G'day! Five releases from the last day or so, why each one matters, and how to try it. LG AI Research has opened the API for K-EXAONE 2.5, its big agent-focused model, to anyone for free. OpenCode's Browse lets your coding agent work in the browser you already use, logins and all, and Lovable apps can now take PayPal payments. There is a cosy brick-building game you can play with friends, and a browser extension that uses AI to clear rage-bait out of your feeds. About a five-minute read.

LG AI Research, the AI lab of South Korea's LG Group, has made the API for K-EXAONE 2.5 free for anyone: developers, start-ups, businesses and researchers just need to get an API key from the EXAONE API Platform. It announced the move on Monday at NVIDIA AI Day Seoul. K-EXAONE 2.5 is a further-trained version of the model LG released in August as part of South Korea's national AI model project. LG's docs list it as a 750-billion-parameter model with 31 billion active, a context window of about 512,000 tokens, and support for tool calling, structured outputs and code. It works in Korean and English, takes text only, and always "thinks" before it answers (you can turn the effort down to low for faster replies). On LG's own tests it scores 59.2 on SWE-Bench Pro (real-world coding fixes), 78.0 on BrowseComp (finding things on the web) and 74.6 on AutomationBench (doing work in SaaS tools), roughly level with China's DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash and GLM-5.3. LG says the next model, K-EXAONE 3.0, is due in January.

Why it matters: a free API for a model this size is a cheap way to test a non-US, non-Chinese option for agents and coding. The API is OpenAI-compatible, so many existing tools can point at it with a new address and key. The scores are LG's own internal evaluations.

TRY IT → free (A$0). Get an API key from the EXAONE API Platform and call the k-exaone_v2.5 model at https://api.exaone.ai/v1/chat/completions. Rate limits apply; LG's docs show how to read them from each response but do not publish the free-tier numbers. LG AI Research: K-EXAONE 2.5 API available for free · K-EXAONE 2.5 model details

OpenCode has released Browse, a free, open-source browser extension plus MCP server (the standard way AI agents plug into tools) that lets an agent drive the browser you already use. It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Helium, Vivaldi, Opera and Chromium, and with OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Zed and other MCP clients. The agent opens its own tabs in a collapsed group out of your way, drives them with Playwright, takes screenshots, records the screen and can capture network traffic. Because it uses your real browser, it can reach sites you are already signed in to without API keys. When it hits a login, a 2FA prompt, a passkey or a payment, it hands the tab back to you and carries on after you click Continue. You can also lend it a tab you already have open, and limit a session to sites you name. OpenCode says everything stays between your browser and Browse on your computer; the extension has no server of its own. The first public versions landed on the weekend and it has been updated daily since.

Why it matters: a lot of real work lives behind logins that agents cannot reach. This gives them your browser instead of a blank one, and keeps the sensitive steps with you.

TRY IT → free (A$0, MIT licence). Add browse from the Chrome Web Store and it walks you through the rest, or run npx @opencode/browse install (needs Node.js 22.19 or newer). Then ask your agent something like "open news.ycombinator.com and tell me the top story". Worth using the allowlist: an agent in your signed-in browser can do anything you can. OpenCode: Browse · Source on GitHub

Lovable, the app builder where you describe what you want in chat, has added a PayPal connector. Connect a PayPal account you already have and your app can create a checkout, take the money once the buyer approves the order, issue full or partial refunds, and read an order's status. Lovable suggests it for shop checkouts, donation pages, ticket sales and booking deposits, with starter prompts such as "Use PayPal and build a booking form that takes a $20 deposit to confirm the appointment." You paste in a client ID and secret from the PayPal Developer Dashboard, and you can start in PayPal's sandbox so no real money moves, then switch to a live connection. The secret never reaches the browser, and Lovable builds the check that confirms PayPal's payment messages are genuine before your app acts on them. Payments go straight to your PayPal account. This is separate from Lovable's built-in payments, which use Stripe or Paddle.

Why it matters: many small Aussie businesses, clubs and charities already take PayPal. Being able to add it to a prompt-built site, with sandbox testing and refunds, makes these apps a step closer to something you can actually charge through.

TRY IT → connectors are available on Lovable's Free plan (A$0, 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month), and on paid plans. Open Connectors and pick PayPal, or ask Lovable in a project to connect it. Going live needs a verified PayPal business account, and PayPal charges its usual fees. Lovable changelog · Lovable docs: Connect your app to PayPal

Brick Buddies, from the small studio Bunnyhop, is a relaxed game about building toy-brick models. You open a bag of parts, spread the bricks over your workbench, follow the instructions and snap each piece into place. When you are done you add the stickers, open the doors, move the curtains and look around the little rooms you could not see while building. Up to four players can share one workbench online and build a model together, so one person does the walls while another adds the windows. There is no timer, you can save at any time, and it can be played with just a mouse. It came out on Sunday.

Why it matters: it is a calm, low-pressure game you can play with a friend or a kid while you chat, and it costs less than a coffee and a muffin.

TRY IT → out now on PC (Steam) for A$7.65, down from A$8.50 (10% off at check time). Windows only. Single-player and online co-op for up to four. No Australian classification was listed at check time. Steam: Brick Buddies

Remedy is a new Chrome extension that uses AI to remove posts you do not want to see, before you scroll to them. Five filters are on from the start (explicit, violent, rage-bait, political, and sad or depressing), and you can add topics such as spoilers, crypto hype or sport, or write your own rule in plain words, like "hide all golf content, but keep political posts about local elections". It works on X, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and TikTok, and any other site you add, and it never runs on banking, email, health, government or password sites. A popup lists everything it took out, so nothing disappears without a trace. To check a post, its text and images are sent to Remedy's AI models, which the developer says run with zero data retention; Remedy keeps only a fingerprint of each post and its verdict. Its own FAQ admits it will sometimes miss things or remove something harmless. Its developer shared it on Hacker News on Monday morning our time.

Why it matters: platform mute lists only catch exact words. A filter that goes by meaning, in your own words, is a practical everyday use of AI, though it does mean sending what you scroll past to a third party to be checked.

TRY IT → add it to Chrome on your computer. Your first day checks everything for free with no account or card, then the Free tier checks text on one site (a few hundred posts a day). Lite, which checks text on every site, is US$6.99 a month (about A$10.18); Plus, which also checks images and video, is US$14.99 a month (about A$21.82) after a 5-day free trial that needs a card. Remedy

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