In this edition we’ll be covering…
China's escalating chip war with Nvidia and the geopolitical implications
Google's breakthrough Agent Payments Protocol for autonomous commerce
A hands-on tutorial for using Codex directly in VS Code
5 trending AI developments from health forecasting to creator tools
3 powerful AI tools to transform your workflow
And much more...
The Latest in AI
China Plays Hardball with NVIDIA
China just threw NVIDIA under the bus, and Jensen Huang is playing diplomat while his stock tanks. Beijing's internet regulator ordered major tech firms like ByteDance and Alibaba to cancel all testing and orders of Nvidia's new RTX Pro 6000D chips. Talk about a power move...
The directive came through China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC), marking a significant escalation from earlier guidance that merely discouraged purchases.
What makes this brutal:
NVIDIA spent nearly $1.9 million on lobbying in the first half of 2025, well above the $640,000 for all of last year – hiring three new external firms with 21 lobbyists as they desperately try to navigate the US-China trade war.
China made up 13% of Nvidia's total sales last year, making this ban a serious revenue hit.
The timing coincides with Trump's unusual deal requiring a 15% cut of H20 chip sales to China, which Nvidia hasn't even implemented yet.
So What?
Jensen Huang's diplomatic response – "they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States" – is CEO-speak for "we're stuck in the middle of a trade war." While NVIDIA scrambles to navigate geopolitical tensions, this move shows China is serious about reducing dependence on American AI infrastructure.
The silver lining? This could accelerate domestic chip development in both countries, potentially creating a more competitive global AI hardware landscape.
Sometimes the best innovation comes from… being backed into a corner…?
Innovation Showcase
Google Launches AP2
Earlier this week, Google announced AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol)!
This open standard lets AI agents actually buy stuff on your behalf – with backing from over 60 merchants and financial institutions including Mastercard, American Express, and PayPal.
Think of it as the infrastructure layer for the agent economy we've all been talking about.
The protocol presents a few mandates:
Intent Mandate: You give your agent permission to shop within specific constraints – like "find me a polka dot neck tie under $50 from reputable sellers." This creates a cryptographically signed credential that defines exactly what the agent can and can't do on your behalf.
Cart Mandate: Once the agent finds something, you get final approval on the specific purchase. You're not just saying "yes to shopping" – you're approving the exact item, price, and seller with your digital signature.
Payment Mandate: A separate credential shared with payment networks that signals this is an AI-initiated transaction, helping banks assess risk and prevent fraud while maintaining a complete audit trail of who authorized what.
So What?
Google is creating the rails for autonomous commerce. The protocol is fully open-source and designed to work with any AI platform, payment system, or vendor.
While Perplexity has been doing agent purchasing with their Buy With Pro service, AP2 could become the universal standard that makes agent-driven shopping as common as one-click buying.
Google's betting that whoever controls the payment protocol for agents will have a massive advantage in the AI economy.
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Get Your Hands Dirty!
How to Use Codex in Visual Studio Code
You can now run OpenAI's Codex directly in VS Code with GPT-5, and it's actually pretty incredible.
Here's how to get it running:
Install the extension by opening the Extensions tab in VS Code and searching for "Codex" in the search bar. Install "Codex – OpenAI's coding agent" by OpenAI.
Configure your options once installed. At the bottom of VS Code, you'll see Codex options where you can choose between local editing or cloud-based tasks. Select Agent mode for full permissions (with approval) or just chat mode, then pick your model from GPT-5 or GPT-5-Codex in low/medium/high versions.
Start using it immediately. Codex can read your entire project context and understand your coding patterns and project structure. Ask it to refactor functions, debug issues, or suggest improvements – it knows your variable names, coding style, and project architecture!
Power User Tip 🔥: Start with chat mode to get familiar with how Codex interprets your codebase, then gradually enable agent mode as you build trust with its suggestions. The context awareness is genuinely impressive – it knows your variable names, coding style, and project architecture.
This is what we like to call “Pair Programming with AI” and luckily, we’ve built entire modules around this. Check our learning platform out here if you want to go deeper than just Codex!
How will you use Codex?
Quick Bites
Stay updated with our favorite highlights, dive in for a full flavor of the coverage!
AI can now forecast your health problems over a decade into the future, using medical records to predict 1,231 diseases with weather-forecast-like accuracy.
Canon launched Workplace AI for real-time monitoring and threat detection across education, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors.
Amazon introduced agentic AI across its seller platform, powered by Amazon Bedrock to help sellers manage inventory, compliance, and advertising automatically.
Parents testified before the Senate about AI chatbots harming children, with new lawsuits filed against Character.AI and OpenAI over teen suicides.
YouTube announced expanded AI tools for creators, including Ask Studio for personalized insights and AI-powered video brainstorming.
Trending Tools
🛒 Google AP2 Protocol - The open standard for AI agent payments.
🎨 Drawnaq - Create professional marketing graphics from product uploads with AI-powered design tools.
☁️ CloudGeni - Deterministic AI that transforms Click-Ops into Infrastructure as Code.
The Neural Network
OpenAI broke down the most common use-cases for ChatGPT.. what stands out to you 👀 ?
Until we Type Again…
Thank you for reading yet another edition of Digestibly!
Reyhan
Early AI leader, advises Fortune 500 companies on AI Development, LLMOps, AI strategy, speaks (for fun) on practical AI. Turns cutting-edge theory into workflows teams can ship today.
Kevin
Ex-AWS SageMaker/Bedrock lead. Shipped infra powering 1M+ devices and $2.5M ARR. Obsessed with high-throughput, low-latency systems— and brings that discipline to every Digestibly release.