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- Chinese AI Agent Goes Viral. Another DeepSeek Moment? 🤔
Chinese AI Agent Goes Viral. Another DeepSeek Moment? 🤔
How to use the AI Trip Planner on Booking .com
Gina Acosta
March 10, 2025
In partnership with
Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,
A general AI agent developed by a low-profile team backed by Chinese investors and developers has quickly gained attention in the AI community, with the head of product at Hugging Face calling it “the most impressive AI tool I’ve ever tried.”
Let’s get into it!
Read Time: 4.5 min
Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI
China's New General AI Agent 'Manus' Sparks Global Buzz
AI Discovers Natural Peptide as Effective as Ozempic for Weight Loss—Without the Side Effects
AI Tutorial: How to use the AI Trip Planner on Booking .com
AI Tools to check out
The Latest in AI and Tech 💡
AI Findings/Resources
AI News
MANUS
China's New General AI Agent 'Manus' Sparks Global Buzz
A group of Chinese software engineers claim to have developed the world's first fully autonomous AI agent, a system that can independently perform complex tasks without human guidance.
Details:
Manus can perform various tasks, such as analyzing resumes, studying stock correlations, and evaluating real estate options, all in the background, notifying users only when the results are ready.
It runs in the cloud, allowing users to close their devices while it processes tasks. However, this cloud-based approach also raises concerns about data privacy and security.
The team also claims that Manus can outperform OpenAI's Deep Research based on the GAIA benchmark, a third-party metric for evaluating general AI assistants.
While some experts praise its potential, early testers have noted performance issues, claiming that Manus doesn’t fully live up to its bold promises yet.
Manus's official website is now live, but access is invitation-only. However, the website still offers official sample demos so you can see the tool in action.
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AI RESEARCH
AI Discovers Natural Peptide as Effective as Ozempic for Weight Loss—Without the Side Effects
Stanford Medicine researchers have identified a naturally occurring molecule, BRP, that could rival the weight loss effects of Ozempic (semaglutide) without the unpleasant side effects.
Details:
BRP is a natural peptide derived from the prohormone BRINP2. It works by targeting the hypothalamus, the brain region responsible for appetite and metabolism regulation.
Unlike semaglutide, which can cause nausea and constipation, BRP appears to suppress appetite and promote weight loss without these side effects.
The research group utilized AI to sift through various prohormones—molecules that can be transformed into active peptides or hormones. They developed a computer algorithm called Peptide Predictor, which allowed them to identify the best potential candidates in a process that would have been incredibly challenging using traditional methods.
In experiments with mice and minipigs, BRP reduced food intake by up to 50% and led to significant fat loss without impacting overall health or activity levels.
If clinical trials demonstrate its safety and efficacy in humans, it could be a game-changer in weight loss treatments—a much-needed breakthrough as research shows obesity rates are climbing at alarming levels, with nearly half of U.S. adults projected to be obese by 2030.
AI Tutorial
How to use the AI Trip Planner on Booking .com
Planning a trip can be a lot easier using Booking.com's AI Trip Planner. This tool helps with researching destinations, comparing prices, and creating personalized itineraries—all in one place.
Open the Booking.com mobile app and sign in.
Look for Chat with our AI Trip Planner.
Click on Try it out to start chatting.
You can use the AI travel agent to either inspire a future trip or help plan something that's already in the works.
Example prompt:
"What are some good winter destinations in the US to go skiing for a week? A budget, family-friendly trip for four."
After you get a response, you can keep asking follow-up questions—even requesting a full itinerary for your trip.
You can also use it to quickly find prices and the best accommodations. Provide as many details as possible:
"I want to travel to Paris for a week between June and August with my wife. We prefer to stay outside of the tourist traps but still have easy access to attractions. We love coffee, food, people-watching, and wandering on foot. Can you provide the best flight prices from Newark/New York and accommodation options around $150 USD per night?"
Once you select a hotel, you can ask property-specific questions by clicking Ask a question on the hotel card.
AI Tools to check out
⭐ Tavus: Build digital twin video experiences with easy-to-use APIs.
🌐 Perigon: An AI-powered platform that turns global information into real-time insights.
⚡ Locofy.ai: Build frontend 10x faster with design-to-code AI.
🌐 Tips.io: The easiest way to make simple & free websites.
🎯 Focus Buddy: AI productivity co-pilot that stays on calls with you while working to help you get more done.
AI Findings/Resources
📚 HuggingFace's New Reasoning Course: A free, certified program teaching you how to create AI models that can think through complex problems.
👀 Chatbots are cheating on their benchmark tests
The latest in AI and Tech
The new version is said to be three times faster and three times cheaper.
Nvidia will supply 64,000 AI chips for OpenAI and Oracle's $100 billion Stargate infrastructure project.
A group of authors, including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, is accusing Meta of violating their intellectual property rights by using their books to train its Llama AI models and alleging that the company removed the copyright information from their books to hide the infringement.
You can now access Gemini by clicking the “Ask Gemini” icon at the top right of your Google Calendar window. This feature is currently being tested in Workspace Labs and will gradually roll out to more users.
That’s a wrap!
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Gina 👩🏻💻