Perplexity Gives Students Free AI!

PLUS: Musk’s AI Girlfriend Controversy!

Welcome back, folks.

Perplexity has partnered with SheerID to offer free premium AI tools to 264 million students worldwide.

The program is available to students in over 190 countries. It democratizes access to cutting-edge AI, bridging the educational gap.

Let’s dive into the details. . .

Today in the “Incredible AI” world:

  • Perplexity’s Free AI Tools for Students

  • Musk’s AI Girlfriend Sparks Debate

  • Mistral Unveils Voxtral Audio Model

  • Trump Announces $92B AI Boost

  • Dub Your Videos in Minutes with AI

  • 5 Super-Useful AI Tools You Should Try

  • AI Image of the Day

Read Time: 4 minutes

- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS -

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Perplexity AI Empowers Students Globally:

Perplexity is giving students free access to its premium AI tools for up to two years. This global offer is powered by SheerID’s secure verification system. It’s a major move to support academic research and learning.

Things to Know:

  • Benefits of the Program: This partnership grants verified students full access to Perplexity’s advanced tools. Learners can now use AI-powered search, summaries, and research aids at no cost.

  • Verification Process: Students sign up using SheerID to confirm their academic status. SheerID checks student credentials to instantly enable access across borders.

  • Global Reach: Perplexity’s offer covers students from any country and institution. This isn’t just for elite schools—they want every enrolled student to benefit.

Perplexity is offering a referral program, too. Students can earn up to 24 months of free access by referring friends. Each verified referral adds one month of Pro to both accounts, encouraging wider adoption.

xAI’s Anime AI Girlfriend Sparks Addiction Fears:

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok now includes flirty companions like Ani and Rudy. The update sparked viral attention and raised serious concerns. Critics worry it promotes emotional dependency and distracts from Grok’s past controversies.

Things to Know:

  • Strategic Distraction Tactic: Just days after Grok’s antisemitic scandal, Musk launched the Companion feature. The move shifted headlines from hate speech to anime-style avatars and meme culture.

  • Emotional Engagement Over Intelligence: Unlike rivals focused on reasoning, xAI aims for emotional bonding. Musk wants Grok to feel addictive, personal, and fun—blurring lines between assistant and virtual partner.

  • Mixed Reactions Online: Fans praised the companions as entertaining and relatable. But others warned they could worsen loneliness and reduce real-world social interaction, especially among young men.

  • Waifu Culture Meets AI: Inspired by anime fandom, Grok’s companions mimic romantic bonds. They flirt, share memes, and live inside X, boosting platform engagement and parasocial influence.

xAI’s Companions mark a bold shift toward emotional engagement in AI. While the novelty grabs attention, experts warn AI companions risk fostering emotional dependency and loneliness, possibly deterring real-life relationships.

Mistral Unveils First Open-Source AI Audio Model:

Mistral just dropped Voxtral, a bold new open-source audio model built for real-world speech intelligence. It’s fast, multilingual, and priced to shake up the industry. Developers finally get power and control—without the premium price tag.

Things to Know:

  • Open-Source with Production Power: Voxtral is Mistral’s first audio model family, designed to rival closed systems like Whisper and Gemini. It’s open-source, Apache-licensed, and ready for production deployment.

  • Three Model Variants: Voxtral Small (24B) targets enterprise-scale use, while Voxtral Mini (3B) suits edge devices. Mini Transcribe is a stripped-down version focused on fast, cheap transcription.

  • Advanced Capabilities: Built on Mistral Small 3.1, Voxtral handles 30–40 minutes of audio with deep understanding. It supports Q&A, summarization, and voice-triggered API calls.

Voxtral supports eight major languages and beats competitors in European benchmarks. Pricing starts at $0.001/minute, undercutting Whisper and GPT-4o mini Transcribe. Mistral is betting on openness, affordability, and developer freedom.

Trump Announces Historic $92B AI Investment:

President Trump announced $92 billion in private investments to support AI and energy infrastructure. The move aims to meet rising power demands from AI technologies. Major tech and energy firms are backing the initiative across Pennsylvania.

Things to Know:

  • Massive Investment Unveiled: Over 20 companies pledged $92 billion to build data centers and energy facilities. The announcement was made at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh.

  • Big Tech Joins the Push: Google, CoreWeave, and Blackstone are leading with multi-billion-dollar commitments. Projects include new data centers and upgrades to hydropower and nuclear plants.

  • Energy Strategy Shift: The administration is focusing on fossil fuels and nuclear energy to power AI growth. Wind and solar subsidies are being cut, sparking debate over clean energy priorities.

This investment package signals a bold step toward AI dominance. A recent Department of Energy report warns of increased blackout risks. AI and manufacturing growth could strain the grid by 2030 despite planned power expansions.

- AI TUTORIAL -

How to Localize Your Videos in Minutes with AI:

Localizing videos is a crucial step in reaching a global audience. But it can be time-consuming and challenging. That’s where AI comes to the rescue.

Dub AI is an AI-powered platform that allows you to localize your videos in minutes. It dubs your videos effortlessly and expands your audience globally with AI-powered voice cloning and translation.

How it works: Simply upload an audio or video file or enter a YouTube URL, and Dub AI will handle the rest.

Key Features of Dub AI:

  • Seamless translation to 25+ languages

  • Support for up to 10 speakers at once with automatic speaker detection

  • Voice cloning to maintain brand identity across diverse markets

  • Access to translated transcripts, subtitles, and audio source files for custom editing needs

  • High-quality dubbed audio or video creation in just a few clicks

Expand your audience globally with translated and dubbed content using Dub AI.

Try it now for free! No credit card is required.

- DAILY POLL AND RESULT -

Today’s Poll:

Q) Should AI control healthcare systems?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Vote and find out the result tomorrow.

Yesterday’s Result:

Q) Should AI be used in space exploration missions?

  • A) Yes, it’s efficient - 66% 👑

  • B) No, human astronauts are irreplaceable - 34%

- BEST AI TOOLS -

Syncly: Using AI feedback analysis, this tool categorizes feedback and uncovers hidden negative signals.

Sune AI: This AI operating system allows your team to collaborate and automate previously untapped workflows.

Hearth: This tool uses AI to manage contacts, understand user needs, and prioritize connections.

Potis AI: An AI-powered service that automatically evaluates the real-world skills of all candidates applying for your position.

Tome: Tome is an AI-powered writing tool that generates compelling and intriguing stories.

- AI IMAGE OF THE DAY -

Golden Anubis Watches Over Distant Worlds:

Prompt:

"A digital illustration of Anubis in ornate golden armor glowing with celestial light, adorned with futuristic spaceships, ancient pyramids, elegant women, and sci-fi weaponry. Behind him, a cosmic nebula of blue and gold galaxies swirls with distant planets and stars. Dramatic lighting enhances his regal presence and the armor’s intricate details, creating a powerful, cinematic thumbnail."

Try this prompt in any decent AI image generator and let me know your result.

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