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Matthias Bastian

Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER, exploring how AI is fundamentally changing the relationship between humans and computers.
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 20, 2025
Short News
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Read full article about: ChatGPT gets tone controls: OpenAI adds new personalization options

OpenAI now lets users customize how ChatGPT communicates. The new "Personalization" settings include options for adjusting warmth, enthusiasm, and formatting preferences like headings, lists, and emojis. Each setting can be toggled to "More" or "Less." Users can also pick a base style - like "efficient" for shorter, more direct responses.

OpenAI says these settings only affect the chatbot's tone and style, not its actual capabilities. The company notes that the new options likely work as an extension of the custom instructions feature available in the same settings window.

Comment Source: OpenAI
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 18, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Anthropic publishes Agent Skills as an open standard for AI platforms

Anthropic is releasing "Agent Skills" as an open standard at agentskills.io. The idea is to make these skills interoperable across different platforms, meaning a capability that works in Claude should function just as well in other AI systems. Anthropic likens this strategy to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and notes that it is already working with ecosystem partners on the project. OpenAI already adopted skills.

The company is also upgrading how skills function within Claude. These skills are basically repeatable workflows that customize the AI assistant for specific jobs. Administrators on Team and Enterprise plans can now manage skills from a central hub and push them to every user in their organization, though individuals still have the option to turn them off.

Creating these skills has also gotten easier: users just describe what they need, and Claude helps configure it. Anthropic has also launched a directory of partner skills from companies like Notion, Canva, Figma, and Atlassian at claude.com/connectors. Developers can find technical documentation at platform.claude.com/docs, and skills are now live across Claude apps, Claude Code, and the developer API.

Comment Source: Agentskills | Anthropic
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 18, 2025
AI and society
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Read full article about: OpenAI reportedly seeking up to $100 billion in new funding round

OpenAI is in early talks with investors about a massive funding round that could push the company's valuation to around $750 billion, according to The Information. The company could raise tens of billions of dollars, potentially as much as $100 billion.

The discussions are still in their early stages, and nothing is set in stone. At this valuation, the deal would mark a 50 percent jump from OpenAI's last share sale in October.

Amazon is also in talks to invest $10 billion or more. It's the kind of circular AI deal that's become common: Amazon hands OpenAI cash, and OpenAI turns around and spends it on Amazon's chips and cloud services.

According to The Information, OpenAI has reached an annualized revenue run rate of $19 billion, keeping the company on pace to hit its $20 billion target by year's end. The company is projecting $30 billion in revenue for 2026, rising to around $200 billion by 2030. But these ambitious growth targets come with an enormous cash burn of roughly $26 billion for this year and next.

Comment Source: The Information
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 17, 2025
AI and society
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Read full article about: Terence Tao proposes "artificial general cleverness" as a more honest label for what AI actually does

Renowned mathematician Terence Tao has proposed a new way to think about AI capabilities. On Mastodon, Tao questions whether true "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) is actually achievable with current AI tools. His alternative: "artificial general cleverness" (AGC).

According to Tao, "general cleverness" means the ability to solve complex problems using partly improvised methods. These solutions might be random, rely on raw computing power, or draw from training data. That makes them something other than true "intelligence," but they can still succeed at many tasks, especially when strict testing procedures filter out incorrect results, he says.

"This results in the somewhat unintuitive combination of a technology that can be very useful and impressive, while simultaneously being fundamentally unsatisfying and disappointing."

Terence Tao

In humans, cleverness and intelligence are linked, but in AI they're decoupled, Tao argues. The mathematician has recently spoken positively about how AI has sped up his own work.

Comment Source: Mastodon
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 16, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Google launches new AI agent to help plan your day

The experimental productivity assistant called CC comes from Google Labs and runs on Gemini. After signing up, CC connects to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and the internet to understand your daily routine. AI agents with access to private data like this raise familiar security concerns.

Every morning, CC sends an email summary called "Your Day Ahead." It pulls together your appointments, important tasks, and relevant updates, like upcoming bills or deadlines. The agent can also draft emails and create calendar entries when needed. Users control CC by replying to its emails, sharing preferences, or asking it to remember ideas and tasks.

CC is launching as an early test for users 18 and older in the US and Canada. You'll need a personal Google account plus a subscription to Google AI Ultra or another paid service. Those interested can sign up for the waitlist on the Google Labs website.

Comment Source: Google
Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Dec 16, 2025
AI in practice
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Read full article about: Google's updated Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio handles complex voice tasks better

Google has released an update for Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio that makes voice assistants more capable. The model now handles complex workflows better, follows user instructions more precisely, and conducts more natural conversations. Compliance with developer instructions jumped from 84 to 90 percent, and call quality in multi-step conversations has also improved.

According to Google, the updated audio model scores 71.5 percent accuracy on function calls in the ComplexFuncBench benchmark, putting it ahead of OpenAI's gpt-realtime at 66.5 percent. It's worth noting, though, that Google likely didn't test against the latest realtime version, which OpenAI released just yesterday.

The update is now available in Google AI Studio, Vertex AI, Gemini Live, and Search Live. Google Cloud customers are already using the technology, and developers can test the model through the Gemini API.

Comment Source: Google