AI and I

If scaling laws hold—and Surge AI CEO Edwin Chen believes they do—we’re hurtling toward a future where there’s nothing humans can do that AI can’t do better. When OpenAI’s models disproved an open conjecture posed by mathematician Paul Erdős using novel algebraic geometry techniques, Fields medalist Timothy Gowers felt the shift acutely. He initially thought the model had proved an upper bound, and braced himself: that would mean it was “all over for mathematicians very soon.” When he realized it had only found a counterexample, he was relieved—it bought him another year or two before the thing he’s devoted his life to becomes something AI does better.As founder and CEO of the company behind the data environments and evals the major model companies use to train their models, Chen has a unique perspective on how quickly AI models are absorbing tasks we used to think of as uniquely human.Dan Shipper talked with Chen for AI & I about what the act of creating or building means when AI can do it better—and whether an answer to that question already exists within science fiction.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!Join the membership for Where You Live at ⁠https://www.joinbilt.com/danTo hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribeFollow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipperTimestamps:00:00:54 Introduction00:01:49 Surge as a "school for AGI"00:04:46 What AI's capacity for novel mathematics says about human achievement00:07:29 Motivation in an era when AI can do everything00:14:34 The trap of optimizing AI models for engagement00:29:34 Training using datasets versus training using environments00:35:09 The value of personal data00:39:40 Why models are bad at writing00:42:00 Chen's AGI timelineLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Edwin Chen on X: https://x.com/echenSurge: https://surgehq.aiRiemann-bench (research-level math benchmark): https://surgehq.ai/leaderboards/riemann-benchHemingway-bench (creative writing benchmark): https://surgehq.ai/leaderboards/hemingway-benchTalkie-1930 (language model trained on pre-1930 text): https://huggingface.co/talkie-lm/talkie-1930-13b-itTed Chiang, “What’s Expected of Us”: https://www.nature.com/articles/436150aEvery is the most AI-native startup on the internet. Through ideas, software and education, subscribers get the tools to work at the frontier of AI. Start your free trial today: https://every.to/subscribe?utm_source=youtubeFollow Every: https://x.com/everyFollow Dan Shipper: https://x.com/danshipper

The AI labs fighting for attention during the Super Bowl call to mind another iconic Super Bowl moment: Apple’s 1984 ad for the Macintosh, which promised that the personal computer would be a source of unbound wonder, freedom, and delight.They were right, but over time, the personal computer has also become cluttered with errands.These “computer errands”—downloading a W-2 when tax season rolls around, hunting for the right coupon code before checkout, or navigating the unholy labyrinth of the Amazon Web Services dashboard just to change one permission setting—have taken over our digital lives. Atlas, OpenAI’s agentic browser, sprang from the idea that AI should handle this tedium for you.In this week’s episode of AI & I, Dan Shipper sat down with two members of the Atlas team, Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher. Goodger is Atlas’s head of engineering, and Fisher is a member of the technical staff. Both are legends of the browser world. They’ve spent decades building the modern web, working together on Netscape, Firefox, and Chrome before arriving at Atlas. From that vantage point, they told Dan how they think browsing is about to change, why building a browser is harder than it looks, and what it’s like to create a new one with AI coding tools like Codex.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Move fast, don’t break thingsMost AI coding tools don’t know which line of code will actually break your system. Try Augment Code, which understands your entire codebase, including the repos, languages, and dependencies that actually runs your business, and use their playbook to learn more about their framework, checklists, and assessments. Ship 30% faster with 40% shorter merge times.[Playbook at https://www.augmentcode.com/]Timestamps: 00:01:57 - Introduction00:11:51 - Designing an AI browser that’s intuitive to use00:15:24 - How the web changes if agents do most of the browsing00:25:06 - Why traditional websites will not become obsolete00:29:00 - A browser that stays out of the way versus one that shows you around00:39:51 - How the team uses Codex to build Atlas00:44:47 - The craft of coding with AI tools00:52:33 - Why Goodger and Fisher care so much about browsersLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Ben Goodger: Ben Goodger (@bengoodger) Darin Fisher: Darin Fisher (@darinwf) OpenAI’s browser, Atlas: Introducing ChatGPT Atlas

Entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson used to sleep nine hours a night. Now he wakes up at 4 a.m. and goes straight to work—because he can’t wait to keep building with Anthropic’s latest model, Opus 4.5.Two years ago, Wilkinson was obsessed with vibe coding on AI software development platform Replit. It was thrilling to describe something in plain English and watch an app appear, less thrilling when the apps were always broken in some way, often full of maddening bugs. So he set his app creation ambitions aside until technology caught up with them.Then, a few weeks ago, he started playing with Claude Code and Opus 4.5. It felt, he says, like having a “$100,000-a-month payroll of engineers” working for him around the clock.Wilkinson is the cofounder of Tiny, a company that buys profitable businesses and holds them for the long term. The Tiny portfolio includes the AeroPress coffee maker and Dribbble, a platform where designers can share their work and find jobs. Dan Shipper had him on AI & I to talk about the automations Wilkinson has built for his work and personal life, including an AI relationship counselor, a custom email client, and a system that texts him outfit recommendations each morning. Wilkinson revealed how all of this individual exploration has changed the way he thinks about buying software companies at Tiny.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribeFollow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipperReady to build a site that looks hand-coded—without hiring a developer? Launch your site for free at framer.com, and use code DAN to get your first month of Pro on the house!Timestamps:00:00:00 - Start00:01:07 - Introduction00:02:48 - Why Opus 4.5 feels like the iPhone moment for vibe coding00:08:31 - Why designers have a unique advantage with AI00:14:10 - How Wilkinson built a custom email client with Claude Code00:18:13 - An AI trained on your relationship that predicts your fights00:30:40 - Using AI meeting notes to make your life better00:35:11 - Don't inject your opinion into prompts00:40:21 - Wilkinson’s Claude Code tips and workflows00:47:59 - Your personal stylist is a prompt away00:53:17 - How AI is changing the way Wilkinson invests in softwareLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Andrew Wilkinson: Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson)The book Wilkinson references in his prompts, when writing copy with AI: Made to StickEvery’s compound engineering plugin: https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugi

Anthropic just dropped Claude Cowork—essentially Claude Code for everyone, not just engineers—and we got to chat about it with a product engineer at Anthropic who helped build it.In this live Vibe Check, Dan Shipper and Kieran Klaassen explore the new interface together, testing what works (and what doesn't) in real time. Anthropic’s Felix Rieseberg joins midway through to explain the philosophy behind Cowork's design: why it separates "Tasks" from "Chats," how the queue system lets you send messages while the agent is working, and what "agent-native" architecture means in practice. They also dig into Skills—Claude's prompt system that lets you customize how it works—and the Chrome connector for browser automation.This is a raw, unfiltered first look at what might be the future of how knowledge workers interact with AI: async workflows instead of turn-by-turn chat.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!Want even more?Check out Dan's guide to building agent-native applications: https://every.to/guides/agent-nativeTo hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribeFollow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper00:01:00 - What is Claude Cowork00:02:36 - First demo: competitor analysis00:03:33 - Email drafting that sounds like me00:06:18 - Calendar audit running for an hour00:07:39 - Book taxonomy demo00:08:42 - PostHog analytics via Chrome browsing00:14:36 - Chat vs Code vs Cowork: when to use what00:31:06 - Felix from Anthropic joins00:36:39 - Why they built it in a week and a half00:37:57 - Design decision: why a separate tab00:43:57 - Skills as the primary hackable surface00:49:36 - Agent-native architecture principles00:56:57 - The origin story of skills at Anthropic01:03:00 - Our final rating