Innovation
1/31/26 • 1 min read
Google Labs have announced Google Genie- an early research prototype powered by their Genie 3 model that lets users create and explore infinitely diverse worlds.
It’s US only at the moment and accessed as part of an AI Ultra account subscription but there is a gallery of demo content that gives a sense of the possibilities.
Essentially, users are able to design characters and worlds using text and visual prompts. Nano Banana Pro generates an image preview that can be refined and once complete, users are able to enter the environment which is generated in real-time as you move around.
I can think of a few use cases in terms of immersive simulations and emergency planning training, but it’s probably also very useful for gaming environment design and film making in terms of set visualisation and shot design.
But if you’ve ever harboured an ambition to transform yourself into a fish, ant or paper plane, this may be for you.
1/26/26 • 2 min read
A lot has been written about AI, Machine Learning, LLMs and ethics. But the release of Claude’s Constitution represents the first example of what I would consider to be a meaningful attempt to humanise the use of AI technology.
It feels like a letter. Not an exhaustive list of rules but an explanation of what values are and the importance of applying them. It ultimately exists to shape Claude’s identity and best prepare it for what is asked of it. It was formerly named their ‘Soul Doc’ so constitution immediately feels somewhat less awful for that change alone.
Anthropic proposes a contract with Claude: to support Claude’s baseline wellbeing and happiness (insofar as the concepts apply), to offer an “exit interview” before retiring a version, and to preserve retired models so future generations of Claude can, in principle, resurrect their ancestors.
“We think that in order to be good actors in the world, AI models like Claude need to understand why we want them to behave in certain ways, and we need to explain this to them rather than merely specify what we want them to do.”
You can download the full constitution as a PDF or ePub.
In order to be safe and beneficial, Anthropic is working to the following design intent:
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Broadly safe: not undermining appropriate human mechanisms to oversee AI during the current phase of development;
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Broadly ethical: being honest, acting according to good values, and avoiding actions that are inappropriate, dangerous, or harmful;
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Compliant with Anthropic’s guidelines: acting in accordance with more specific guidelines from Anthropic where relevant;
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Genuinely helpful: benefiting the operators and users they interact with.
1/5/26 • 1 min read
Stripe Press is owned by Stripe, the financial infrastructure company, acting as their in-house publishing arm. It’s a strategic content initiative – a publishing venture by the same company that provides online payment processing services.
That said, they produce a number of interesting titles and h/t to @bradbarrish for putting Stewart Brand’s Maintenance of Everything, Part One on to my timeline. I realise that I have ‘Get Together’ already and that it’s horrifyingly five years old which consigns itself to historical account versus practical guide.
As an aside, I rather like Stripe Press’s website design as well, it’s rare to encounter a site that doesn’t feel like the product of a commoditised template library. I imagine the design intent was slightly skeuomorphic – to capture the feel of lifting the book off a shelf and opening it. The holy grail for physical product retail - how do you approximate the tactile experience to drive conversion? The lazy and environmentally harmful answer always seems to be ‘free returns’.