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Julie's Take
Quick analysis of recent and relevant news & events.

OpenAI Reminds Us Of Their Vision
A few highlights from the streaming video : Reiterated their North Star: "Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." Covered Research (literally scientific research involved in solving hard problems like curing cancer), Product, and Infrastructure. As part of their Product, they offered their view of a tech stack and how third parties can plug in. I appreciated the simplicity (i.e., use of plain English)
Julie Ask
Nov 10, 2025
The Post Smartphone "It" Device (OpenAI)
OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar spoke at a WSJ event on November 5th. She did little more than acknowledge what we already know: "Jony Ive is working on a device." Given her language, there does seem to be a prototype that doesn't require us to look down at a screen. I would never underestimate the imaginations of this team. I truly hope they blow our minds. One open question will be if this is an OR device (i.e., displaces smartphones) or an AND device (i.e., it complements smartp
Julie Ask
Nov 5, 2025
Perplexity Believes Amazon is Bullying Them?
My first take: the post is both dramatic and expected for a smaller company looking to leverage a large, established platform for the benefit of their own customers (possibly longer term) and themselves. The lead sentence, "The point of technology is to make life better for people." That sentence alone is well-intended - there is a history of west coast-based tech companies starting with noble goals (i.e., "don't be evil"). I do believe that great user experiences improve the
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Nov 5, 2025
AI Hardware's Failed Promise: What Humane and Rabbit Taught (January 2024)
Original post is here . *************************************************************************************** Two AI hardware startups...
Julie Ask
Oct 10, 2025
Humane AI Pin (2023)
In 2023, I started following AI hardware for consumers. This is a summary of a blog post I wrote on Humane's AI Pin. HP bought the assets...
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Oct 10, 2025
Transforming Marketers' Jobs With GenAI (Braze's Forge 2025)
Bill Magnuson (Braze's CEO) offers a compelling vision of the future of 1) the marketer's job and 2) how genAI will impact consumer...
Julie Ask
Oct 10, 2025
California Passes SB53 - AI Transparency Act
This week (September 29, 2025) California passed SB53 as a framework to offer moderate regulation of AI efforts. The bill is less...
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Oct 7, 2025
20,000+ People Register for Section AI’s ROI Webinar
The virtual event took place on September 25th and lasted 7+ hours with no breaks (really). They have more events planned . What I...
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Oct 7, 2025
Apple iPhone 17: Hardware Impresses; AI Silence - Nearly
Apple's annual device event took place on September 9, 2025. Live stream link . What struck me the most is how little was said about AI...
Julie Ask
Sep 9, 2025
Open AI's Hits $1B Revenue in July
Open AI hit $12B ARR in July of 2025. See NBC for interview with the CFO. They now have 700M weekly active users (WAU) have seen an...
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Sep 7, 2025
Amazon Blocks AI Shopping Bots - Should You?
Seems like the "new thing" for consumers in 2025 is tools to browse the web for them (us) and get stuff done (e.g., order groceries, book...
Julie Ask
Sep 7, 2025
MIT: 95% of AI Pilots Fail To Scale or Deliver Results
MIT's NANDA Initiative released a well-researched report. Findings are credible. The headline is damning - and click bait. Worth a read....
Julie Ask
Sep 7, 2025
Walmart Gives Consumers (and Staff) SuperAgents
The WSJ reported that Walmart is simplifying its AI Agent lineup (see Walmart’s blog post ). Here is why I think this is important: ...
Julie Ask
Jul 29, 2025
Amazon Acquires "Bee" - An AI Listening Band, Aspiring Assistant
Amazon acquired "Bee" an AI listening band (think Fitbit style) that wants to get to know its customers well enough to become their...
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Jul 23, 2025
Anthropic Reaches $4B ARR
Anthropic reached an annual revenue run rate of $4B. The Information reports that this is four times their ARR at the beginning of the...
Julie Ask
Jul 8, 2025
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