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Good morning. It's Friday, March 27, and we're covering China’s growing edge in AI talent, Amazon’s aggressive cloud investment strategy, ByteDance’s push into AI-powered video tools, and more.

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ByteDance Brings AI Video to CapCut
ByteDance is rolling out its Dreamina Seedance 2.0 AI video model inside CapCut, starting in select global markets. The tool lets users generate and edit video with prompts, images, or clips, supporting up to 15-second videos. Launch is limited as the company addresses copyright concerns raised earlier. The model includes safeguards like blocking real faces.

Cohere Launches Open Speech AI Model
Cohere introduced Transcribe, its first speech-to-text model, claiming top English accuracy on Hugging Face’s ASR leaderboard. The open-source model achieves a 5.42%-word error rate and converts audio to text in seconds. It’s designed for enterprise use and integrates with Cohere’s North AI platform. Early feedback highlights speed and real-time potential.

Mistral Launches Fast, Expressive TTS Model
Mistral AI unveiled Voxtral TTS, an open-weight text-to-speech model focused on speed and expressive voice output. It supports nine languages and enables low-latency audio generation for real-time applications. The model can integrate with speech-to-text and LLM systems for full voice workflows. Mistral says it outperforms ElevenLabs v2.5 in zero-shot voice tests.

Novo Nordisk Uses AI To Speed Trials (Paywall)
Novo Nordisk says AI agents are shortening clinical trials by weeks, accelerating drug development timelines. The tools help manage trials, detect risks, and automate tasks like site selection and data analysis. Executives expect faster approvals could add hundreds of millions in revenue while reducing hiring needs. Some AI efforts were scaled back due to high costs.

FRIDAY FACTS

The first binary code ever written didn’t use electricity, silicon, or screens. It was a physical algorithm invented in 1801, and its sole purpose was to manufacture something you are literally wearing right now. Answer at the bottom.

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China has surpassed the United States and Europe in producing top AI research talent, according to a March 25, 2026 analysis of authors at the NeurIPS conference. In 2025, roughly 50% of leading AI researchers began their careers in China, up from 29% in 2019, while the U.S. share fell from 20% to 12%.

China is also retaining more of its talent—68% of Chinese undergraduates stayed for further study in 2025, compared with about one-third in 2019. The shift reflects stronger domestic education, talent-recruitment programs, and declining appeal of U.S. institutions amid visa uncertainty and funding concerns. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)

Amazon is embarking on a record-breaking $200bn capital-expenditure push in 2026, focused largely on expanding AI infrastructure for its cloud unit, AWS. The company also plans to invest up to $50bn in OpenAI, intensifying competition with Microsoft and Google in the AI race.

AWS demand is surging, with sales growing at their fastest pace in over three years, but rivals have recently gained ground. The spending reflects both rising customer demand for AI compute and Amazon’s effort to reclaim leadership in cloud services. Investors remain cautious, citing high upfront costs and uncertain long-term returns. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)

Mark Warner proposed taxing AI data centers to fund worker retraining, amid rising concerns about job displacement. Speaking at the Axios AI Summit in Washington, D.C., Warner cited declining entry-level hiring and examples of AI replacing junior legal and software work. He argued data centers are the “easiest place” to capture revenue from the AI boom, rather than chipmakers or software firms.

The proposal comes as lawmakers debate stricter measures, including a moratorium bill from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which Warner opposes. The idea reflects growing political pressure to tie AI infrastructure growth to tangible local economic benefits. → Read the full article here.

AI Actor Sparks Industry Backlash: Creator Eline van der Velden says her digital performer drew death threats and union criticism, highlighting fears over AI replacing actors and reshaping creative work.

AI Boom Triggers CPU Shortage: Surging data center demand is straining Intel and AMD supply, delaying PCs and servers while pushing prices up 10–15%, extending chip shortages beyond memory.

Judge Questions Pentagon Blacklisting: A U.S. judge said the military’s move against Anthropic may punish its AI safety stance, raising concerns over free speech and government contracting power.

Intercom Debuts Custom Support AI: Its Fin Apex 1.0 model beats GPT-5.4 and Claude on resolution rates while cutting costs, signaling a shift toward specialized, post-trained enterprise AI.

Granola Raises $125M, Expands AI Tools: The meeting notes startup hit a $1.5B valuation and launched APIs and workspaces, aiming to evolve from transcription into a broader enterprise AI workflow platform.

FRIDAY FACTS

In 1801, a French weaver named Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a mechanical loom that used stiff cardboard cards punched with holes to automate complex textile patterns.

The First Binary Logic: If the card had a hole, a mechanical hook passed through to lift a thread (acting as a "1"). If there was no hole, the hook was blocked, and the thread stayed down (acting as a "0").

The Massive Impact: This physical punch-card system directly inspired Charles Babbage's first theoretical computer in the 1830s. Decades later, an inventor adapted these same punch cards to tabulate the US Census, eventually founding the company that would become IBM.

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

— Matthew Berman, Nick Wentz & the Forward Future Team