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Good morning. It’s Monday, May 18th.
Hermes Agent seems to be taking some users from the OpenClaw crowd. It’s also an open-source agent, but touted as have fewer bugs and a better self-learning system.
I’ll be testing it this week and publishing a review and free guide for setting it up.
Speaking of this week, I’ll be in Mountain View covering the Eazo Hackathon on Saturday. If you’re in the Bay Area and want to attend, check out the event link here and drop me a line!
-Jeff
AI Breakfast
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OpenAI debuts finance tracking on GPT-5.5 Thinking, unifies teams under Greg Brockman
OpenAI has officially placed cofounder Greg Brockman in charge of product strategy as the company reorganizes to combine ChatGPT, Codex, and developer APIs into a unified AI platform. Codex chief Thibault Sottiaux will oversee core platform teams, while Nick Turley shifts to enterprise products, anchoring development for a desktop super app that integrates ChatGPT, Codex, and the Atlas browser.
OpenAI has launched a preview of personal finance tools for US-based ChatGPT Pro users. Powered by GPT-5.5 Thinking, the system uses Plaid to securely connect with over 12,000 financial institutions, analyzing spending patterns, subscriptions, and portfolio performance to deliver context-aware budgeting advice via a dedicated dashboard.
Expanding agent capabilities, Codex is reportedly developing remote-control computer use features to operate macOS applications even when machines are locked or asleep, enabling automated GUI testing and multi-device remote operation.
The company also quietly acquired voice cloning startup Weights.gg to absorb its synthetic audio engineering talent into ChatGPT and developer APIs. In a first-of-its-kind deal with Malta, OpenAI has granted one year of free ChatGPT Plus access to all citizens who complete a national AI literacy course. Read more.
Related:
Google Cloud Director outlines prompting strategies to counter developer cognitive surrender
Google Cloud Director Addy Osmani warned that default AI code generation triggers severe cognitive debt, trading long-term engineering skill for present-day speed. Citing 2026 data from Anthropic, MIT, and CHI, Osmani noted that frictionless automation causes cognitive surrender, dropping developer comprehension below 40% and altering baseline brain connectivity.
To stop this skill decay, he outlined proactive prompting frameworks that reintroduce critical friction, urging engineers to establish problem hypotheses before generating code, prioritize conceptual explanations, and audit model outputs like a junior developer's pull request.
Simultaneously, Google Search Central updated its official documentation to dismiss specialized Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) tactics as industry myths. The guidance confirms that generative search features like AI Overviews are powered entirely by core ranking systems via retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and query fan-out models. Read more.
Related:
Trump state visit to China concludes without anticipated AI semiconductor trade agreement
Donald Trump’s high-profile state visit to China marked a critical turning point where advanced technology and semiconductor supply chains took center stage as core instruments of national diplomacy.
Tech leaders, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Jensen Huang, joined the delegation amid intense market anticipation for a structural breakthrough regarding advanced chip exports. However, the summit concluded without a formal technology agreement, triggering a swift sell-off in global chip stocks and underscoring that advanced compute is now treated as highly sensitive national infrastructure rather than ordinary trade.
While traditional industrial sectors secured clear commercial victories, led by a massive Boeing agreement to sell 200 aircraft to Beijing, the standoff over semiconductor sovereignty remains unchanged. Nvidia’s H200 chip clearance stalled as Beijing refused to formally approve the purchases. Read more.
Agents, cost, and the orchestration problem
Cybersecurity and AI risk
Frontier models and product moves
Business, law, and institutions
Research and benchmarks
Developer tools and open source
Watch
Nodey lets you monitor executions and build complex n8n workflows directly from your phone using artificial intelligence.
AgentMemory provides a local, zero-database memory runtime that automatically captures, recalls, and consolidates coding agent sessions.
OpenHuman offers a local, privacy-first AI harness that retains long-term memory and integrates your data using one simple interface.
HasData delivers clean JSON or Markdown from any URL while managing proxies, browser rendering, and AI extraction.
Loova Agents simplifies storytelling with an infinite canvas, directing and generating high-fidelity AI videos from text descriptions.
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