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Hi AI Futurists,
The AI race just tightened as Sam Altman called a “code red” inside OpenAI after Google’s Gemini 3 wowed power users and shifted industry momentum. Competition is heating up fast, so let’s take a look.
Here’s our agenda.
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Top AI news
OpenAI Scrambles In Rival Surge
Top 3 selected AI tools
AI in the wild
Best,
Lex Sokolin
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Ecosystem: AI Venture Fund | Fintech Research | Lex Linkedin / Twitter
API investment trends for Finserv companies in 2026
Postman surveyed 800+ engineering leaders at banking and financial services firms. Three numbers stand out:
• 56% of finserv firms evaluate APIs for AI agent compatibility—17 percentage points ahead of other industries.
• 34% generated new revenue streams from APIs in the past year, versus 24% across other sectors. And 55% are increasing investment in the next 12 months.
• 43% rate API governance as "very important"—11 points higher than other industries. But you're not slowing down: 42% report improved governance as a tracked KPI.
Read the full report to see exactly where financial services compare on AI readiness, API-driven revenue, and governance at scale.
Top AI news
🎨 Chatbots Keep Writing Like… Chatbots
AI is finally learning to sound human, just in time for humans to start sounding like AI.
🚢 The AI Frenzy Is Creating a New Supply Chain Crunch
AI demand is so intense that chips, components, and factories are clogging up faster than holiday shipping lanes.
🧪 AI Companies Fail the Safety Test
Everyone says safety matters, right up until the race starts and no one wants to slow down.
💼 How AI Is Changing Work at Anthropic
Anthropic employees are basically working with supercharged interns who never sleep.
📨 AI Slips Into Gmail and Amazon Everywhere
Your inbox and your shopping cart now have opinions, and they’re not shy about sharing them.
🤖 Amazon’s AI Agents Work for Days
These bots don’t quit — they’ll probably finish your to-do list before you finish your coffee.
🧠 Jared Kaplan on Training AI to Train Itself
AI teaching AI is the new group project where the humans just hope it turns in the homework.
📹 YouTube Scrambles Over AI Biometric Deepfakes
Creators are realizing their digital clones might get more views than they do.
📝 A Journalist’s 10 Favorite AI Tricks
A reporter admits AI now handles everything except drinking the coffee.
😂 Comedians Embrace AI for Punchlines
Stand-ups are discovering AI is great at jokes — as long as you don’t mind it roasting you too.
🎵 Musicians Push Back on AI-Made Songs
Artists aren’t thrilled that machines can now drop bangers without needing any sleep or drama.
OpenAI Scrambles In Rival Surge
CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman recently told staff it is a critical moment for ChatGPT as Google’s Gemini 3 gains ground. Internally labeled a code red, the push is about sharpening the product while competitors show strong momentum and bigger balance sheets. Altman admitted Gemini 3 could create temporary economic headwinds and warned that “the vibes out there” may feel rough. Even longtime supporters like Marc Benioff have publicly shifted to Google’s model after testing its reasoning, speed, and multimodal performance.
OpenAI sits at 800 million weekly users, but it is operating without the cash flow machines enjoyed by Google or Meta. Altman has said the real risk is not having enough compute, and his plan reflects it: a commitment to spend 1.4 trillion dollars on data centers over eight years. Microsoft and SoftBank continue to fund expansion, helping push OpenAI’s valuation to 500 billion dollars. Meanwhile, plans to introduce advertising in ChatGPT are paused as the team focuses fully on model quality.
The competitive pressure extends beyond OpenAI. Apple has hired Amar Subramanya, formerly at Microsoft and Google, to accelerate its lagging AI strategy after delays to Siri improvements. The market is shifting quickly, and the companies that adapt now may define the next decade of interaction. As capabilities rise and switching costs fall, the real story is how fast loyalty can flip and how careers will hinge on being able to navigate—and choose between—rapidly evolving AI stacks.
Takeaways at a Glance:
OpenAI declared a code red in response to Google’s Gemini 3
Marc Benioff publicly switched from ChatGPT to Gemini
OpenAI paused ads to focus on product improvements
Apple hired a new VP of AI to catch up in the race
OpenAI expects trillion-dollar compute needs over the decade
What We Think About It:
We’re watching enthusiasm swing from one model to another almost overnight, and it’s a reminder of how fast expectations shift in AI. I can feel the pressure inside companies trying to scale compute faster than they can grow revenue, and it isn’t pretty. Moments like this make us realize how quickly dominance can wobble, even when everything looks solid from the outside.
What You Can Do Right Now:
Try both ChatGPT and Gemini 3 and compare them for your actual workflows
Upskill on prompt engineering for reasoning tasks
Continue to follow AI hiring trends, especially around compute, infrastructure, and model evaluation
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AI in the wild
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