🗞️In this edition

• •OpenAI releases first open models since GPT-2

• •Workflow Wednesday #31 ‘AI Decision Making (+ AI Agents)’

• •DeepMind's Genie 3 builds path to AGI

• • In other AI news –

  • •Claude 4.1 outperforms rivals in coding tests

  • •Europe’s old power plants to become AI data hubs

  • •Huawei open-sources AI chip tools to challenge Nvidia

• • 4 must-try AI tools

OpenAI’s first open models in years target Meta, Chinese AI rivals

♨️News – OpenAI has launched two open-weight AI models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, making its first open release since GPT-2. The models are free to download on Hugging Face and are built for reasoning tasks, with performance that rivals some of the strongest open models currently available.

👨‍💻Fast facts –

• The 120b model runs on a single Nvidia GPU, while the 20b model works on a standard laptop with 16GB RAM.

• Both models outperform DeepSeek’s R1 on key benchmarks, but fall short of OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini.

• Hallucination rates are higher than OpenAI’s latest models, at 49 and 53 percent.

• Models were trained using mixture-of-experts and reinforcement learning techniques.

• Released under the Apache 2.0 license, though training data will not be shared.

🤓OpenTools POV –  OpenAI’s move feels less like a pivot to transparency and more like a strategic play to reclaim space in the open-source race  especially with China and Meta looming large.

This Week in Workflow Wednesday #31: AI Decision Making (+ AI Agents)

Understanding ChatGPT Agent Mode: A Beginner-Friendly Workflow
Since so many of you have been asking about AI Agents, here’s some insight: ChatGPT’s Agent Mode turns a regular AI chatbot into a semi‑autonomous assistant. Instead of simply answering one question at a time, Agent Mode can remember what you asked earlier, plan a series of tasks, use tools like a web browser or code editor, and produce real deliverables (spreadsheets, slides, emails).

Step 1: Activate Agent Mode

 To start, you need access to ChatGPT’s Agent Mode (available on Pro, Plus and Team plans). Open ChatGPT, go to the tools menu and select ‘Agent’ or type /agent. This tells ChatGPT to switch into agentic mode. You can also connect apps like Gmail or Google Drive through the integrated connector menu - only enable what you need.

Step 2: Define Goals & Provide Context

Before the agent starts working, give it a clear goal and as much context as possible. Explain what you want (e.g., research market trends and create…...We break it down fully in this week’s issue, along with 2 other AI workflows

New model from DeepMind could unlock self-trained general AI agents

☕News –  Google DeepMind has unveiled Genie 3, a powerful new “foundation world model” designed to simulate interactive 3D environments for training general-purpose AI agents. The model is being hailed as a major milestone on the path toward human-like artificial intelligence. 

👨‍💻Fast facts –

• Genie 3 can generate several minutes of 720p, 24fps interactive 3D worlds from simple text prompts.

• Unlike previous models, it supports “promptable world events” and physically consistent simulations.

• It builds on DeepMind’s Genie 2 and Veo 3 models, but doesn’t use a physics engine; it learns physics by observing its own generated worlds.

• The model can simulate cause and effect over time, thanks to built-in memory.

• While impressive, it still has limitations in realism, multi-agent interaction, and run time.

🤓OpenTools POV – Genie 3 shows how fast simulation is becoming core to AI development. Training agents through experience, not just data, could help bridge the gap between narrow AI tools and more adaptive, general-purpose systems.

🙆🏻‍♀️What else is happening?

• Anthropic’s new Claude 4.1 dominates coding tests days before GPT-5 arrives // Anthropic released an upgraded version of its flagship artificial intelligence model Monday, achieving new performance heights in software engineering tasks as the AI startup races to maintain its dominance in the lucrative coding market ahead of an expected competitive challenge from OpenAI

• Europe's old power plants to get digital makeover driven by AI boom // Some of Europe's ageing coal and gas fired power plants can look forward to a more high-tech future as big tech players, such as Microsoft and Amazon, seek to repurpose them as data centres, with ready-made access to power and water

• Huawei to open-source AI chip toolkit to take on Nvidia’s proprietary platform // The move will help accelerate innovation from developers, while making Ascend chips easier to use, Huawei’s Eric Xu says

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1. Learn How to Use AI - Starting January 8, 2025, we’re launching Workflow Wednesday, a series where we teach you how to use AI effectively. Lock in early bird pricing now and secure your spot. Check it out here

2. PitchPower - A software service that helps consultants and agencies create powerful proposals quickly

3. Entry Point - A platform that allows businesses to fine-tune AI models without any coding

4. Stackbear - A no-code platform that allows you to create custom AI chatbots based on your own content