Joyful Friday. I’m again from trip and nonetheless getting caught up on every part I missed. AI researchers moving jobs is getting lined like NBA trades now, apparently.
Earlier than I get into this week’s problem, I would like to be sure you take a look at my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It’s a superb deep dive on the foremost matter of as we speak’s e-newsletter. Preserve studying for a scoop on Substack and extra from this week in AI information.
From chatbots to browsers
To this point, when most individuals consider the fashionable AI growth, they consider a chatbot like ChatGPT. Now, it’s turning into more and more clear that the net browser is the place the subsequent part of AI is taking form.
The rationale is easy: the chatbots of as we speak don’t have entry to your on-line life like your browser does. That degree of context — learn and write entry to your electronic mail, your checking account, and so on. — is required if AI is going to turn into a instrument that really goes off and does issues for you.
Two latest product releases level to this pattern. The primary is OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent, which makes use of a primary browser to surf the net in your behalf. The second is Comet, a desktop browser from Perplexity that takes it a step additional by permitting giant language fashions to entry logged-in websites and full duties in your behalf. (OpenAI is rumored to be planning its personal full-fledged browser.)
Neither ChatGPT Agent nor Comet works reliably at the second, and entry to each is at present gated to costly subscription tiers due to the increased compute prices required to run the reasoning fashions they necessitate. Maybe most frustratingly, each merchandise declare to do issues they’ll’t, not simply in advertising supplies, however in the precise product expertise.
ChatGPT Agent is a read-only browser expertise — it might’t entry a logged-in web site like Comet — and that severely limits its usefulness. It’s additionally very sluggish. My colleague Hayden Discipline requested it to discover a specific sort of lamp on Etsy, and ChatGPT Agent took 50 minutes to come again with a response. It additionally failed to add objects to her Etsy cart, regardless of claiming it had executed so.
Whereas Comet is nowhere close to as sluggish, I’ve had quite a few experiences with it claiming it has accomplished duties it hasn’t, or stating it might do one thing, solely to instantly inform me it might’t after I make a request. Its sidecar interface, which locations the AI assistant to the proper of a webpage, is glorious for read-only duties, akin to summarizing a webpage or researching one thing particular I’m taking a look at. However as I advised Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week, the general expertise feels fairly brittle.
It’s simple to be a cynic and assume the present state of merchandise like Comet is the finest AI can do at finishing duties on the net. Or, you may take a look at the previous few years of progress in the trade and make the guess that the identical pattern line will proceed.
Throughout our chat this week, Srinivas advised me he’s “betting on progress in reasoning fashions to get us there.” OpenAI constructed a customized reasoning mannequin particularly for ChatGPT Agent that was skilled on extra advanced, multi-step duties. (The mannequin has no public identify and isn’t obtainable by way of an API.)
Even with the many limitations and bugs that exist as we speak, utilizing Comet for only a few days has satisfied me that the mainstream chatbot interface will merge with the browser. It already seems like taking a step again to merely immediate a chatbot versus interacting with a ChatGPT-like expertise that may see no matter web site I’m taking a look at. Standalone chatbots actually aren’t going away, particularly on smartphones, however the browser is what’s going to unlock AI that really seems like an agent.
- What may have been for Substack: Earlier than the e-newsletter platform raised the $100 million round it introduced this week, two sources inform me that Vice founder Shane Smith approached Substack’s co-founders about buying the firm. It’s unclear how far the talks progressed, although Smith additionally mentioned the thought with potential monetary backers. Substack’s management rebuffed his takeover curiosity however recommended he may spend money on the spherical they only closed. It’s unclear if he did. Neither Smith nor Substack responded to my request for remark.
- The top of reverse acquihires? Whereas I used to be out on trip, it was fascinating to observe the intense backlash to the Windsurf/Google reverse acquihire. This sample, the place the founders of a buzzy AI startup parachute into the arms of Massive Tech and go away the remainder of their staff to decide up the items, is nothing new. It’s an unlucky byproduct of the antitrust scrutiny on Massive Tech, which thus far appears to have found out how to purchase what it needs by forsaking a husk of a startup and calling its payouts “licensing charges.” However given how Cognition messaged its rescuing of Windsurf’s remaining staff (“each single worker is handled with respect and effectively taken care of on this transaction”), I’m wondering if the subsequent AI startup founder will assume twice earlier than leaving their staff behind.
- Mira Murati’s new AI lab could have an enterprise angle. I really feel assured in that prediction after seeing who her financial backers are for her new lab, Considering Machines. ServiceNow and Cisco aren’t investing in a ChatGPT competitor. Given the degree of expertise she has managed to assemble, the trade will likely be paying shut consideration to no matter “multimodal AI” product the staff releases in the coming months. Is there room for one more Anthropic-like rival to OpenAI? We’re about to discover out.
- AI researchers can’t get US visas. NeurlPS, the premier AI analysis convention, has skilled such excessive attendance demand for this 12 months’s occasion in San Diego that they’ve added a second location in Mexico to accommodate roughly 500 extra individuals. The convention’s announcement states that there have been “difficulties in acquiring journey visas” for attendees wishing to attend the foremost US occasion. Yikes.
Some noteworthy profession strikes
- Zuckerberg’s new Superintelligence lab is getting significantly greater. This week noticed the addition of OpenAI’s Jason Wei and Hyung Gained Chung, which implies that Meta has now poached 5 of OpenAI’s 21 “foundational contributors” to o1. Augustus Odena and Maxwell Nye, co-founders of the Adept AI startup that Amazon reverse acquihired to kickstart its AGI lab, additionally joined, along with Mark Lee and Tom Gunter from Apple. In the meantime, the total staff behind the voice AI startup PlayAI has officially joined (some corporations are nonetheless sufficiently small for Massive Tech to purchase outright). And in what needs to be an ominous sign to everybody in the broader AI group at present present process DOGE-style interviews with Alexandr Wang’s new staff, VP of Product Connor Hayes has moved over to run Threads.
- Anthropic’s head of engineering, Brian Delahunty, joined Google Cloud to lead AI agent engineering. In the meantime, Boris Cherny and Cat Wu returned to Anthropic after an alarmingly temporary tenure in management roles at Cursor. Paul Smith is additionally leaving ServiceNow to be Anthropic’s first chief business officer.
- Reddit CMO Roxy Younger is leaving amid what seems to be a broader management reshuffling.
- Extra mind drain at Tesla: This time it’s Troy Jones, head of gross sales for North America.
- Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR chief Kristin Cabot (that couple from the Coldplay live performance) have been put on leave pending an inside investigation.
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As at all times, I welcome your suggestions, particularly when you’ve got ideas on this problem or a narrative thought to share. You’ll be able to reply right here or ping me securely on Signal.
