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By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Credit: Tacta Systems™ Inc.

Robotics Startup Tacta Shows Its Hand (and Glove)

By Rocket Drew · Jul 27, 2026 8:35am PDT

As robotics companies explore new ways to collect the massive volumes of data needed to train the physical AI models that will power humanoid robots, one approach is gaining steam. Some robotics companies are relying on specialized gloves that people can wear while they carry out tasks at work or around the home. The gloves record information... As robotics companies explore new ways to collect the massive volumes of data needed to train the...

Takeoff founding engineers Shreya Shubhangi and Spencer Yen and founder and CEO Aakash Thumaty. Photo courtesy of Takeoff.

Sierra Acquires Agent Startup ‘Takeoff’ to Diversify Its Business

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Juro Osawa · Jul 23, 2026 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

In 2020, 22-year-old Aakash Thumaty was a product manager at Salesforce when he wrote an essay, “Value Driven Innovation at Shopify and the Incumbency Trap at Salesforce,” which argued against Salesforce’s subscription-based business model. He sent it to Bret Taylor, who at the time was Salesforce’s chief operating officer. To Thumaty’s... In 2020, 22-year-old Aakash Thumaty was a product manager at Salesforce when he wrote an essay, “...

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Anthropic Investor in Talks to Fund New Lab Run By Two Stanford AI Professors

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 22, 2026 8:56am PDT

Cloud and software incumbents want businesses to think twice before using Anthropic, OpenAI and other closed-source AI providers. Executives such as Palantir CEO Alex Karp have argued, for instance, that these AI firms could use their customers’ data to compete with them eventually. These potential fears could also help new AI startups... Cloud and software incumbents want businesses to think twice before using Anthropic, OpenAI and...

Art by Clark Miller/Nano Banana.

Anthropic’s Robot Ambition; Nvidia Ramps Up Vera Rubin

By Phoebe Liu, Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Jul 21, 2026 8:01am PDT · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller/Nano Banana.

Anthropic’s Robot Ambition; Nvidia Ramps Up Vera Rubin

By Phoebe Liu, Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Jul 21, 2026 8:01am PDT · 1 comment

Over the weekend, tech blogger Robert Scoble claimed Anthropic was in the process of acquiring Physical Intelligence, an AI robotics software developer that was most recently in talks to raise capital at a valuation of $11 billion. Scoble’s claim sent X into a frenzy.Scoble may not be right, as Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman denied to... Over the weekend, tech blogger Robert Scoble claimed Anthropic was in the process of acquiring ...

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What the New Kimi K3 Model Really Means for the U.S.-China AI Race

By Alix Coutures, Rocket Drew and Aaron Holmes · Jul 20, 2026 7:05am PDT

Thursday’s release of a surprisingly sophisticated new open-source AI model from Beijing-based startup Moonshot has ignited debate over whether China’s developers are erasing the gap with the dominant models from America’s AI firms.There is little question that Moonshot’s Kimi K3 is impressive. The largest open-source model in the world, with... Thursday’s release of a surprisingly sophisticated new open-source AI model from Beijing-based...

Runta CEO Guanlan Dai. Photo courtesy of Runta.

Andreessen Horowitz Backs Startup Aiming to ‘Parent’ AI Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 16, 2026 7:01am PDT

As a father to two young kids, Guanlan Dai sees a lot of similarities between AI agents and precocious children. Just as parents might childproof their house and avoid giving their kids access to credit cards, so too must developers limit the important files AI agents can access and how much the agents can spend in one go, he said.Now, Dai, a... As a father to two young kids, Guanlan Dai sees a lot of similarities between AI agents and...

Art via Getty Images

The Four Keys to Surviving the SaaSpocalypse

By Rocket Drew · Jul 15, 2026 9:45am PDT

To survive a zombie apocalypse, you’d probably want to team up with people who are skilled at medicine, engineering, farming—and your prepper uncle who stockpiles beans. To survive a SaaSpocalpyse, who should you team up with?Suppose for a second that the most extreme version of software disruption comes to pass: a couple years from now, AI... To survive a zombie apocalypse, you’d probably want to team up with people who are skilled at...

Art via Getty Images.

Evaluating Models is Getting Even Harder

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 14, 2026 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

Art via Getty Images.

Evaluating Models is Getting Even Harder

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 14, 2026 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

As AI gets more advanced, researchers are increasingly telling me that it’s also getting harder to evaluate how good AI actually is at various tasks. Most obviously, as AI improves, it quickly saturates all the benchmarks we have today and researchers have to rush to come up with even harder evaluations that the models won’t immediately... As AI gets more advanced, researchers are increasingly telling me that it’s also getting harder...

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Palazzolo.

The Hottest Research Papers From the International Conference on Machine Learning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 13, 2026 7:06am PDT

I’m only slightly jet-lagged after coming back from last week’s International Conference on Machine Learning in Seoul, where AI researchers from around the world shared new ways to run and train models more efficiently. Oh, and they also discussed the looming possibility of AI automating away their jobs. (Check out my newsletter on that subject... I’m only slightly jet-lagged after coming back from last week’s International Conference on...

Art by Clark Miller

Universities Fret as Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and DeepMind Lure Their Professors

By Laura Bratton · Jul 9, 2026 7:01am PDT

Renowned university professors and academic researchers keep joining frontier AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Remaining faculty say the brain drain is threatening the development of open source AI models in the West.So far this year, at least 22 professors and researchers have taken leave or stepped back from their roles at Stanford, ... Renowned university professors and academic researchers keep joining frontier AI labs such as ...

