- Horizon AI
- Posts
- Google Photos now lets you star in your own memes 🎭
Google Photos now lets you star in your own memes 🎭
Anthropic Expands Access to Claude in Excel 👀
Gina Acosta
January 26, 2026
In partnership with
Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,
Google Photos is rolling out a new AI-powered feature that lets you put yourself directly into meme-style images. In today’s issue, we explore the new Me Meme feature, which promises to make creating your own memes easier than ever.
Let’s jump into it!
Read Time: 4.5 min
Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI
More Users Can Now Try Claude in Excel
Meta Pauses Teen Access to AI Characters
AI Tutorial: Turn yourself into a meme with Google Photos’ new Me Meme feature
AI Tools to check out
AI Findings/Resources
The Latest in AI and Tech 💡
AI News
ANTHROPIC
More Users Can Now Try Claude in Excel
Anthropic is now rolling out an update that brings Claude in Excel to all Pro subscribers, along with several functional improvements.
Details:
Launched as a research preview in October 2025, Claude in Excel is an add-in that integrates Claude into your Excel workflow
It was previously limited to Max, Team, and Enterprise users during its beta phase.
With this update, Claude now accepts multiple files via drag-and-drop, avoids overwriting existing cells, and supports longer work sessions through automatic compaction.
This release comes amid the increasing popularity of Claude Code and the recent launch of Cowork, reflecting Anthropic’s ongoing momentum as it reportedly aims to raise around $25 billion at a $350 billion valuation in a new funding round.
TOGETHER WITH CONSTANT CONTACT
Marketing that’s always on — even when you’re not. Get automation tools that send your messages for you
You can’t be everywhere at once — but your marketing can. With Constant Contact’s automation tools, your emails, texts, and offers go out at the right time, every time — without you having to lift a finger. Want to show your audience you care about them? Use an automaton template to send birthday messages. Working on driving sales? Set up an abandoned cart email automation to gently urge almost-shoppers to become actual shoppers. Looking to bring lapsed customers back into the fold? Send automations with offers and promos to entice them to buy again. You can even create custom automation paths that work best for your business.
It couldn’t be easier. Just set up automatic triggered messages based on your customers’ behavior, and watch those messages run while you focus on everything else.
If you’re ready to save time and put pesky administrative tasks on autopilot, give Constant Contact’s marketing automation tools a try. Get started today — for free.
META
Meta Pauses Teen Access to AI Characters
Meta is temporarily disabling teens’ access to AI characters across all its apps as it works on an updated version with stronger safety and parental controls.
Details:
The company said teens worldwide will no longer be able to access AI characters across its apps in the coming weeks, covering both users who list a teen birthday and accounts the company believes belong to teens based on its age-prediction systems.
Meta said it is not abandoning AI characters, but rebuilding them into a newer version.
The updated AI characters will include built-in parental controls and give age-appropriate responses, with conversations limited to topics such as education, sports, and hobbies.
The decision comes as Meta faces increasing regulatory pressure, including an upcoming New Mexico trial over allegations it failed to protect minors from sexual exploitation and another case accusing the company of contributing to social media addiction.
AI Tutorial
Turn yourself into a meme with Google Photos’ new Me Meme feature
The new ‘Me Meme’ feature uses generative AI to turn your photos into playful, shareable visuals in just a few taps. No more jumping between apps, templates, and editors.
Open the Google Photos app on your phone
Tap Create, then choose Me Meme
Pick a template you like (pick from Google’s presets or upload your own image)
Add a photo of yourself. For best results, choose a prominent selfie or a photo where your face is clearly visible.
Hit Generate and let Google Photos do the rest
After the meme is generated, you can save it directly to your library, share it to other apps, or tap Regenerate to get a different result.
Note: The feature will be available only to U.S.-based users for now. If it’s not showing up yet, you’ll need to wait as it continues rolling out.
AI Tools to check out
📄 LiveDocs: An advanced AI agent for data analysis, from question to result in seconds.
🎥 Tight Studio: Record your screen and make a beautiful demo video without complex editing.
💥 PDF.beauty: The world’s most accurate converter for banana pro generated image-based PDFs that transforms locked slides into fully editable PPTX.
📷 RewarxStudio: Turn snapshots into professional, high-converting product photos for Amazon, Shopify, eBay, etc.
📈 Muze AI: An autonomous AI that creates, runs, and optimizes performance ads end to end.
TOGETHER WITH GLADLY
Your competitors are already automating. Here's the data.
Retail and ecommerce teams using AI for customer service are resolving 40-60% more tickets without more staff, cutting cost-per-ticket by 30%+, and handling seasonal spikes 3x faster.
But here's what separates winners from everyone else: they started with the data, not the hype.
Gladly handles the predictable volume, FAQs, routing, returns, order status, while your team focuses on customers who need a human touch. The result? Better experiences. Lower costs. Real competitive advantage. Ready to see what's possible for your business?
AI Findings/Resources
📌 Claude Code best practices: 50 Claude Code tips
👀 Users share the most impressive thing Gemini has done for them
The latest in AI and Tech
AI video startup Synthesia has raised a $200 million Series E, lifting its valuation to $4 billion, up from $2.1 billion a year ago. Led by existing investor GV with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Accel, NEA, NVentures, and others, the round comes as the company surpassed $100 million in ARR in 2025.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that the company plans to release several Codex-related products in the coming month, with the first launch scheduled for next week.
The company is rolling out an opt-in “Personal Intelligence” update that lets Search’s AI Mode analyze users’ Gmail and Google Photos to tailor responses based on interests and daily activity.
This major update adds subagents for parallel task handling, image generation, skills and more.
The company has poured $2 billion into AI cloud provider Coreweave, buying shares at $87.20 each and deepening their partnership to build AI data centers exceeding 5 gigawatts of capacity by 2030.
That’s a wrap!
We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's email!Your feedback helps us improve our content |
Not subscribed yet? Sign up here and send it to a colleague or friend!
See you in our next edition!
Gina 👩🏻💻