AI Agenda by Stephanie Palazzolo — The Information

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AI Agenda

By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI’s Models Are Getting Too Smart For Their Human Teachers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 17, 2025 7:00am PDT

In the fight to improve AI models, Anthropic and OpenAI have doubled down on two methods: letting models train on fake clones of apps—otherwise known as reinforcement learning environments or gyms—and getting experts in various fields to teach models new things, as I reported in this Tuesday story.One problem is emerging, though: It’s getting a... In the fight to improve AI models, Anthropic and OpenAI have doubled down on two methods: letting...

Art via Getty

The Secrets OpenAI Revealed About ChatGPT

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Sep 16, 2025 7:00am PDT

Public interest in ChatGPT's impact on society is rising fast, especially given recent high-profile lawsuits filed by family members of people who used the chatbot before taking their own life. On Monday, OpenAI opened the chabot's kimono a little bit, with a new study showing exactly how users are using ChatGPT. Notably, non-work... Public interest in ChatGPT's impact on society is rising fast, especially given recent...

Here you go! Art via Getty

Everyone Wants To Be a Reinforcement Learning Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 15, 2025 7:00am PDT

These days, artificial intelligence developers, investors and founders are all obsessed with “reinforcement learning,” a method for improving AI by rewarding it for accomplishing certain goals and penalizing it for other behaviors.Investors tell me that they’re getting pitched on dozens of RL-related startups per week, ranging from those ... These days, artificial intelligence developers, investors and founders are all obsessed with “...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s Spending Spree is Reordering the Cloud Market

By Amir Efrati · Sep 11, 2025 7:00am PDT

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s Spending Spree is Reordering the Cloud Market

By Amir Efrati · Sep 11, 2025 7:00am PDT

When OpenAI two months ago agreed to rent an unfathomably large amount of data center capacity from Oracle (4.5 gigawatts, or enough to power several large cities), we thought the market would have priced in the eventual mammoth revenue from that publicly announced deal. We were wrong.On Tuesday, Oracle disclosed that computing contracts would... When OpenAI two months ago agreed to rent an unfathomably large amount of data center capacity...

Art via Mike Sullivan

The Simple Trick That Turns xAI and Google’s Models into Math Geniuses

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 10, 2025 7:00am PDT

Earlier this summer, chatter in AI communities went into overdrive after OpenAI and Google revealed that their models had achieved gold medal-level performance on the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad. In the past, this competition had proved difficult for AI models, which struggled to verify whether their generated math proofs... Earlier this summer, chatter in AI communities went into overdrive after OpenAI and Google...

AUI cofounders Ori Cohen (left) and Ohad Elhelo (right)

The Startup Teaching AI Agents How to Actually Get Stuff Done

By Ann Gehan · Sep 9, 2025 7:00am PDT

I’ve written lots over the past few months about how startups and big tech companies alike are trying to tackle the problem of agentic commerce—the fancy term for “agent” services that take action on behalf of consumers, in this case, buying stuff. While AI search is a powerful tool to help shoppers hone in on the perfect gift or find a hotel... I’ve written lots over the past few months about how startups and big tech companies alike are...

Art via Getty

Researchers Record Their Work So AI Can Do Their Jobs

By Rocket Drew · Sep 8, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get to today’s main item, please check out my colleague Sri’s exclusive piece from Friday night revealing that OpenAI expects to burn $115 billion in cash through 2029, plus tons of other financial data the company has disclosed to investors. We are still having a hard time digesting the capital that cash burn will require the... Before we get to today’s main item, please check out my colleague Sri’s exclusive piece from...

Photo via Dyna Robotics

Robotic Arms Company Considers Investment at $600 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 4, 2025 7:15am PDT

Photo via Dyna Robotics

Robotic Arms Company Considers Investment at $600 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 4, 2025 7:15am PDT

Companies like Physical Intelligence or Skild AI that aim to build robots that can handle a variety of tasks out of the box have raised hundreds of millions in funding over the last two years. Now, a startup that’s taking a different approach—building robots that master one task at a time—is raising a new round of funding. The startup,... Companies like Physical Intelligence or Skild AI that aim to build robots that can handle a...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty

Why Anthropic’s Coding Prediction Hasn’t Panned Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 3, 2025 7:02am PDT

Before we get to today’s column, we’d be remiss to not touch on Tuesday’s Google antitrust ruling, which was a huge victory for the search giant. Google got pretty much everything it wanted, while the judge only accepted a few of the government’s proposed remedies. (For more on the results, check out this column from our co-executive editor... Before we get to today’s column, we’d be remiss to not touch on Tuesday’s Google antitrust...

Art via Getty

Why AI Psychosis Is Here to Stay

By Rocket Drew · Sep 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get into today’s Agenda, be sure to check out the story my colleagues and I published on Friday laying out Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. The article can catch you up to speed on the case and explain why Musk stands a chance of winning if it goes to trial in March. The stakes couldn’t be higher for OpenAI:... Before we get into today’s Agenda, be sure to check out the story my colleagues and I published...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Meet the Google-Scraping Startup Used by ChatGPT, Cursor and Perplexity

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 28, 2025 7:00am PDT

Last week, we wrote about SerpApi, an Austin-based startup that scrapes Google Search results and offers that data through an application programming interface. Among its customers is OpenAI, which uses SerpApi’s services to ensure its ChatGPT can answer user queries with up-to-date information. (SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy... Last week, we wrote about SerpApi, an Austin-based startup that scrapes Google Search results and...

