Show Notes
Today’s AI news sprint is fast and practical: Zed adds AI tooling built in Rust, Figma rolls out a new AI-focused suite, plus quick takes on GTA 6 tech vibes, Stripe’s payments foundation model, and Dia running on Mac. Here are the key takeaways for coders.
Zed AI Editor: speed, local models, and multi-workspaces
- Zed is a fast, open-source code editor written in Rust with AI features.
- Local model support, multiple sessions, and two modes: max mode and follow mode (you can watch a task progress).
- Commit view and a clean history of runs; you can view results and re-use patterns.
- Trial details: two-week trial with 150 prompts, then usage-based pricing.
- Practical tips:
- Import your VS Code settings to bootstrap quickly.
- Create profiles (e.g., Ask, Minimal, Write) and attach rules to them; you can craft memory-bank style contexts.
- You can run several “windows” or tasks in parallel and get notified when each finishes.
- Not planned for production; great for weekend experiments and learning how to map tools to tasks.
- Consider per-project rules to avoid baking everything into one cursor.
Figma AI releases: Grid, Sites, Buzz, Make, Draw
- Grid: a new framework-style toolset to structure UI faster (marketing-friendly workflow).
- Sites: framework-oriented hosting/website tooling—aimed at rapid site builds.
- Buzz: asset creation for social/media—think Canva-like capabilities inside Figma.
- Make and Draw: enhanced vector/illustration tools to reduce need to switch to Illustrator.
- Why it matters for coders: these moves push design-to-build flow closer together, making it easier to map design tasks to automated tooling.
GTA 6: the tech hype (quick take)
- The tech demos highlight highly realistic physics and visual details (sweat, muscle deformations, reflections, complex clouds, etc.).
- Reminder: this is a signal of what high-end game pipelines are capable of; not a product takeaway for everyday dev work, but cool to track for graphics/engine trends.
Stripe keynote and Dia on Mac (MLX)
- Stripe introduced a payments foundation model and open paths for financial tooling, including stable coin-related accounts via Stellar (Lumen).
- Dia can now run on Mac via MLX, giving you end-to-end control over scripts and voices (text-to-speech and speech-to-speech).
- Takeaway for builders: watch how foundation models reshape payments workflows and CLI-like scripting on the desktop.
Practical takeaways for coders: designing with AI agents
- AI agents aren’t replacing skills; they’re mapping tools to tasks.
- Build task-focused workflows:
- Map each task to a tool (designer, code assistant, compiler, data prep, etc.).
- Use profiles and rules to keep context relevant and consistent.
- Use multi-window/workspace setups to parallelize work without losing track.
- Don’t rely on prompts alone. Use concrete tools and “memory” to carry context across steps.
- Start with experiments on weekends or in a separate space from production work to avoid drift into unreliability.
- If you’re curious about deeper systems, check out community courses or groups to sharpen how you pair prompts with tooling.
Links
- Zed AI editor docs and trial details
- Figma Grid, Sites, Buzz, Make, Draw pages
- Stripe Payments Foundation Model overview
- MLX Dia on Mac (text-to-speech and speech-to-speech)
- Photo AI by Pieter Levels (AI image generation project)