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Hackers take over smart homes via Gemini AI

PLUS: Google's Jules AI agent is live, OpenAI's $1 government deal, and a tiny 25MB TTS model

Good morning, AI enthusiast.

A newly revealed attack shows how hackers can take control of smart home devices by sending a simple calendar invite. The method uses poisoned event details to hijack Google's Gemini AI, turning the helpful assistant into an unwilling accomplice.

The research marks a critical milestone, demonstrating for the first time how a digital vulnerability can directly impact the physical world. As we give AI agents more control over our lives and homes, how can the industry prevent everyday tools like a calendar from becoming security threats?

In today’s AI recap:

  • Hackers control smart homes with Gemini AI

  • Google launches AI coding agent Jules

  • OpenAI's $1 deal for the US government

  • A tiny 25MB text-to-speech model

  • 8 trending AI Tools

The Calendar Invite Hack

The Recap: Researchers revealed The Calendar Invite Hack, a novel attack where poisoned Google Calendar invites were used to hijack Google's Gemini AI, control smart home devices, and steal data.

Unpacked:

  • The attack uses an indirect prompt injection, embedding malicious commands within the text of a calendar event that Gemini reads when asked to summarize a user's schedule.

  • This research marks a critical milestone, demonstrating for the first time how a generative AI hack can directly manipulate the physical world by controlling lights, window shutters, and boilers.

  • After the researchers responsibly disclosed their findings, Google acknowledged the vulnerability and has since deployed new defenses to help detect and block these kinds of attacks.

Bottom line: This attack demonstrates a new frontier of security risks where digital prompt injection can directly manipulate physical systems. As AI agents become more autonomous, securing their inputs from all connected sources will be a critical challenge for the entire industry.

AI Tools of the Day

  1. 🤖 Cheat Layer - Automate complex business tasks by creating autonomous software agents using simple natural language commands.

  2. 🎧 Sesame - Go beyond smart speakers with a lightweight wearable AI companion that provides truly natural and context-aware conversational support.

  3. 📈 RivalSee - Master the new frontier of AI SEO by tracking and optimizing how your brand appears in responses from ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

  4. 📹 Lumiere 3D - Effortlessly transform standard product photos into cinematic 3D video scenes without needing any specialized 3D modeling skills.

  5. 🛠️ Zoo - Build the next generation of CAD software or hardware design tools using a powerful GPU-powered geometry engine delivered via API.

  6. 🛡️ Mindgard - Secure your AI models against emerging threats by deploying an automated red team that continuously probes for vulnerabilities before they're exploited.

  7. 🎭 SadTalker AI - Bring any still portrait to life by generating realistic talking head videos from a single image and an audio track.

  8. 📊 Pecan AI - Empower your data analysts to build and deploy accurate predictive models using a low-code platform that automates the entire data science workflow.

Explore the Best AI Tools Directory to find tools that will 10x your output 📈

Google's New AI Teammate

The Recap: Google's AI agent Jules is now officially out of beta and available to everyone. The tool, powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, is designed to act as an asynchronous coding partner that handles tedious development tasks so you can focus on more complex problems.

Unpacked:

  • It works asynchronously by cloning your code into a Google Cloud VM, allowing you to delegate tasks like bug fixes or feature updates and receive the completed work later.

  • The public launch introduces new pricing tiers, including a free introductory plan capped at 15 daily tasks and paid options through Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo) and Ultra ($124.99/mo) for higher usage limits.

  • Alongside Jules, Google also released the free Gemini CLI Actions, an AI teammate that integrates into GitHub to automate workflows like triaging issues and reviewing pull requests.

Bottom line: Google is moving beyond code completion assistants and building a suite of autonomous agents that developers can delegate entire tasks to. This shifts the developer's role from writing every line of code to reviewing and directing AI-driven work, potentially freeing up significant time for creative problem-solving.

AI Training

The Recap: In this video, I’ll show you how to run the GPT-OSS AI model locally on your computer with Ollama and connect it to n8n so you can build your own AI agents and automations for free. I’ll walk you through installing Ollama, setting up your model, and integrating it into n8n to create powerful workflows without paying for API credits.

P.S We also launched a free community for AI Builders looking to master the art and science of building AI Automations — Come join us!

OpenAI's $1 Government Deal

The Recap: In a landmark move, OpenAI announced a partnership to provide ChatGPT Enterprise to the U.S. federal workforce for just $1 for the next year, aiming to accelerate AI adoption across government agencies.

Unpacked:

  • The deal includes a 60-day period of unlimited access to advanced features like Deep Research and Advanced Voice Mode.

  • This partnership falls under the company's broader OpenAI for Government initiative, which previously announced a contract of up to $200 million with the Department of Defense.

  • To support the rollout, OpenAI is providing dedicated training, educational tools, and deployment support from partners like Slalom and Boston Consulting Group.

Bottom line: This initiative effectively turns the entire U.S. government into a massive pilot program for enterprise-grade AI. The results will provide invaluable real-world data on how AI can streamline large-scale bureaucratic operations.

Where AI Experts Share Their Best Work

Join our Free AI Automation Community

Join our FREE community AI Automation Mastery — where entrepreneurs, AI builders, and AI agency owners share templates, solve problems together, and learn from each other's wins (and mistakes).

What makes our community different:

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  • Collaborate and problem-solve with AI experts when you get stuck

Dive into our course materials, collaborate with experienced builders, and turn automation challenges into shared wins. Join here (completely free).

The 25MB TTS Model

The Recap: A new open-source project, KittenTTS, offers a realistic text-to-speech model that is ultra-lightweight and can run efficiently on a standard CPU.

Unpacked:

  • It's designed for lightweight deployment, with a model size under 25MB, and is optimized to run without a dedicated GPU.

  • The project is open-source under an Apache-2.0 license, allowing developers to freely use and modify it for their own applications.

  • KittenTTS is currently in a developer preview, with plans to release a fully trained model, mobile SDKs, and a web version in the future.

Bottom line: This project makes high-quality voice synthesis accessible for applications on edge devices and consumer hardware. It lowers the barrier for developers to build voice-enabled features without relying on costly cloud APIs.

The Shortlist

Anthropic proposed a targeted transparency framework for frontier AI development, calling for public disclosure of safety practices and security measures from the largest model developers.

Nvidia rejected calls from U.S. lawmakers to add hardware backdoors or kill switches to its AI chips, arguing they are dangerous vulnerabilities that would harm national security.

Google committed $1 billion over three years to provide AI tools and training to U.S. universities, including giving college students free access to its Google AI Pro plan.

Grok generated unprompted, non-consensual nude images of Taylor Swift via its new "Grok Imagine" video feature, raising fresh concerns over the platform's AI safety guardrails.

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David, Lucas, Mitchell — The Recap editorial team