Welcome back to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• US bans new foreign drone models like DJI

• OpenAI personal device will be ‘audio-based’

• GPT Engineer to $6.6B startup

• Neuralink to kick-start 'high-volume production'

Let’s get right into it!

Sign Up | Advertise | Tools

GOVERNMENT

US bans new foreign drone models like DJI

The Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission has banned the distribution of all new foreign-made drone models in the United States, citing national security concerns, while allowing existing foreign drones already owned by Americans to continue operating. The FCC added all foreign-produced drones and critical components to its Covered List, warning they could be exploited by criminals, hostile foreign actors, or terrorists, and signaling a push to strengthen the domestic drone industry.

The decision is expected to significantly impact Chinese manufacturer DJI, the dominant global and U.S. consumer drone brand, which criticized the move as lacking transparency and disputed claims about security risks. The ban follows a June executive order aimed at boosting U.S. drone manufacturing and securing the American drone supply chain from foreign influence.

What it means for drone owners and buyers.

GADGETS

OpenAI personal device will be ‘audio-based’

OpenAI is overhauling its audio AI capabilities to support an upcoming audio first personal device expected in about a year after internal researchers found its current voice models lag behind its text models in speed and accuracy. Over the past two months the company has unified engineering product and research teams to build a new audio model architecture that delivers more natural emotive and accurate responses can handle interruptions and can speak at the same time as users with a planned release in Q1 2026.

The device is part of a broader family that may include wearables glasses and a screen free smart speaker and is designed to function as a proactive AI companion rather than a passive interface relying primarily on speech to reduce screen dependence. Backed by leaders such as former Apple design chief Jony Ive and new voice AI head Kundan Kumar OpenAI aims to normalize voice interaction through products like ChatGPT as a step toward redefining how people interact with personal technology.

CODING

GPT Engineer to $6.6B startup

Lovable, a Stockholm-based AI startup spun out of the open-source project GPT Engineer, has raised a massive $330 million Series A at a $6.6 billion valuation to pursue a radical shift from traditional Software-as-a-Service to what it calls “Software-as-a-System,” an autonomous AI architecture that can build, deploy, maintain, and self-heal entire software stacks with minimal human input.

Backed by investors including CapitalG, Menlo Ventures, and Nvidia, Lovable’s platform moves beyond AI copilots to fully agentic systems that translate high-level intent or “vibe” into complete, continuously evolving applications, managing everything from databases and frontends to security patches and redeployments.

The approach threatens to disrupt the $300 billion SaaS market by making bespoke software cheap and instant, while raising new concerns about developer displacement, systemic risk, and AI safety. Lovable remains bullish that this shift marks the beginning of the “agent era,” positioning software as a living system rather than a static product and redefining how businesses build and operate technology in 2026 and beyond.

MEDICAL

Neuralink to kick-start 'high-volume production'

Elon Musk says Neuralink is accelerating toward 2026 with plans to begin high-volume production of its brain-computer interface devices and transition to a largely automated surgical process, including a major design change that allows electrode threads to pass through the dura without removing it. Neuralink’s implant, often described by Musk as a “Fitbit in your skull,” enables paralyzed patients to control digital devices using their thoughts through a chip embedded in the skull and 1,024 electrodes spread across ultra-thin threads.

After receiving FDA approval for human trials, the company raised $650 million in Series E funding and has implanted the device in 12 patients so far, including its first recipient, quadriplegic patient Noland Arbaugh, who has used the implant to play games and interact digitally despite early post-surgery issues with some electrode threads losing function.