Image: made using DALL·E (Custom edited by me)
Welcome to the very first edition of the RSN—I’m thrilled to share my personal take on this week’s advancements in AI, tech, design, innovation, and everyday life. This is specially curated with the best of the best information we need for things in time to come. There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s dive right in!
"When electric dreams meet armored ambition—follow the $400M twist in sustainable government transport."
Lately, there’s been buzz around a U.S. Department of State procurement forecast that allegedly included a whopping $400 million for armored Teslas. The mention briefly switched to “Armored Electric Vehicles,” and the entire proposal is now on hold. Meanwhile, Elon Musk himself flat-out denied knowing about any such deal. From my perspective, this situation illustrates just how quickly these big government procurement plans can shift—especially when politics, PR, and big personalities collide. I’m intrigued to see if the government’s growing interest in EV fleets (even potentially armored ones) signals a larger move toward sustainable, electric-based official transport in the near future.
"The AI giants battle for dominance, but are we ready for the power behind the autocomplete?"
Talk about an AI arms race: Microsoft has Copilot, Google launched Gemini, and OpenAI is pushing GPT-4 and beyond. We’ve seen these tools evolve from “lab experiments” into mainstream conversation. Yet it’s worth remembering—these massive language models are essentially advanced autocomplete engines, predicting the next word in a sentence. For me, this underscores the balance between excitement and caution: these breakthroughs can genuinely transform productivity, but we also need to keep an eye on misinformation. The best AI tools are ones that remain transparent about their limitations (and that we, as users, understand them).
"Smart assistants now remember—convenient or creepy?"
Google’s Gemini AI assistant just gained the ability to recall past conversations (for users subscribed to Gemini Advanced via Google One AI Premium). That means you can pick up where you left off without re-explaining things. It’s a handy feature—especially if you’re juggling multiple projects—but also raises fresh questions about privacy and data control. I appreciate the convenience, though I’m keeping a watchful eye on how these chat histories are stored and used. It’s reminiscent of ChatGPT’s ability to “remember” details from previous sessions, yet we still want to know exactly how our data’s handled long term.
"The SE grows up—Apple’s ‘budget’ iPhone might just be its smartest move yet."
Apple’s February 19th event is rumored to debut the next iPhone SE—boasting a bigger screen, Face ID, and potentially an A18 chip. There might even be an Action button and some Apple Intelligence features baked right in. With so many changes, the iPhone SE is no longer a simple “entry-level” device—it’s evolving into a genuinely modern piece of hardware. I’m definitely curious to see if Apple integrates more AI or “intelligence” capabilities. We’ve watched them focus on in-house chip development and custom modems; maybe they’ll push further into on-device AI that doesn’t rely as heavily on cloud processing.
"From Orion to GPT-5—OpenAI’s bold vision to unify the future of intelligence."
Sam Altman just dropped OpenAI’s near-future roadmap. GPT-4.5—codenamed “Orion”—will be the last model that doesn’t use “chain-of-thought” reasoning. Then we can expect GPT-5 to unify different lines of AI models, offering tiered “intelligence” for free, Plus, and Pro ChatGPT users. Meanwhile, Elon Musk made headlines by offering a jaw-dropping $97.4 billion to buy out OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, but that bid appears likely to fail. For me, this speaks to how fast AI is innovating—and how big the financial stakes are. The promise of a “magic unified intelligence” is intriguing, though it may come with new challenges in how we measure, regulate, and monetize intelligence in AI form.
This week’s news highlights a dynamic interplay of tech, politics, and design—from Tesla’s rumored federal deals to Google’s and Apple’s new offerings, to OpenAI’s ambitions for a unified AI model. If there’s a through line, it’s that the future arrives swiftly, and it usually brings more questions than answers. That’s where RSN comes in: I’m here to share my perspective each week, connecting the dots between these stories so we can all stay a step ahead. If you found this interesting, stick around for the next issue, because we’re only just scratching the surface of what’s to come.
Thank you for reading, and welcome to the RSN community!
— Ritik Sharma, Founder, RSN (Ritik Sharma Newsletter)