Google vs OpenAI, copyright battles & more (December 12, 2025)

Happy Friday!

Big platform fights, bigger policy swings, and Google and OpenAI refusing to blink. Today’s drop is all about escalation, who controls the AI stack, and who’s trying to write the rules mid-race.

Let’s dig in.

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🚨 Model Wars & Platform Power

⚡ OpenAI fires back with GPT-5.2

OpenAI fires back at Google with GPT-5.2 just days after an internal Google “code red” memo leaked. The release sharpens OpenAI’s lead on reasoning and coding benchmarks, signaling that rapid counter-launches are now the norm in frontier model competition.

🧠 Google drops its deepest research agent yet

Google launched its deepest AI research agent on the same day as GPT-5.2, letting developers embed Gemini-powered deep research directly into products. It’s Google’s clearest move to turn research agents into a platform primitive.

🌐 Google debuts Disco for browser-to-app building

Google debuts Disco lets users turn open browser tabs into functional web apps using Gemini. This pushes “vibe-coding” directly into Chrome workflows, skipping traditional dev environments.

🏛️ Policy, Copyright & Control

🏛️ Trump orders federal push against state AI laws

Trump orders government to fight state-level AI regulations, arguing they slow innovation and fragment policy. Expect major clashes between federal authority and states trying to regulate AI harms locally.

🎬 Disney hits Google with copyright claims

Disney hits Google with cease and desist letters over alleged large-scale copyright infringement tied to AI training. This could become a defining legal test for media companies versus model builders.

🧰 Tools of the Day

→ Gemini 6 – Google’s latest model for reasoning, agents, and long-context tasks.
→ Korgi – AI workflow assistant for automating research, summaries, and task handoffs.
→ Kaily – Lightweight AI copilot for writing, planning, and daily productivity.

🧠 Prompt of the Day

“Summarize this article, identify who benefits financially, who loses leverage, and what breaks next.”

⚡ Quick Hits

→ Runway releases first world model, adds native audio to video generation.
→ Cursor launches pro design tools, moves deeper into Figma workflows.
→ Fermi falls 51 percent after AI campus funding concerns surface.
→ 1X struck deal to deploy humanoids into factories and warehouses.
→ Google’s AI try-on feature now works from a single selfie.
→ Interest in AI bird monitoring software spikes globally.

🧾 TLDR

OpenAI and Google are locked in rapid-fire launches, Washington is trying to centralize AI control, and copyright fights are heating up fast.

Until tomorrow,
David