Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. First came tighter rate limits. Then came the backlash. Now Anthropic is going a step further, cutting off third-party agent platforms like OpenClaw from Claude’s subscription plans entirely.
It’s a pricing correction the company says is about sustainability, but the timing couldn’t be worse — with OpenAI aggressively courting the same developer audience Anthropic has built its reputation on.
-
Anthropic boots third-party agents from Claude plans
-
The Rundown Roundtable: Our AI use cases
-
How to take AI notes on phone calls
-
Netflix opens physics-aware AI for video editing
-
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more
ANTHROPIC
Image source: Lovart / The Rundown
The Rundown: Anthropic just blocked agent platforms like OpenClaw from running on Claude plans, requiring users to pay separately via usage add-ons or API keys, as the company confronts agent-driven demand its flat-rate pricing was never built to absorb.
-
Agent tools hit Claude with nonstop requests that exceed what its normal plans typically cover, despite Anthropic models being the leading driver for the tech.
-
Anthropic’s Boris Cherny announced the change, saying it is a step towards “managing growth to continue to serve our customers sustainably long-term”.
-
Anthropic is handing out credits worth a month’s subscription, discounting add-ons up to 30%, and offering refunds amid cancellation requests.
-
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger criticized the step, saying, “First they copy popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source.”
Why it matters: Anthropic was already catching heat over tighter rate limits, and walling off its agentic power-user community won’t help the goodwill problem. It’s a tough situation with Anthropic’s agent usage likely playing a role in degrading normal user experience, but OAI is now there as the alternative at a crucial time in the rivalry.
TOGETHER WITH UNWRAP
The Rundown: Unwrap is a customer intelligence platform that pulls your feedback – surveys, reviews, support tickets, social comments – into one view, using AI and NLP to surface actionable insights and deliver them straight to your inbox.
-
All customer feedback automatically categorized
-
Query feedback using Unwrap Assistant, or in your favorite tools using Unwrap’s MCP
-
Real-time alerts from feedback as they arise
-
A clear view of customer sentiment
THE RUNDOWN ROUNDTABLE
Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown
The Rundown: The Rundown Roundtable is a weekly feature where we poll members of The Rundown staff about how we use AI in our work and daily lives.
Joey, Head of Partnerships: I have set up Claude to give me a daily outfit recommendation based on the local weather and the type of brands that fill 70% of my closet. I’ve provided examples and feedback, so suggestions become more and more accurate to my style and what I would normally wear without needing to think about it.
Nate, University Educator: Opposite of high school science class, I love that I never have to worry about being embarrassed to ask Claude when I don’t understand something. The icing on the cake is to have it use the new chat visualizations feature.
After watching (the wonderful) Hail Mary Project Movie with my kids, I needed some help trying to explain the science of Time Dilation. It helped me get a little closer.
Billy, University Educator: I used AI (Perplexity Computer) to buy jeans for myself because I hate online shopping. It hunted for deals on the brands I like and even double checked each link was in stock for my size. Great success.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to set up an AI notetaker that works with any call on your iPhone. You probably know about AI notetakers for web, but most people don’t know that you can also do it on both outbound and inbound phone calls.
Note: Check the recording consent laws for your state before recording your calls.
-
Install Granola from the App Store, open it, tap the phone icon in the bottom left to set up. Enter your number, then follow the verification instructions
-
To make a call, tap the phone button, pick a contact/type a number, and call. The call works like a normal one, but Granola is listening in the background
-
After hanging up, wait a minute. Granola will give a summary with action items and anything worth remembering. No need to stay on screen during processing
-
If you want to use Granola for an inbound call, you can open the app and create a new note. It will only be able to transcribe your voice though
Pro tip: Name notes in a format like [name] @ [company], create folders for work and personal calls. You can also connect Notion, Zapier, Slack, HubSpot, or your CRM.
PRESENTED BY GOOGLE CLOUD
The Rundown: The AI race is won by shipping fast and scaling seamlessly. Google Cloud’s Startup technical guide cuts through the noise, giving technical founders pre-built frameworks to design, build, and deploy intelligent autonomous systems in record time.
Inside the updated guide, you’ll discover:
-
Pre-built frameworks to accelerate autonomous agent design
-
Streamlined prompt engineering workflows to save developer hours
-
Frictionless deployment strategies using Google Cloud infrastructure
AI RESEARCH
Image source: Netflix Research
The Rundown: Netflix just released VOID, an open-source framework built to erase video objects while rewriting the physics associated with them, instead of typical erasing and inpainting tools.
-
Existing removal tools just paint over backgrounds, without actually reasoning about the cause-and-effect those edits introduce across the broader scene.
-
VOID uses a mask that maps what to erase, what’s physically affected, and what to keep, with a judge model then charting the consequences.
-
VOID can handles physics it never trained on, with demos like a balloon floating when a holder is removed or blocks not falling when one in the chain is erased.
-
25 evaluators compared VOID against six baseline models including Runway, preferring Netflix’s results nearly 2/3 of the time.
Why it matters: This is Netflix Research’s first public AI release, and its a sign of where the video space is heading — intuitive systems that don’t just erase objects in footage like an image editor, but can actually simulate and alter the physics of the scene based on the changes for more controllability and real production use.
-
🔀 Merge Gateway – Control plane for production AI: routing, cost, and reliability in one API*
-
⚙️ Cursor 3 – Cursor’s agent-first interface for parallel coding agents
-
🎥 PikaStream 1.0 – Pika’s video chat AI that gives any AI agent a face, voice
-
💎 Gemma 4 – Google’s new open-weight AI with SOTA intelligence for its size
OpenAI is navigating a leadership change, with Fidji Simo on medical leave, COO Brad Lightcap on special projects, and CMO Kate Rouch stepping down for cancer recovery.
Anthropic acquired startup Coefficient Bio for roughly $400M, folding the team into its healthcare and life sciences group focused on drug discovery.
Mercor confirmed a data breach tied to an attack on open-source library LiteLLM, with hackers claiming access to up to 4 TB of data from the $10B AI training startup.
Pika Labs released PikaStream 1.0 in beta, a real-time model that lets AI agents join Google Meet calls as video avatars with voice cloning and live conversation.
OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT in CarPlay, allowing users to access Voice Mode in their supported vehicle for hands-free use.
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 Kevin R. in Terre Haute, IN:
“My main passion is building and modifying RC cars. I’ve been in the hobby for 40+ years. I am also a moderator on one of the longest running RC forums.
A radio system came out from Radiomaster with a very powerful open source firmware by EdgeTX. This radio has a steep learning curve, so the surface based RC guys and gals are not too keen to learn it. So I decided to build a wizard to program various car models, but I am definitely not a coder.
I have been using Claude, Gemini, and Grok to help me. When Claude generated the first working version of the app, it blew me away. Finally, I could bring my ideas to life. Now I am completely hooked, and learning so much. Your email sub has been a HUGE help! So thank you!”
How do you use AI? Tell us here.
That’s it for today!
Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today’s newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you.
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown
