Chinese Labs Break the Cost Curve

Plus, 🎥 How to create 5-minute AI avatar videos with Hedra, Gemini 3 Deep Think raises the bar for scientific AI, and more!

Hola Decoder😎

If someone forwarded this to you and you want to Decode the power of AI and be limitless, then subscribe now and Join Decode alongside 30k+ code-breakers untangling AI.

🧠Open Source isn’t Playing Defense Anymore 

Two Chinese labs just dropped serious signals about where the open frontier is heading: bigger systems engineering brains from GLM-5, and brutally efficient, agent-native productivity from MiniMax M2.5

The Decode:

GLM-5

GLM-5 Scales and Competes – GLM-5 pushes open-source reasoning and long-horizon planning into territory rivaling and at times surpassing proprietary leaders like Claude Opus 4.5 and OpenAI, proving open systems can compete seriously on depth, math, coding, and agentic performance.

Native Agent Mode - GLM-5 includes a built-in Agent Mode that turns prompts into structured, ready-to-use outputs across multiple formats. Instead of just answering questions, it executes multi-step tasks and generates production-ready documents and workflows. 

MiniMax M2.5

3M2.5 Built For Work - MiniMax M2.5 matches or edges past leading closed models on coding and agentic workflows, while being deeply optimized for real-world productivity across development, research, and office-style tasks. 

Agents at Scale - The real disruption is cost and speed. MiniMax makes near-frontier intelligence affordable enough to power persistent, always-on agents, shifting AI from “premium assistant” to operational infrastructure.

This is not just one lab flexing. With GLM-5 pushing long-horizon agent planning and MiniMax M2.5 turning enterprise coding into a near-commodity, Chinese models are attacking both capability and cost at once. The pressure is no longer technical. It is economic, and it is accelerating. You can try GLM-5 and Miimax M2.5 here.

Together with Share Local Media

Direct Mail Didn’t Stop Working. Brands Stopped Testing It.

Direct mail still earns attention in a way digital rarely does anymore. The issue is not performance; it is commitment. 

Most programs require long timelines, high minimums, and upfront decisions before brands ever see meaningful results. That hesitation keeps direct mail on the sidelines while acquisition costs rise everywhere else.

Shared Mail from Share Local Media offers a simpler entry. Your brand appears inside a premium shared envelope alongside other well-known names, putting you in front of millions at a fraction of the usual spend.

No long setup, no operational drag, and no big upfront commitment required. That is why Shared Mail has become an excellent entry point for brands curious about direct mail.Here’s what brands are actually seeing:

  • Knix achieved sub-$20 CPAs and 7-9x ROAS on new customer acquisition with shared mail.
  • Primary hit a $45 blended CPA and strong response rates using SLM’s geo-targeted shared mail.

With nearly a billion mailings delivered over the past decade, SLM’s Shared Mail Program is a proven, measurable channel at an all-in cost as low as $0.06 per piece.

April Shared Mailings close on 3/2. Secure your spot now!

🎥 How to Create 5-Minute AI Avatar Videos with Hedra

Need a talking head that never messes up a line? Here’s how to use Hedra Avatars:

1️⃣ Create your character – Design your custom avatar with the look and vibe you want.

2️⃣ Upload any audio – Drop in a podcast clip, script narration, or voiceover.

3️⃣ Generate – Hedra produces up to 5-minute uncut videos with perfect lip-sync, natural motion, and full facial expressions.

No filming. No retakes. No editing timelines.

Just plug in audio → get a production-ready talking head. You can try it here.

🧠 Gemini 3 Deep Think Raises the Bar for Scientific AI

Google has upgraded Gemini 3 Deep Think into a frontier reasoning system built with scientists and engineers to handle open-ended research, messy data, and real-world engineering challenges across domains.

The Decode:

🏆 Benchmark Breakthroughs - Deep Think scored 84.6% on ARC-AGI-2, 48.4% on Humanity’s Last Exam, achieved 3,455 Elo on Codeforces, and reached gold-medal level performance at the 2025 International Math Olympiad.

It delivered gold-medal written results in the 2025 Physics and Chemistry Olympiads and scored 50.5% on CMT-Benchmark, demonstrating advanced reasoning across theoretical physics, chemistry, and complex scientific domains.

