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- [00:04]
Brian McCullough
Welcome to the Techmeme ride home for Friday, July 18th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today OpenAI has a new agent that can control your entire computer. You might soon be able to put crypto in your 401k. Why is Apple suing a prominent YouTuber? And in the weekend long reads the one article that has done the most to radicalize me as an investor in a long, long time. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Foreign has debuted ChatGPT agent, which can control an entire computer and perform multi step tasks powered by a new dedicated model rolling out to paid users. Quoting the Verge, the company said the new tool can perform tasks like looking at a user's calendar to brief them on upcoming client meetings, planning and purchasing ingredients to make a family breakfast, and creating a slide deck based on its analysis of competing companies. The model behind ChatGPT agent, which has no specific name, was trained on complex tasks that require multiple tools like a text browser, visual browser and terminal where users can import their own data via reinforcement learning, the same technique used for all of OpenAI's reasoning models. OpenAI said that ChatGPT agent combines the capabilities of both Operator and Deep Research, two of its existing AI tools. To develop the new tool, the company combined the teams behind both Operator and Deep Research into one unified team and quoting TechCrunch, OpenAI's new agent can access ChatGPT connectors, allowing users to connect apps like Gmail and GitHub so that the agent can find relevant information to your prompts. Furthermore, OpenAI says ChatGPT agent has access to a terminal and can use APIs to access certain apps. The tool combines several capabilities from OpenAI's previous agentic tools, including operators ability to click around on websites as well as Deep Research's ability to synthesize information from dozens of websites into a concise research report. OpenAI says users will be able to interact with the agent simply by prompting ChatGPT in natural language. The model underlying ChatGPT agent offers state of the art performance on several benchmarks, according to OpenAI. To activate the tool, users can select agent mode in ChatGPT's dropdown menu of tools, end quote and quoting Tom's Guide. Think of Agent as your AI powered assistant that can use a browser, run code, download files, and even fill out forms. Unlike the typical chatbot experience, which involves back and forth conversations, Agent takes a single instruction and carries out multi step actions autonomously. Some examples of what it can do Review your calendar and summarize upcoming meetings, plan a dinner and order the groceries. Compare products online and organize findings in a spreadsheet. Conduct research and generate a full slide deck. The system is powered by GPT4O, OpenAI's newest flagship model and works within a secure environment where tasks are completed using built in tools like code interpreter, a web browser and file access. Yes, it can log into websites, but with your permission of course. One of the most talked about features is its ability to log into third party websites to perform tasks like checking order statuses, submitting forms or gathering data. But don't worry, it will always ask for your approval before doing anything sensitive. OpenAI emphasizes that users remain in control. You'll be prompted to approve any high risk actions like making purchases, accessing private accounts or submitting forms. Quick note on Netflix Earnings as they kick off tech earnings season, Netflix reported Q2 revenue up 16% year on year and net income of 3.13 billion, but interesting for continuing narratives. Netflix says it's on track to double its advertising revenue this year and that it will roll out interactive ads in the second half of 2025. Quoting the Verge, in addition to its earnings report, Netflix also released viewership data for the first half of 2025. Netflix says users watched 95 billion hours on Netflix during this time, with adolescents topping the chart as the most watched series with 145 million views, followed by Squid Games season two and three. Ms. Rachel, the popular show for toddlers that originated on YouTube, has also made the list, coming in at number seven. In its letter to investors, Netflix says its in house ad tech platform is foundational to its advertising and will allow the service to offer better measurement, improved ad targeting and new formats. The company first started testing its AdTech platform last year, and it has since rolled out to all markets where Netflix's ad supported plan is available. Netflix doesn't say how it plans to keep its advertising revenue growing, but one way that competitors have chosen is to show people more ads. After forcing ad supported streaming onto its existing members last year, Amazon Prime Video has since doubled the number of ads it shows during streams, according to a report from Adweek. An HBO Max support page spotted by PCWorld also revealed that it's increased ads on the service's basic tier. In May, Netflix revealed that its ad supported tier reaches more than 94 million users. It also teased new ad formats, including ones that appear when you pause what you're watching. During an earnings call on Thursday, Netflix co CEO Greg Peters confirmed that the company will roll out interactive ads in the second half of 2025, end quote sources say President Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that would open up 401k plans to cryptocurrency and other alternative investments. Quoting the FT Donald Trump is preparing to open the $9 trillion US retirement market to cryptocurrency investments, also gold and private equity, in a move that would spur a radical shift in the way American savings are managed. Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that would open up 401k plans to alternative investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds, according to three people who have been briefed on the president's plans. These investments would run a broad spectrum of asset classes, from digital assets to metals and funds focused on corporate takeovers, private loans and infrastructure deals. The executive order would instruct Washington regulatory agencies to investigate the remaining hurdles needed to allow for such alternative investments to be included in professionally managed funds used by 401k savers, the people said. In the US 401k plans are among the most popular ways working Americans save for retirement, allowing them to invest a portion of their salaries in publicly traded securities tax free. But virtually all such investments are housed in public stock and bond mutual funds. The executive order would accelerate Trump's push to bring crypto investments to the mainstream after his administration has dropped prominent enforcement actions against large digital asset trading groups. The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a trio of crypto related bills that Trump has strongly backed, underscoring how the president is seeking to bolster the industry. End quote from the AI Horse Race File We've been discussing OpenAI revenue, anthropic revenue and valuation. So what about perplexity? Well, the FT says that perplexity was valued at $18 billion in a reported $100 million extension round recently. This is likely because its annualized revenues jumped from 35 million in August 2024 to 150 million this month. Now, 150 million a year is way behind what Anthropic and OpenAI are apparently doing, but there is growth there. Perplexity has already raised new investments five times over the past 18 months, surging from a valuation of about $500 million at the beginning of 2024 to $14 billion in May. It sought an $18 billion valuation in the May funding round but faced resistance from investors. But after the close, new investors approached the company and were told they could purchase equity at an $18 billion valuation, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The three year old company is aiming to take on Google's dominance in Internet search and recently launched a browser alongside its AI powered search engine. Perplexity has consistently been rumored to be a takeover target as big tech groups including Apple and Meta look to gain ground on rivals Google and OpenAI. Though chief executive Aravind Srinivas has repeatedly said he wants to take his company public, the company last week launched an AI web browser for its premium subscribers called Comet, in which the system can act as an agent on users behalf, following voice and text commands to perform tasks such as shopping, summarizing social media feeds and sending emails. The end game is the browser and agents that not only do stuff but also pull all of the context in, srinivas told the Financial Times earlier this year, he added AI models are really good at reasoning and summarization now, so the final part of the puzzle is to figure out a way to give these models the context and make a great user experience. If you can do those two things reliably at scale, then you stand to win big time in the AI race. In April, Srinivas told the Financial Times the company was serving about 30 million users, and the group has expanded its sources of revenue from subscriptions to advertising and e commerce. Perplexity's annualized revenues, a projection of full year revenues based on extrapolating the most recent month sales, have jumped from 35 million in August last year to 150 million this month, according to one person with knowledge of the company's finances. End quote. So Apple is suing YouTuber Jon Prosser and an Apple staffer's friend over iOS 26 leaks for allegedly accessing the staffer's iPhone. Prosser, for his part, denies the claim, quoting MacRumors in his first video. Back in January, Prosser showed off a camera app redesign with a simpler set of buttons for moving between photo and video modes, and he followed that up with a March episode of his Genius Bar podcast where he showed off the Messages app, complete with round navigation buttons at the top and rounded corners around the keyboard. And he wrapped things up with an April video that gave a more complete look at the Liquid Glass redesign that ultimately debuted in iOS 26 with Rounder Glass like interface elements, pill shaped tab bars and the bottom of certain Apple apps, and more. While the camera app redesign didn't exactly match what Apple Unveiled for iOS 26, the general idea was correct, and much of what else Prosser showed was pretty close to spot on. And Apple clearly took notice as the company filed a lawsuit today against Prosser and Michael Ramacchiati for misappropriation of trade secrets. Apple's complaint outlines what it claims is the series of events that led to the leaks, which centered around a development iPhone in the possession of Ramacchiati's friend, Apple employee Ethan Lipnick. According to Apple, Prosser and Ramacchiati plotted to access Lipnick's