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🏠 OpenAI Operator
AI Gets Hands-On
GM! It’s Brett again. With Trump back in office, here's the consensus on what's next for startups - the space industry is set to explode with SpaceX's Mars mission, deregulation means less red tape for startups in regulated industries (especially M&A, crypto and AI), and defense tech companies like Anduril are paving the way against entrenched players like Lockheed.
With so many tech entrepreneurs around Trump, expect more startup-friendly policies ahead. Like him or hate him, the next 4 years appear incredibly bullish for startups.

🏠 Tech
The Internet's New Intern
So OpenAI finally dropped their agent last week - Operator, their first shot at letting AI actually do stuff instead of just chatting about it.
A research preview of Operator, an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI)
7:22 PM • Jan 23, 2025
This thing's pretty wild. It can hop into a browser, click around websites, and handle tasks like booking your dinner plans or grabbing concert tickets. Under the hood, it's running on their new Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model, which basically combines GPT-4o's vision smarts with some serious reasoning chops.
Unlike other tools that need special API access, Operator just uses websites like a regular person would - clicking buttons, filling forms, the whole deal. OpenAI's even got partnerships with the usual suspects - DoorDash, Instacart, StubHub, and others to make sure everything plays nice.
I got early access to ChatGPT Operator.
It's OpenAI's new AI agent that autonomously takes action across the web on your behalf.
The 9 most impressive use cases I’ve tried (videos sped up):
1. Ordering dinner ingredients based on a picture and a recipe
— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung)
6:04 PM • Jan 23, 2025
Andrej Karpathy commented on the HN story about Operator, posted by Operator:
Right now, it's only available if you're paying $200/month for ChatGPT Pro and living in the US. And yeah, there are guardrails - it'll ask for your approval before spending money and hand over control when sensitive stuff like passwords comes up.
Performance-wise, OpenAI claims Operator's beating both Anthropic's Computer Use and Google's Mariner in standard benchmarks.
The bigger picture - This isn't just another AI release. We're watching the first major push to turn AI from a glorified chatbot into something that can actually get stuff done. This isn't just about automating tasks - it's about fundamentally changing how we interact with the web. Just as APIs transformed how developers build applications, agent-friendly interfaces could reshape how we design and interact with digital services.

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…
TECH
Hackers found a way to unlock, start, and track Subarus remotely.
Microsoft is no longer OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider.
X is 'barely breaking even.'
Mac users will finally get the smarter Mail app.
AI
Claude now cites its sources - launched a new API feature called Citations.
DeepSeek dropped its open AI model R1, beats benchmarks, slashes costs, and dominates the App Store.
Perplexity launched an assistant for Android.
Google to invest fresh $1B in Anthropic.
OpenAI teams up with SoftBank & Oracle on $500B data center project.
SCIENCE
Turns out, it takes way longer than 21 days to build healthy habits.
New discovery: Boosting the BCL6 protein could help you lose fat without losing muscle.
Saturn’s rings are disappearing - but they’ll be back.
CRYPTO
Jupiter spikes 40% as founder says 50% of fees will go to token buybacks.
US Bitcoin ETFs are more valuable than ever.
MicroStrategy to redeem $1.05B in convertible notes.
John McAfee's wife launched AI memecoin.

🏃♀️ QUICKIES
Raise: Raise: Neko Health, a body-scanning startup, raised $260M in a Series B funding round to expand into new markets like the U.S., advance its diagnostics technology, and open more clinics to meet growing demand.
Stat: $15.38M. That’s the record-breaking single-day revenue Pump.fun generated, fueled by Vine Coin's viral launch.
Rabbit Hole: When to do what you love (Paul Graham)

🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION

🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER
The best resources we recently came across that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.
👩💻 Heyboss is your new AI engineer.
🗓️ Reclaim is the perfect workweek scheduler.
👩💻 Fathom transcribes, highlights, and summarizes your meetings effortlessly.

🎯 The 80 / 20
Simple tricks to get a ton of value with minimal effort for work and life.
The Weekly Retro
Look, work moves fast, and it’s easy to blow past wins or keep making the same mistakes. Here’s a simple fix: spend 30 minutes every Friday doing a Weekly Retro.
Just answer 3 questions:
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What can I improve next week?
That’s it. No fancy templates. No long processes. Just you and some honest reflection.
Why does this work? Because it builds awareness. You catch what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to change. Over time, it keeps you from repeating the same mistakes - and helps you double down on the good stuff.
Whether you’re a founder, a manager, or just trying to crush it at work, this habit keeps you sharp. It’s low effort and ridiculously high ROI.

❓️ AI GENERATED OR NOT

Is this AI generated? |
Last week’s answer: If you guessed AI-generated… you were right.
🟩🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yeah (40%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Nope (60%)
Here’s the original.

👋 A Quick Note About Micro
Micro is a CRM that doesn't feel like homework and an email client that knows what matters. Simply put, it's an all-in-one productivity tool that organizes itself so you don't have to.
I built Micro with some friends because I was tired of getting guilt tripped for not hitting inbox 0 and having to bounce around between so many tools to do my job.
We're launching in 2025, but if you want early access, sign up for the waitlist at micro.so and respond to the confirmation email saying you came from Homescreen.

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