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Sam Altman gave a peek into the future of the AI market, sharing advice for startups. He’s betting on reasoning agents and vertical AI products, pointing to major opportunities for innovators. Let’s unpack...

Today’s Summary:

• 🚀 Sam Altman’s Playbook for AI Startups

• 🌄 FLUX1.1 Ultra boosts image gen quality

• 🎮 Oasis AI creates game worlds

• 🌐 OpenAI snaps up Chat.com domain

• 🚀 Tencent releases Hunyuan AI model

• 🔗 Claude 3.5 Haiku API goes live

• 🛠️ 2 new tools

TOP STORY

Sam Altman’s Playbook for AI Startups

The Summary: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared insights on which AI startups will thrive and which will get crushed by OpenAI rapid advancement. He points to reasoning models as the next big leap, warning founders to avoid building quick fixes to current AI limitations, as they will soon become obsolete. Instead, he sees huge opportunities in building vertical applications on top of AI models, predicting trillions in new market value from AI-powered innovations.

Key details:

• Startups focusing on “patching AI limitations” may get crushed by rapid model improvements

• “Vertical AI products” like advanced AI tutors stand best chance of growth

• A recent undisclosed research breakthrough left Altman "breathtakingly" impressed

• AI agents will work like smart co-workers on complex, multi-day tasks

• Agent-based services will possibly shift to compute-based pricing

Why it matters: OpenAI is betting on reasoning and advanced AI agents as the next big wave in AI. While many are focused on patching current AIs, Altman sees reasoning as the true breakthrough feature, which could accelerate scientific discovery alongside consumer applications.

TOOLS

New FLUX1.1 Ultra generates 4MP images

The Summary: Black Forest Labs has launched FLUX1.1 Ultra, a high-resolution image generator that outputs 4-megapixel images with a RAW style mode. The upgrade maintains a fast 10-second generation speed while increasing resolution by 4x. FLUX1.1 Ultra is built for professional creators and AI enthusiasts. The additional “raw mode” is designed to produce natural looking photos with diverse subjects.

Key details:

• Generates 4MP images in 10 seconds - 2.5x faster than competitors

• RAW mode creates candid style photos with reduced AI artifacts

• First text-to-image model to combine high resolution with RAW photo aesthetics

Why it matters: The new FLUX1.1 Ultra and RAW models increase image quality and diversity. For indie creators and small studios, the 4MP output at a low price point provides a way to compete with large production houses on high-end projects.

Try it with BFL API

RESEARCH

Oasis AI creates playable open-world games

The Summary: Decart AI launched Oasis, a playable open-world environment running purely on an AI model without a game engine. The system processes keyboard inputs to generate real-time gameplay at 20 frames per second, including physics, rules, and graphics. Through a hardware partnership with Etched, the team plans to scale the technology to 4K resolution. The current release includes open-source code and a 500M parameter model for local testing.

Key details:

• Generative environment running at 20 FPS

• Built on spatial autoencoder and latent diffusion model

• Secured $21M seed funding from Sequoia Capital

• Technical breakthrough: "Dynamic noising" solves temporal stability issues in long-context generation

Why it matters: Oasis envisions "Interactive Experiences" where AI creates personalized content based on user preferences in real-time. As speed and quality improve, this technology could enable new forms of gaming and simulation, controlled through text, voice, or other input modes.

Try the live tech demo

QUICK NEWS

Quick news

• OpenAI acquired Chat.com domain for $15M+

• Tencent releases Hunyuan Large AI model

• Claude 3.5 Haiku is now available in the API

TOOLS

🥇 New tools

• Suno Personas - Create multiple songs in the same style

• GyftPro - AI powered gift recommendations