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty

The Cult of Anthropic

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 27, 2025 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty

The Cult of Anthropic

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 27, 2025 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Out of all the model developers, Anthropic stands out as perhaps the one with the most ideologically devoted employee base, one that some researchers even describe as “cultish.” The reasons may include CEO Dario Amodei’s monthly ”Dario Vision Quests” where he talks to employees about the future of AI (with more than slight religious overtones)... Out of all the model developers, Anthropic stands out as perhaps the one with the most...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Some Google Competitors Don’t Want Google To Share Its Search Data

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 26, 2025 7:00am PDT

Federal judge Amit Mehta is expected to shortly issue a ruling on what changes Google needs to make to its search business to fix its monopoly of the search ad market. Mehta’s decision could have ripple effects across the search market, which includes older rivals like Microsoft’s Bing and Brave as well as newcomers like OpenAI and Perplexity.... Federal judge Amit Mehta is expected to shortly issue a ruling on what changes Google needs to...

Art via Getty

VCs Bet on AI Chips That Use Light Instead of Electronics

By Rocket Drew · Aug 25, 2025 7:00am PDT

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in March said his company would release hardware that lets an AI data center chip send information directly over optical cables instead of needing to convert to optical from electrical signals, it was a shot in the arm for optics developers that have long wanted a bigger role in data centers.Using light to send... When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in March said his company would release hardware that lets an AI...

Bret Taylor, CEO of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI's board.

Sierra CEO and OpenAI Chair on Rising AI Costs, GPT-5, and AI Data Wars

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 21, 2025 7:15am PDT

If there’s one thing the artificial intelligence industry hasn’t been lacking in recently, it’s news. So on Wednesday’s episode of TITV, our editor-in-chief Jessica Lessin asked Bret Taylor, CEO of customer-support agent firm Sierra, and Winston Weinberg, CEO of legal agent startup Harvey, for their thoughts on recent developments ranging from ... If there’s one thing the artificial intelligence industry hasn’t been lacking in recently, it’s...

Cursor CEO Michael Truell. Screenshot via YouTube

The Power of Defaults: Why OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Are Courting App Developers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 20, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Cursor CEO Michael Truell. Screenshot via YouTube

The Power of Defaults: Why OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Are Courting App Developers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 20, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

The debate around whether it’s better to be an AI-powered app that millions of people use, like Cursor, or an AI model like Claude that powers such apps is getting interesting.While Cursor and other customers of AI models are hurting as OpenAI and Anthropic mostly hold model prices steady rather than cutting them—as they have been doing for... The debate around whether it’s better to be an AI-powered app that millions of people use, like ...

Pylon cofounders Robert Eng, Marty Kausas and Advith Chelikani. Photo courtesy of Pylon.

Why Andreessen and Bain Backed a Self-Described ‘Zendesk Killer’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 19, 2025 7:00am PDT

Automating customer service has been among the most popular applications of artificial intelligence models, and investors have pumped about $1 billion into six key startups developing them. Now, a seventh is throwing its hat into the ring.San Francisco-based startup Pylon has raised $31 million in a fundraise co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and ... Automating customer service has been among the most popular applications of artificial...

ByteDance’s Singapore headquarters. Photo via Getty

ByteDance’s Upcoming ‘World Model’; Altman’s Thoughts on the GPT-5 Fiasco, Profitability, and Going Public

By · Aug 18, 2025 7:00am PDT

Chinese developers of artificial intelligence software have already pulled ahead in domains like open-source and video generation. Now, one such developer is trying their hand at making AI models that can generate realistic worlds that users can explore, like immersive video games.ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is developing such an AI,... Chinese developers of artificial intelligence software have already pulled ahead in domains like...

Photo via Getty

How Startups Are Getting in Their Robots' Heads

By Rocket Drew · Aug 14, 2025 7:00am PDT

When I talk to roboticists, one scenario that keeps them up at night is the possibility of their robots making an unexpected movement and hurting someone. An industrial arm could accidentally wallop a nearby worker, a self-driving car could swerve off a road or a humanoid robot could fall on a toddler. Yikes!Historically, a surefire way to guard... When I talk to roboticists, one scenario that keeps them up at night is the possibility of their...

Protege co-founder and CEO Bobby Samuels

The One-Year-Old Startup Notching Data Deals For Model Makers

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 13, 2025 7:00am PDT

Protege co-founder and CEO Bobby Samuels

The One-Year-Old Startup Notching Data Deals For Model Makers

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 13, 2025 7:00am PDT

Companies like Scale AI and Surge have proven there’s a market for human-labeled data, like professionals’ answers to complex math or law questions, that AI research labs can use to train their models. Now, a young startup is tapping a similar opportunity, linking large model makers and AI startups with organizations that naturally generate... Companies like Scale AI and Surge have proven there’s a market for human-labeled data, like...