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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

HEADLINES & LAUNCHES

TLDR AI

WHY FOUNDATION MODELS IN PATHOLOGY ARE FAILING (AND WHAT COMES NEXT)

Optimization for the wrong target produces excellent results at that target while failing at the actual problem. Pathology needs optimization for clinical utility, generalization across institutions, and robustness to real-world conditions. The next generation of pathology AI will be smarter about what size and architectural approach actually fit the problem. It will be smaller, more interpretable, more rigorously validated, and more aware of its own limitations.

INTRODUCING SWE-1.5: OUR FAST AGENT MODEL

SWE-1.5 is a frontier-sized model with hundreds of billions of parameters optimized for software engineering. It achieves near state-of-the-art coding performance and sets a new standard for speed. The model is now available in Windsurf, serving at up to 950 tokens per second. It can be used to deeply explore and understand large codebases, build end-to-end full-stack apps, and easily edit configurations without needing to memorize field names.

AGENT LABS ARE EATING THE SOFTWARE WORLD

Agent labs ship product first and build infrastructure later. They turn AI models into goal-directed systems that deliver outcomes, capturing the real value in the AI stack. Founders only need a deep understanding of a domain and the ability to build reliable workflows on top of existing models. The most valuable developer skills are shifting from model architecture to system design, evaluation engineering, and domain-specific workflow optimization. Investors should look for companies that capture workflow data and have clear evaluation metrics. The moat is in the data and feedback loops, not the models.

HOW AI LABS USE MERCOR TO GET THE DATA COMPANIES WON'T SHARE

Mercor's marketplace connects former employees of investment banks, consulting houses, and law firms with the AI labs looking to automate those industries. Its customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. The startup pays industry experts up to $200 an hour to fill out forms and write reports for AI training. It has tens of thousands of contractors that it pays more than $1.5 million to daily. Mercor's annual recurring revenue has grown to roughly $500 million in just under three years.

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