phone, acquiring his passcode and then using location tracking to determine when he, quote, would be gone for an extended period. Prosser reportedly offered financial compensation to Ramachioti in return for assisting with accessing the development iPhone. Apple says Ramakati accessed Lipnick's development iPhone and made a FaceTime call to Prosser showing off iOS26 running on the development iPhone and that Prosser recorded the call with screen capture tools. Prosser then shared those videos with others and use them to make recreated renders of iOS 26 for his videos. Lipnick's phone contained a, quote, significant amount of additional Apple trade secret information that has not yet been publicly disclosed, and Apple says it does not know how much of that information is in the possession of Prosser and Ramakati. In order to protect its trade secrets, Apple has filed a lawsuit to request an injunction against further disclosure of Apple's confidential trade secret information and is seeking damages over the misappropriation of them. Lipnick's employment with Apple has already been terminated over his failure to follow the company's policies to protect development and unreleased devices and software. Lipnick also failed to disclose the breach to Apple once he learned of it through others who recognized his apartment in the recorded FaceTime call, with Apple learning of the details from an anonymous email. By the way, the story has been updated, quote, in replies to our tweet about this story. Prosser takes issue with Apple's presentation of the events, claiming he was, quote, unaware of the situation playing out and saying he is, quote, looking forward to being able to speak to Apple about it. End quote. While single AI agents can handle specific tasks, the real power comes when specialized agents collaborate to solve complex problems. There is, however, a fundamental gap. We have no standardized infrastructure for these agents to discover, communicate with and work alongside each other. That's where Agency agntcy comes in. The Agency is an open source collective building the Internet of Agents, a global collaboration layer where AI agents can work together. It will connect systems across vendors and frameworks, solving the biggest problems of discovery, interoperability and scalability for enterprises. With contributors like Cisco, Crewai LangChain and mongodb, Agency is breaking down silos and building the Future of interoperable AI shape the future of enterprise innovation. Visit agency.org to explore use cases. Now that's a G n t c y.org.
- [13:09]
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- [13:37]
Brian McCullough
Yourself for the long reads this week As I said online earlier this week, one piece really radicalized me as an investor this week. And look, some people have objections to solar power actually working as much as bullish people say it will. And look, I take those criticisms on board, but this piece about solar energy taking over the world just blew my mind. The rate at which things like solar are becoming so cheap. Just take these data points and anecdotes from this piece in the New Yorker. Quote Scientists call electricity produced by solar work energy as opposed to heat energy, which comes from burning wood or fossil fuels. And it is a far more efficient way of getting things done. As a report published last fall by the Rocky Mountain Institute explains, Burning gas to light a room creates more heat than light. Burning coal to create electricity creates more heat than electricity. Burning oil to move a vehicle creates more heat than motion. We are sending more energy up smokestacks and out exhaust pipes than we are putting to work to power our economy. This is not hyperbole. Burning oil to power a car or burning coal to produce electricity is at best slightly more than 30% efficient or 70% inefficient. For that reason, it takes two to three times more energy to run a standard car than to run an ev, which is why even an EV charged with power from a coal fired plant is still far more efficient and than a vehicle run on an internal combustion engine. E biking, best thought of as biking without hills, may prove to be an even more important innovation. The E bike is almost unbelievably efficient. To fully charge, a 500 watt e bike costs on average about 8 cents. That charge provides some 30 miles of range, so it costs about a penny to ride five miles. And though it took centuries for the fossil fuel revolution to extend from the centers of empire in some countries, solar power is showing signs of leapfrogging combustion in the way that cell phones reached many places before landlines did. The Pakistan example is perhaps the most dramatic. As 2024 began, demand for electricity on the national Grid started falling not because the economy was in decline, but because, as careful scrutiny of images on Google Earth revealed, so many Pakistanis were putting up solar panels. As one Lahore area corn farmer Mohamed Murtaza told Bloomberg, pointing to his own photovoltaic array, I have never seen such a big change in farming. 