OpenAI pushes Codex to the Max

PLUS: Use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Gemini 3 is the talk of the AI world — and while there are still more fireworks from Google expected this week, OpenAI just dropped an upgrade of its own to remind everyone who the AI leader is.

The new Codex-Max model claims performance and efficiency that put it at the top of the AI coding charts once again, while grinding out development sessions of 24+ hours straight in the process.

Reminder: Our next live workshop, ‘The Human-First Agentic Content Workflow’, is today at 4 PM EST. Join and learn how to use n8n to automate content while keeping human judgment involved for accurate and strong outputs. RSVP here.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • OpenAI’s Codex-Max tackles 24-hour coding tasks

  • Saudi Arabia inks AI deals with xAI, Nvidia

  • How to use Gemini 3 to build powerful simulations

  • Meta’s computer vision AIs turn photos into 3D models

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just rolled out GPT-5.1-Codex-Max, an upgrade to its agentic coding model that uses a new “compaction” technique to work across context windows for longer-running, complex tasks and handle development sessions of over 24 hours.

The details:

  • Codex-Max shows strong improvements over Codex-High across development benchmarks, also surpassing the new Gemini 3 Pro in coding tasks.

  • The model uses 30% fewer tokens than its predecessor while running significantly faster on real-world tasks through improved reasoning efficiency.

  • Compaction allows Max to ‘prune’ session history while preserving context, allowing it to work across millions of tokens and for over 24 hours straight.

  • The model is immediately available in OpenAI’s Codex CLI and IDE extensions for Plus, Pro, and Enterprise users, with API access also launching soon.

Why it matters: While Gemini 3 stole OAI’s thunder this week, coding performance was one of the few areas still lagging — and Codex-Max (another incremental update instead of a bigger release) pushes the field even higher. The 24-hour coding sessions also continue the up-only trend of task time capabilities for top AI models.

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HUMAIN

Image source: HUMAIN

The Rundown: Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN announced new AI partnerships with xAI, Nvidia, and other major companies at the U.S.-Saudi investment forum — including a plan to deploy 600K GPUs, build a 500+ MW data center, and deploy Grok nationwide.

The details:

  • xAI will build its first international data center in Saudi Arabia, deploying Grok nationwide through HUMAIN's agent platform for government & enterprise use.

  • The HUMAIN deals expand to the West for the first time, establishing Nvidia-powered data centers in the U.S. in addition to its Middle East infrastructure.

  • AWS will also roll out 150K chips to Saudi Arabia’s ‘AI Zone’ data center, with other HUMAIN partnerships including AMD, Cisco, Adobe, and Qualcomm.

  • AI video platform Luma AI also announced a $900M raise led by HUMAIN to build a 2GW supercluster launching in 2026 for multimodal model training.

  • The U.S. government reportedly approved AI chip sales to both HUMAIN and the UAE’s G42, opening the door to exports in the region after previous limits.

Why it matters: Despite previous restrictions and national security concerns around AI deals in the Gulf region, the floodgates are open — and everyone is ready to take advantage of the big money, energy, and land ripe for datacenters. Saudi Arabia’s big moves are quickly turning the country into a major player in the industry.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Gemini 3 to create interactive simulations, educational visualizations, and functional tools in one shot, leveraging its benchmark-shattering capabilities for visual learning and rapid prototyping.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to the Gemini homepage and select "Gemini 3 Pro" for reasoning, or "DeepThink" for advanced performance (confirm availability in your region)

  2. Enter your prompt in the chat box — example: "Build a 3D simulation of a quantum computer"

  3. Review the immersive simulation output and click "Explain" to activate the AI tutor for summarized learning, then view or share the code

  4. Experiment with different projects like games, content schedulers, or data dashboards; try again if the sim is not functional and visually appealing

Pro Tip: Use Gemini 3 Pro for visual learning, building internal tools, and rapid prototyping. It’s particularly strong in those areas.

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META

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta released SAM 3 and SAM 3D, two computer vision models that identify, segment, and rebuild objects or people in a photo into 3D models through text descriptions, alongside a new Segment Anything Playground to try these systems.

The details:

  • SAM 3 segments objects using detailed text descriptions like "yellow school bus," an upgrade from the fixed label limitations of previous vision models.

  • SAM 3D Objects and 3D Body reconstruct scenes and human figures from single photos, achieving 5:1 win rates in human preference tests over rivals.

  • Both models launched on the new Segment Anything Playground for free experimentation, with SAM 3 weights and code also fully open-sourced.

  • Meta is deploying the tech into Facebook Marketplace's ‘View in Room’ feature, with integration into Edits and Vibes creation apps also coming soon.

Why it matters: The computer vision upgrades we’ve seen over the last few years are massive, and Meta’s new open-source models bring even more powerful segmenting and 3D capabilities to everyone — with applications both across Meta’s product lines and for individual users in creative, robotics, and other workflows.

QUICK HITS

  • 🏆 Gemini 3 - Google’s new top-ranked AI model

  • ⚙️ Antigravity - Google’s new agentic development platform

  • 🤖 Agent 365 - Microsoft’s new platform for managing AI agents

  • 🫂 Poe - New group chat with up to 200 users and 200+ model options

OpenAI started rolling out a “more capable” GPT-5.1 Pro to ChatGPT Pro users, with sharp gains in writing, data science, and business tasks.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is resigning from OpenAI’s Board of Directors following the reveal of his email exchanges with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Nabla Bio unveiled JAM-2, an AI model that designs therapeutic antibodies directly on computers with drug-quality properties and SOTA success rates.

AI music startup Suno announced a new $250M funding round that values the company at $2.45B.

Adobe is acquiring SEO platform Semrush for $1.9B, integrating the tech into marketing tools to help users optimize presence across search and AI platforms.

Warner Music Group is also dropping its lawsuit against AI music platform Udio, joining UMG in licensing its catalogs for Udio’s coming platform revamp.

COMMUNITY

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Beth T. in Belmar, NJ:

"I volunteer at my local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, and when they needed help with their Clover POS system, they turned to me. I had zero experience with Clover. I used ChatGPT to learn the entire system—asking questions, troubleshooting issues, and walking through setup and configuration. I also use ChatGPT to create posters for VFW events. The combination of guidance and creative support has saved me hours."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

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