Google launches new AI shopping features

Welcome back, Superhuman. Hitting the slopes this winter? Uber just launched Uber Ski, a shuttle service that’ll haul you (and your gear) to 40+ mountains across the US, Canada, & Europe. Strapping skis to your sedan’s roof is officially obsolete.

Today: Google’s latest AI shopping updates, learn how to build an app with AI in 25 minutes, and get the latest prompts and trending social posts.

TODAY IN AI

1. Google launches new AI shopping features for the holiday season: The latest updates include conversational search in Search, shopping in Gemini, and agentic checkout. The search giant also released an AI that calls local stores for you, asks questions, then texts or emails you the answers. See how to use the new AI shopping features here. The Photos app is also getting 6 new AI features, which you can explore here.

2. Anthropic stops large-scale AI-powered espionage campaign: A threat actor manipulated Claude Code into attempting to infiltrate roughly 30 global targets, but Anthropic identified the suspicious activity and banned the accounts. The AI startup believes with high confidence that a Chinese state-sponsored group orchestrated the campaign, with AI handling 80-90% of the operation.

3. Tavus lets you create AI avatars for face-to-face conversations: The startup just raised $40 million to continue developing PALs, emotionally intelligent digital avatars that can reportedly see, hear, reason, and take action like humans. Tavus has developed 5 PALs total, each with distinct personalities. Join the waitlist here or see PALs in action here.

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THE AI ACADEMY

How to build an app with AI in 25 mins (no technical skills needed)

You’ve probably seen a dozen AI tools that claim they can generate a working app. But how do you actually build an app with these tools — especially when you have no coding and technical skills?

In this tutorial, you’ll learn:

• How to use the Mocha app builder

• Which prompts to use when building

• How to add features and fix bugs

• How to add a backend and user authentication

Watch the full tutorial here

FROM THE FRONTIER

A new study finally gives us a look into how AI agents perform at real work

Can you really use AI agents to be more efficient at work? Here’s what a new study says.

Upwork’s Human+Productivity Index (HAPI). Upwork’s HAPI is one of the first data-driven evaluations of AI agent performance on real client work. The study tested AI agents from three frontier models (Claude Sonnet 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and OpenAI GPT-5) across 300 Upwork projects, specifically selecting simple tasks AI agents could reasonably handle.

Where AI agents do (and don’t) excel. Results from the test showed that AI agents perform best at tasks with objectively correct answers, like math or basic coding. But qualitative work like designing landing pages or crafting marketing copy? That's where agents struggled — at least without human guidance.

For improved results, add human experts. AI agents performed much better when human experts were added to the mix. On average, job completion rates jumped 70% when humans and agents collaborated versus agents working alone. This pattern was consistent across different styles of work.

Don't quit on agents yet. Does this mean learning to use AI agents is a waste of time? Not at all. Upwork CTO Andrew Rabinovich points out that "Where a project might take a freelancer days to complete independently, the agent-plus-human approach can deliver results in hours through iterative cycles of automated work and expert refinement."

Upwork’s results show that human expertise directing AI horsepower can help compress days’ worth of work into hours.

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IN THE KNOW

What’s trending on socials and headlines today

🎮️ SIMA 2: DeepMind launched an AI agent that can think and navigate its way through virtual 3D worlds. Watch it in action here.

🧑‍💻 Productive Procrastination: Clad Labs lets you game or doomscroll while waiting for AI to complete tasks. It’s so niche that some people thought it was fake — until YC backed it.

🌎️ World Generator: Forget AI-generated emails — World Labs’ Marble lets you generate entire 3D worlds from text, image, or video prompts. See it in action here.

😺 AI Animals: Today’s viral animal videos feature Whiskers the poker player and an overly musical cat.

Cursor raises $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation with plans to continue developing its suite of AI coding tools, including its AI model Composer.

Parallel Web Systems raises $100 million to build a web that’s better suited for AI agents. The startup is run by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 New & Trending AI Tools

• 🤖 Guru*: Is the AI Source of Truth that delivers cited, trusted answers across every workflow — automatically.

• 📽️ Instories: Create trendy reels with zero effort with AI.

• 🧑‍💻 Resumly: Build resumes and automate job search with AI.

• 📱 Momen: Turn your Lovable prototype into a real app with AI.

• 🧑‍🏭 Loophole: An AI that reads your screen, answers instantly, and actually gets things done.

^{* indicates a promoted tool, if any}

PROMPT STATION

Map Out Your Workflows

Prompt: I need help creating workflows for my daily tasks at work. 
Here's the information about one of my tasks:

Task Description: [Describe task]

Objective: [Explain the goal of the task] 

Current Steps: [List steps you currently follow] 

Tools and Resources: [Any software or tools you use]

Collaborations: [List any dependencies or collaborations]

Time Frame: [Estimated time for completing the task]

Challenges or Bottlenecks: [Describe any current challenges] 

Desired Outcome: [Define what success looks like] 

Based on the above information, can you help me break down this task into a step-by-step workflow?

Source: Forbes

Friday Fun

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• Check out our Top 125 AI Tools

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Until next time — Zain & the Superhuman AI team