🍜 Top AI stock picks..

Wall Street just crowned [ ... ] and [ ... ] as the prom king and queen of AI stocks...

April 07, 2025

Welcome, Noodle Networkers.

Alphabet and TSMC are suddenly the cool kids on Wall Street 📈, with analysts hyping them as top AI stock picks. If you missed the last AI investing wave, don’t worry—there’s always room on the FOMO train (next stop: “should’ve bought earlier”). Meanwhile, Meta just unleashed Llama 4 🤖—a multimodal AI that can read, watch, listen, and probably ghost you in four different formats. It’s already sliding into your DMs via WhatsApp and Messenger, so get ready for smarter spam. And Microsoft’s AI-generated “Quake II” demo is… well, it exists 🎮. Turns out recreating a cult classic with a robot doesn’t always lead to a masterpiece. Critics say it’s more “meh” than multiplayer.

Are we entering the golden age of AI, or just watching tech giants throw everything at the wall to see what sticks? Let’s find out...

In today’s AI digest:

  • Alphabet and TSMC highlighted as top AI stock picks 📈 

  • Meta releases Llama 4 AI models with multimodal capabilities 🤖

  • Microsoft's AI-generated 'Quake II' demo faces criticism 🎮

Read time: 5 minutes

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WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY

(source: Fool)

The Digest: Wall Street just crowned Alphabet and TSMC as the prom king and queen of AI stocks, and investors are swooning. Between Google’s obsession with putting AI in literally everything and TSMC’s role as the chip whisperer for the entire industry, analysts are basically saying, “If you’re only going to bet on two AI horses, these are the ones that won’t trip at the starting gate.”

Key Details:

📱 Alphabet: More AI Than You Can Shake a Search Bar At – From stuffing AI into Search, Gmail, Docs, and probably your Google Calendar too, Alphabet is turning its entire product line into a friendly, overly helpful robot. Also, they own Waymo—because if your emails don’t write themselves yet, at least your car might drive you home soon.

💰 Financials Looking Like Cheat Codes – With a market cap over $2 trillion and a P/E ratio of 21.49, Alphabet isn’t just flexing—they’re casually bench-pressing the entire Nasdaq.

🔧 TSMC: AI’s Favorite Chip Dealer – Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) makes the brains for basically every AI tool out there. Nvidia? Apple? Probably your smart fridge? Yeah, TSMC built the silicon they’re thinking on. They’re projecting 45% annual growth in AI-related chips—which in investor terms means: cha-ching.

🔌 Behind Every Smart AI... – ...is a TSMC chip wondering why it’s being used to create cat memes, deepfake voiceovers, and academic essays about whales. But hey, business is booming.

Why It Matters: AI is no longer just a buzzword—it’s a stock market cheat code, and Alphabet and TSMC are basically holding the controller. Whether you’re into chips or chatbots, these two are shaping the future—and getting paid handsomely while doing it.

(source: Bloomberg)

The Digest: Meta just dropped its Llama 4 models, and no, these aren’t wooly animals—they’re next-gen AI models that read text, see images, and probably judge your meme collection. With names like Scout, Maverick, and Behemoth, the lineup sounds less like an AI release and more like a Marvel movie. Either way, Meta is going full throttle into the “multimodal AI arms race,” and the Llamas are here to rumble.

Key Details:

🧠 Llama 4 Scout – A 17B-parameter model with a 10-million-token context window. That’s long enough to summarize your novel, your PhD thesis, and your unread email backlog in one go. Perfect for the overachiever AI who says, “Yeah, I read the whole internet—twice.”

🌍 Llama 4 Maverick – Also 17B parameters, this one speaks 12 languages, understands text and images, and is basically the international spy of chatbots. Think: James Bond, but it translates your shopping list and helps with your history essay.

🐲 Llama 4 Behemoth – Still in training, but rocking 2 trillion parameters—which is just showing off, honestly. Meta says it’ll be a “teacher model,” but we’re betting it’ll be the one grading your prompt technique in 2030.

🔧 MoE: Mixture-of-Experts – These models activate just the right parts of their brain (unlike us at 8 a.m.) for every task. Efficient, scalable, and never forgets what you said 9,000 tokens ago.

