Quasar Alpha: A Mystery AI Model for Advanced Coding and Creativity

Key Takeaway: Quasar Alpha is a powerful, mysterious AI model in free testing that’s revolutionizing coding, animation, and multimodal development with unmatched capabilities.

More Insights:

• Offers an unprecedented 1 million token context length, ideal for complex coding tasks.

• Demonstrates early multimodal skills, integrating visual data with code seamlessly.

• Powers interactive tools like animations, simulations, and educational apps.

• Possibly linked to Google’s Gemini family, though its origins are unconfirmed.

Why it matters:
Quasar Alpha signals a future where AI isn’t just assisting development—it’s co-creating across disciplines. With its scale, speed, and multimodal potential, it’s blurring the line between human creativity and machine execution, raising the bar for what developers can dream and build.

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Shopify Says No New Hires Unless AI Can’t Do the Job

Key Takeaway: Shopify has made AI integration a mandatory skill for all employees—and new hires won’t happen unless AI can’t do the job.

More Insights:

• AI is now baseline: Reflexive, everyday use of AI is expected across all roles, from execs to individual contributors.

• Hiring freeze without proof: No new headcount will be approved unless teams prove AI can't handle the task.

• Performance tied to AI usage: AI literacy will be assessed in performance and peer reviews.

• Culture of experimentation: Teams are encouraged to tinker, share wins and failures, and treat AI as a core collaborator in the prototype phase of projects.

Why it matters: This marks a cultural shift where AI isn't just a tool—it’s a teammate. Shopify isn’t just adapting to the AI era, it’s redefining what it means to be productive, creative, and employable in a future where human effort is expected to be multiplied by machines.

Google is allegedly paying some AI staff to do nothing for a year rather than join rivals

Key Takeaway: DeepMind is using aggressive noncompete agreements—sometimes paying ex-employees for up to a year—to prevent them from joining competitors during the AI talent war.

More Insights:

• Noncompetes last up to 12 months depending on role and seniority; 6-month clauses are common for AI researchers.

• Employees on "garden leave" are paid but barred from working elsewhere during the noncompete period.

• Critics argue the contracts limit career mobility during a critical time in the fast-moving AI industry.

• Ex-DeepMind director Nando de Freitas publicly called the practice an "abuse of power" and urged employees not to sign.

Why it matters:
As AI races ahead at breakneck speed, six months on the sidelines could mean missing the next breakthrough—or startup unicorn. These noncompetes may protect company secrets, but they also risk stifling innovation and entrenching corporate dominance in a field that thrives on rapid iteration and open knowledge exchange.

Other stuff

• OpenAI launches program to design new ‘domain-specific’ AI benchmarks

• Meta got caught gaming AI benchmarks

• OpenAI just made ChatGPT Plus free for millions of college students

• Ilya Sutskever taps Google Cloud to power his AI startup’s research

• LLMs officially pass the Turing test

• Anthropic rolls out a $200-per-month Claude subscription

• OpenAI countersues Elon Musk, claims harassment

• The 2025 AI Index Report

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