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- Issue #167: Apple Picks Google as Its AI Foundation
Issue #167: Apple Picks Google as Its AI Foundation
PLUS: Claude expands beyond developers, Meta bets on massive scale, and personal AI goes mainstream
Nathan Lands
January 15, 2026
Good morning, welcome to this week’s Lore Brief, your 3-minute brief of the most important moves in AI and tech.
This issue is brought to you by Factory, the fastest way to ship software with autonomous engineering agents.
Anthropic launches Claude Cowork for non-technical work →
“Cowork” expands Claude Code beyond developers, letting the model work directly with local files to edit documents, build spreadsheets from images, or draft content from rough notes. It’s rolling out via the macOS app for Max users. See more here →Apple chooses Google for its AI foundation models → The multi-year deal bases next-gen Apple Intelligence on Gemini tech for personalized features like Siri. The collaboration is a big win for Google and bad news for OpenAI. Read more here →
Google debuts Personal Intelligence for tailored Gemini responses → Opt-in feature connects Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history to personalize answers, like custom trip ideas or book suggestions based on your data. Read more here →
Meta plans massive AI data-center expansion → Zuckerberg outlined plans to deploy tens of gigawatts of compute this decade, aimed at training frontier models and supporting future AI-powered wearables. The bet is scale as a core advantage in the AI race. Read more here →
A great example of useful software generated on the fly just when needed:
Upscale any video to sharp 4K:
Claude Code surges in popularity on X among developers and vibe coders → Over the last few weeks, Claude Code has been all over X, with developers and vibe coders raving about it as a game-changer for rapid prototyping and complex projects. Developer Eyad Khrais shared two solid guides on best practices: Guide 1 and Guide 2
Manus teams up with Similarweb for AI-driven web analytics → The partnership embeds Similarweb's digital intelligence into Manus agents, giving access to 12 months of traffic data, competitor benchmarks, channel breakdowns, and regional insights. Read more here →
Gemini adds vertical video to Veo 3.1 → Google’s video generation model now supports portrait-format video and more dynamic outputs from simpler prompts. The update is live in the Gemini app for paid users. Read more here →
Court filings reveal Ilya Sutskever’s OpenAI stake → Documents from Elon Musk’s lawsuit show Sutskever held roughly $4B in vested OpenAI equity during the 2023 internal conflict. Details on unvested shares remain unclear. Read more here →
Google Antigravity introduces reusable Agent Skills →
Antigravity now supports the open “Skills” format that Claude code introduced, allowing users to plug in reusable capabilities for workflows and utilities. The move pushes the IDE further toward an agent-first development model. Read more here →Moon hotel proposal targets 2032 launch → A startup backed by Nvidia funding claims it can open the first lunar hotel by 2032, with prices starting at $416,667 per night. Read more here →