• AI Valley
  • Posts
  • AI allows paralysed man to control robotic arm

AI allows paralysed man to control robotic arm

PLUS: xAI sues ex-engineer alleging he stole trade secrets

Author

Barsee
02 Sep

Together with

Howdy. It’s Barsee again.

Happy Tuesday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.

Today’s climb through the Valley reveals:

  • AI allows paralysed man to control robotic arm

  • AI stethoscope can detect three heart conditions in 15 seconds

  • Tencent releases open-weight translation models for 33 languages

  • xAI sues ex-engineer alleging he stole trade secrets

  • Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

OUTSKILL

Sam Altman believes AI will fundamentally reshape knowledge-based jobs (data analysis, financial planning, strategic decisions, auditing, and creative work that once required specialists).

Instead of focusing on fears of replacement, the shift opens opportunities for people who can use AI effectively. Those who learn to combine broad problem-solving with AI tools will be able to produce results once limited to experts.

Outskill is hosting a 2-day AI Mastermind this weekend (normally $895), designed to help participants strengthen these skills and apply them in practice.

Date: Saturday and Sunday, 8:30 PM - 5:30 AM (PST). 

Image Source: OutSkill

In just 16 hours & 5 sessions, you will:

  • Build AI agents and custom bots to save 20+ hours each week

  • Understand how AI tools and models work through hands-on practice with 10+ systems

  • Learn to build websites and ship projects in days instead of months

Participants also receive practical resources, including:

  • Day 1: A library of 3,000+ prompts

  • Day 2: A roadmap for monetizing AI skills

  • Bonus: A personal AI toolkit builder

If you’re interested, register now

*This is sponsored

THROUGH THE VALLEY

Image Source: Nature Machine Intelligence

UCLA engineers have built a wearable brain-computer interface that lets paralyzed users control robotic arms with their thoughts, without surgery. The system combines an EEG cap with an AI decoder and a camera to read movement intent in real time. In tests, four users (including one paralyzed participant) moved cursors and guided robotic arms nearly four times faster than without AI, completing tasks in minutes. By removing the need for implants, this approach brings non-invasive BCIs closer to practical use in mobility aids, communication tools, and smart homes.

Image Credit: Imperial College London

Researchers at Imperial College London tested an AI-powered stethoscope that can spot serious heart problems in just 15 seconds. The card-sized device was used in 200 clinics with more than 12,000 patients and doubled the detection rate for heart failure. It also caught atrial fibrillation 3.5 times more often and nearly doubled valve disease diagnoses. The stethoscope works by analyzing heartbeat patterns and blood flow changes humans can’t hear, while also recording ECGs. It will soon be rolled out across the UK to help doctors catch issues earlier.

Image Credit: Tencent

Tencent has released two open-source translation models, Hunyuan MT 7B and Hunyuan MT Chimera 7B, which outperformed Google Translate and other leading systems at WMT2025, ranking first in 30 of 31 tests. The models support two-way translation across 33 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, and minority languages like Uyghur, Czech, Marathi, Estonian, and Icelandic. With 7 billion parameters, they are smaller than most competitors but still beat larger models such as Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude 4 Sonnet. Both models are now available on Hugging Face and GitHub.

Elon Musk’s xAI is suing former engineer Xuechen Li, accusing him of stealing secrets about Grok before leaving for OpenAI. Li, one of about 20 early Grok engineers, allegedly copied confidential files the same day he cashed out $7 million in stock. xAI says the stolen tech could save OpenAI billions in research. At the same time, Nvidia faces trial after one of its engineers accidentally showed Valeo’s stolen self-driving code during a call. These cases highlight how massive salaries and fierce hiring battles are fueling theft in the AI industry.

TRENDING TOOLS

  • TaskGPT Mobile - Text your Mac and tell it what to do

  • Veed Fabric - The world’s first talking video model

  • Gilf app - Snap a selfie and try on any hairstyle with a prompt

  • Google Whisk 3.0 - Generate images with your own reference uploads for sharper characters, styles, and scenes

  • Wanderboat 2.0 - Crawls millions of TikTok and Instagram clips to recommend the best food, bars, local events

THINK PIECES / BRAIN BOOST

THE VALLEY GEMS

What’s trending on social today:

1/ This explains much of AI performance.

2/ Nano banana is amazing.

3/ This guy builds an AI agent that lets me speak to car engines.

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

Thank you for reading today’s edition. That’s all for today’s issue.

💡 Help me get better and suggest new ideas at [email protected] or @heyBarsee

👍️ New reader? Subscribe here

Thanks for being here.

REACH 100K+ READERS

Acquire new customers and drive revenue by partnering with us

Sponsor AI Valley and reach over 100,000+ entrepreneurs, founders, software engineers, investors, etc.

If you’re interested in sponsoring us, email [email protected] with the subject “AI Valley Ads”.