🛠 Real Applications - Researchers used Deep Think to detect logical flaws in peer-reviewed math papers, model physical systems through code, and transform sketches into precise, 3D-printable design files for real-world engineering tasks.

Google introduced Aletheia, an autonomous math agent solving open problems and verifying proofs, while releasing Deep Think to Google AI Ultra subscribers and offering API early access to researchers and enterprises.

Deep Think signals Google’s push toward research-grade AI that competes not only on chat fluency but on measurable scientific rigor. The combination of benchmark dominance, autonomous math exploration, and real-world engineering integration marks a shift toward AI as a serious research collaborator.

Together with Playbook Pro

The Playbook for Profit That Funds Itself

Great operators don’t just count cash, they make it multiply. They use timing and leverage to turn everyday revenue into rapid expansion.

Financial Alchemy is your cheatsheet packed with real operator insights and ready-to-use templates. Inside, you’ll learn how to:

💰 Master cash-conversion cycles to grow while suppliers fund your inventory, just as Wayfair scaled with a –34-day cash conversion cycle.

📊 Use the Cash Flow Simulator to forecast scenarios and uncover up to $100K in hidden operating cash within a single quarter.

🧮 Pinpoint profit levers with the Unit Economics Analyzer to cut CAC payback windows from 6 months to as little as 3 months.

🤝 Negotiate better terms using the Supplier Toolkit, a framework inspired by Skinny Pasta’s strategy that extended supplier terms to 120 days and fueled 100%+ Y-o-Y growth.

Start compounding capital instead of chasing outside funding.

Get your ebook now and turn your cash flow into the most powerful growth engine!

🏆 Tools you Cannot Miss:

🤝 EVYYour AI co-creator inside any app, helping you think, write, and build without constantly switching tools.

🧭 Actionbook Give your AI agent up-to-date action manuals and live DOM structure so it can operate any website instantly without guessing.

📣 CoripplCross-promote newsletters and content with aligned creators in your niche, unlocking authentic audience growth through mutual promotion.

🏛️ LevrAccess distilled boardroom playbooks once reserved for unicorns and top VCs, turning “what should we do?” into decisive execution for your business.

🥗 fuelOSTrack macros instantly with AI-powered food recognition built for mindful eaters who want zero friction in their daily nutrition.

🚀 Quick Hits

💥 How did BioTech USA activated 70+ influencers and 500+ nano creators, without breaking their workflow? They scaled globally using Modash to find hyper-targeted talent and manage everything from gifting to performance tracking in one place. That’s what happens when you stop duct-taping tools together. Start your free 14-day trial today!

🔊 Google is adding Gemini-powered Audio Summaries to Docs, letting users listen to condensed overviews of long documents directly from the Tools menu, now rolling out to select business and AI subscribers.

👓 Meta sold over 7 million smart glasses in 2025, tripling total sales from 2023 and 2024 combined, putting EssilorLuxottica’s 10 million annual target by 2027 well within reach despite likely short-term price pressure.

🤖 Anthropic is expanding Claude’s free tier with file editing, Skills, and third-party integrations, aiming to attract users as OpenAI rolls out ads in ChatGPT.

💼 IBM plans to triple U.S. entry-level hiring in 2026, redesigning roles to focus less on automatable coding tasks and more on customer engagement, signaling a bet on human talent despite AI-driven job disruption forecasts.

💰 Anthropic closed a massive $30B Series G round, boosting its valuation to $380B as it races against OpenAI to dominate enterprise AI demand with Claude and enterprise-grade models.

🧩 How to Map Barriers to Entry and Remove Buying Friction Using One Prompt

Turn hidden hesitation into clear, fixable obstacles that prevent first-time buyers from purchasing.

Paste the prompt: Drop this into ChatGPT, then fill in your product and target audience.

Prompt to paste

Identify the main barriers preventing first-time buyers from purchasing [Insert product]. For each barrier, explain why it exists and provide a clear solution to reduce or remove it. Keep the output practical, conversion-focused, and prioritized by impact on purchase decisions.

🤳AI Nugget of the Day

Thanks for Decoding with us🥳

Your feedback is the key to our code! Help us elevate your Decode experience by hitting reply and sharing your input on our content and style.

Keep deciphering the AI enigma, and we'll be back with more coded mysteries unraveled just for you!