OpenAI researcher Noam Brown. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

OpenAI Researcher Says GPT-5.6 is Better at AI Research Than Most Human Interns

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 8, 2026 7:00am PDT

I’m reporting from Seoul, where thousands of AI researchers from around the world have gathered for this year’s International Conference on Machine Learning. One of the most popular spots at the conference is OpenAI’s booth, which has been consistently encircled by a line of young AI PhDs.They’re waiting for the chance to talk to OpenAI... I’m reporting from Seoul, where thousands of AI researchers from around the world have gathered...

Three Charts Show How xAI, Meta and Anthropic Are Entering Each Other’s Turf

Three Charts Show How xAI, Meta and Anthropic Are Entering Each Other’s Turf

By Amir Efrati · Jul 7, 2026 8:17am PDT

Three Charts Show How xAI, Meta and Anthropic Are Entering Each Other’s Turf

Three Charts Show How xAI, Meta and Anthropic Are Entering Each Other’s Turf

By Amir Efrati · Jul 7, 2026 8:17am PDT

XAI’s decision to rent out spare server capacity, Meta’s launch of an AI agent for enterprises, and Anthropic’s move to develop AI server chips this year should have come as no surprise to anyone well versed in the history of the tech industry. Over time, big tech firms tend to creep into each other’s territory, seeking more room to grow.And... XAI’s decision to rent out spare server capacity, Meta’s launch of an AI agent for enterprises,...

Photos courtesy of Pika and Higgsfield.

Pika vs. Higgsfield Feud Over Copying Shows How AI Makes Mimicry Easy

By Rocket Drew · Jul 6, 2026 7:00am PDT

A little-noticed spat between two startups over their highly similar marketing videos is fueling concerns about AI's impact on creativity.Higgsfield AI, the video generation startup, has been getting buzz lately. My colleagues Valida and Julia reported last week that Higgsfield is raising $300 million to $500 million at a $5 billion valuation,... A little-noticed spat between two startups over their highly similar marketing videos is fueling...

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The Five Kinds of Model Routers That Cut AI Costs

By Rocket Drew and Laura Bratton · Jul 2, 2026 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Before we get to today’s agenda, check out Phoebe’s report Wednesday night that Nvidia has launched a new program to financially backstop customers’ purchases of its AI chips. It’s yet another way Nvidia is leveraging its powerful balance sheet to keep the GPU data center party going.On to the column…As more companies reassess rising prices for... Before we get to today’s agenda, check out Phoebe’s report Wednesday night that Nvidia has...

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Customer Support Tickets That Code

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 1, 2026 7:01am PDT

Software developers are starting to combine the two most successful uses of large language models: coding and customer support.Specifically, they’re using AI to automate the process of turning customer complaints about software issues or feature requests into new code. Previously, that could be a long and tedious process, which involved sending... Software developers are starting to combine the two most successful uses of large language...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Discovers New Way to Cut Inference Costs in Half

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 30, 2026 7:06am PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Discovers New Way to Cut Inference Costs in Half

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 30, 2026 7:06am PDT · 2 comments

We closely track efforts by Anthropic, Google and OpenAI to get access to more server chips to run their models. But we don’t talk enough about the work these companies are doing to get more juice from the servers they already have.In one previously unreported example, OpenAI engineers earlier this month told some colleagues they had figured out... We closely track efforts by Anthropic, Google and OpenAI to get access to more server chips to...

Art via Getty Images

Why Open-Source Models Are Benefitting From The White House Clampdown

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 29, 2026 7:01am PDT

Open-source AI is emerging as a beneficiary of the Trump administration’s recent rapid-fire policy changes towards AI regulation—and of rising costs. Developers and executives have told me that they’ve been burned by building apps on top of closed-source models like Anthropic's Fable 5, only to see the model withdrawn shortly after its... Open-source AI is emerging as a beneficiary of the Trump administration’s recent rapid-fire...

Art by Mike Sullivan

World Models vs VLAs: The Rift Dividing Physical AI

By Rocket Drew · Jun 25, 2026 7:01am PDT

Tech leaders from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang to a slew of startup founders and their venture-capitalist backers say robotics is headed for a “ChatGPT moment” where AI enables a wide range of physical world tasks. But the industry is increasingly split on how to get there.At issue is which kind of AI models are most promising for powering robots.... Tech leaders from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang to a slew of startup founders and their...

Runpod CEO and cofounder Zhen Lu. Photo courtesy of Runpod.

Cloud Startup Runpod Raises $100 Million, Says It Turned Down Buyout Offers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 24, 2026 7:00am PDT

By some accounts, the compute crunch of 2026 has become even more dire than the chip crunch of 2023, which saw even venture capital firms becoming quasi-cloud providers temporarily. That’s good news for a subclass of firms that popped up to rent out computing power and help developers run open-source models to power applications. Some people... By some accounts, the compute crunch of 2026 has become even more dire than the chip crunch of...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Agent Loops Are Hot

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 23, 2026 7:01am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Agent Loops Are Hot

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 23, 2026 7:01am PDT

If you’ve been on the AI side of X or Reddit recently, you’ve probably seen the phrase “agent loops” popping up more than usual. That term refers to a new way to run models and AI agents to improve their performance on longer-running or more vaguely-defined tasks, and it’s been gaining traction with developers in recent months.The basic idea... If you’ve been on the AI side of X or Reddit recently, you’ve probably seen the phrase “agent...