Joyful Friday. I’m again from trip and nonetheless getting caught up on every little thing I missed. AI researchers shifting jobs is getting coated like NBA trades now, apparently.
Earlier than I get into this week’s situation, I wish to be sure you try my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It’s a great deep dive on the principle 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 increase, they consider a chatbot like ChatGPT. Now, it’s changing into more and more clear that the net browser is the place the following part of AI is taking form.
The reason being easy: the chatbots of as we speak don’t have entry to your on-line life like your browser does. That stage of context — learn and write entry to your e mail, your checking account, and so forth. — is required if AI goes to develop into a software that truly goes off and does issues for you.
Two current 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 in the mean time, and entry to each is at present gated to costly subscription tiers because of the increased compute prices required to run the reasoning fashions they necessitate. Maybe most frustratingly, each merchandise declare to do issues they will’t, not simply in advertising supplies, however within the precise product expertise.
ChatGPT Agent is a read-only browser expertise — it could possibly’t entry a logged-in website like Comet — and that severely limits its usefulness. It’s additionally very gradual. My colleague Hayden Subject requested it to discover a explicit sort of lamp on Etsy, and ChatGPT Agent took 50 minutes to return again with a response. It additionally failed so as to add objects to her Etsy cart, regardless of claiming it had accomplished so.
Whereas Comet is nowhere close to as gradual, I’ve had quite a few experiences with it claiming it has accomplished duties it hasn’t, or stating it could possibly do one thing, solely to instantly inform me it could possibly’t after I make a request. Its sidecar interface, which locations the AI assistant to the appropriate of a webpage, is great for read-only duties, similar to summarizing a webpage or researching one thing particular I’m taking a look at. However as I instructed 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 one of the best AI can do at finishing duties on the internet. Or, you possibly can take a look at the previous couple of years of progress within the trade and make the wager that the identical pattern line will proceed.
Throughout our chat this week, Srinivas instructed 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 educated on extra complicated, multi-step duties. (The mannequin has no public identify and isn’t out there by way of an API.)
Even with the various 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 truly seems like an agent.
- What may have been for Substack: Earlier than the e-newsletter platform raised the $100 million spherical it introduced this week, two sources inform me that Vice founder Shane Smith approached Substack’s co-founders about buying the corporate. It’s unclear how far the talks progressed, although Smith additionally mentioned the concept 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 look at 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 Huge Tech and go away the remainder of their workforce to select up the items, is nothing new. It’s an unlucky byproduct of the antitrust scrutiny on Huge Tech, which to date appears to have discovered methods to purchase what it desires by forsaking a husk of a startup and calling its payouts “licensing charges.” However given how Cognition messaged its rescuing of Windsurf’s remaining workforce (“each single worker is handled with respect and properly taken care of on this transaction”), I ponder if the following AI startup founder will assume twice earlier than leaving their workforce behind.
- Mira Murati’s new AI lab may have an enterprise angle. I really feel assured in that prediction after seeing who her monetary backers are for her new lab, Pondering Machines. ServiceNow and Cisco aren’t investing in a ChatGPT competitor. Given the extent of expertise she has managed to assemble, the trade shall be paying shut consideration to no matter “multimodal AI” product the workforce releases within the coming months. Is there room for one more Anthropic-like rival to OpenAI? We’re about to search out out.
- AI researchers can’t get US visas. NeurlPS, the premier AI analysis convention, has skilled such excessive attendance demand for this yr’s occasion in San Diego that they’ve added a second location in Mexico to accommodate roughly 500 extra folks. The convention’s announcement states that there have been “difficulties in acquiring journey visas” for attendees wishing to attend the principle US occasion. Yikes.
Some noteworthy profession strikes
- Zuckerberg’s new Superintelligence lab is getting significantly larger. This week noticed the addition of OpenAI’s Jason Wei and Hyung Received Chung, which signifies 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, together with Mark Lee and Tom Gunter from Apple. In the meantime, your entire workforce behind the voice AI startup PlayAI has formally joined (some firms are nonetheless sufficiently small for Huge Tech to accumulate outright). And in what must be an ominous sign to everybody within the broader AI group at present present process DOGE-style interviews with Alexandr Wang’s new workforce, VP of Product Connor Hayes has moved over to run Threads.
- Anthropic’s head of engineering, Brian Delahunty, joined Google Cloud to steer 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 can also be leaving ServiceNow to be Anthropic’s first chief industrial 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 placed on go away pending an inside investigation.
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As at all times, I welcome your suggestions, particularly in case you have ideas on this situation or a narrative concept to share. You possibly can reply right here or ping me securely on Sign.
