Overview
Today’s theme is useful AI moving closer to where work happens. A compact model runs tools on your phone, an open-source OCR system reads messy scans and maths, and familiar productivity apps hint at smarter flows. Away from desks, a Chinese mission puts two mice into a year-long neuroscience study in orbit, raising tough questions about research ethics.
The big picture
Chandra OCR tops benchmarks and handles handwriting, tables, and formulas
Avi Chawla highlights Datalab’s Chandra, an open-source OCR model that converts images and PDFs to Markdown, HTML, or JSON while preserving layout. It supports 40+ languages and copes with handwriting and maths. He shows it working on Srinivasa Ramanujan’s 1913 handwritten letter, pulling equations into clean text. Independent olmOCR benchmarks rank Chandra first at 83.1% overall, ahead of dots-ocr, with strengths on old scans and multi-column layouts. Real-world quality will still depend on input, but the bar has moved.
FunctionGemma brings local function calling to phones and browsers
Omar Sanseviero introduces FunctionGemma, a 270M-parameter Gemma 3 variant tuned for function calling. It runs on edge devices like phones and in the browser, turning plain language into API actions without a server. Fine-tuning lifts task performance from 58% to 85% on mobile action benchmarks, and it slots into common stacks like Transformers, Llama.cpp, and Ollama. The demo shows it controlling a Stardew-like farming game entirely on-device.
Raycast teases a 2026 rethink of the Mac launcher
Raycast’s teaser points to a minimalist dark UI with AI chat bots, richer clipboard history, emoji and symbol search, and Focus Sessions for tracking. The community is pushing for better dictation and a sharper compact mode. With over a million downloads and a free core, a deeper AI layer could help Raycast widen the gap with Spotlight while pulling in features from its iOS companion, such as AI notes.
Figma’s 2025 montage shows design inching closer to code
Figma’s “Made in Figma (2025)” reel celebrates richer outputs, including 3D renders and animations built in Figma Make. Replies praise how modern workflows let teams move from prototype to production with fewer handoff snags. A Forrester study this year reports 25-30% productivity gains in Dev Mode from tighter context and fewer errors.
China’s DEAR-5 sends two mice for a year-long neuroscience study in orbit
Andrew Jones notes two male mice riding on China’s DEAR-5 spacecraft to probe brain plasticity in microgravity using AI-monitored life support and an implantable interface. The craft is not rated for reentry and will run for a year, so the mice will not return. Replies revisit the ethics of non-return animal missions, weighing likely scientific gains against welfare concerns, and comparing with ground labs.
Why it matters
- OCR that keeps layout and reads handwriting opens up archives, legal records, and scientific scans that were hard to search, pushing digitisation past “good enough” text extraction.
- Small models doing function calling on-device reduce latency, cut costs, and improve privacy. That makes tool use practical in browsers and mobiles, not just in the cloud.
- Raycast and Figma show a broader trend, with everyday tools folding AI into core workflows. The centre of gravity is moving from novelty demos to steady gains in how people create, launch, and ship.
- DEAR-5 underlines that space biology is accelerating. The science could inform human missions, but it also demands clearer ethical guardrails for life science beyond Earth.
