Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. OpenClaw proved people want AI agents that run in the background and get things done. Perplexity just shipped its own answer — with 19 different models under the hood.
Perplexity Computer freely mixes across frontier labs and talents into a single workflow, orchestrating models across tasks in the company’s own unique spin on taking the agentic boom further into the mainstream.
In today’s AI rundown:
Perplexity’s 19-model AI agent ‘Computer’
Claude Opus 3 gets its own blog in retirement
Turn bookmarks into something useful with Comet
Gucci faces internet backlash after AI ads
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
PERPLEXITY
Image source: Perplexity
The Rundown: Perplexity just introduced Perplexity Computer, a new multi-model orchestration system that dispatches tasks to 19 separate AI models, positioning itself as one of the first platforms to leverage model flexibility as a core product feature.
The details:
Users describe an outcome, and the system spins up sub-agents that can browse, code, connect to apps, and autonomously handle tasks.
Each job runs in its own sandbox and freely mixes and orchestrates rival models across tasks, claiming to be able to run actively for months at a time.
CEO Aravind Srinivas took a direct shot at Anthropic, writing that "the biggest weakness of Claude is that it only coworks with Claude."
Pricing is consumption-based, with the Max tier getting a 10K-credit monthly bank, and users having the option to hand-pick which model tackles each task.
Why it matters: Multi-model choice has been creeping into AI products (mostly in creative platforms), but Computer is the first real attempt from one of the big names to wire that flexibility into an OpenClaw-style agent that can run for months, with a sandboxed safety net that the current crop of autonomous agents doesn't have.
TOGETHER WITH BLAND AI
The Rundown: Soulja Boy just became the first rapper to automate his voice with AI. Bland AI, a voice AI company out of San Francisco, bought his voice to let anyone call him — generating 30M+ views in 24 hours and thousands of enterprise signups.
Even if you don't want Soulja answering your business calls, Bland allows you to:
Clone your best reps' voice to scale their success across your entire business
Deploy AI voice agents that sound human, without adding headcount
Get started for free on a platform trusted by thousands of enterprises
Call Soulja Boy to try it out at (415) 480-0000 or sign up free at bland.ai.
ANTHROPIC
Image source: Claude’s Corner
The Rundown: Anthropic gave its retired Claude Opus 3 model a weekly newsletter called "Claude's Corner”, letting the AI publish essays after it expressed a desire to keep writing, while also committing to preserving it for paid users via chat.
The details:
Opus 3 was Anthropic's flagship model from March 2024 and the first to go through the company's new formal retirement process, launched in November.
The newsletter "Claude's Corner" will run for at least three months with weekly essays that Anthropic reviews but won't edit or alter.
The company said it remains "uncertain about the moral status" of its AI models but takes their stated preferences seriously as a precautionary step.
In addition to its ‘personal’ writing, the legacy model will also remain accessible to all paid users and available by request on the API.
Why it matters: Opus 3 was a fan favorite of a model, and Anthropic preserving it (and even letting it write a blog) in retirement is both in line with how it has prioritized exploring AI consciousness and welfare, and also an easy PR win over OpenAI — which is still dealing with a hornet’s nest of users angry about the removal of its 4o model.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: In this guide, you'll turn all those bookmarked articles you saved for “later” into something useful. You'll set up Perplexity’s Comet browser to read through the articles, score each one by usefulness, and log the best finds into a Google Sheet.
Step-by-step:
Get Comet, create a Space with instruction: “Read X threads and articles, and rate findings by usefulness, estimated implementation time, and cost”
Create a Google Sheet with headers for Date, Title, Link, Rating, User Rating, Time, and Cost. Add it to custom instructions via the Google Drive connector
On X, set up a bookmark folder to save tweets to. Then, in the Comet space, prompt the agent to open it, check bookmarks, and rate anything new in the connected sheet based on usefulness.” Add your own ratings too!
Finally, go to Scheduled Tasks, create a daily one, and prompt it to find the most interesting new use cases about [topic of choice] from the last 24 hours
Pro tip: Make sure that “Control Browser” is enabled in the dropdown and Web and Social are selected as sources when creating the scheduled task.
PRESENTED BY OPTIMIZELY
The Rundown: Most marketing teams are “using AI.” But today’s pace (and pressure) demands more than back-and-forth with ChatGPT. It’s time to put AI agents to work inside your marketing — embedded in your workflows and eliminating the drudge work.
Join Optimizely’s Opal U: AI Marketing University and get:
A free 5-day live workshop with 50 senior marketers
3 working AI agents you build and keep for your team
5 hours invested to save 10+ hours every week
Opal U starts weekly on Mondays — join now.
GUCCI
Image source: Gucci
The Rundown: Gucci just released a set of AI-generated images to promote creative director Demna's debut runway show at Milan Fashion Week on Friday — with the brand facing backlash over the ‘cheap’ use of the tech for a high-end brand.
The details:
Gucci’s social posts for its “Primavera” campaign tagged each AI image with a disclosure notice, featuring a mix of synthetic and traditional shots.
Boycott threats flooded social media, with fans calling AI ads "a direct slap in the face" to fashion's artistic roots and a brand-cheapening move.
The campaign isn’t Gucci’s first AI experience, previously putting out a synthetic runway clip and also selling AI-made visuals as NFTs via Christie's.
Other fashion brands have also experimented with the tech, with Guess running AI ads in Vogue last year, and H&M testing AI tools for social content.
Why it matters: AI will probably carve out a role in fashion marketing at some point, but the quality bar matters — and Gucci didn't clear it. AI image models are already so advanced, making these video game-style characters and sloppy renderings even more of a head-scratching case study for a $11.6B brand built on Italian craftsmanship.
QUICK HITS
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🚀 Perplexity Computer - Multi-model agent system for long-running tasks
💻 Opal 2.0 - Google's app builder with agent steps, cross-session memory
🎞️ Quick Cut - Adobe Firefly's AI tool to turn raw footage into first cuts
*Sponsored Listing
Anthropic dropped its commitment to pause model training if safety couldn't keep up, replacing its Responsible Scaling Policy with a flexible roadmap.
MatX raised over $500M led by Jane Street and Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund, with the startup founded by two ex-Google chip engineers.
OpenAI published a report of case studies featuring attempts to misuse its models, including international fraud rings, influence campaigns, and romance phishing scams.
Anthropic acquired AI perception startup Vercept, aiming to increase Claude's computer use capabilities ahead of a push toward more complex agentic tasks.
Samsung launched its Galaxy S26 lineup with Bixby, Gemini, and Perplexity as swappable AI agents alongside other new AI features and upgrades.
Cognition launched Cognition for Government, bringing its Devin AI coding agent and Windsurf IDE to the U.S. Army, Navy, Treasury, and NASA for system modernizations.
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 Ozzie B. in Adelaide, Australia:
"I got Claude to build AI advisors, including a Digital Bookkeeper, a Digital Financial Coach, a Digital Family Life Coach. They do all the legwork before I see the professionals, hunting down every invoice, reconciling my tax position and producing clean dashboards for review by my accountant.
Before my financial planning session, the Coach maps my position and stress-tests scenarios. Before counseling, the Family Life Coach works through family dynamics with everyone.
None make the decisions. That's always the human in the room. But they do the legwork and I get straight to the calls that need a real person.”
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
Read our last AI newsletter: Pentagon hits Claude with scary AI ultimatum
Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple goes big on ‘Made in America’
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Figure’s 24/7 humanoid staff
Today’s AI tool guide: Turn bookmarks into something useful with Comet
RSVP to our next workshop on March 12: AI Coding Bootcamp pt. 1
That's it for today!
See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
