Clay raises $100M, OpenAI goes open-source & more (August, 6 2025)

Good morning,

OpenAI just dropped two open-source models that are making waves, DeepMind might’ve built the first AI with real-world memory, and Claude’s quietly getting sharper.

Let’s get into it 👇

🧠 Model Wars Heat Up

🏗️ OpenAI Launches Open Models on AWS

OpenAI has released gpt-oss-120b and 20b under Apache 2.0. These high-performance open-weight models rival their proprietary cousins and are optimized for tool use and reasoning. The 120b even runs on a single GPU. It’s the first time OpenAI models are available on AWS, signaling a loosening bond with Microsoft.

👨‍💻 Claude Opus 4.1 Gets Smarter at Debugging

Anthropic’s latest Claude update improves performance on multi-file code refactoring and bug detection without introducing new issues. It scored an impressive 74.5% on SWE-bench Verified.

🌍 DeepMind’s Genie 3: A “See the AGI” Moment

Genie 3 generates minutes-long 3D environments from text at 720p and 24fps. Its standout feature? Physical memory. It learns how the world works based on what it’s already generated. Elon Musk called it the future of gaming, and OpenAI’s Steven Heidel called it a "see the AGI" moment.

💼 AI Tooling & Experiments

💰 Clay Raises $100M to Scale AI Sales

Clay, the AI sales automation startup, just announced a $100M funding round at a $3.1B valuation. The platform helps teams find leads, write emails, and personalize outreach, fast. The raise signals growing demand for AI-first sales workflows and vertical-specific automation tools.

🎶 ElevenLabs Drops Licensed AI Music Generator

While Suno and Udio wrestle with lawsuits, ElevenLabs launched a model that avoids legal risk via licensing deals with Merlin and Kobalt. Artists must opt in, ensuring cleaner usage rights.

🧠 Letta Rises in Terminal AI

Letta's terminal-use agent ranked 4th on Terminal-Bench, excelling at real-world command-line tasks. It’s fully open-source and gives devs the tools to build context-aware agents with persistent memory.

🧰 Tools of the Day

• AvatarTalk – Talking-head avatars in 17 languages

• OpenArt – One-click video creation from anything

• Mockin – Job interview simulator for designers

🧪 Prompt of the Day

Humanize ChatGPT’s Output

⚡ Quick Hits

• ChatGPT now has session break reminders to promote healthier usage

• Microsoft’s Project Ire can reverse engineer malware without human help

• Gemini CLI GitHub Actions is your async AI coding teammate

• Brave’s AI Grounding API helps reduce hallucinations in LLMs

• OpenAI eyeing $500B valuation in upcoming share sale

• xAI may open source Grok 2 next week

🧾 TLDR

OpenAI’s open models are finally out and available on AWS. Claude 4.1 and DeepMind’s Genie 3 showcase serious progress in coding and world modeling. Clay’s $100M raise highlights AI’s sales potential, while ElevenLabs drops a legally-sound music model. New tools keep rolling, and today’s prompt wants your AI to sound more like you.

Until next time,
David