- SpaceXAI and Cursor release the strongest Grok yet
- ChatGPT’s voice gets a major upgrade with GPT-Live
- Add CGI to any video with ChatGPT and Higgsfield
- ByteDance targets design work with Seedream 5.0
- 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
SpaceXAI and Cursor release the strongest Grok yet
Image source: CursorThe Rundown: SpaceXAI just launched Grok 4.5, the first model it built jointly with Cursor after its $60B acquisition, featuring strong benchmarks, speed, and efficiency gains that undercut frontier pricing and vault Grok back into the AI conversation. The details:- 4.5 features strong performance on coding, agentic, and knowledge work tasks, with benchmarks in similar ranges to Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT 5.5.
- The model runs at 80 tokens per second, a speed that rivals flash models, while claiming a 4x efficiency gain over models like Opus 4.8.
- Pricing lands at $2/$6 per million input/output tokens, versus $5/$25 for Opus 4.8, with usage temporarily free inside Cursor and Grok Build.
- Elon Musk pitched the release on X as "an Opus-class model, but faster, more token-efficient and lower cost”, with an even bigger model coming next month.
2 GRC Engineering nerds walk into a virtual event
The Rundown: GRC's reputation is shifting, and GRC Engineering is at the forefront. Ayoub Fandi, GRC Engineer at Lovable, and Justin Pagano, Sr. Director of GRC Engineering at Vanta, have a lot to say about Legacy GRC and what comes next. Consider this your front row seat to the official mic drop moment.Join this virtual event to learn:- GRC Engineering vs Legacy GRC
- Why GRC Engineering goes beyond compliance automation
- Practical ways to start automating, with lessons from Lovable and Vanta
ChatGPT’s voice gets a major upgrade with GPT-Live
Image source: OpenAIThe Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out GPT-Live, its next-gen voice model that makes talking to AI "feel much more like having a real conversation", featuring an architecture that removes the clunky nature of previous experiences. The details: - Live is a "full-duplex" architecture, processing inputs continuously instead of old systems that strung together models and used turn-based conversation.
- When a question needs more reasoning, Live can delegate to a stronger model for the background work, and also surface visual cards alongside answers.
- The ability to listen, process, and output simultaneously leads to less clunky, awkward pauses, while enabling abilities like real-time translation.
- In OAI's tests, users picked GPT-Live over the old Advanced Voice Mode in around 3 of 4 head-to-head chats, with expert science scores nearly doubling.
Add CGI to any video with Higgsfield
The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to add an AI VFX element to a short video clip with Higgsfield. You will pick footage the model can preserve, use ChatGPT to tighten the effect prompt, then generate and review the edit in Gemini Omni Flash.Step-by-step:- Start with a short video that gives the model room to work. Wide shots with a clear subject, simple motion, and visible background work better
- Before opening Higgsfield, draft a strong CGI prompt with ChatGPT, telling it to make the command more specific about what to add and what not to change
- Open Gemini Omni Flash in Higgsfield under the video tab. Upload your source clip, paste in the prompt from ChatGPT, and click generate
- Review the generated clip against the original. You can make revisions in Higgsfield or start from scratch with a new prompt
Business travel, built like your stack 
The Rundown: Serko.ai is a conversational AI travel agent built for modern travellers that handles flights, hotels, and trip disruptions in a single chat — with no forms, tabs, or manual follow-up.Serko.ai can:- Search, compare, and book in a single conversation
- No middle seats. King bed. Set once, remembered every time
- Cancel any trip, stress-free, with full refunds
ByteDance targets design work with Seedream 5.0
Image source: ByteDanceThe Rundown: ByteDance rolled out Seedream 5.0 Pro, a new image model that claims to go beyond generation to "understand design” with powerful editing features, and the first release that looks to near the frontier level held by OpenAI’s Images 2.0. The details: - 5.0 Pro features improvements in text rendering, structure, alignment, and other design areas, resulting in strong infographics and professional work.
- The model includes ‘precision editing’ with layer separation for editable designs, plus the option to draw, replace, or combine images.
- Seedream 5.0 Pro can also handle multilingual inputs and outputs, able to work natively across over 10 languages.
- The release comes ahead of ByteDance’s anticipated Seedance 2.5 video model expected this month, with 2.0 still near the top of leaderboards.
Trending AI Tools
GPT-Live - OpenAI’s new SOTA, more natural voice model
Grok 4.5 - SpaceXAI and Cursor’s powerful, low-cost, efficient new model
Seedream 5.0 Pro - ByteDance's image AI built for design work
SWE-1.7 - Cognition's cheap, near-frontier coding model
Everything else in AI todayOpenAI's chief futurist Joshua Achiam announced he is leaving the company after a nine-year stretch, calling it "a decade where centuries happened." Cognition released SWE-1.7, an in-house model for its Devin agent built on China's open-source Kimi K2.7, nearing GPT-5.5 and Opus-level scores while costing far less.MiniMax is reportedly targeting a Q3 release for a 2.7T-parameter model, which would land 6x bigger than the lab's flagship and larger than any current open model.Prime Intellect secured $130M in Series A funding, with the open-source training startup crossing $100M in annualized sales in its first year.Udemy co-founder Eren Bali's Monogram emerged from stealth with a $40M seed round, pitching an iOS app that swaps text walls for instantly generated interfaces. COMMUNITY
Community AI workflowsEvery newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.Today’s workflow comes from reader Michael N. in Vancouver, Canada:“I used Claude to write a plugin for Unreal Engine I call ViewGen. The premise is simple: integrate ComfyUI into Unreal Engine to leverage 3D viewport and camera data in a familiar 3D development platform. The user can utilize any partner nodes such as Nano Banana 2 or Kling, and use the viewport to generate precise depth and color reference images and movies from UE, and pipe that into Comfy-styled graphs directly in the engine.It's a passion project to understand and leverage generative tools, and this was a natural step. I've released ViewGen open source on GitHub.”How do you use AI? Tell us here.
Highlights: News, Guides & Events- Read our last AI newsletter: Meta climbs the AI image leaderboard
- Read our last Tech newsletter: Microsoft axes nearly 5K jobs
- Read our last Robotics newsletter: This $8K robot can do your laundry
- Today’s AI tool guide: Add CGI to any video with Higgsfield
- RSVP to next workshop on July 22: No-code product building
Source: https://www.therundown.ai/p/spacexai-cu ... t-grok-yet