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Twilio to Acquire Stytch
6 months ago
- Twilio announces acquisition of Stytch to enhance identity platform for AI agents.
- Identity is crucial for trust, growth, and intelligent engagement in AI-driven customer interactions.
- Twilio's existing authentication solutions like Verify and Lookup have been widely used for fraud prevention.
- AI agents require advanced capabilities including multi-channel communication and robust identity management.
- Future plans include unified identity across platforms and real-time fraud prevention powered by contextual data.
- The acquisition aims to build secure, personalized, and delegated experiences for AI-powered customer interactions.
Animals could easily be talking to us if we tried
6 months ago
- Real-time brain imaging technology is currently effective and can be surgical or non-invasive (functional ultrasound).
- Voice AI systems can process arbitrary data and produce reasonably accurate speech output.
- Combining brain imaging, cameras, microphones, speakers, and microchips on a dog could enable AI to predict and vocalize the dog's thoughts.
- The synthesized speech could be streamed back to the dog's speaker, effectively allowing the dog to 'talk.'
- The author expresses surprise that this project isn't being pursued, considering it more immediately solvable than Mars missions, AI alignment, or quantum computing.
- While those projects are transformative, enabling animal communication is seen as an equally ambitious but feasible near-term goal.
OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise
6 months ago
- OpenAI uses complex and circular financial deals to fund its AI ambitions.
- Microsoft invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, which then spent most of it back on Microsoft's cloud computing services.
- OpenAI signed cloud computing contracts with Oracle and CoreWeave, agreeing to pay over $22 billion for computing power.
- SoftBank led a $40 billion investment in OpenAI and is raising $100 billion to help build data centers.
- Oracle is spending $300 billion to build data centers for OpenAI, which OpenAI will pay to use.
- G42, linked to the UAE government, is building a $20 billion data center complex for OpenAI.
- Nvidia plans to invest $100 billion in OpenAI, while OpenAI buys chips from Nvidia.
- OpenAI signed a deal with AMD to buy up to 160 million shares at a penny per share, potentially giving it a 10% stake.
- OpenAI generates billions in revenue but still operates at a loss, relying on future AI advancements to become profitable.
- If AI progress stalls, OpenAI and its partners could face significant financial losses, with smaller companies like CoreWeave at risk of bankruptcy.
OpenAI thought to be preparing for $1T stock market float
6 months ago
- OpenAI is reportedly planning a stock market listing with a valuation of $1tn as soon as next year, potentially one of the biggest IPOs ever.
- The company is considering filing for an IPO in the second half of 2026, aiming to raise at least $60bn.
- CEO Sam Altman mentioned that an IPO is the most likely path due to the company's significant capital needs for datacenters and infrastructure.
- OpenAI restructured its main business into a for-profit corporation, making it easier to raise capital and paving the way for an IPO, with Microsoft now holding a 27% stake.
- The company posted $4.3bn in revenue in the first half of this year but had an operating loss of $7.8bn.
- Concerns about an AI industry bubble were highlighted by the Bank of England, warning of risks if AI expectations become less optimistic.
- OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar, reportedly targets a 2027 listing, with some advisers suggesting it could happen as early as 2026.
Show HN: Why write code if the LLM can just do the thing? (web app experiment)
6 months ago
- A web server with no application logic, just an LLM with three tools: database, webResponse, and updateMemory.
- The AI handles HTTP requests by generating responses (HTML, JSON) and executing SQL queries without any pre-written application code.
- Despite being slow (30-60s per request) and expensive ($0.01-0.05 per request), the AI successfully built a functional CRUD contact manager.
- The AI demonstrated emergent behaviors like designing database schemas, writing safe SQL, creating REST-ish APIs, and implementing user feedback.
- Performance issues include high latency, cost, inconsistency in UI, and hallucinations leading to errors.
- The experiment suggests AI's capability to handle application logic is real but currently impractical due to performance limitations.
- Future improvements in inference speed, cost reduction, context memory, and error rates could make this approach viable.
- The vision is a future where computers execute intent directly without layers of code or infrastructure.
- The project is MIT licensed and customizable via a prompt file to build different applications.
Context engineering
6 months ago
- LLMs have evolved from conversational chatbots to integral decision-making components, necessitating a shift from 'prompt engineering' to 'context engineering'.
- Context engineering involves a more dynamic, targeted, and deliberate approach to feeding tokens into LLMs, considering the entire context window.
