In partnership with
Welcome back to The AI Field. Two OpenAI team members used GPT-6 Astra to design a real handheld gadget, from the case to the code, in under a week as a side project. The catch: it still took people several rounds of fixes to get it factory-ready.
Also inside: Google ties school Search to its AI, and Siri opens to every app.
In today's AI Field:
Two people and GPT-6 Astra design a gadget in under a week
Google ties Search in schools to its AI tools
Apple opens Siri AI to every app, in beta for now
Plus: six AI tools, three quick hits, today's most viral AI posts on X, and a five-minute way to find the cheapest holiday flight across nearby airports.
Read time: 4 minutes
200+ Claude Prompts Top Professionals Actually Use at Work
Claude can be your analyst, editor, and strategist.
But most professionals are using it to fix grammar.
These 200+ Claude prompts take it from grammar tool to your most powerful AI work assistant.
Sign up for Superhuman AI and get:
200+ ready-to-use Claude prompts to get real work done in minutes — researched, tested, and used by professionals at Google, Microsoft, and NASA
Superhuman AI newsletter (4 min daily) so you keep learning new AI tools and skills to stay ahead in your career — the prompts are just the beginning
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI · HARDWARE
Click the clip to watch OpenAI's 82s demo. Source: OpenAI.
The AI Field: Two OpenAI team members used GPT-6 Astra to design a small handheld you talk to Codex through, in under a week, as a side project. OpenAI's test was whether the model could create a device "without any direct human edits," so Astra set the requirements and designed the case, the circuit board, the interface and the firmware.
The details:
Real prototypes: Astra picked the parts and laid out the board to fit its own case. A contract manufacturer built a small batch in under a month. It's a test device, not a product OpenAI is selling.
Not factory-ready on its own: getting it ready for manufacturing took several rounds of review and iteration, because Astra didn't consistently account for production limits, tolerances or assembly details.
The bigger push: model use across OpenAI's hardware teams, measured in tokens, is up 23 times since February. A newer internal model, not Astra, scored 0.875 on the BenchCAD 2.0 design test, against 0.594 for Astra. Chip Ganassi Racing is testing it on real parts, and a new Mazda research project on aerodynamics and crash safety has no results yet.
Why it matters: Hardware is slow because case, electronics and code live in different tools. Here one model carried a design across all three, so two people went from idea to design in under a week and had prototypes in under a month. The factory side still needs people, so use it for early drafts and keep engineers on the final files.
TRY THIS TODAY · 5 MINUTES
Find the cheapest holiday flight across nearby airports
One traveler needed Thanksgiving flights from Chicago to Connecticut, with 5 to 7 airports within a two-hour drive of where he was going. He asked Meta Muse to compare flight plus Uber cost from each one. He says it returned the three best options for time and money, with a link to click purchase, and saved him 30 to 60 minutes.
1. Open an AI assistant that can search the web. He used Meta Muse, but the prompt works in any assistant with web search.
2. Fill in the brackets and give it this prompt:
"We are flying from [HOME CITY] to [DESTINATION] for [HOLIDAY OR DATES]. List every airport within a [2]-hour drive of [DESTINATION ADDRESS]. For each one, find the cheapest round trip for [NUMBER] people that leaves after [TIME] on [DATE] and gets back before [TIME] on [DATE], and add the cost of a rideshare from that airport to the address and back. Rank the best 3 options by total cost and total travel time in a short table, with booking links. Don't book anything; I'll choose."
3. Check the final fare on the airline's own page before you pay, since holiday prices move. Ride prices are estimates, and surge pricing can make a farther airport cost more.
GOOGLE · EDUCATION
The AI Field: Once the changes roll out in the coming months, Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Search will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school admins turn them on. But schools that switch off Google's AI "will not have access to Search," Google's Chris Phillips told The New York Times.
The details:
What's new: Guided Learning, which coaches students step by step instead of giving answers, is in Google Classroom worldwide from today. In Search, it starts as a pilot in select US schools later this month.
