Welcome, humans.

We’ve covered some WILD news pieces lately—what the state of AI is in 2025, what the state of AI could be in 2027, the messy release of Meta’s new open AI, and our absolute shocked face emoji reaction to how good Google Gemini 2.5 actually is.

And yet, nothing prepared us for THIS:

Why are you looking at a controller in a swim suit playing Duck Hunt? Because the latest trend is generating old school images of iconic characters playing their own classic video games (or in some cases, other’s games).

And as with all things AI, the trend has gone too far…

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

• Anthropic launched a new Claude Max tier.

• Exec testified against Meta for sharing AI info with China.

• Adobe previews new AI “agent” features in Photoshop and more.

• OpenAI counter-sued Elon Musk for harassment.

Anthropic launched a new paid plan, which begs the question: wtf is the price of AI now, anyway?

Anthropic just released a new Claude Max plan, a premium tier for their popular AI model that comes in two options—$100/month for 5× the limits of the Pro tier, or $200/month for 20× higher limits​.

That's right: you can now throw two Benjamins a month on autopay to chat with an AI, which also matches up with ChatGPT’s $200 a month Pro tier.

It begs the question: Is AI getting insanely expensive, or is the pricing just... weirdly complicated now? Short answer: Yes.

First, the Max Plan deets:

1. Claude Max subscribers get priority access to new features and models, though Anthropic’s Max is still usage-capped (unlike ChatGPT Pro).

2. The usage limit increases are the big deal here, because anyone seriously using Claude at the Pro level constantly complains about getting cut off.

3. But the most interesting aspect of all is that new $100 a month tier, which essentially forces the hands of other providers to lower their costs, too. And by other providers, we mean OpenAI.

Who SHOULD pay $100-$200 a month? These plans clearly target the power users:

1. Folks running complex coding projects (like those CS students Anthropic just found poppin’ Claude like Adderall).

2. Anyone whose job involves hitting the Deep Research button like a slot machine.

3. Anyone who needs near-unlimited access to the smartest models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet or OpenAI's o1 series.

For them, hitting usage caps is a workflow killer, justifying the premium.

So how do you know which pricing tier of any AI model is right for YOU?

Read our NEW AI pricing explainer here!

The TL;DR = The cost of AI today depends entirely on what you need (basic chat vs. complex reasoning), how much you use it (i.e., will usage limits bottleneck your productivity?), and how you access it (in the app vs. via API vs. hosted open source).

FROM OUR PARTNERS

Introducing Augment Agent: a coding Agent for pro software engineers

Augment Code is the first coding assistant built for professional software engineers, large codebases, and production-grade projects.

Now they're excited to unveil Augment Agent, a powerful new mode for Augment Code that can help you complete software development tasks end-to-end.

Agent can:

• Add new features spanning multiple files.

• Queue up tests in the terminal.

• Open Linear tickets, start a pull request.

• Start a new branch in GitHub from recent commits.

...and all kinds of other things. Skip the toy AI coding projects and build something real—Augment Agent is standing by to help.

Sign up and start building with Augment Agent.

Prompt Tip of the Day

Did you know you can use Gemini 2.5 Pro with Deep Research now? In fact, this might be the best way to use Gemini Thinking with Google Search.

Here’s our tip: be very strict (i.e. specific) on the following 3 things:

1. The goal of the report (what are you actually trying to do with this report?).

2. The expected output of the report (what should it look like when done?).

3. The sources to search (where should it look for this information, if it matters?).

Treats To Try.

1. *Wondering how AI PCs actually improve productivity? This new Dell + NVIDIA podcast shows exactly how they're reshaping workflows across multiple industries (including yours!). Listen here.

2. WordPress can now create a complete website for you from a single convo—free to try up to 30 prompts, then requires a hosting plan (read more).

3. Google announced an expansion of four AI generators (Lyria for music, Veo 2 for video, Chirp 3 for voices, and Imagen 3 for images) that you can request access to right now, as well as its Code Assist coding agent.

4. PromptHub helps you discover, manage, version, test, and deploy AI prompts in a community-driven platform.

5. Solve Intelligence speeds up your patent drafting and IP workflows with a document editor you can tailor to your personal legal writing style (raised $12M).

6. Aqua Voice converts your speech to perfectly formatted text in any app with 17x fewer errors than competitors—free to try, then $10/month.

7. Agent2Agent is Google’s new protocol that lets your AI assistants collaborate across platforms to securely exchange info and coordinate actions (Github).

8. DeepCoder-14B is an open source AI model based on DeepSeek that writes complex code as accurately as more expensive AI tools but runs on much smaller hardware—free to download.

9. Firebase Studio from Google lets you create and deploy complete applications in your browser (a.k.a vibe code!) and built-in templates—free to try.

See our top 51 AI Tools for Business here!

*This is sponsored content. Advertise in The Neuron here.

Around the Horn.

• A former Meta exec testified that the company undermined US national security by sharing AI info with China to grow its business there—plus a LOT more.

• Google decided it will adopt Anthropic’s MCP standard, which is like a digital USB port to connect agents and data—making it easier to make Gemini agents.

• Adobe previewed new agentic features across their products, from document analysis in Acrobat to one-click image improvements in Photoshop.

• OpenAI counter-sued Elon Musk for harassment and wants to stop him from “further unlawful and unfair action” against OpenAI (which he helped start, and is now trying to stop from becoming a private company).

• Youtube announced it will expand a program that lets you request removal of unauthorized AI replicas of your face or voice online to more top creators.

FROM OUR PARTNERS

They Laughed at Ring—Until Amazon Paid $1.2B

RYSE is disrupting smart home tech with patented smart shades that automate any window—no costly replacements. With $10M+ in revenue, a 200% growth rate, and big-box partnerships, this could be your chance to invest before a billion-dollar buyout.

Don’t make the same mistake the Sharks did—invest at $1.90/share!

Thursday Trivia

One is real, and one is AI. Which is which? (vote below!)

A.

B.

Here are the results from last week’s trivia (B was AI):

Here’s what you said:

• T.J chose B: “In A, the background is blurred. In the B, the top left is the only blurred part, it looks like an AI oops.”

• D.M chose A: “My first time doing this. The blurriness practically everywhere, and something seemed like I was bulging on the left side of the red camper.”

• S.H chose B: “I guess AI never got to play with a bucket and spade at the seaside.”

A Cat's Commentary.

A is AI, and B is real…