Category: AI

AI

OpenAI developing AI-powered pen for 2026 launch, leak claims

Colin Henderson

OpenAI is developing an AI-powered pen-style device codenamed “Gumdrop” in collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive, with the gadget expected to transcribe handwritten notes to ChatGPT and enable voice communication, according to industry tipster Smart Pikachu.[geo +2]• The device will be manufactured by Foxconn in Vietnam after a dispute over manufacturing location ended OpenAI’s initial partnership with Chinese manufacturer Luxshare, with OpenAI reportedly refusing to produce the hardware in China.[lowyat +2]• OpenAI acquired Ive’s hardware startup for approximately $6.4 billion in May 2025, with CEO Sam Altman stating in November 2025 that prototypes are “jaw-droppingly good” and the device … Continue reading OpenAI developing AI-powered pen for 2026 launch, leak claims

AI

OpenAI seeks $100B in funding at $830B valuation

Colin Henderson

OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new funding that could value the AI startup at as much as $830 billion, a 66% jump from its $500 billion valuation in October, though details remain uncertain and subject to change[wsj +2].• The ambitious fundraising comes as the ChatGPT maker faces mounting competitive pressure from Google and Anthropic, prompting CEO Sam Altman to declare a “code red” in December to refocus resources on improving its core chatbot while postponing other projects[finance.yahoo +2].• Despite leading with over 800 million weekly active users, OpenAI is burning through cash at an unprecedented rate, projecting … Continue reading OpenAI seeks $100B in funding at $830B valuation

AI

Generative AI in Financial Services: Eight Risks and How to Overcome Them

Colin Henderson

Generative AI in Financial Services: Eight Risks and How to Overcome Them Leading companies can control the chaos of generative AI requests through smart risk segmentation. Maria Teresa Tejada Within most banks, insurers, and other financial services companies, risk and control groups have been overwhelmed with a large and growing volume of requests to deploy generative AI for different use cases. To address this wave of requests, leading companies have found that an effective response is to categorize the risks and work with other departments to develop mitigation strategies for each category. Eight categories of risk Vendor risk, for instance, … Continue reading Generative AI in Financial Services: Eight Risks and How to Overcome Them

AI, genAI

The State of Enterprise AI – OpenAI

Colin Henderson

Open AI have produced this report based on anonymized data from actual usage of ChatGPT. Full report at end of post. Foreword: 01 Enterprise usage is scaling, with deeper workflow integration. ChatGPT messagevolume grew 8x and API reasoning token consumption per organization increased320x year-over-year, demonstrating that more enterprises are using AI and theirintensity of usage has increased. 02 Enterprises that leverage AI are experiencing measurable produc tivity and business impact. Enterprise users report saving 40–60 minutes per day and being able to complete new technical tasks such as data analysis and coding. Case studies indicate AI is contributing to important … Continue reading The State of Enterprise AI – OpenAI

AI

Major US banks say AI will boost productivity but cut jobs

Colin Henderson

Source perplexity and citations JPMorgan Chase [ -4.68%] and Wells Fargo [ -1.34%] executives said at a Goldman Sachs [ +1.14%] conference on December 9 that AI is driving major productivity gains, with some operations seeing efficiency improvements of 40% to 50%, though they acknowledged workforce reductions are inevitable.[reuters +1]• JPMorgan’s Marianne Lake reported the bank doubled its productivity from 3% to 6% annually through AI, while Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said generative AI has made engineers 30% to 35% more efficient in writing code, and Wells Fargo’s workforce has already declined from 275,000 in 2019 to just over … Continue reading Major US banks say AI will boost productivity but cut jobs

AI

Six-person AI startup Poetiq just officially claimed the top spot on the ARC-AGI-2 reasoning

Colin Henderson

POETIQ 🏆 Poetiq tops ARC-AGI-2 with Gemini variant Image source: Poetiq The Rundown: Six-person AI startup Poetiq just officially claimed the top spot on the ARC-AGI-2 reasoning benchmark, beating out Google’s Gemini 3 Deep Think at half the cost by orchestrating existing models over building its own. The details: Poetiq’s meta-system adapts to new models within hours, achieving the top-ranked results shortly after Gemini 3 launched without any retraining. Using Gemini 3 Pro as a base, Poetiq’s refinement system scored 54% at $30 per task — outpacing Google’s top variant Deep Think at 45% and $77. The result marks the first system to crack … Continue reading Six-person AI startup Poetiq just officially claimed the top spot on the ARC-AGI-2 reasoning

AI

Chip industry news 08.12.25

Colin Henderson

The past week has been dominated by AI infrastructure and devices, quantum and chip news, and a wave of medium‑sized startup funding, with a handful of notable gadget launches across phones, audio and PCs.[1][2][3] Big tech and infrastructure AWS pushed its latest Arm‑based server chip, Graviton5, emphasizing higher performance and efficiency for cloud workloads, reinforcing the trend toward Arm64 dominance in serverless and cloud compute.[1] Reports highlighted that Arm64 now accounts for the bulk of AWS Lambda usage, with Rust workloads on Arm showing large performance and cost advantages over x86, underlining a continued migration of cloud-native workloads away from … Continue reading Chip industry news 08.12.25

AI

Nvidia CEO warns China’s infrastructure speed threatens U.S. AI lead

Colin Henderson

Nvidia [-0.53%] CEO Jensen Huang issued a stark warning that China’s ability to rapidly build AI infrastructure could give it a decisive advantage over the United States, even as American companies maintain technological superiority in chip design.Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in late November, Huang highlighted a dramatic disparity in construction timelines. Building a data center in the United States “from breaking ground to standing up an AI supercomputer is probably about three years,” he said. By contrast, China “can build a hospital in a weekend,” underscoring the speed advantage that could prove critical as AI … Continue reading Nvidia CEO warns China’s infrastructure speed threatens U.S. AI lead

AI

Claude shows limited ‘self-awareness’

Colin Henderson

I found this fascinating insight from Anthropic. Image source: Reve / The Rundown ———- The Rundown: Anthropic researchers published a new study finding that Claude can sometimes notice when concepts are artificially planted in its processing and separate internal “thoughts” from what it reads, showing limited introspective capabilities. The details: Specific concepts (like “loudness” or “bread”) were implanted into Claude’s processing, with the AI correctly noticing something unusual 20% of the time. When shown written text and given injected “thoughts,” Claude was able to accurately repeat what it read while separately identifying the planted concept. Models adjusted internally when instructed to “think … Continue reading Claude shows limited ‘self-awareness’

AI, banking, Business Models, productivity

OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work

Colin Henderson

In this Article By Omar El Chmouri October 21, 2025 at 6:06 AM EDT Takeaways by Bloomberg AI OpenAI has more than 100 ex-investment bankers helping train its artificial intelligence on how to build financial models as it looks to replace the hours of grunt work performed by junior bankers across the industry. Participants are paid $150 per hour to write prompts and build financial models for a range of transaction types, including restructurings and initial public offerings, and have been granted early access to the AI being created. The project, code named Mercury, involves a flexible job where contractors are expected … Continue reading OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work