Table of Contents

• This Week

• Business Use Cases

• Things to Pay Attention to

This Week

Bottom Line Up Front

• AI agents were a major topic of discussion at New York Tech Week, with tech giants like Microsoft and Salesforce investing heavily in the concept.

• Despite the hype, there is still confusion over the definition of AI agents, with some experts like Dan Balaceanu noting that the term has absorbed other related terms like virtual assistants and bots.

• Industry leaders like George Mathew and Jared Coyle believe that AI agents are having a significant impact in fields like coding, legal, and accounting, but technical and governance hurdles remain a challenge for wider adoption.

Why This Matters

• ChatGPT is rolling out upgrades for business users, including cloud service integrations with services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

• New features include meeting transcription, time-stamped notes, and action items, as well as "Deep Research" tools for generating detailed reports.

• These updates position ChatGPT to compete with tools like ClickUp, Notion, and Zoom, and reflect OpenAI's push to solidify its role in the enterprise market.

Business Use Cases

Why This Is Important

• The future of work may involve more people starting their own companies and being entrepreneurs within companies, with skills like taste, judgment, and critical thinking becoming essential for success, as mentioned by Sarah Bakewell and others.

• The importance of lifelong learning is emphasized, as having a degree is no longer enough, and individuals need to demonstrate a posture of continuous learning and skill-building to remain relevant.

• The ability to learn and reinvent oneself is essential, and individuals can take advantage of various tools and methods to continuously learn, such as using voice mode to learn about topics like quantum computing during commutes.

• The concept of "vibe coding" is discussed, where software agents handle the syntax and code, allowing developers to focus on ideas and the overall look of the software, with examples of major companies like Microsoft already generating a significant portion of their code.

Bottom Line Up Front

• Stanford Health Care has developed an AI-backed software called ChatEHR, which allows clinicians to interact with patient medical records by asking questions and receiving summaries.

• ChatEHR uses information from individual health records to provide responses and is currently in a pilot stage with 33 clinicians testing its performance and accuracy.

• The goal is to roll out ChatEHR to all clinicians who access patient charts, with the aim of streamlining information gathering, saving time, and improving patient care, as stated by Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD, and Michael Pfeffer, MD.

Why is this important

• Rime's new text-to-speech (TTS) model, Arcana, can generate diverse and humanlike voices, helping major brands like Domino's and Wingstop boost sales by 15%.

• The model is trained on natural conversations with real people and can create "infinite" new voices based on a simple text description of intended characteristics.

• Rime's CEO and co-founder, Lily Clifford, says the model "acts human" and can infer emotion from context, allowing for more natural and dynamic conversations.

Bottom Line Up Front

• The OpenGMSL Association has been formed to develop an open, worldwide standard for in-vehicle connectivity, led by Analog Devices.

• The association aims to transform SerDes transmission of video and high-speed data, enabling innovation in areas such as autonomous driving, ADAS, and infotainment.

• The OpenGMSL standard is based on Analog Devices' Gigabit Multimedia SerialLink (GMSL) technology, which has already been adopted by over 25 global OEMs and 50 Tier-1 suppliers.

Bottom Line Up Front

• Startups are growing faster than ever, with the median enterprise company reaching over $2 million in ARR in its first year and median consumer companies reaching $4.2 million in ARR.

• The gap between "good" and "exceptional" companies is growing, with top performers continuing to accelerate growth beyond their first year, and metrics like revenue, usage, and retention still matter.

• Consumer companies are now generating significant revenue, outpacing B2B companies, with many experiencing step function growth after new model releases and retaining users as well as pre-AI counterparts.

Things to Pay Attention to

Bottom Line Up Front

• Builder.ai, a $1.5 billion 'AI' startup, has collapsed and is initiating bankruptcy protection after its AI facade was exposed as a human-powered operation.

• The company, which had secured $450 million in funding from investors like Microsoft and SoftBank, was found to be using Indian developers pretending to be bots to write code.

• Builder.ai's collapse has led to a loss of confidence in AI startups, with investors like the Qatar Investment Authority facing significant losses, and has raised questions about transparency and accountability in AI marketing.

Bottom Line Up Front

• AI technology, such as OpenAI's o3, can pinpoint a person's location from a single photo, making it easier for potential stalkers to gather information.

• This technology can analyze details like wave patterns, sky, slope, and sand to determine the location, which may not be immediately apparent to humans.

• The increasing power of AI raises concerns about digital privacy, as it can perform tasks that would previously have required significant effort, and may make it easier for malicious individuals to access personal information, highlighting the need for new regulations and caution when sharing information online.