Howdy, it’s Barsee again.

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

here are the biggest things worth knowing today:

• Humanoid combat robots arrive in Ukraine

• Pokémon Go players unknowingly trained delivery robots

• ByteDance delays global launch of Seedance 2.0

• New system teaches humanoid robots to play tennis

• Man uses AI to design cancer vaccine for his dog

• Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

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THROUGH THE VALLEY

1/ Humanoid soldier robots arrive in Ukraine for battlefield tests

Ukraine has increasingly become a proving ground for experimental military technologies during the war. A U.S. startup called Foundation has sent two humanoid combat robots, Phantom MK-1, to Ukraine for battlefield testing. In October 2025, Foundation unveiled the Phantom MK-1, a humanoid robot designed specifically for combat and believed to be among the first built for warfare. The machines arrived in February and are being evaluated for missions such as reconnaissance and other high-risk ground operations. Built from black steel with a tinted visor, the human-shaped robots can operate weapons including pistols, shotguns, revolvers, and M-16 rifles. Foundation says it plans to scale production rapidly, targeting up to 50,000 robots by 2027, with each unit expected to cost about $100,000 per year to lease.

2/ Pokémon Go players unknowingly helped train delivery robots

Pokémon Go players thought they were just catching virtual creatures. In reality, they were helping build one of the largest visual datasets ever created. Niantic says photos and AR scans collected through the game have generated more than 30 billion real-world images. Over the past eight years, players scanned parks, streets, shops, and landmarks from different angles and in varying weather and lighting conditions. That kind of detailed coverage would be difficult for mapping companies to gather with vehicles alone. Niantic is now working with Coco Robotics to use the same data to help small delivery robots navigate city streets.

3/ ByteDance pauses global launch of Seedance 2.0 after viral AI videos

ByteDance has reportedly paused the global release of its AI video generator Seedance 2.0, according to The Information. The model launched in China in February and quickly went viral after clips like a fake video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt spread online. The videos triggered backlash from Hollywood studios, which sent cease-and-desist letters and accused ByteDance of using copyrighted material without permission. The company had planned a worldwide launch in mid-March but is now delaying it while engineers and legal teams work on stronger copyright safeguards.

4/ New system teaches humanoid robots to play tennis

Researchers have built a system called LATENT that trains humanoid robots to play tennis using human motion data. Instead of copying movements directly, the system studies patterns from imperfect human actions and turns them into basic tennis skills that robots can combine and adjust during play. The project is open source and includes tools for motion pretraining, policy learning, and large-scale training using MuJoCo simulations and multi-GPU systems.

TRENDING TOOLS

• MuleRun 2.0 > An AI that learns your habits, anticipates your needs, and works in the background 24/7 on your personal computer

• Banana App > Make real-time voice calls in 80+ languages while keeping your natural tone and emotion

• Google Slides · A new Gemini-powered feature in beta can turn rough sketches into editable charts and notes instantly

• Anthropic Academy > More than 13 official AI courses with certificates, all available for free with no subscription required

PEAK OF THE DAY

This guy used AI to design a cancer vaccine to save his dog

A Sydney data engineer used a stack of AI models (ChatGPT, Grok, and DeepMind’s AlphaFold) to design a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine to save his dog. The treatment, developed with help from researchers at UNSW, has already shrunk one of the dog’s tumors by half.

Here's what you need to know:

Rosie, a rescue dog owned by AI consultant Paul Conyngham, was diagnosed with aggressive mast cell cancer in 2024 and given only months to live despite chemotherapy and surgery.

After Rosie’s diagnosis worsened, Conyngham asked ChatGPT for guidance, which suggested immunotherapy approaches and pointed him toward researchers at the University of New South Wales’ Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics.

Conyngham contacted the University of New South Wales Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics, which sequenced Rosie’s tumor DNA for about $3,000 AUD, generating roughly 350 GB of genetic data.

The mutation data was then analyzed with DeepMind’s AlphaFold, which models how proteins behave, helping identify which mutations could be targeted by treatment.

Researchers at the UNSW RNA Institute helped translate the findings into a custom mRNA vaccine, with Conyngham saying the final vaccine design itself was created using Grok.

After Rosie received the injection in December, one of her tumors shrank by about half, and Conyngham is now working on a second vaccine targeting tumors that did not respond.

Why it matters:

The experiment may represent the first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine designed specifically for a dog. Just a few years ago, creating something like this would have required large research teams, advanced labs, and years of work.

Rosie is not fully cured, but the case shows how AI can help turn complex biological data into real treatment ideas. As tools for DNA sequencing, protein modeling, and AI-driven research become more accessible, personalized therapies could eventually move beyond specialized labs and into far more decentralized experimentation.

WHAT I'M CONSUMING

• I want to become a Claude architect (full course)

• In the era of A.I. agents, many Silicon Valley programmers are now barely programming

• The race to build AI humanoid soldiers for war

• Humanoid robot arrested after allegedly harassing an elderly woman on the street in China

THE VALLEY GEMS

What’s trending on social today:

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

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