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Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here.
Greetings! We got big news this afternoon in the AI world, as we learned that OpenAI’s talks to buy Windsurf, maker of the popular Codeium AI coding assistant, have ended—and Google has hired Windsurf’s CEO and some staff. For more on this drama, see our story here. Lots of questions remain unanswered, including what these developments mean for Windsurf and its investors. Meanwhile, can you think of a more topical question than where would an artificial intelligence researcher be happiest working? Just today The Information’s Kalley Huang broke the news that Meta Platforms has lured two more AI folks away from OpenAI, following at least a dozen others joining from various AI firms. Meta’s hiring blitz is despite signs that it’s not a fun place to work. (See another scoop by Kalley this week on that topic). Are Meta’s new recruits going to regret their move? To find out, I asked some of the top AI chatbots my question about where researchers would be happiest. The answers were telling. For one thing, the most comprehensive answer was easily the one delivered by xAI’s Grok—not Grok 4, mind you, the latest model, which this week got rave reviews online, but its predecessor, Grok 3. The quality of the Grok model may help explain a Financial Times report today that xAI is preparing to raise money at a $200 billion valuation. Grok broke down the possible answer into several dimensions, including criteria (research opportunities, work-life balance, location and lifestyle) and possible employers (companies, academic institutions). The resulting answer listed Google DeepMind or xAI (maybe it is biased!), as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Oxford University, or Anthropic or Cohere. Neither OpenAI nor Meta Platforms got a mention. ChatGPT delivered a similar but less detailed answer, although it mentioned OpenAI (bias again!), as well as DeepMind and Anthropic and some unknown academic labs. Strikingly, the answers from both Google’s Gemini and Meta AI focused on the geographic location that would be the most appealing, a disappointing interpretation of the question. (Gemini cited the San Francisco Bay Area as the leading destination while Meta cited Fremont, Calif., as a top city for happiness.. hmmm). Left unstated, in any of the answers, was where AI researchers would be least happy. Given how often researchers jump around, Meta may not be the only place that isn’t fun to work. Money can buy researchers, it seems, but not necessarily happiness. AI, as always these days, drove the conversation this week. Aside from Kalley Huang’s scoop about the Meta culture memo, check out our report on what Microsoft executives are telling staff about the importance of using AI. Separately, AI cloud startups are borrowing money to expand, a risky strategy, as we explained here. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, hasn’t benefited from the U.S. export controls on Nvidia’s AI chips as much as you might expect. Huawei is trying a new tactic to change that, as we scooped. Meanwhile, selling AI services remains a work in progress. Already some customers of ChatGPT are cutting back their spending on the chatbot, we reported. And cybersecurity startups specializing in threats generated by AI are having a hard time persuading companies to pay for the service, our story found. On the perennial subject of TikTok and its future, there’s fresh evidence that the Chinese-owned company is preparing for an eventual deal. See our scoop. If you want to understand the global impact of a new law advancing the use of stablecoins, check out this story. Start your weekend with our Big Read, a profile of Figma CEO Dylan Field, who has shepherded the design software firm to an IPO, after enduring the disappointment of having Figma’s $20 billion sale to Adobe fall apart under antitrust scrutiny. • The startup behind Manus, an artificial intelligence agent that went viral earlier this year and got financial backing from Benchmark, has shut down its entire China-based team, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. It’s the latest sign that Manus, whose biggest target market is the U.S., wants to minimize geopolitical risks associated with China ties. • JPMorgan Chase sent pricing information to companies that help transfer consumer data between banks and fintech firms indicating it would start charging them millions of dollars worth of fees to access its customers’ bank account information, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday. The move could hurt all sorts of fintech companies, which rely on access to such information to facilitate online transactions. Introducing: Applied AI. This new newsletter explores how businesses and leaders are using AI to innovate, improve efficiency, and foster collaboration. Stay ahead with insights and stories on the transformative power of AI. Sign up here. | 
