Inside OpenAI culture 💼, Google AI blocks exploit 🛡️, S3 Vectors 👨‍💻

TLDR 2025-07-16

Jul 16, 2025

Our AI agent Big Sleep helped us detect and foil an imminent exploit (1 minute read)

Big Sleep is an AI agent developed by Google DeepMind and Google Project Zero that actively searches and finds unknown security vulnerabilities in software. It recently helped Google detect and foil an imminent exploit - possibly a first for an AI agent. Big Sleep is being deployed to help improve the security of widely used open-source projects. AI cybersecurity agents will help free up security teams so they can focus on high-complexity threats, dramatically scaling their impact and reach.

Reflections on OpenAI (20 minute read)

Calvin French-Owen joined OpenAI in May 2024 and left the company three weeks ago. This post shares a first-hand account of what the culture of working at the company actually feels like. It covers how the company operates without giving away any trade secrets. OpenAI grew quickly from a group of scientists and tinkerers investigating the cutting edge of science into an organization with the most viral consumer app in history and ambitions to sell to governments and enterprises, making it one of the most fascinating organizations in history at an extremely interesting time.

🚀Science & Futuristic Technology

The Secret to Better Airplane Navigation Could Be Inside the Earth's Crust (6 minute read)

Airbus' Acubed and Google spinout SandboxAQ are developing an alternative to GPS. Its quantum sensing technology is now inching closer to commercialization. The MagNav quantum-sensing device uses quantum physics to measure the unique magnetic signatures at various points in the Earth's crust. An AI algorithm is then used to match those signatures to an exact location. The technology could be a promising alternative to GPS in a time when GPS jamming and spoofing are on the rise.

NIST Ion Clock Sets New Record for Most Accurate Clock in the World (7 minute read)

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have improved their atomic clock so it can perform timekeeping with 19 decimal places of accuracy. The aluminum ion clock is 2.6 times more stable than any other ion clock. Its accuracy will help facilitate new scientific and technological advances, allowing scientists to explore new concepts in quantum physics and build the tools needed for quantum technology. It could help physicists explore physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the possibility that the fundamental constants of nature are not fixed values but actually changing.

💻Programming, Design & Data Science

We're releasing the Artificial Analysis AI Adoption Survey Report for H1 2025 (3 minute read)

The Artificial Analysis Adoption Survey Report examines trends in AI usage and analyzes adoption rates, primary use cases, and demand across chatbots, coding agents, LLM model families, providers, and chip companies. The report found companies are starting to use AI in production, with engineering and R&D being the clear frontrunner use cases. Google, xAI, and DeepSeek have gained share in the first half of 2025 while Meta and Mistral have lost share. Organizations are open to Chinese models if hosted outside of China.

To be a better programmer, write little proofs in your head (14 minute read)

One trick that helps developers write code faster and more accurately is to sketch proofs in your head when you're working on something difficult. Doing this without interrupting flow takes a lot of practice, but once you get good at it, you'll find a surprising amount of code will work on the first or second try. This article demonstrates a few examples of how this technique can be applied.

🎁Miscellaneous

The HALO Effect (19 minute read)

A new type of deal structure has emerged in AI as an alternative to acquisitions and hiring. It involves hiring the core team from a startup and gaining a non-exclusive license to the startup's intellectual property in exchange for substantial licensing fees, which are distributed as dividends out to investors and employees. These startups then continue to operate under new leadership. These 'Hire And License Out' (HALO) deals are still new and remain poorly understood.

The Tesla Diner is basically finished—here's what it looks like (2 minute read)

Tesla's Diner, Drive-in, and Supercharger in Los Angeles is getting close to opening. The site is pretty much done - Elon Musk ate a meal at the site, and vehicles have been spotted charging at the charging stalls. The site will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week when it finally opens. Photos of the Diner are available in the article.

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