Good morning. Making a final change (I swear!) To commemorate our fifth yearly Coins2Day Brainstorm AI event.
TL;DR
- OpenAI's COO stated a "code red" is a routine measure to enhance company focus amidst escalating rivalry.
- Intuit's CEO believes consumers prioritize financial prosperity over artificial intelligence.
- Gen Z views AI fluency as an advantage, collaborating with AI assistants for deeper thinking.
- Tech news includes Blue Origin's AI plans, Adobe's forecast, and AI chatbot legal concerns.
Below, three more highlights from our gathering, plus the day’s tech news in “More tech.”
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled format on Friday. —Andrew Nusca
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OpenAI's Chief Operating Officer, Brad Lightcap, states that a 'code red' situation will compel the organization to concentrate its efforts.
OpenAI's chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, stated that the company's recent “code red” notification will compel the $500 billion startup to “focus” amidst escalating rivalry.
“I think a big part of it is really just starting to push on the rate at which we see improvement in focus areas within the models,” Lightcap said onstage at Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Tuesday. “What you’re going to see, even starting fairly soon, will be a really exciting series of things that we release.”
Last week, in an internal memo shared with employees, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he was sounding the alarm within the organization. Altman told employees it was “a critical time for ChatGPT,” the company’s flagship product, and that OpenAI would delay other initiatives, including its advertising plans, to focus on improving the core product.
During Brainstorm AI on Tuesday, Lightcap characterized the “code red” notification as a routine measure that numerous companies sometimes implement to enhance concentration, rather than an action exclusive to OpenAI. However, Lightcap conceded the significance of this step at OpenAI currently, considering the expansion in personnel and initiatives over the last few years.
“It’s a way of forcing company focus,” Lightcap said. “For a company that’s doing a bazillion things, it’s actually quite refreshing.”
He added: “We will come out of it. I think what comes out of it that way will be really exciting.” —Beatrice Nolan
Intuit's Chief Executive Officer stated that consumers aren't concerned with artificial intelligence.
Although Wall Street and Silicon Valley are fixated on artificial intelligence, numerous companies lack the capacity to concentrate on AI as they are preoccupied with generating increased income.
At Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Monday, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi acknowledged the daily concerns of individuals utilizing his firm's offerings, including QuickBooks, TurboTax, Mailchimp, and Credit Karma.
“I remind ourselves at the company all the time: Customers don’t care about AI,” he told Coins2Day’s Andrew Nusca. “Everybody talks about AI, but the reality is a consumer is looking to increase their cash flow. A consumer is looking to power their prosperity to make ends meet. A business is trying to get more customers.”
Of course, AI still powers Intuit’s platforms, which help companies and entrepreneurs digest data that’s often stovepiped across dozens of separate applications they juggle. So Intuit declared years ago that it would focus on delivering “done-for-you experiences,” Goodarzi said.
For companies, this involves assisting them with overseeing customer prospects, financial resources, bookkeeping, and fiscal obligations. For individuals, it means aiding them in establishing creditworthiness and financial assets. The input of a human expert, or human insight, is also a crucial element.
“Customers don’t care about AI,” Goodarzi added. “What they care about is, ‘Help me grow my business, help me prosper.’” —Jason Ma
Today's youth are becoming proficient with AI, which is giving them an edge.
Gen Z and younger generations are getting a bad rap.
Concerns have surfaced regarding ChatGPT and similar AI technologies, with accusations that students and junior professionals are becoming overly dependent on them for tasks ranging from academic assignments to composing correspondence.
Kiara Nirghin, a Stanford technologist and Gen Z entrepreneur, views Gen Z's familiarity with AI as an advantage. “The younger generation isn’t adopting AI, we’re growing up fluent in AI,” she said at Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Nirghin, a co-founder of Chima, a U.S. Applied AI research institution, clarified that emerging business owners view programming as a collaborative effort with AI assistants, as opposed to an independent, foundational undertaking.
AI “fundamentally changes how you write, how you take tests, [and] how you apply to jobs or different applications—because it’s not from the ground up. It’s actually being able to do that with different models or agents, side by side,” Nirghin said.
The ability to understand and utilize AI distinguishes Gen Z individuals from older generations, enabling them to be at the forefront of discovering and implementing AI applications that remain unexplored, she elaborated.
Some experts have argued that AI has eroded our critical thinking abilities. A 2025 study by researchers researchers at MIT’s Media Lab discovered that individuals utilizing ChatGPT “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”
But Nirghin argued that this isn’t always true. “The biggest misconception is that young people are using AI to not think things through,” she said, “[but] I think that really intelligent Gen Z individuals are using it to think even deeper.” —Angelica Ang
More tech
—Blue Origin’s AI plan. More than a year’s work on “orbital data centers.”
—Adobe’s 2026 forecast tops estimates. Revenue and profit surpassed expectations, driven by robust demand for design software and enhanced AI monetization strategies.
—“Delusional outputs” by AI chatbots could violate the law, U.S. States say in a letter to Meta, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others.
—Oracle shares drop 11%. Revenue for the quarter fell short of projections, while full-year capital spending saw an increase from $35 billion to $50 billion.
—Spotify debuts “steer the algorithm” strategy. Write a prompt for a playlist, get something informed by your listening history.
—Tim Cook lobbies against app store age verification. The Apple CEO would rather parents do the job.
—Concerned about AI chip supply, Alibaba and ByteDance are reportedly mulling Nvidia H200 chip orders.