- Early LLM usage focused on text completion, but chat framing improved usability by structuring conversations with special tokens.
- Prompt engineering often relied on trial-and-error, lacking the systematic approach of true engineering.
- In-context learning allows LLMs to generate outputs based on novel structures in the prompt, not just training data.
- Expanding context with various data types (e.g., documents, tool calls) increases complexity and risks like hallucination.
- Context engineering shifts the mindset from treating LLMs as oracles to briefing them as skilled analysts.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a form of context engineering, injecting external knowledge into the context window.
- Design patterns in context engineering (e.g., RAG, tool calling) enable modular, robust, and maintainable systems.
- Multi-agent systems leverage specialized agents, with context windows serving as contracts for interaction.
Reddit CEO says chatbots are not a traffic driver
6 months ago
- Reddit CEO Steve Huffman states AI chatbots are not a major traffic driver for the platform.
- Google search and direct access remain Reddit's top traffic sources.
- Reddit has partnerships with OpenAI and Google but is in legal disputes with other AI companies like Anthropic and Perplexity.
- Reddit reported strong Q3 2025 results: $585M revenue (68% YoY growth), 116M daily active users, and 444M weekly active users.
- Reddit is improving search functionality, with 20% of searches handled by AI-powered Answers and 75M weekly searches.
- The company is working on unifying AI and core search, with updates expected in upcoming quarters.
- Reddit is testing a simpler onboarding process to boost early user engagement.
Show HN: I built a smart blocker after destroying my dopamine baseline
6 months ago
- AI-powered focus guardian that measures attention and blocks distractions.
- Features include Peak Morning Protection, Intelligent Distraction Shield, and Effortless Tab Organization.
- The Truth Mirror provides personal accountability by tracking focus time.
- Personalized Focus Interventions offer motivational content during distractions.
- Smart Features include text-to-speech coaching, analytics, and Pomodoro-aware blocking.
- Built for privacy with 100% local processing and no data collection.
- Targets entrepreneurs, high achievers, and anyone battling digital distractions.
- Free to start with no sign-ups required.
Silicon Valley Has a God Problem
6 months ago
- Silicon Valley's tech leaders are promoting the idea of superintelligence and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), likening it to creating a god.
- The TESCREAL acronym represents a collection of bizarre beliefs in Silicon Valley, including transhumanism, extropianism, and longtermism, which advocate for technological augmentation, space colonization, and AI-driven immortality.
- Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are not truly intelligent; they are text prediction engines that often produce nonsensical outputs when left to interact with each other.
- Tech leaders like Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Eric Schmidt are pushing for massive investments in AI, dismissing concerns about climate change and energy consumption, believing AI will solve these problems.
- The AI industry is driven by the need for perpetual growth, similar to fossil fuel companies, leading to environmental degradation and economic instability.
- The belief in AI as a savior mirrors fundamentalist religious fervor, with tech leaders willing to sacrifice the planet for their vision of a digital utopia.
- Unemployment could skyrocket if AI replaces human jobs, potentially leading to economic collapse, yet tech leaders continue to ignore these risks.
- The unchecked growth of energy consumption tied to AI could lead to catastrophic environmental consequences, including boiling oceans and mass extinction.
- The documentary 'Mockbuster' explores the chaotic world of low-budget filmmaking, highlighting the absurdity of chasing unrealistic visions, much like the AI hype.
Channel 4's first AI presenter is dizzyingly grim
6 months ago
- The documentary 'Will AI Take My Job?' explores the inevitability of AI replacing human jobs, with 8 million UK jobs at risk.
- AI-generated journalist Aisha Gaban hosted the show, revealing she was entirely computer-generated, showcasing AI's potential in media.
- The show compared human professionals (doctor, lawyer, musician, photographer) against AI, concluding AI is quicker and cheaper, posing a threat to human jobs.
- AI's environmental impact was highlighted, though the show missed detailing the water usage for creating AI hosts like Gaban.
- The documentary serves as a warning to human presenters about being replaced by AI, emphasizing AI's rapid advancement and grim future implications.
AWS and OpenAI announce multi-year strategic partnership
6 months ago
- AWS and OpenAI announced a multi-year strategic partnership to provide AWS infrastructure for OpenAI's AI workloads.
- AWS will offer Amazon EC2 UltraServers with hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs, scaling to tens of millions of CPUs.
- The $38 billion agreement allows OpenAI to expand compute capacity rapidly while benefiting from AWS's performance and security.
