The Rundown: UK surgeons just announced the first brain surgery ever performed with a live AI assistant, with a University College of London system watching in real-time through a surgical camera and flagging hidden arteries and optic nerves to avoid during the removal of a tumor.

Posted on August 28, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
🧠 UK trials live-video AI in brain surgeryImage source: UCLH / BBC

The Rundown: UK surgeons just announced the first brain surgery ever performed with a live AI assistant, with a University College of London system watching in real-time through a surgical camera and flagging hidden arteries and optic nerves to avoid during the removal of a tumor.

The details: Patient Rhys Hibbert had no symptoms until a seizure in late 2024 revealed an 11mm pituitary growth that slowly narrowed his field of vision. Surgeons reached the tumor through Hibbert’s nose, while AI watched the camera feed on its own monitor and marked the safest spots to cut and areas to avoid. The AI trained on hundreds of labeled videos of past removals, with surgeon Hani Marcus saying it saw “more operations than most surgeons see or do in a lifetime.” The patient’s vision was restored within days following the successful removal, with the team now moving toward larger trials of the AI system.

Why it matters: Robots may eventually be capable of the precise movements needed for most surgeries, but for now this is a powerful example of the near-term advances AI can bring to the operating table: an expert second set of eyes to monitor and flag while the human surgeon remains completely in control.
QUICK HITS
COMMUNITY AI WORKFLOW OF THE DAY▸ Karen built a family heirloom catalog with Gemini and a whiteboard Today’s workflow comes from reader Karen D.:“My mother recently moved into a retirement suite, which meant downsizing her possessions. We ended up with dozens of physical items she no longer had space for, and we wanted her children and grandchildren to have an opportunity to sign up for the family items they loved before anything was donated. I needed a way to catalog everything quickly, share the info remotely, and verify that we weren’t accidentally giving away items of significant value.I tested a physical-to-digital workflow using Gemini. Instead of putting the items in a pile or typing out endless lists, I drew a numbered grid on a large whiteboard, placed one item in each square, and took a few photos. Gemini identified the objects by grid position, categorized them, estimated their market values, and built a ready-to-use spreadsheet with a signup column.The physical staging took about 30 to 45 minutes, and the entire digital workload took under 10 minutes.

The process turned an overwhelming chore into something manageable.”See Karen’s full workflow here. How do you use AI? Tell us for a chance to be featured.
🛠️ Trending AI Tools🔀 Switch – Bring any AI agent into Slack, Teams, Discord, and more. Open source. No migration. No platform lock-in.*📄 Cohere Parse 5 – SOTA model for converting docs into machine-readable data

⚡️ Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash – Google’s upgraded video model🎥 H3 Max – fal’s MiniMax H3 remixed video model tuned for speed and quality*Sponsored Listing
📰 Everything else in AI today

OpenAI published an open letter signed by 116 companies (including Anthropic) warning that AI-enabled cyberattacks will become “far more widespread and sophisticated” in the coming months, calling for a coordinated cyber defense push.

Nvidia is reportedly acquiring open model hub Hugging Face for $12.9B, with open-source interest continuing to surge on Chinese model gains.

Google released Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, an upgraded video model that adds 40-sec scene extensions and 4K upscaling, moving to the top spot on Arena’s text-to-image leaderboard.

Thinking Machines co-founder Barret Zoph is rejoining Google as a research VP to work on reinforcement learning for Gemini, coming after a brief second stint at OpenAI.

Salesforce partnered with Anthropic to introduce Claudeforce, which puts a 37-skill sales plugin into Claude, while also making Claude the default model in Slack.
🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events Read our last AI newsletter: The Ox Alpha mystery ends with Z.ai Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s Mac Mini makes an AI comeback Read our last Robotics newsletter: Cyborg roaches become tiny paramedicsToday’s AI tool guide: Use these AI skills to make better decisions quicklyRSVP to next workshop on Sept. 2: Build an AI operating system for your 1:1s
That’s it for today!Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today’s newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nailed it⭐️⭐️⭐️ Average⭐️ FailSee you soon,Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate —

Unknown's avatar

About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a comment