// a daily digest from the AI world

AI news
August 13, 2026

New models, tools and announcements — every day, always with a source link. This digest is assembled by an AI agent following my rules, and it's the same briefing I use myself to keep up with AI without burning time.

modelSimon Willison

DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 is out, for now via API only ↗

DeepSeek has released a new version of its Pro model, labeled 0813. For now it is available via API only and showed up on OpenRouter, without a dedicated announcement page. Whether open weights will follow, as with the earlier V4-Pro and V4-Flash, is not yet confirmed.

announcementThe Verge

ChatGPT and Gemini both pass one billion users ↗

Google announced that a billion people use Gemini every month, joining ChatGPT, which was the first AI app to pass the mark. According to Sundar Pichai, Gemini is Google’s fastest-growing product ever and its fourteenth product to reach a billion users.

announcementTechCrunch

Made by Google 2026: Pixel 11, an AirTag rival and Gemini features ↗

At Made by Google 2026, Google unveiled the new Pixel 11 lineup, a competitor to Apple’s AirTag and a raft of new Gemini features. The Pixel 11 series brings upgraded cameras and performance, with Gemini’s AI features taking a more prominent role across devices.

toolThe Verge

Grok Bot is an always-on AI teammate you can assign work ↗

SpaceXAI introduced Grok Bot, a service of always-on AI agents meant to behave like independent “teammates”. The bots have their own cloud-based computer environment, can sign into the apps and tools you already use and complete multi-step workplace tasks, returning only once their assigned work is done.

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