AI Wasted My Time and Boosted My Ego

We were told AI would make us faster, smarter, more efficient. But what if it’s just making us feel productive—while secretly slowing us down?

This week, Jeff and Annie dig into the most surprising stories in AI. Popeyes used AI to launch a diss track against McDonald’s. A $3 billion deal between OpenAI and Windsurf collapsed, and Google swooped in with a $2.4 billion move of its own. A new study shows experienced developers were actually slower when using AI—yet completely convinced they were faster.

We also cover:

• Google’s MedGemma brings AI to medical imaging (even on your phone)
• ChatGPT Agents can now build presentations, shop, and run apps on their own
• BCG report reveals most companies aren’t seeing cost savings from AI
• Netflix finishes a major VFX scene 10x faster with GenAI
  
  

• Google licenses Windsurf for $2.4B after OpenAI deal fails
• Devs using AI are 19% slower, METR study shows
• Google’s MedGemma hits 87.7% on MedQA benchmark
• Self-driving chemistry lab accelerates discovery
• Runway’s Act 2 brings motion capture to AI video
• Adobe Firefly adds voice-to-sound FX for video editing
• Google Veo 3 generates video with dialogue—but buggy subtitles remain
• OpenAI drops ChatGPT Agent with autonomous actions
• BCG: Only 1 in 4 companies see ROI from AI
• Netflix uses GenAI to cut VFX time 10x
• Cloudflare blocks AI bots with “Pay per Crawl” model