How to extract anything from a photo and generate it in 3D using AI 🔥

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

In today's issue, we show you how to extract any element from a photo and turn it into a polished 3D model in minutes, no experience needed.

Let’s jump into it!

Read Time: 4.5 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• The WSJ Reveals Why OpenAI Really Shut Down Sora

• Microsoft Unveils AI Updates and Opens Early Access to Copilot Cowork

• AI Tutorial: Extract anything from a real photo and generate it in 3D

• AI Tools to check out

• AI Findings/Resources

• The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

AI News

OPENAI

The WSJ Reveals Why OpenAI Really Shut Down Sora

The hype around Sora was massive when it was first announced, but six months later, OpenAI abruptly decided to shut it down. A new WSJ investigation shares the reasons why.

Details:

• The Sora app hit 1 million downloads in less than five days after launch, but after the hype died down, usage rapidly collapsed to fewer than 500,000 and never recovered. All while costing the company around $1 million a day.

• Beyond the shrinking user base, OpenAI also faced copyright issues and growing internal concerns, with some employees feeling the app's social-media-style engagement model would hurt the brand, while others raised safety concerns around AI-generated video.

• The report says OpenAI's research team was about to begin a training run for a new video model, but after running the numbers on how much it would cost, the company decided to cancel it.

• OpenAI felt it was falling behind competitors in key parts of the AI race, with Google's Gemini gaining traction and Anthropic winning over the software engineers and enterprises that drive revenue. The solution: kill Sora, free up compute, and refocus on coding, enterprise, and robotics.

All in all, Sora was a money pit that very few people were actually using, and the company deemed that keeping it alive would ultimately cost OpenAI the AI race. The Sora app will shut down on April 26, with the API following on September 24.

Source

TOGETHER WITH GLADLY

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MICROSOFT

Microsoft Unveils AI Updates and Opens Early Access to Copilot Cowork

Microsoft has introduced new upgrades to its Copilot assistant, adding multi model capabilities and expanding access to its Cowork agent as competition in AI assistants intensifies.

Details:

• A new feature called Critique allows Copilot to use multiple AI models in a single workflow, combining outputs from both OpenAI's GPT and Anthropic's ​Claude models to improve response quality.

• GPT generates the response while Claude reviews it for accuracy and clarity before it is shown to the user. The company plans to make that workflow bi-directional in the future, allowing GPT to review Claude's drafts as well.

• Microsoft says this approach can reduce errors, limit hallucinations, and improve overall reliability by having models check each other’s work.

• The company is also introducing a feature called Model Council, which lets users compare answers from different AI systems side by side.

• Copilot Cowork is now being rolled out to more users through Microsoft's Frontier Program.

These updates come as Microsoft pushes to strengthen Copilot adoption amid rising competition from other AI platforms and assistants.

Source

AI Tutorial

Extract anything from a real photo and generate it in 3D

1. Go to Gemini, select "Create image," and enable thinking mode.

2. Upload your image and use this prompt:

"Generate an image of the [element] in this image. White background, 3/4 view. Make it 100% identical to the original and fill almost the entire white canvas."

3. Download the image and go to Copilot 3D Labs.

4. Upload your image and generate it in 3D.

AI Tools to check out

🗣 Vozo: AI-powered translation, dubbing, lip sync, and more — built for creators, marketers, and educators.

📹 AIReel: One-stop AI video generator from image or text.

⭐ Chronicle: Create high quality,AI presentations.

🧠 Productize Your Mind: Turn your course into a suite of custom, branded AI tools for your students. For coaches, consultants, educators & creators.

✨ Vesso: Turn raw copy into production-ready designs.

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AI Findings/Resources

📚 Google's 9 hour AI prompt engineering course in 20 minutes

📌 Claude Code creator Boris Cherny shares his favorite hidden and underutilized features of the tool

🤦 Tennessee woman wrongfully jailed due to AI facial recognition error

⏱ 10 Claude workflows that save 10+ hours a week

🎮 Someone built a fighting game where AI models battle each other

The latest in AI and Tech

All xAI co-founders have now reportedly left Elon Musk's AI company

According to Business Insider, the last two remaining co-founders at xAI, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, have now left the company, leaving Elon Musk without any of his original 11 co-founders.

Both reported directly to Musk, with Kroiss leading the pretraining team and Nordeen serving as his "right-hand operator."

Sam Altman told staff he was trying to “save” Anthropic during its collapsing negotiations with the Pentagon

Axios obtained internal Slack messages showing Altman portrayed himself as a peacemaker while Anthropic's Pentagon negotiations were falling apart. They also show him privately venting that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had spent years trying to undermine him.

Starcloud reaches $1.1 billion valuation

Starcloud has raised $170 million, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation as interest grows in moving AI computing to space. The company plans a massive satellite network to support data processing and is already working with partners like Nvidia, Amazon, and Google.

Meta to launch two new Ray-Ban AI glasses

Meta is preparing to release two new AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses specifically designed for those who already wear prescription glasses. The models, reportedly called Scriber and Blazer, could include hardware upgrades and improved connectivity for features like livestreaming.

Eli Lilly expands its partnership with Insilico Medicine 

AI-powered biotech company Insilico Medicine has signed a deal with pharma giant Eli Lilly and Company that could be worth $2.75 billion, plus tiered royalties on future sales, that allows the pharma giant to exclusively use Insilico's AI engine for drug discovery and development across several therapeutic areas.

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