- OpenAI will utilize AWS compute immediately, with full deployment expected by 2026 and expansion beyond 2027.
- The infrastructure includes optimized NVIDIA GPU clusters for low-latency performance, supporting ChatGPT and future models.
- OpenAI's models are available on Amazon Bedrock, serving thousands of customers for various AI applications.
Sam Altman says OpenAI will have a 'legitimate AI researcher' by 2028
6 months ago
- OpenAI's deep learning systems are advancing rapidly, with models solving complex tasks faster.
- OpenAI aims to achieve an intern-level research assistant by September 2026 and a fully automated AI researcher by 2028.
- OpenAI transitioned to a public benefit corporation, enabling new capital-raising opportunities.
- The AI researcher is described as a system capable of autonomously delivering on larger research projects.
- OpenAI believes deep learning systems could achieve superintelligence within a decade.
- Superintelligence is defined as systems smarter than humans across critical actions.
- OpenAI's strategy includes algorithmic innovation and scaling up 'test time compute'.
- Current models can handle tasks with a five-hour time horizon and match top human performers in competitions.
- OpenAI plans to dedicate entire data centers' worth of computing power to single problems for major scientific breakthroughs.
- The restructuring supports OpenAI's aggressive AI research timeline while maintaining responsible AI development.
- The non-profit OpenAI Foundation owns 26% of the for-profit arm and governs research direction.
- OpenAI has committed to 30 gigawatts of infrastructure, a $1.4 trillion financial obligation, over the next few years.
AI's Dial-Up Era
6 months ago
- The internet in 1995 was slow, unreliable, and had very few websites, leading to skepticism about its future.
- Optimists predicted rapid digital transformation, while pessimists dismissed the internet as a fad.
- AI today is in a similar phase, with debates about its potential to replace jobs or create new ones.
- Jevons Paradox explains why AI may increase demand for certain jobs, like radiology, rather than eliminate them.
- Employment outcomes depend on whether demand growth outpaces productivity improvements from automation.
- The dotcom bubble of the 1990s led to overbuilding but also laid the foundation for future technologies.
- Today's AI boom shows signs of both irrational exuberance and real, transformative potential.
- Different industries will experience varied impacts from AI, depending on demand saturation and automation potential.
- AI will unlock new markets by reducing costs, enabling products and services previously too expensive to create.
- The future of AI is unpredictable, with new job categories and industries likely to emerge.
Why AC is cheap, but AC repair is a luxury
6 months ago
- Productivity surges in specific industries can lead to cheaper goods and services in those sectors, while making other sectors more expensive due to wage competition.
- Jevons Paradox describes how increased efficiency in production leads to higher consumption rather than reduced usage, exemplified by the explosion in computing power and its applications.
- Baumol's Cost Disease explains why sectors with stagnant productivity (like live music or dog walking) become more expensive as wages rise to compete with more productive industries.
- AI adoption is expected to drive productivity in certain services, making them cheaper (Jevons effect), while other services unaffected by AI will see price increases (Baumol effect).
- Regulatory protections for human roles in automated jobs may lead to high wages for the remaining human tasks, creating economic distortions within single jobs.
- The interplay between Jevons and Baumol effects highlights how technological progress spreads wealth but also creates economic disparities across different sectors.
Merriam-Webster banks on "actual intelligence" over artificial intelligence
6 months ago
- Merriam-Webster is releasing the 12th edition of its Collegiate Dictionary on Nov. 18, the first update in over 20 years.
- The company emphasizes 'actual intelligence' over AI, stating they write definitions while AI only provides them.
- Despite the digital age, Merriam-Webster sold 1.5 million print dictionaries last year and had 1.2 billion online visits.
- The company describes itself as a 'descriptive organization,' chronicling how language is used rather than prescribing definitions.
- Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, highlights the enduring appeal of print dictionaries, citing emotional and tactile connections.
- AI is seen as a tool rather than a threat, as Merriam-Webster's role in creating precise definitions remains unique and trusted.
Next-Gen Siri May Be Powered by a White-Label Gemini Running on Apple's Cloud
6 months ago
- Apple is betting heavily on a new Siri powered by Google's Gemini model.
- Apple chose Google over Anthropic for financial reasons and existing search relationship.
- Apple and Google may not publicly acknowledge their partnership.
- Apple currently has optional ChatGPT integration and is looking for other partners.
- It would be odd if Google Gemini isn't a named partner while powering Apple's default AI.
We're open-sourcing the successor of Jupyter notebook
