😸 Your AirPods just got magical

Welcome, humans.

There’s something interesting happening right now where professional service providers are openly ChatGPTing things during sessions with their clients, like this guy who filmed his doctor pulling up GPT mid check-up:

Another post that went viral was about therapists secretly using GPT during their sessions with clients. First of all: if you’re a therapist doing this, please don’t? Instead, check out Ash, the AI tool designed with therapy in mind, and see if it’s useful for that use-case. Do NOT use ChatGPT.

As for Doctors using ChatGPT, many commenters joked he was using the “GPT 5 free version” (which is famously not so good). Now, many doctors are using a tool called OpenEvidence, which answers clinical questions with evidence from medical journals (If you wanna learn more about how it works, watch this). The tool raised so much money, one of the cofounders just bought a very nice house (get it, Daniel!).

We share both of these because there are powerful, specialized tools for specialized use-cases and it’s important to use them when things as important as health and safety are on the line. Also, if you’re going to use GPT, at least be a lil’ more subtle about it??

Here’s what happened in AI today:

Apple added real-time translation to AirPods Pro with offline processing.
Nvidia-backed Reflection AI neared $5.5B valuation funding deal.
AI expert-matching platform Mercor fielded $10B valuation offers.
Google released VaultGemma, the largest open and private AI model.

Advertise in The Neuron here

P.S: We just released an AWESOME podcast interview with Illia Polosukhin, one of the co-creators of the “Attention is All You Need” paper, and his NEAR project that aims to make AI that's actually owned by users, not corporations. His solution? Blockchain + confidential computing + open-source models = AI that works for you, not against you.

Also, if you have some time and want a laugh, check out the AI for Humans podcast, one of our favorite AI pods (and friends of the newsletter!) who give the most fire weekly AI recaps.

Your AirPods Just Became the Universal Translator from Star Trek (Sort Of)

Last week, Apple had its September event, where it announced the iPhone 17 (Air and Pro) and, rightfully so, very little AI. But the one main feature they DID announce will undoubtedly make your next trip to Paris way less awkward: real-time translation straight into your AirPods. Press both stems simultaneously, and boom: you're having conversations in languages you don't speak.

Meanwhile, Google's sitting there like “we've been doing this since 2017, but okay.”

Here’s how it works: The AirPods Pro 3 (and surprisingly, the Pro 2 and AirPods 4) now translate conversations on the fly. Someone speaks Spanish to you, you hear English in your ears. You respond in English, their iPhone shows Spanish text. It's powered by Apple Intelligence and works completely offline; so you’ll still be able to hear what’s up at that sketchy Barcelona hostel.

The details are actually impressive:

Supports 5 languages at launch (English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish).
It’ll add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese later this year.
Requires iPhone 15 Pro or newer for Apple Intelligence features.
Completely offline processing for privacy.

Here's the awkward part: unless both people have compatible AirPods, it's a one-sided superpower. You hear translations, but they're reading your responses off your phone screen like subtitles. Imagine negotiating with a street vendor while they squint at your iPhone. Not seamless, kinda tedious, but at least you can hear them.

Also, Live Translation is not available in the EU (a multilingual region that could really use it) due to regulatory restrictions.

Apple’s not alone, either. Google's been playing this game longer with Pixel Buds, and just expanded to 70+ languages through Google Translate. Google's August 2025 update made the setup much smoother, too: just tap 'Live translate' and start speaking—the AI automatically switches between languages and handles pauses naturally. It works with any Android phone running 6.0+, no fancy AI chip required. Google’s Translation now works seamlessly across Google Meet video calls, too (which could make for some easy or messy international business calls, depending on how they go!)

Reality check: Neither system is replacing human translators anytime soon. Despite AI being perfectly made for translation, translator jobs haven't really disappeared. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows only a slight drop since 2019 with flat growth projected through 2034. AI mostly just makes translators faster, while the complex stuff like interpreting nuance or specialized legal language still needs actual humans.

We think this tech is awesome, but it might require some learning curves to get used to. For example: what happens if the auto-translators mis-translates a word or phrase? We’ll likely have to learn the hard way to double check any weird phrases instead of taking them at face value: “Did you mean to say ‘the cat I farted?’” “No no, I meant ChatGPT, like the AI tool!” “Oh yeah, in French that means something different…” )

It's not perfect (yet), but we're closer to that Star Trek universal translator than ever… what that means for Tower of Babel allegories, we’ll let you decide for yourself…

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Prompt Tip of the Day.

Google’s new image editor, Nano Banana, is really good at editing pictures. Because of that, probably the best practical use-case for it is “auditioning” what new furniture or home renovations could look like using your own photos. Check out this example:

Treats to Try.

*Asterisk = from our partners. Advertise in The Neuron here.

*Play.ht turns your text into realistic voice narration for videos and audiobooks.
BuildKit by Pica enables you to create production-ready AI integrations with just a prompt, giving you access to 25,000+ actions across 150+ services like Gmail without dealing with API keys (free trial, then paid plans).
Genstore AI helps you build and manage an online store through chat, automating everything from setup to product management so you can launch within seconds without coding (kinda like AI Shopify).
AegisAI uses agents to catch phishing and BEC attacks in your email with 90% fewer false positives, deploying in 5 minutes via API without changing MX records (from Ex-Google security leaders, raised $13M).
Born creates generative games, starting with social AI companions like virtual pet Pengu that requires co-parenting between users (raised $15M).
Brain Co builds applications that automate your institutional processes, like 80% faster government permitting and 30% cheaper supply chain optimization, partnering with OpenAI (raised $30M).
CS Connect from Cedars-Sinai is a 24/7 virtual care platform with AI recommendations that have proved optimal in 77% of cases versus 67% for physicians (it has already served 42K+ patients since 2023).

Around the Horn.

Want to see the main cast of Star Wars Episode 1 act out a scene from Super Bad? (Warning: lots of swearing!) Now you can… (workflow is Runway Act-Two/Aleph, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Nuke)

Nvidia-backed Reflection AI, started by Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou who worked on Google Gemini, neared a deal for $5.5B valuation in latest funding round.
Mercor has received offers valuing it at $10B for its AI training marketplace that connects domain experts with companies like OpenAI and Meta.
Google released VaultGemma, the first large, capable language model trained with mathematical privacy guarantees that prevent it from memorizing or leaking any specific information from its training data, solving one of AI's biggest privacy concerns.

AI in the real world

Hippocratic AI partnered with University hospitals to deploy conversational AI agents across their health system, with AI handling non-diagnostic tasks like medication support.
Otto Aerospace unveiled the Phantom 3500, a business jet designed using AI that achieved 35% drag reduction and targets 60% less fuel usage than competitors, with flight testing beginning in 2027.
Carbon Robotics' laser weeder eliminates over 100K weeds per hour with precision targeting.

A Cat’s Commentary.

That’s all for today. For more AI treats, check out our website.

The best way to support us is by checking out our sponsors: today’s are BlinkOps and Play.ht.

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😸 Your universal translator is here