Good morning! Today is Friday, April 18, 2025.​ We have some exciting AI news today: OpenAI has launched a new 'Flex Processing' option to make AI tasks more affordable, and Google is offering its AI Premium plan free to college students.

1. OpenAI Launches 'Flex' Mode to Cut API Costs in Half — If You Can Wait

OpenAI just rolled out Flex processing, a new API option that slashes costs by 50% in exchange for slower responses and occasional availability hiccups. Designed for non-urgent tasks like model testing or data enrichment, Flex applies to the new o3 and o4-mini models — making powerful AI more affordable for developers with low-priority needs. It’s a strategic move as OpenAI battles rivals like Google, who are also releasing cheaper AI options. The trade-off? You save money, but speed and reliability take a backseat.

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2. Google Gives U.S. College Students Free Access to Gemini AI Tools + 2 TB Storage

Google just dropped a massive student perk: U.S. college students can now access Gemini Advanced, NotebookLM Plus, creative tools like Veo 2 and Whisk, and a whopping 2 TB of storage — all completely free through Spring 2026. Whether you're prepping for exams, writing papers, or building presentations, these AI-powered tools are designed to help you study smarter and create faster. Just sign up before June 30, 2025, and you'll get the most powerful Google AI models — like Gemini 2.5 Pro — in your pocket for the next two school years.

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3. Chatbot Arena Becomes a Company — Promises Neutral AI Benchmarks for All

The go-to leaderboard for comparing AI models, Chatbot Arena, is officially turning into a company: Arena Intelligence Inc. Known for letting users rank AI models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others in head-to-head battles, the platform says this move will give it more resources to level up — while staying independent and unbiased. Despite the new corporate structure, the team behind the popular UC Berkeley-backed project is doubling down on its mission: providing neutral, crowdsourced AI benchmarks without corporate interference.

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4. Google Launches Gemini 2.5 Flash — A Faster, Smarter, Cheaper AI Model for Devs

Google just dropped Gemini 2.5 Flash, a blazing-fast AI model that packs serious reasoning power without sacrificing speed or cost. Now available in preview through Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, this upgrade to the popular 2.0 Flash lets developers fine-tune the balance between quality, latency, and price by adjusting its new “thinking” mode. It’s Google’s first fully hybrid reasoning model — and it's built for real-world use. You can also try it in the Gemini app with new features like Canvas to level up your writing and code.

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5. 1Fort Raises $7.5M to Supercharge AI for Business Insurance Brokers

InsurTech startup 1Fort just secured $7.5 million to boost its AI-powered platform that’s making business insurance way less painful. Designed for brokers, 1Fort automates time-consuming tasks like filling out insurance forms, retrieving quotes, and comparing coverage — saving up to 2 hours per submission and increasing success rates by 20%. With explosive growth and new funding, the company plans to double down on AI features and expand partnerships in a trillion-dollar industry that's ripe for disruption.

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6. ChatGPT Can Now Guess Your Location from a Photo — And It’s Going Viral

A new trend is taking over social media: people are using OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT models, o3 and o4-mini, to perform “reverse location searches” from just a photo. These powerful AI models can analyze even blurry or cropped images and often pinpoint cities, landmarks, or even specific bars with surprising accuracy — no GPS metadata required. While some users are having fun treating it like a game of GeoGuessr, the feature raises major privacy concerns, as it could be misused to doxx people using their online photos. OpenAI says safeguards are in place, but the internet isn’t convinced.

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Stay tuned for more updates, and have a fantastic day!

Best,
Zephyr