6 months ago
- Deepnote is being open-sourced as a modern alternative to Jupyter notebooks, addressing its shortcomings for modern data teams.
- Jupyter's limitations include lack of native integrations, poor collaboration, and no first-class AI support, leading to decreased usage in Fortune 1000 companies.
- Deepnote offers reactive, collaborative, and AI-ready notebooks with features like seamless versioning, comments, and reviews.
- The new format is human- and AI-readable, supports various block types (SQL, charts, inputs), and allows for easy conversion to/from .ipynb.
- Deepnote's reactive execution ensures downstream blocks update automatically, reducing re-runs and compute waste.
- The platform includes 100+ native integrations, governed secrets, and the ability to deploy notebooks as interactive dashboards or apps.
- Open-sourcing Deepnote aims to create an open standard for AI notebooks, inviting community feedback and contributions.
AI and Copyright: Expanding Copyright Hurts Everyone–Here's What to Do Instead
6 months ago
- AI tools should not require permission slips for reading webpages or using software.
- Licensing AI training data threatens innovation and inclusivity in AI development.
- Fair use is crucial for machine learning (ML) and text/data mining (TDM) research.
- ML helps in scientific advancements, such as understanding proteins and space nebulae.
- Requiring AI developers to get authorization limits competition and increases costs.
- Legacy gatekeepers use copyright to stifle competition and access to information.
- Licensing AI training materials benefits tech monopolists and creates high barriers to entry.
- Generative AI tools democratize content creation and free expression.
- Fair use is under attack by copyright creep, threatening public rights.
- Expanding copyright does not address AI's real harms but threatens beneficial uses.
74% of CEOs worry AI failures could cost them their jobs
6 months ago
- 74% of CEOs fear losing their jobs within two years if they fail to deliver AI-driven results.
- 70% of executives expect leadership shakeups due to failed AI strategies.
- 54% of CEOs acknowledge competitors have a stronger AI advantage.
- 94% of CEOs believe AI agents could provide equal or better counsel than human board members.
- 89% say AI can develop stronger strategic plans than at least one of their executive leaders.
- 87% assume off-the-shelf AI is as effective as custom-built solutions, risking poor execution.
- 35% of AI initiatives are suspected to be ‘AI washing,’ prioritizing optics over impact.
- 94% of CEOs believe employees use AI tools without company approval (‘shadow AI’).
- 80% of CEOs fear AI could harm employees, and 83% worry about unintended customer impact.
- 37% have delayed AI projects due to unclear regulations, while 32% have canceled initiatives.
- 78% of CEOs prioritize AI as a core business goal for 2025.
- 83% acknowledge AI’s impact on investor confidence.
Amazon sends legal threats to Perplexity over agentic browsing
6 months ago
- Amazon issued a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, demanding the removal of its AI shopping assistant, Comet, from Amazon's platform for violating terms of service by not identifying itself as an agent.
- Perplexity argues its agent operates with the same permissions as human users and shouldn't need to identify itself, while Amazon counters that other third-party agents do identify themselves.
- Amazon suggests third-party applications making purchases on behalf of customers should operate transparently and respect service providers' decisions on participation.
- Perplexity claims Amazon's actions are motivated by a desire to protect its advertising and product placement revenues, as bots like Comet might not engage in impulse purchases.
- The dispute echoes past controversies, including Cloudflare's accusations of Perplexity scraping websites while bypassing bot-blocking requests, raising questions about the future of agentic interactions online.
- Amazon's stance may set a precedent for how AI agents interact with e-commerce platforms, emphasizing transparency and website autonomy in deciding bot access.

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#ai

Twilio to Acquire Stytch

Animals could easily be talking to us if we tried

OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise

OpenAI thought to be preparing for $1T stock market float

Show HN: Why write code if the LLM can just do the thing? (web app experiment)

Context engineering

Reddit CEO says chatbots are not a traffic driver

Show HN: I built a smart blocker after destroying my dopamine baseline

Silicon Valley Has a God Problem

Channel 4's first AI presenter is dizzyingly grim

AWS and OpenAI announce multi-year strategic partnership

Sam Altman says OpenAI will have a 'legitimate AI researcher' by 2028

AI's Dial-Up Era

Why AC is cheap, but AC repair is a luxury

Merriam-Webster banks on "actual intelligence" over artificial intelligence

Next-Gen Siri May Be Powered by a White-Label Gemini Running on Apple's Cloud

We're open-sourcing the successor of Jupyter notebook

AI and Copyright: Expanding Copyright Hurts Everyone–Here's What to Do Instead

74% of CEOs worry AI failures could cost them their jobs

Amazon sends legal threats to Perplexity over agentic browsing