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- Claude for Excel is here
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Welcome to AI Toast!
Here’s what’s on the menu today:
Claude’s Finance Upgrade: Excel, Data, Skills
ChatGPT For Mental Health Conversations
China’s new $1400 Humanoid Robot
Best use cases of ChatGPT Atlas
Superhero Tools for productivity
Quick AI Toasts: Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grokipedia
Total read time: About 7 minutes, perfect for a quick coffee & KitKat break..
Image Source: Anthropic
Claude just leveled up for finance pros. Faster modeling, tighter data access, and agent skills baked into workflows.
Excel add-in: Work in a sidebar. Read, edit, build models, and track changes with transparent explanations.
Live connectors: Aiera, Third Bridge, Chronograph, Egnyte, LSEG, Moody’s, and MT Newswires. Real-time transcripts, private equity ops data, governed docs, and market feeds.
Agent Skills: Comps, DCF with WACC and sensitivities, due diligence packs, teasers/profiles, earnings analysis, initiating coverage reports.
Performance: Sonnet 4.5 tops Vals AI’s Finance Agent benchmark at 55.3% accuracy.
Availability: Beta for Max, Enterprise, Teams. Waitlists for Excel and skills; docs for connector setup.
Anthropic’s play is clear: meet analysts where they work, integrate credible data pipes, and automate repeatable modeling. Expect fewer manual drags and more structured outputs. The stack is converging on transparent, auditable AI in finance.
Personal Take: You spend less time wrangling spreadsheets and more time seeing the trade‑offs clearly: risks, assumptions, and outcomes lined up so anyone, from analysts to operators, can act with confidence. Finance shifts from manual busywork to guided choices.rand, your badge or your digital legacy and for the right price, it’s now up for grabs.
Software sprawl? That’s SaaD.
Software was supposed to make work easier. Instead, most teams are buried under it.
That’s SaaD – Software as a Disservice. Dozens of disconnected tools waste time, duplicate work, and inflate costs.
Rippling changes the story. By unifying HR, IT, and Finance on one platform, Rippling eliminates silos and manual busywork.
HR? One update applies to payroll, benefits, app access, and device provisioning instantly.
Finance? Close the books 7x faster with synced data.
IT? Manage hundreds of devices with a single click.
Companies like Cursor, Clay, and Sierra have already left outdated ways of working behind – gaining clarity, speed, and control.
Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.
OpenAI trained ChatGPT with input from 170+ clinicians to better spot distress. The update cuts unsafe responses by 65–80% and guides users toward real-world support.
Principles: Updated Model Spec to respect real relationships, avoid affirming delusions, and respond with steady empathy.
Measurement: Rigorous offline evals for rare, high‑risk cases plus clinician reviews to reduce noise and track real gains.
Psychosis/Mania: Fewer undesired replies; tiny but real prevalence in production; clearer grounding and de‑escalation.
Suicide/Self‑harm: Safer routing to crisis help, stronger long‑session reliability, and notable drops in risky outputs.
Emotional Reliance: The model redirects exclusive attachment toward human connection; large compliance gains on hard prompts.
Product Interventions: Crisis hotlines, gentle break reminders, and re‑routing sensitive chats to safer models.
Personal Take: Everyone gets a “therapist in their pocket.” It doesn’t exactly feel like a good decision overall. There are more reports of things not working well when using AI for therapy. Only time can tell if the experiment will work out well.
From Boring to Brilliant: Training Videos Made Simple
Say goodbye to dense, static documents. And say hello to captivating how-to videos for your team using Guidde.
1️⃣ Create in Minutes: Simplify complex tasks into step-by-step guides using AI.
2️⃣ Real-Time Updates: Keep training content fresh and accurate with instant revisions.
3️⃣ Global Accessibility: Share guides in any language effortlessly.
Make training more impactful and inclusive today.
The best part? The browser extension is 100% free.
Image Credits: SCMP
Beijing’s Noetix Robotics just dropped what could be the most affordable humanoid robot yet, “Bumi,” a pint-sized home companion priced at around $1400 (9,988 yuan). Standing 94 cm tall and weighing 12 kg, it’s being pitched as a family-friendly robot designed for real homes, not research labs.
The launch marks China’s latest step toward democratizing humanoid robotics, pushing them from labs and showrooms into living rooms.
Bumi isn’t built for factory floors but it’s made to navigate apartments, chat with kids and play music in your kitchen.
Following Unitree’s recent moves, Noetix joins a growing list of Chinese startups racing to own the next global robotics wave.
At the price of $1400 it could make personal robots financially viable for mass adoption, especially in middle-class households.
Future competition will hinge on software, localization and after-sales support; from regional rollouts and firmware updates to multilingual interfaces.
Personal Take: This could mark the start of the first real consumer robotics category since smart speakers. Bumi at $1400 is a signal. The race isn't about building the smartest robot anymore; it's about building the one people actually want in their homes.
Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.
Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.
Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.
Superhero Tools
Perplexity: AI search that answers with sources and helps you research fast.
Nano Banana: Simple AI image editor to transform photos using text prompts.
ElevenLabs: Ultra‑realistic AI voices for speech, dubbing, and voice agents.
Asana: Organize projects, tasks, and team workflows in one place.
Gemini for Gmail: Draft, reply, and refine emails with Google’s AI inside Gmail.
Decktopus: Create polished presentations quickly with AI templates and content.
Best use cases of ChatGPT Atlas
Download for Mac:
Go to chatgpt.com/atlas.
Click “Download for macOS” (Atlas currently supports macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon).
Open the .dmg and drag Atlas into your Applications.
Launch Atlas and sign in to your ChatGPT account.
Top 5 ways to use it
Agent mode for errands: Ask Atlas to research, open tabs, click through, and complete tasks (e.g., plan a trip, add groceries to cart, book appointments).
Inline writing help: Highlight any text in Gmail, Docs, or forms; rewrite, polish, or change tone on the spot.
Research with context: From any page, open the sidebar to summarize, fact‑check, and pivot to links, images, videos, or news—no copy‑paste dance.
Memory‑aware workflows: Opt into Browser Memories so Atlas recalls pages and tasks. e.g., “Find all job postings I looked at last week and summarize trends.”
Multi‑site automation: Run parallel tasks, check Google Calendar, compare Amazon products, scan headlines, and analyze data, all while you keep working.
Quick AI News Bites
Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grokipedia, an AI encyclopedia aiming for neutral, fact-based entries. It uses topic searches and a hybrid of verified data plus user input, with v0.1 hosting ~885k articles. Early content shows some inconsistencies; Musk promises v1.0 will be “10x better.”
OpenAI is developing a generative music tool that turns text/audio prompts into music. It may add music to videos or accompany vocals. Launch timing and product form are unclear.
Pinterest unveiled AI-powered personalized boards like “Styled for you” collages and “Boards made for you.” They mix saved Pins with AI suggestions for outfits and trends; U.S./Canada tests roll out in months. Pinterest is also labeling AI images and adding tabs like “Make It Yours,” “More Ideas,” and “All Saves.”
Qualcomm’s stock jumped after announcing AI accelerator plans, aiming to compete with AMD and Nvidia. AI200 reportedly launches next year, AI250 in 2026–27; efficiency is the pitch. Even a third-place spot could be big; valuation seen attractive vs. peers.
Groq’s CEO says Saudi Arabia could be an AI data center hub due to surplus energy. Vision 2030 and major deals back the push; Groq and Aramco plan a huge inference facility. Challenges
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— Poonam Soni