing more and more. Therefore we are bringing you today the first part of a small series about Working with Google Gemini.

For example, many people don't know that you can now create so-called Gems on Google Gemini. Similar to the GPTs at ChatGPT or the Projects at Claude, these are small assistants that you can train with your own instructions.

To be able to build Gems, however, you must have a subscription to Gemini Advanced. Don't worry, the first 14 days are free, so you can just give it a try.

You can find it at the bottom left under Gem Manager.

Creating a Gem is really super easy. Click on Create Gem in the Gem Manager, enter a name and a short task description.

Then probably the best feature: you simply click the magic pen and Gemini revises your perhaps sparse or sloppily worded prompt and makes it better.

Finally, just save and you can use your Gem straight away.

Bonus tip: Use the extensions!

Gemini Gems are fun, easy to create and work pretty well. And you can give them access to your entire Google universe via the apps!

This makes Gemini and Gems really helpful assistants.

• For example, you can use the YouTube extension to make a summary of any video/topic.

• Or you can use the Gmail extension to find emails and prepare replies to them.

• You can even find the best flights and hotels with the two integrations!

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. More on this soon, for now have fun experimenting with the gems!

⌨️ Never type again thanks to this app

Finally, a little app that we are currently trying out and which is really fun.

The text you are reading now was not typed, but simply spoken.

Sure, audio to text is nothing new. But this app does a lot of things right and makes sure that we have to type much less. Previous transcription apps tended to annoy us. More on this in a moment.

We are talking about: Wispr Flow

You can download the app here for free and try it out. Important: Currently, because it is still a beta, only for Mac users (Silicone processors).

But now, let’s talk about why we find the app so ingenious:

1) It can be used inside all your existing tools and interfaces

No matter whether you're in your email program, Word, a Google Doc or WhatsApp.

Simply press and hold the predefined hot key and start chatting. Which brings us to the next point.

2) No matter how much you stammer, it will be a well-structured text

This is the main reason why we celebrate Wispr Flow. No matter how much you stammer, pause, etc.: your resulting text is well-structured and grammatically correct. Slips of the tongue are caught and automatically corrected.

Wispr also recognizes the environment in which you are writing something and thus formats, for example, an e-mail as you would format it. It also recognizes bullet points etc.

3) Very easy post-editing with Commands

Thanks to the completely new Command feature, you can also simply mark your texts and have them edited directly with AI.

For example, if you've said a lot, but there's not much substance, you can simply mark the result and say: "Flow, please shorten the text and make it more precise."

To summarize:

Wispr Flow not only makes working more convenient, but also faster.

It's super easy to install, you just have to give it the usual permissions.

🚨 IMPORTANT NOTE: The app is in beta. Therefore, sometimes buggy. In non-English languages, the automatic recognition and formatting of lists sometimes doesn't work, or the "Flow..." command is not recognized. For all things in English, however, it works really, really well.

The whole thing is also free to use for now.

We definitely wanted to introduce it to you because it is another example of how such AI helpers can speed up and improve our daily work more and more - and make us even more productive.

Your AInauts,
Fabian & Reto

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