Completely happy 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 subject, I need to ensure you try my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It’s a great deep dive on the principle matter of at this time’s publication. Maintain 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 turning into more and more clear that the net browser is the place the subsequent section of AI is taking form.
The reason being easy: the chatbots of at this time don’t have entry to your on-line life like your browser does. That degree of context — learn and write entry to your e-mail, your checking account, and many others. — is required if AI goes to grow to be 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 massive 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 meanwhile, and entry to each is at present gated to costly subscription tiers because of the greater 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 within the precise product expertise.
ChatGPT Agent is a read-only browser expertise — it could’t entry a logged-in website like Comet — and that severely limits its usefulness. It’s additionally very sluggish. My colleague Hayden Area requested it to discover a specific type of lamp on Etsy, and ChatGPT Agent took 50 minutes to come back again with a response. It additionally failed so as to add objects to her Etsy cart, regardless of claiming it had achieved 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 could do one thing, solely to instantly inform me it could’t after I make a request. Its sidecar interface, which locations the AI assistant to the proper of a webpage, is great for read-only duties, comparable 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 straightforward to be a cynic and assume the present state of merchandise like Comet is the most effective AI can do at finishing duties on the net. Or, you possibly can take a look at the previous couple of years of progress within the business and make the wager 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 educated on extra advanced, multi-step duties. (The mannequin has no public identify and isn’t accessible by way of an API.)
Even with the various limitations and bugs that exist at this time, utilizing Comet for just some days has satisfied me that the mainstream chatbot interface will merge with the browser. It already appears 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 is going to unlock AI that truly appears like an agent.
- What may have been for Substack: Earlier than the publication 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 steered he may put money into 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 depart the remainder of their group to select up the items, is nothing new. It’s an unlucky byproduct of the antitrust scrutiny on Huge Tech, which to this point appears to have discovered purchase what it desires by abandoning a husk of a startup and calling its payouts “licensing charges.” However given how Cognition messaged its rescuing of Windsurf’s remaining group (“each single worker is handled with respect and properly taken care of on this transaction”), I’m wondering if the subsequent AI startup founder will assume twice earlier than leaving their group 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 business will likely be paying shut consideration to no matter “multimodal AI” product the group releases within the coming months. Is there room for an additional Anthropic-like rival to OpenAI? We’re about to seek out 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 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 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, together with Mark Lee and Tom Gunter from Apple. In the meantime, the whole group behind the voice AI startup PlayAI has formally joined (some corporations are nonetheless sufficiently small for Huge Tech to amass outright). And in what needs to be an ominous sign to everybody within the broader AI group at present present process DOGE-style interviews with Alexandr Wang’s new group, 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 be 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 placed on depart pending an inner investigation.
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As at all times, I welcome your suggestions, particularly if in case you have ideas on this subject or a narrative concept to share. You possibly can reply right here or ping me securely on Sign.
