Google’s answer to the AI arms race

✨TodayOnAI’s Daily Drop

• Google’s answer to the AI arms race

• Spotify tests more personalized, AI-powered ‘Prompted Playlists’

• Figma launches new AI-powered object removal and image extension

• 💬 Let’s Fix This Prompt

• 🧰 Today’s AI Toolbox Pick

Google

Google’s answer to the AI arms race

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Google has promoted longtime AI systems leader Amin Vahdat to chief technologist for AI infrastructure, a new executive role reporting directly to CEO Sundar Pichai. The move reflects Google’s intensified focus on scaling its AI backbone as it plans up to $93 billion in capital expenditures through 2025.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• New role, direct reporting line: Vahdat will now serve as chief technologist for AI infrastructure, a newly created position with direct access to Google’s top leadership.

• 15-year AI systems veteran: A former professor with nearly 400 publications, Vahdat has led development of Google’s TPUs, the Jupiter networking stack, Borg cluster manager, and custom Arm CPUs (Axion).

• Massive compute scale: Vahdat introduced Google’s TPU v5p "Ironwood" pods at Cloud Next, delivering 42.5 exaflops—24x the compute of the top global supercomputer at the time.

• Strategic investment signal: His elevation aligns with Google’s planned $93B infrastructure spend and signals a long-term commitment to proprietary AI systems.

• Retention through recognition: Elevating Vahdat may also serve as a retention strategy amid fierce competition for elite AI talent.

💡 Why This Stands Out: Vahdat’s promotion crystallizes Google’s belief that infrastructure—compute, networking, and orchestration—is the true foundation of AI dominance. While the spotlight often falls on model development, Google is betting that control over the full AI stack, from chips to cluster schedulers, will define long-term leadership. In a race increasingly about scale and efficiency, is infrastructure the new moat?

Spotify

Spotify tests more personalized, AI-powered ‘Prompted Playlists’

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Spotify is testing a new AI-powered feature called Prompted Playlists, giving Premium users in New Zealand deeper control over their music recommendations through detailed written prompts. It's a strategic shift toward transparency and personalization in algorithmic curation.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• Prompted Playlists let users create custom playlists using long-form written prompts based on their full Spotify listening history.

• Users can specify genres, artists, moods, timeframes, or even playback structure—e.g., “music from top artists over the last five years, with deep cuts I haven’t heard yet.”

• The feature expands on Spotify’s existing AI playlists, offering more natural language input, better historical context, and playlist refresh scheduling (e.g., daily or weekly).

• Currently in English-only beta, the tool is launching first in New Zealand for Premium subscribers before global rollout.

• Playlists include context for each song recommendation and offer prompt suggestions to guide users.

💡 Why This Stands Out: Spotify’s move reflects a broader trend: platform algorithms are no longer black boxes—they’re becoming co-pilots. Prompted Playlists signal a shift toward more user agency in curation, mirroring similar moves by Instagram and Bluesky. As AI-driven personalization grows, will users embrace deeper input or prefer hands-off discovery?

Figma

Figma launches new AI-powered object removal and image extension

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Figma has launched a suite of AI-powered image-editing tools, introducing object removal, isolation, and image expansion directly within its design platform—bringing it in line with rivals like Adobe and Canva while eliminating reliance on external tools.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• New features include object removal, isolation, and context-aware image expansion—all built natively into Figma Design and Draw.

• An upgraded lasso tool enables precise object selection, with support for adjusting lighting, shadow, color, and focus without text prompts.

• A centralized image-editing toolbar now offers streamlined access to key actions like background removal, color changes, and annotations.

• Image expansion allows users to resize visuals for different formats (e.g., banners) without cropping or manual element adjustments.

• While Adobe adds similar tools in ChatGPT, it’s unclear if Figma’s new features will extend to its ChatGPT integration.

💡 Why This Stands Out: This rollout marks Figma’s long-awaited entry into advanced AI image editing, closing a key capability gap with competitors. Rather than focusing on generative creation, Figma leans into high-precision, promptless editing—catering to practical workflows for designers. As design tools converge with AI, the question becomes: who offers the most seamless and context-aware creative experience?

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📰 More from the AI World

• ChatGPT is Apple’s most downloaded app of 2025 in the US

• Nvidia is reportedly testing tracking software as chip-smuggling rumors swirl

• Harness hits $5.5B valuation with $240M raise to automate AI’s ‘after-code’ gap

• Interest in Spoor’s bird-monitoring AI software is soaring

🧰 Today’s AI Toolbox Pick

• 🍋LemonSqueezy (Finance Tool): Handles the tax compliance burden so you can focus on more revenue with less headache.

• 💻ZipWP (Web Design Tool): Creates stunning websites in seconds.

• ⚙️DupDub (Content Tool): An all-in-one content creation platform that allows you to craft your content effortlessly and streamline your workflow.