In partnership with

Google unveils TurboQuant, a new AI memory compression algorithm — and yes, the internet is calling it ‘Pied Piper’

Key Takeaway: Google Research unveiled TurboQuant, a new AI memory compression algorithm that could cut inference memory use by at least 6x without hurting performance, drawing comparisons to the fictional “Pied Piper” compression tech from Silicon Valley.

More Insights:

• TurboQuant is designed to shrink AI working memory, specifically the KV cache, without reducing accuracy.

• The internet nicknamed it “Pied Piper” because it echoes the TV show’s famous compression breakthrough.

• Google says the method relies on two techniques: PolarQuant and QJL.

• Researchers plan to present the work at ICLR 2026 next month.

• The breakthrough is still experimental and has not yet been widely deployed in real-world systems.

Why it matters: AI progress is no longer just about building bigger models — it is increasingly about making them cheaper, faster, and more efficient. If TurboQuant works at scale, it could shift the competitive edge from who has the most hardware to who can use memory most intelligently.

Here’s how I use Attio to run my day.

Attio is the AI CRM with conversational AI built directly into your workspace. Every morning, Ask Attio handles my prep:

• Surfaces insights from calls and conversations across my entire CRM

• Update records and create tasks without manual entry

• Answers questions about deals, accounts, and customer signals that used to take hours to find

All in seconds. No searching, no switching tabs, no manual updates.

Ready to scale faster?

Start now →

OpenAI announces plans to shut down its Sora video generator

Key Takeaway: OpenAI plans to shut down Sora, signaling a major strategic shift away from flashy consumer AI experiments and toward business and productivity-focused products.

More Insights:

• OpenAI confirmed it is preparing to shut down Sora and will share details on timelines, API changes, and how users can preserve their work.

• The decision follows reports that OpenAI leadership wants to focus more on business and productivity use cases.

• Sora was once seen as a breakthrough in AI video, especially after its early 2024 preview stunned the industry.

• Despite continued feature upgrades, Sora now faces intense competition from rivals like ByteDance’s SeeDance 2.0 and Google’s Veo.

• The shutdown raises questions about OpenAI’s recent Disney partnership and what happens to those plans without Sora.

Why it matters: This is bigger than one app shutting down—it shows that even the most hyped AI products can be deprioritized when they do not fit a company’s long-term business model. The real future of AI may not belong to the tools that impress people most, but to the ones that quietly become essential to how people work.

I tried to prove I'm not AI. My aunt wasn't convinced

Key Takeaway: The article argues that AI-generated voices and videos have become so believable that proving you are a real person is getting harder, and in many cases, simple trust signals like codewords may be the only reliable defense.

More Insights:

• The writer tested whether his own aunt could tell if she was speaking to the real him or an AI version, and she could not be fully sure.

• Even experts said it is now nearly impossible to prove with complete certainty that someone on a video call is real.

• Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to prove he was alive after deepfake rumors spread failed to convince many people, despite experts saying the videos were authentic.

• Experts warn that deepfake scams are rising fast and are already being used to steal money, spread false information, and manipulate public opinion.

• Researchers call this growing distrust the “liar’s dividend,” where real evidence can be dismissed as fake, while false claims become easier to spread.

Why it matters: AI is not just making deception easier. It is weakening the very idea of proof. Once people stop trusting what they see and hear, truth becomes negotiable, and that affects everything from family phone calls to politics, journalism, and democracy itself.

Other stuff

• A lawyer won Anthropic's hackathon – what everyone missed

• This new benchmark could expose AI’s biggest weakness

• Ground truth: When the Earth moves, AI can spot it

• Kentucky woman rejects $26M offer to turn her farm into a data center

• Meet the former Apple designer building a new AI interface at Hark

• The AI Agent Wars and What Founders and Investors Need to Know

• Mark Zuckerberg Is Building an AI Agent to Help Him Be CEO

Hope you enjoyed today's newsletter

⚡️ Join over 300,000 people using the Superpower ChatGPT extension on Chrome and Firefox.