Smash Notes
Claude now leads 26% of Anthropic’s R&D, Meta drops an 816B open model & Gemini 4 Argon

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Claude now leads 26% of Anthropic’s R&D, Meta drops an 816B open model & Gemini 4 Argon

Hey, it’s Alex 👋 What a freaking week! I spent 3 days at AI Engineer in New York, and we did the show from a real studio in Manhattan (the internet did NOT cooperate at first, but we got there 😅). And while I was running around the Sheraton, the labs kept shipping. Meta became a frontier lab, for real this time. Muse Wonder is #2 on Arena, and then, in the…

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Notes

  1. Did Grok Voice 3 Top the Voice Boards? at 16:01

    Alex Volkov says xAI dropped Grok Voice 3, and he puts the word apparently on that drop. What he states outright is the ranking. Full answer

  2. What Was AI Engineer New York About? at 55:03

    Alex Volkov says Anthropic is likely to IPO on Wall Street, and the second New York Artificial Intelligence Engineer conference sat beside Wall Street, so the… Full answer

  3. How Does an Argon Project Get Started? at 1:17:27

    One panelist starts an Argon project with reference images, then runs a grill-me step that asks him questions about how to plan the work. Full answer

  4. Do Americans Prefer a Nuclear Plant to a Data Center? at 1:32:14

    Nathan Benaich says Americans would much prefer living near a nuclear power plant than a data center. Full answer

  5. How Do Most People Use AI Models? at 1:38:12

    Nathan Benaich bets that 90% of people use a model at best to read their email, answer their email, or ask questions the same way they ask Google. Full answer

  6. How Likely Is AI Doom? at 1:41:10

    Nathan Benaich says his personal chance of doom is very small, and he is not a big believer in existential risk of destroying humanity. Full answer

  7. What's the Earnings Limit for Offering Muse Spark? at 1:53:37

    Alex Volkov says a company can offer Muse Spark as long as yearly revenue stays under $20 million. Full answer

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