BIG STORY #1: The US and China Agree to Start a "Super Intelligence" Dialogue
The world's two biggest AI powers have agreed to sit down and talk. According to Axios, the US and China will create a "U.S.-China Super Intelligence (SI) Dialogue" to discuss the risks and benefits of advanced AI, with the next meeting expected by November. As part of the deal, both sides agreed to refer to AI as "super intelligence," or "SI", a label President Trump has been pushing world leaders and US agencies to adopt, reportedly because "artificial" sounds fake. 🌏
Why should you care? When two rivals racing to build the most powerful technology agree to open a regular line of communication, that's a small but real step toward shared ground rules. It won't settle anything overnight, and a new name doesn't change what the technology can actually do. But the decisions made in rooms like this will shape the AI tools that end up in your workplace, your phone, and your kids' classrooms.
BIG STORY #2: Microsoft Rolls Chat, Code, and AI Agents Into One Copilot "Super App"
Microsoft has unveiled a new version of Copilot, its AI assistant, that brings chatting, coding, and AI "agents" together in one place. The idea, as Computerworld reports, is to give companies one standard way for employees to use AI across everyday office work, business software, data, and development tools, instead of a messy pile of separate AI apps. 💼
If your employer uses Microsoft products (and chances are it does), this could change how AI shows up in your workday. Instead of juggling five different AI tools, you might have one assistant that understands the context of your work. For the people running IT, it also means a clearer picture of which AI tools are being used and what they cost. The upside is simplicity; the question worth asking is how much of your work that one assistant will see.
IN PLAIN TERMS: What does "super intelligence" actually mean?
In the tech world, "superintelligence" usually refers to a hypothetical future AI that's smarter than humans at nearly everything… not just faster at math or writing emails. Think of today's AI like a very talented new hire 🧠 who's brilliant at some tasks and surprisingly clumsy at others. Superintelligence would be a colleague who outperforms the whole company, in every department, all at once. That's why the new naming matters: calling today's tools "super intelligence" is a bit like calling a promising intern the CEO. As Axios points out, the tech world has its own definition… and it describes something most experts say we haven't reached yet.
QUICK HITS
🕶️ Meta goes all-in on smart glasses: At its Connect event, Meta's smart glasses were everywhere, as the company pushes to keep us connected to the digital world right from our faces.
🚕 Robotaxis are going mainstream: Waymo now offers driverless rides in 15 US cities and averages 500,000 paid trips a week… up from just three cities in September 2024.
👩💻 AI helpers for coders get organized: JetBrains launched JetBrains Air, a set of tools for managing AI-powered software development for individual developers and whole teams.
This week, I noticed the usual two extremes in the headlines... some make it sound like superintelligence has already arrived, others like it's the beginning of the end. I'm thinking the real story is quieter: two rivals agreeing to keep talking, and one big company trying to make AI at work a little less chaotic. Neither is a revolution (and a new name certainly isn't), but these are exactly the kinds of steps that decide whether AI ends up working for us. Keep asking good questions… they're worth more than any rebrand. 🌟