📂 Open-Source Swagger – True to Meta’s LLaMA tradition, Scout and Maverick are available to the public, meaning AI nerds everywhere are already building chatbots that explain Shakespeare in Klingon.

Why It Matters: Llama 4 is Meta’s way of saying, “We’re not just in the AI race—we brought a rocket llama.” These models raise the bar for open-source AI, and with multimodal powers baked in, they’re not just smarter—they’re seeing, reading, and (probably) silently judging your selfies.

(source: Forbes)

The Digest: Microsoft’s AI just tried to remake Quake II, and let’s just say… it’s more “science project” than “nostalgic masterpiece.” As part of its Copilot for Gaming initiative, Microsoft launched a browser-based demo of Quake II—but instead of using the original game engine, it let its Muse AI model generate everything. The result? Imagine Quake II after it’s been run through a potato and streamed over 2003 Wi-Fi.

Key Details:

🎮 AI-Powered Throwback... Sort Of – The demo was generated in real time by Microsoft’s Muse AI, which is cool in theory—but in practice, the game looks like it’s being rendered by a toaster. It’s Quake II, but with the visual fidelity of a dream you once had about playing it.

🖥️ Resolution? Retro! – The demo runs at 640x360 with a frame rate best described as “enthusiastically inconsistent.” If you’re nostalgic for blurry textures and laggy controls, this one’s for you. Otherwise, it’s like watching your childhood memories through a foggy shower door.

🧪 Research Mode Activated – Microsoft says this is just a research demo, not meant to replace the original. So don’t worry—your beloved rocket jumps and pixelated gore are safe (for now). This is more about testing what AI could do… if it ever decides to try.

Community Reactions:

👎 Gamers: “We asked for nostalgia, not nausea.” – Players were quick to point out that the demo looks and feels nothing like the OG Quake II. The phrase “AI fever dream” came up more than once.

🎨 Developers: “Can we not replace artistry with math?” – Critics say this is a glimpse of a future where handcrafted game design is replaced by autocomplete with a graphics card.

🕹️ Preservation or Just a Weird Remix? – Microsoft says this AI could help with game preservation. Skeptics argue that AI recreations are about as authentic as a deep-fried Mona Lisa.

Why It Matters: This little AI-generated Quake II experiment shows both the promise and the peril of letting robots reboot our childhoods. Sure, AI might someday help build or restore games—but right now, it’s more of a clunky sidekick than a co-op partner.

THE NOODLE LAB

AI Hacks & How-Tos

The Digest: Braina is an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to help you automate repetitive tasks on your Windows PC, enhancing productivity through voice commands and custom macros. ​

How-to:

  1. Download and Install Braina:

    • Visit the Braina website and download the application.​

    • Follow the installation prompts to set up Braina on your Windows PC.​

  2. Set Up Voice Commands:

    • Launch Braina and access the Settings menu.​

    • Ensure your microphone is configured correctly for voice recognition.​

    • Familiarize yourself with built-in voice commands to open applications, files, or websites. ​

  3. Create Custom Commands:

    • Navigate to the Custom Commands section.​

    • Define new commands by specifying a voice trigger and the corresponding action, such as launching a specific program or opening a document. ​

  4. Automate Repetitive Tasks:

    • Use Braina's Keyboard Macros feature to record sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions.​

    • Assign these macros to voice commands or hotkeys to automate tasks like data entry or form submissions. ​

  5. Schedule Tasks:

    • Utilize the Task Scheduler to set Braina to perform specific actions at designated times, such as opening daily planning tools each morning. ​

Explore More: Use Follow-up Mode to dive deeper into a specific industry and fine-tune your niche selection. We just covered AI-powered niche discovery in a workshop—access it at the top of this email! 🚀

Trending AI Tools

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  • enCaption by ENCO: An AI-driven live captioning system that provides real-time, accurate captions for broadcasts and live events, enhancing accessibility and viewer engagement. ​

  • Linguana: An AI platform that assists YouTubers in creating international channels by providing high-quality video translations, enabling content creators to reach a global audience effectively. ​

  • Nova Act by Amazon's AGI Lab: An advanced AI model designed to perform complex web interactions and tasks, showcasing significant progress in artificial general intelligence applications. ​

  • Staircase Studios AI: A startup integrating AI technology with human creativity in film production, enabling rapid and cost-effective filmmaking while maintaining artistic integrity. ​