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- Meta unviels Manus Agents
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Howdy, it’s Barsee again.
Happy Tuesday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.
Today’s climb through the Valley reveals:
Meta announces Manus Agents
The Pentagon wants to drop Anthropic
OpenAI adds ‘Lockdown Mode’ to ChatGPT
ByteDance to halt Seedance 2.0’s AI rip-offs
Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources
Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…
FLOW
Courtesy: Flow
Flow is a voice layer that works anywhere you type. Use it to respond in Slack, write docs, craft emails, or prompt an AI assistant—without switching tools or copy/pasting. It's the fastest way to get high-quality text into your workflow, whether you're drafting, editing, or ideating.
*This is sponsored
THROUGH THE VALLEY
Courtesy: Manus AI
Meta has launched Manus Agents, bringing its Manus AI directly into messaging apps, starting with Telegram and expanding soon to Messenger, WhatsApp, LINE, Slack, and Discord, along with native Windows and Mac apps. The feature is available to all Manus users across plans. Instead of setting up bots or tools, users can chat with the full Manus agent inside their messages and run multi-step tasks like research, summaries, and report generation. Manus Agents supports voice, images, and files and lets users choose faster or deeper reasoning models. The goal is to make a personal AI agent easy to access wherever people already communicate.
The Pentagon is considering cutting ties with Anthropic after months of tense talks over how the military can use the company’s AI models. Defense officials want access for “all lawful purposes,” including weapons development, intelligence work, and battlefield operations. Anthropic has refused to allow two uses it sees as red lines: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. The dispute intensified after Claude was reportedly used through Palantir in a raid targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, which Anthropic denies objecting to. Anthropic holds a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million, and replacing Claude would be difficult, even as OpenAI, Google, and xAI offer looser terms.
OpenAI has introduced Lockdown Mode and new “Elevated Risk” labels in ChatGPT to reduce security risks as AI tools connect to the web and apps. Lockdown Mode is an optional setting for high-risk users like executives and security teams. It limits how ChatGPT can access external sites and connected apps to reduce prompt injection attacks, where attackers try to trick AI into leaking data. Some tools are restricted or disabled, and browsing is limited to cached content. OpenAI is also labeling features that carry a higher risk so users can make informed choices when sharing private data.
ByteDance says it will tighten safeguards on Seedance 2.0 after Disney and Paramount sent cease-and-desist letters accusing the tool of generating unauthorized videos using their characters and franchises. The Motion Picture Association warned the model enabled large-scale copyright misuse, citing viral deepfake clips based on popular films and shows. ByteDance says it respects intellectual property and is working to block protected content. Separately, industry chatter suggests Seedance 3.0 is in its final development phase, with claims it can generate 10-minute-plus videos with full storylines, synced multilingual voiceovers, and lower compute costs, pushing AI video closer to feature-length production.
TRENDING TOOLS
Thesys > Build AI agents that respond with interactive UI instead of text. No workflows, no code
Manus Agents > Run full multi-step tasks like research, slides, videos, and images directly from Telegram
Seed 2.0 > ByteDance’s open-source models built for general-purpose AI agents
Twin > An AI-powered company builder that helps you go from idea to execution faster
Wabi > A new take on the app store with personalized mini-apps built around your habits. No ads, no walled gardens, just software made for you
WHAT I'M CONSUMING
INDUSTRY MOVES
Kimi AI maker Moonshot said to seek $10B valuation in extended funding round
THE VALLEY GEMS
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY
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