End of December AI Announcements Roundup
The end of December brings a host of new features: Alibaba updates its image editing model, xAI deploys its RAG system and signs a major contract with the US government, while Google improves NotebookLM and Gemini CLI.
Qwen-Image-Edit-2511: Improved Image Editing
December 23, 2025 โ Alibaba announces Qwen-Image-Edit-2511, a major update to its image editing model.
New in version 2511
| Improvement | Description |
|---|---|
| Multi-person consistency | Better consistency for group photos and complex scenes |
| Real-world editing | More realistic editing of real-world images |
| Community features | Popular community features natively integrated |
This version succeeds 2509 and brings significant improvements for professional use cases involving multiple people.
๐ Introducing Qwen-Image-Edit-2511 โ a major upgrade over 2509, delivering significantly stronger consistency and more powerful real-world image editing.
๐ฌ๐ง Introducing Qwen-Image-Edit-2511 โ a major upgrade over 2509, delivering significantly stronger consistency and more powerful real-world image editing. โ @Alibaba_Qwen on X
๐ Hugging Face Qwen
xAI: Grok Collections API and Government Partnership
Grok Collections API: Integrated RAG
December 22, 2025 โ xAI launches Grok Collections API, a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) system integrated directly into the API.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Dataset Upload | PDFs, Excel, entire codebases |
| Intelligent OCR | Layout-aware parsing preserving structure |
| File Management | Upload, update, download with auto re-indexing |
| Multiple Formats | Wide range of supported file types |
Search Methods
- Semantic search: search by meaning and intent
- Keyword search: exact term matching
- Hybrid search: combination of both with reranker and reciprocal rank fusion
Pricing
| Offer | Price |
|---|---|
| First week | Free (indexing and storage) |
| Thereafter | $2.50 / 1,000 searches |
xAI for Government: Contract with the Department of War
December 22, 2025 โ xAI is selected by the US Department of War to integrate the GenAI.Mil suite.
Partnership Scope
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Users | 3 million military and civilian personnel |
| Security Level | DOW Impact Level 5 (IL5) |
| Partner | CDAO (Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office) |
| Platform | xAI for Government |
xAI for Government
The platform is designed for federal, state, and local government agencies. It combines:
- Grok AI Models
- Agentic tools
- Search platform
- API Access
- Real-time insights from X
Google: NotebookLM and Gemini CLI
NotebookLM Data Tables
December 18-19, 2025 โ NotebookLM adds the Data Tables feature, allowing automatic synthesis of sources into structured tables exportable to Google Sheets.
Use Cases
- Meeting transcripts โ action tables by owner and priority
- Competitive analyses โ price and strategy comparisons
- Clinical trial data โ tracking years, samples, statistics
- Exam revisions โ organization by date, key figures, consequences
- Travel planning โ comparison of destinations and costs
Availability
| Users | Date |
|---|---|
| Pro and Ultra | December 18, 2025 |
| All others | Progressive rollout |
Gemini CLI v0.22 and v0.23-preview
December 19-22, 2025 โ Gemini CLI receives several major updates.
v0.22.0 (December 22)
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Multi-file drag-and-drop | Drag and drop multiple files |
| Persistent Always Allow | Persistent approval policies |
| IDE auth token fallback | Environment variable for IDE authentication |
| Quota stats | Stats for unused models in /stats |
| Settings schema validation | Configuration schema validation |
v0.23.0-preview (December 22)
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Remote agent infrastructure | Infrastructure for remote agents |
| JIT context memory | Just-in-time context memory loading |
| Agent TOML parser | Parser for TOML agent configuration |
| Windows clipboard images | Windows clipboard image support (Alt+V) |
| Hooks support | Names and descriptions for hooks |
๐ GitHub Releases
What this means
For Developers
- Qwen continues to improve its open-source image editing models
- xAI now offers a turnkey RAG solution via API
- Gemini CLI is evolving towards a more sophisticated agent architecture
For the Ecosystem
The xAI-DOW partnership marks an important milestone in AI adoption by governments, with planned access for 3 million users within the US Department of Defense.