The backlash: Sen. Bernie Sanders called the policy "extortion", and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said "no corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children."
Google's answer: the changes "give schools more choice, not less," it said in an X post.
Why it matters: Schools have tried to block chatbots while keeping search. Google says that line is gone in its products, which squeezes districts that run on Chromebooks. If you have kids in school, ask what your district plans to turn on.
APPLE · SIRI AI
Image: Daniel L. Lu (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The AI Field: Apple now lets any app plug into Siri AI, its rebuilt Siri, through App Intents. For now it's a preview for app makers in the 27.3 betas of iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. Apps get Siri's personal context, onscreen awareness and plain-language requests, so you'll be able to ask it to check a delivery or book a table.
The details:
Skills: apps can teach Siri to chain several actions into one request.
Timing and limits: app integrations reach customers "in a few months," with App Store submissions opening in spring. Siri AI isn't in the EU on iOS, iPadOS and watchOS, or for anyone under 13, and server features have daily limits, with more access "for a fee in the future."
The fine print: the same day, Apple's annual filing warned that AI agents "may behave in unintended or unpredictable ways." CEO John Ternus said: "We just want to make sure that users are aware of what they are giving access to."
Why it matters: This is the Siri that acts inside other apps, promised for two years. For app makers, spring is the deadline. For everyone else, heavy Siri use may not stay free, so watch for pricing details.
TRENDING AI TOOLS
Six tools you can try today, starting with three new ones. Click a name to open the tool, or browse more in our 👉 AI tools directory.
✉️ Corvo: A new email service, not a Gmail add-on. Sign-in codes get a Copy button, trackers are stripped on arrival and scams get flagged. Its agent drafts replies, but nothing sends without you. Free plan.
🎮 Flockbay: A free AI game maker inside the Godot game engine. Its agent writes the code and scenes, then plays the game to test it. Free hosted AI to start.
📱 Peji: An AI browser for iPhone that clicks and types through real tabs to finish a job, like a price comparison, and waits for your tap before it buys or sends anything. Free on the App Store.
⚙️ Make: Tired of re-explaining your setup? Make's AI assistant Maia now remembers which apps and accounts you use, from one chat to the next. Free plan, with a 30-day Maia trial.
🧱 Base44: Have a pitch deck? Attach the PowerPoint, and Base44 uses it as the reference for the app it builds. Free plan to start.
✨ Genspark: Need a short video? Media Studio agrees on the script and storyboard with you before it renders, then adds voice, music and subtitles. Free daily credits to try Genspark.
QUICK HITS
📈 AMD rides the AI chip boom: Revenue rose 45% to $13.38 billion as data center sales nearly doubled.
🔞 Apple rates AI companion apps 18+: Dating and romantic AI companion apps get an 18+ rating from November 16.
🔏 Anthropic shows how to prove which model answered: FlashProve, an open-source research project, proves a specific model produced an output. No deployment plans yet.
In case you missed it: yesterday's most-clicked story, Anthropic warns AI may soon speed up its own progress.
TRENDING ON X
🧠 Sam Altman: people must stay in control: OpenAI's CEO wrote that people "should not cede control of the future to superintelligence," and that this should ultimately constrain AI progress. 5.1M views.
📞 Grok Bot makes phone calls for you: Sawyer Merritt's demo, with the call audio, shows it running the conversation with a live transcript and asking you when it needs more info. 2.3M views.
🩺 Grok Bot booked a same-day doctor visit: While he drove, Min Choi says it found a pediatric orthopedist for his daughter, called them and got her in at 9:30 that day. 1.6M views.
🏫 Google defends its school AI changes: Google's clarification says Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search start off by default, and each school decides which to turn on. 455K views.
🚀 Tencent launches Hy4: Tencent says its new model is "new with vision" and "firmly among the leading open models." 142K views.
That's it for today!
See you soon,
Olle Hellman | Founder of The AI Field