Monday’s AI Report

• 1. 🛑 Google swindles OpenAI
• 2. 🔍 Identify business contacts with Artisan
• 3. 🌍 How AI slashed admin and increased productivity
• 4. 📝 Schedule your AI audit with Upscaile
• 5. ⚙️ Trending AI tools
• 6. ⏳ OpenAI delays new model…again
• 7. 🐢 AI tools make devs slower 
• 8. 📑 Recommended resources

Read Time: 5 minutes

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Google swindles OpenAI

🚨 Our Report 

Google has struck up a $2.4B licensing agreement with AI coding start-up, WindSurf, blocking OpenAI’s plan to acquire the start-up for $3B.

🔓 Key Points

• As part of the agreement, Google is hiring several key WindSurf leaders and researchers—including its CEO, Varun Mohan, and co-founder, Douglas Chen—to advance its “work in agentic coding.”

• Although Google will not have any control over the start-up, it will get a non-exclusive licence to WindSurf's technology, allowing WindSurf to continue to license its technology to others and operate independently.

• OpenAI’s $3B acquisition deal fell through because the exclusivity period expired, likely due to a dispute with key investor Microsoft over the terms: OpenAI didn’t want to give Microsoft access to WindSurf's technology.

🔐 Relevance 

Google’s agreement with WindSurf not only outmanoeuvres OpenAI’s AI coding plans but also represents a reverse-acquihire trend within the industry: Big tech companies hire a start-up's top talent and gain access to its technology without actually acquiring the whole company. This strategy helps to bolster their position in the AI race, without drawing attention from industry regulators.

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How AI slashed admin and increased productivity

• Asset Management firm, The Carlyle Group, faced internal inefficiencies due to manual, time-consuming tasks, like research and knowledge sharing.

• These bottlenecks slowed down deal-making, decision-making, and operational productivity.

• They established an "AI champions" council to promote the use of AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot across various departments.

• As a result, 90% of Carlyle’s employees are now using AI tools to streamline work, reducing admin and increasing output across teams.

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• In more bad news for OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman confirmed that it’s having to further delay the release of its new, open-weight AI model (after already pushing the launch back once before, last month).

• According to Altman, OpenAI needs more time “to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas” before it can be released, but “is not yet sure how long it will take” because they “want to get it right.”

• This indefinite postponement comes after it was due to release the new open-weight model next week, much to the excitement of developers and researchers who were eager to download and use the AI system.

• A new study, conducted by the non-profit research group METR, has revealed that AI coding tools might actually be making developers slower, despite the hype suggesting the opposite.

• 16 experienced developers were given tasks—half to complete manually, and half using AI—and predicted that the AI tools would help to reduce their task completion time by 24%.

• But the study found that AI tools actually increased completion time by 19% due to things like incorrect AI suggestions that needed reviewing/fixing, AI not understanding context, and developers having more experience.

MORE NEWS

• Meta acquires voice start-up Play AI

• Musk’s SpaceX might invest $2B in xAI

• Goldman Sachs testing AI agent as ‘new employee’

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