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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

MANUS, A NEW AI AGENT FROM CHINA IS GOING VIRAL—AND RAISING BIG QUESTIONS

Manus is an autonomous agent that can analyze, plan, and execute tasks on its own. It is currently only accessible through invitation codes, which are in short supply - demand is through the roof as the AI community is raving about its capabilities. Many are now asking whether China has leapfrogged the US in AI. Manus likely achieved its impressive capabilities through innovative fine-tuning rather than core model innovation. A video introducing Manus is available in the article.

WHY LOCAL-FIRST SOFTWARE IS THE FUTURE AND ITS LIMITATIONS

Local-first software has data primarily residing on the client device and synchronizes with a server in the background. Local-first has benefits like instant app responses, offline capabilities, and increased user data control, but also introduces challenges such as conflict resolution and client-side data migrations. Recent advancements like increased browser storage limits, new storage APIs, and WebAssembly are allowing local-first approaches in software to grow.

NATURAL ALTERNATIVE TO OZEMPIC BRINGS RESULTS WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS

Stanford scientists have identified a naturally occurring molecule that works like semaglutide, producing weight loss and improved glucose and insulin tolerance, when tested in mice and minipigs. The peptide, named BRP, only works in the brain, as opposed to semaglutide, which has widespread effects. It specifically acts in the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and metabolism, which could be an improvement over semaglutide. The scientists intend to move to human clinical trials for BRP.

STARSHIP FLIGHT 8: SPACEX NAILS SUPER HEAVY BOOSTER CATCH BUT LOSES UPPER STAGE

SpaceX's eight Starship test flight last Thursday aimed for the third successful booster recovery and the deployment of a satellite simulator. While the Super Heavy booster returned successfully to Starbase's launch tower, the mission's upper stage disintegrated during its flight. SpaceX has been reviewing the data from the flight to better understand the incident's root cause. Video of the explosion is available in the article.

MICROSOFT'S RELATIONSHIP WITH OPENAI IS NOT LOOKING GOOD

More evidence has surfaced that Microsoft is looking to split with OpenAI. Microsoft is developing its own in-house reasoning models and has been testing models from xAI, Meta, and DeepSeek to replace ChatGPT in Copilot. Copilot has so far been received poorly in enterprise due to its high cost and limited results. OpenAI and Microsoft are quickly becoming competitors, so it makes sense that the companies would want to detach from each other. Microsoft has an interest in controlling the technologies and writing its own destiny.

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