95% of farmland has switched to solar in this area. Many farmers can't afford metal mounting brackets for the panels, which are more expensive than the panels themselves. So they just lay the panels on the ground cells to the sun. If you have traveled through rural Asia, you know the sound of diesel generators pumping the millions of deep tube wells that were a chief driver of the agricultural green revolution in the 1960s and 70s. Now solar electric is pumping the water. Diesel sales in Pakistan apparently fell 30% in 2024. If you're a farmer, that's kind of a miracle fuel. One of your biggest costs is simply gone. As Waqas Musa, a Pakistani solar entrepreneur, told the American journalist David Roberts In February, a 3 kilowatt inverter with, you know, maybe four or five panels is now routinely included in a bride's dowry. If you want to know how Pakistanis learned to put up all those panels, the longtime solar advocate Danny Kennedy just came back from a trip, explained it to me in an email. Training programs, tips and tricks, hotlines and such sprang up as people around the country started sharing notes so that tens of thousands of electricians and others could get into the game. He forwarded a selection of TikTok videos set to Punjabi music, showing electricians unboxing inverters and comparing Chinese panel brands. Renewables First, A think tank based in Islamabad, noted in a June report that the Pakistan example is particularly significant because the sale of Chinese solar panels is cannibalizing demand from the very coal plants China financed in that nation just a few years ago as part of its new Silk Road, making it a litmus test for China's global climate leadership, the report added. By treating Pakistan as a proving ground for managing stranded fossil assets while scaling renewable ecosystems, China has the opportunity to develop and validate transition models that could be exported across the global South. Indeed, something similar seems to be playing out across Africa. Last summer, Joel Nana, a Cape Town based energy analyst, was struggling, as the Pakistan watchers had been six months earlier, to understand new data. In Namibia, we've uncovered that people have built about 70 megawatts of distributed generation, mostly rooftop solar. That's the equivalent of about 15% of the country's peak demand. In Eswatini, which is a Very small country. It's about 11% of of peak demand, he told me. In South Africa, the continent's economic colossus, small scale solar now provides, by his reckoning, nearly a fifth of the capacity of the national grid. You won't see these numbers anywhere, Nana said. In Namibia and Ehwastani, they're not reported in national plans. No one knows about them. It's only when you speak to the utilities and in fact, the numbers could be much higher because the smallest systems aren't reporting to anyone, not even the utilities. It's that bottom up energy, literally energy, but also energy in terms of entrepreneurialism, that blew my mind. But also it makes sense when something is cheaper than something else. The hidden hand of Mr. Market, as Warren Buffett likes to say, comes in and can become an unstoppable force. Literally unstoppable. It's like using AI to make videos. Now, you might have moral reasons to oppose it, but if you're a Hollywood studio and you're not at least experimenting with AI to at least do VFX shots, you're literally burning money at this point. Have you seen how good those latest models are? You might not like solar energy for whatever reason, but that won't matter if it has the gale force winds of Mr. Market behind it. Combine that with the cost of batteries plummeting and you have an epochal history changing industrial and technological revolution happening right now as we speak. As an investor, that's what radicalized me. I love investments where all you have to do is see the tidal wave of history coming and just jump on a surfboard and write it. All right, we've got a bonus episode for you this weekend. The Ride Home. Funds have made an investment in a company that has a very provocative proposition, and that is if you're taking large language models and throwing them at science problems, you're basically doing it wrong. Existing techniques are not designed to find novel solutions, only to pattern match previous knowledge. But this particular company has a solution. They call it the Discovery Engine and it's a new type of machine learning architecture that is designed from the ground up to produce novel scientific and other insights. The company is called Leap Labs and they're coming out of stealth right now to tell the world about this breakthrough. This is different a little bit than other portfolio profile episodes we've done because we go very deep on the science and the technical breakthrough. They've made more than just focusing on the company. Enjoy that. And a reminder that if you're an accredited investor, you can join us in investing in companies like Leap Labs. The Ride Home AI fund is still open for a few more LPs. The minimum investment in that fund is 100k, but there's also the Rolling fund which only requires an investment of 20k spread over 4/4 of investment. More info on both funds@ridehomefund.com and you can even sign up to invest right there on the website. I will be coming to you next week from Pittsburgh. If it sounds a little different, that's why I'll be in a hotel recording. Never been to Pittsburgh before. Happy to be in you soon Pittsburgh. Enjoy your weekend. Talk to you on Monday. You're a professional web creator who needs a platform that works as hard as you do. Wix Studio is built for you whether you're a designer, developer or marketer ready to amplify your impact. Build intuitively with advanced design features and AI powered tools. Manage your clients and projects efficiently from one workspace scale with dynamic systems and fully managed infrastructure. Create exceptional websites with hyper efficiency on wix Studio.