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Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. As part of its partnership with OpenAI to build a large-scale data center, the UAE will be offering free access to ChatGPT Plus for its entire population.
The move signals strong confidence in OpenAI’s technology and raises a compelling case for the idea of “universal basic AI” — treating AI tools as a public utility, much like education or healthcare. The big question: will other countries follow?
In today’s AI rundown:
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UAE is making ChatGPT Plus free for citizens
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Ex-Meta Head: Training consent could devastate AI
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How to build your first OpenAI agent
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UBS deploys AI avatars for communications
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4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI
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Image source: GPT4o / The Rundown
The Rundown: The United Arab Emirates is ChatGPT Plus ($20) subscriptions for its entire population, becoming the first nation to offer the premium AI service to all citizens at no extra cost.
The details:
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Stemming from a partnership between the UAE and OpenAI, the free access is aimed at bringing locals in the UAE closer to frontier AI technology.
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Currently, the ChatGPT Plus subscription costs $20 a month, which can be a barrier to entry for the premium plan.
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While and other AI majors, including , have led efforts to democratize AI access in education, nothing has matched this scale.
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The other component of the UAE-OpenAI partnership is Stargate UAE, a 1GW Abu Dhabi data center, slated to go live in 2026 with an initial 200MW capacity.
Why it matters: By providing universal ChatGPT Plus access, the UAE is positioning itself as a first mover in public AI access and ensuring its citizens become AI-literate in an increasingly AI-driven world. The initiative could likely prompt other nations to explore similar partnerships with AI providers to keep their populations competitive.
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AI COPYRIGHT DEBATE
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Image source: Meta / Nick Clegg on X
The Rundown: As artists continue to challenge the use of copyrighted work to train AI, former Meta executive Nick Clegg claimed that requiring companies to obtain permission before training could severely damage the AI industry.
The details:
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Speaking at an event promoting his book, Clegg said it is “implausible” to go around preemptively seeking everyone’s permission before training AI.
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He said these systems train on vast amounts of data, which means seeking consent would “collide with the physics of the technology itself.”
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Clegg noted that even if companies manage to seek consent in the UK, but others do not follow, it would “basically kill” the country’s AI industry.
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To ensure the “natural justice,” he suggested that the ideal way is to give artists an option to opt out of having their work used for training.
Why it matters: The tension between innovation and IP holders is only intensifying, and Clegg just said the quiet part out loud. While an opt-out system might provide temporary relief, it doesn’t address the fundamental conflict between artists seeking fair compensation and AI companies’ massive data requirements.
AI TRAINING
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The Rundown: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a custom AI agent that can search the web and answer questions using Google Colab and OpenAI’s agents library.
Step-by-step:
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Go to and install OpenAI agents with pip install openai-agents
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Get your API key from OpenAI’s platform and add some credits to your account
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Import libraries and create your agent with a model (e.g., gpt-4o or o3-mini), instructions, and web search tool
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Run your agent and print the results
Pro tip: Start with simple questions, then experiment with more complex queries to see your agent’s capabilities grow.
PRESENTED BY TOGETHER AI
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The Rundown: Together AI’s Inference & Fine-Tuning platform lets developers deploy open source models at scale without the complexity – offering both serverless and dedicated endpoints for leading models like DeepSeek-R1, Llama 4, and Qwen 3.
With Together AI, you can:
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Access an extensive model library featuring the most popular open-source AI models
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Leverage high-performance infrastructure designed for the lowest possible latency
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Implement quickly with developer-friendly APIs that simplify integration
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Auto-scale from zero to millions of requests while maintaining performance
and get all the benefits of open source AI without the complexity.
UBS
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Image source: AI avatar via UBS
The Rundown: UBS, one of Switzerland’s largest banks, is using AI avatars of its analysts to streamline research communications with clients, a move aimed at saving time and engaging customers through their preferred channel.
The details:
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Launched in January as an opt-in program, the initiative has produced AI avatars for over 36 of UBS’s 700+ analysts across the firm.
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The avatars, developed using Synthesia’s models in a studio, are reused in videos that present research content to clients in a more engaging format.
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Each video replicates the analyst’s voice and likeness, while the underlying content changes with research, converted into a script using OpenAI’s models.
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The rollout has been gradual due to accent and language challenges, but UBS plans to scale it globally, hoping to produce 5K labeled AI videos annually.
Why it matters: While polarizing, UBS’s adoption of AI avatars is particularly valuable in multilingual markets like Switzerland where content typically requires creation in four languages and avatars provide instant translation. However, blurry lines of synthetic and real content is only increasing the risk of misleading financial information online.
QUICK HITS
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🧠 – Google’s AI filmmaking tool, now available in 71 countries
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📄 – Google’s AI to generate videos with native audio
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🎥 – Sand AI’s affordable distilled image-to-video model
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⚙️ – SOTA quality high-resolution 3D shape generation
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📞 – Account Manager
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🎯 – Premium Support
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💼 – Commercial Operations, GTM & Sales
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🧪 – Data Scientist
📰
AWS Summit Washington DC, June 10-11 – explore the latest innovations in AI and cloud computing. Learn more and . (Sponsored)
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Atlog AI from stealth with furniture store-focused AI voice agents that call customers, negotiate, and recover payments from customers.
Invariant Labs researchers a new vulnerability in agents using GitHub’s MCP server, which can be exploited by attackers to access your private repositories.
COMMUNITY
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Join our live workshop today at 3 pm EST with Yash Tekriwal, Head of Education at Clay. In this session, you’ll learn how to automate GTM workflows, craft custom data signals, and spin up AI agents for last‑mile research inside Clay.
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See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, Jason, and Shubham—The Rundown’s editorial team
