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AI & Models

Frontier labs, model releases, capability trends and the economics of inference.

28 articles

  • Anthropic’s “Supply Chain Risk” Label
    AI & Models5 min read

    Anthropic’s “Supply Chain Risk” Label

    The U.S. Department of War designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk after negotiations over a $200M Pentagon contract collapsed. The dispute centered on Anthropic’s refusal to remove guardrails preventing its AI from being used for mass domestic surveillance or lethal autonomous we

  • The Great Hiring Hiatus? Agents and OpenClaw
    AI & Models3 min read

    The Great Hiring Hiatus? Agents and OpenClaw

    Agents like OpenClaw may reduce hiring pressure by absorbing recurring operational work that historically justified incremental headcount. Instead of expanding payroll, teams can scale variable token spend, allowing smaller groups to operate with higher leverage while delaying permanent hiring commi

  • Enterprise SaaS is Changing
    AI & Models4 min read

    Enterprise SaaS is Changing

    Internal AI agents and collapsing software development costs are eroding the traditional moat of enterprise SaaS as intelligence shifts inward. As externally packaged software becomes infrastructure rather than the primary source of differentiation, public markets are repricing incumbents around wea

  • OpenAI’s Code Red
    AI & Models5 min read

    OpenAI’s Code Red

    OpenAI’s code red is less about falling behind technically and more about recognizing that momentum has shifted. As foundation models converge, advantage increasingly comes from distribution, trust, and integration rather than raw benchmark performance. Google and Anthropic are gaining ground not by

  • Made in China
    AI & Models7 min read

    Made in China

    Day by day, it is becoming abundantly clear that the AI models powering Western companies are no longer the ones made in the West. That reality has slipped in almost unnoticed. While the public conversation circles around frontier labs and safety debates, engineers inside North American companies ar

  • Could Thinking in Graphs be the Next Step for AI?
    AI & Models7 min read

    Could Thinking in Graphs be the Next Step for AI?

    Artificial intelligence has become astonishingly good at perception. It can describe a photo, summarize a document, and even generate a symphony of pixels from a sentence. The models behind these feats (convolutional networks, transformers, diffusion systems) have mastered how to recognize patterns.

  • Buybacks Over Breakthroughs: Apple’s $704 Billion Decade
    AI & Models9 min read

    Buybacks Over Breakthroughs: Apple’s $704 Billion Decade

    Apple has shoveled $704B into buybacks over the last decade, clear signal it’s now an EPS-first incumbent, not a moonshot machine. “Apple Intelligence” is incremental, Siri 2.0 slipped to 2026, and Siri punts tough queries to ChatGPT while Google/Samsung push true AI-first phones. Cash returns run ~

  • GPT-5 and the Motte-and-Bailey Problem
    AI & Models6 min read

    GPT-5 and the Motte-and-Bailey Problem

    GPT-5’s launch highlighted the gap between lofty expectations and the practical realities of AI progress. While bold claims about AGI have been tempered, the real advances may lie in efficiency, cost, and usability rather than sudden leaps in intelligence. Much like electricity or the internet, the

  • ChatGPT-5 Unleashed: OpenAI’s Next Leap Toward an AI-Powered Future
    AI & Models14 min read

    ChatGPT-5 Unleashed: OpenAI’s Next Leap Toward an AI-Powered Future

    OpenAI’s GPT-5 is its most advanced model yet, using a new Mixture-of-Experts design for faster, more accurate, and more versatile performance across text, images, and audio. It offers deeper reasoning, stronger coding/writing, a massive 400K-token context window, and improved safety. New “Agent” to

  • Exploring Tokenized Equity Through Figma’s S-1 Filing
    AI & Models7 min read

    Exploring Tokenized Equity Through Figma’s S-1 Filing

    Figma’s IPO filing included language authorizing blockchain-based common stock, signaling openness to tokenized equity. While they haven’t issued any yet, this move could lay the groundwork for more flexible liquidity options in private markets.

  • The Billion-Dollar Talent Play That Shook the AI Supply Chain
    AI & Models4 min read

    The Billion-Dollar Talent Play That Shook the AI Supply Chain

    In June 2025, Meta acquired 49% of Scale AI, turning a neutral infrastructure provider into a strategic asset. OpenAI and Google cut ties in response. By installing Scale’s founder to lead its new Superintelligence unit, Meta is accelerating its push to close the AI innovation gap.

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