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🤖 AI Products Follow the Money Trail

🤖 AI Products Follow the Money Trail

OpenAI's Desktop Move, Anthropic's New Feature, and Perplexity's Ad Strategy

November 21, 2024

Hello AI Enthusiast,

This week shows us how AI companies are figuring out their business strategies: OpenAI is making ChatGPT more developer-friendly by connecting it directly to code editors, Anthropic is doubling down on prompt engineering with new developer tools, and Perplexity is tackling the revenue challenge head-on by adding ads to their AI search. What do these moves tell us about where AI is heading?

The Big Picture 🔊

Desktop ChatGPT Reads Your Code

OpenAI's ChatGPT for macOS now automatically reads your code from popular development tools like VS Code and Xcode, no more copy-pasting needed. While it can understand your code for better suggestions, it still can't write directly into your editor. Available now for Plus and Teams users.

Gianluca BelloniCMO and Marketing Nomad

This isn't a breakthrough in AI capabilities, it's OpenAI improving the user experience.

While Anthropic aims for broader computer interactions, OpenAI is focusing on coding first because it's where AI assistants have proven most useful, prioritizing precision over versatility.

Anthropic’s new prompt improver

Anthropic launched a prompt improvement tool for developers in their Console that automatically refines prompts using advanced techniques like chain-of-thought reasoning and example standardization. Anthropic declares that it increases accuracy and aids in format adjustments like JSON to XML.

Gianluca MauroFounder and AI Rockstar

Despite claims that "prompt engineering is dead," Anthropic clearly sees its value, and so do we.

This feature is perfect for developers building AI products, simplifying many of the techniques we teach in our GenAI Project Bootcamp.

We’ll be covering Anthropic's new prompt tools in this week's session of our Bootcamp, just days after release. That's also why we launched our new Membership, when stuff gets out, we add it. We take you by the hand through what really matters in AI. Become a Member today.

Perplexity Adds Ads and Shopping

Perplexity is rolling out two major updates: sponsored follow-up questions in search results and an AI-powered shopping feature with visual cards and one-click checkout. The company openly stated that "subscriptions alone do not generate enough revenue" and views advertising as "the best way to ensure a steady and scalable revenue stream.”

James VarnhamCEO and Rainmaker

These changes raise an important question about AI companies' sustainability. Just like ChatGPT's recent search features, Perplexity is discovering that subscriptions alone aren't enough, but there's a deeper issue here.

When you use Google, you expect multiple options to choose from. With AI, you want one definitive answer. LLMs weren't designed for search; they're being adapted to fit a business model that makes more money.

Would you trust AI search more with sponsored results?

Bits and Bobs 🗞️

Mistral has upgraded its Le Chat chatbot to include web search, large PDF and image processing, and more. All free during beta.
Google's new Gemini-Exp-1114 model has matched GPT-4o's performance on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard.
ElevenLabs has introduced a developer platform allowing users to build fully customizable conversational AI agents.
Stripe launched an agent toolkit that integrates with popular AI frameworks to let AI agents handle financial tasks and payments through Stripe's API.

On the Podcast 🎧

We're launching our new episode series "Behind the Scenes of EU Regulations and AI Policies," where our host Helin takes you inside ECAT in Seville to meet the researchers shaping tomorrow's AI landscape, from autonomous vehicles to healthcare tech. Listen to Episode 0 and discover how Europe is working to make AI work for everyone.

From Our Channels 🤳

Do you know what big techs mean when they call their AI models "intelligent"? Check out Gianluca's TikTok where he breaks down the gap between marketing buzzwords and what these models actually do.

@gianluca.mauro
Something weird is happening with LLMs and chess ##Ai##learnontiktok##artificialintelligence##business##machinelearning##product##ux##entr... See more

That's a wrap on our newsletter! Here’s a quick recap before you go:

Generative AI Project Bootcamp: Learn to craft optimal prompts and integrate them into automated AI prototypes to accelerate processes and test business ideas.
Practical Introduction to ChatGPT: A free course on using ChatGPT confidently, understanding its workings, and exploring its potential.
Customized Corporate Training: Equip your team with the skills they need to unlock the potential of AI in your business.

Catch you next week! 👋