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When executives at OpenAI and Anthropic began discussing the idea of "pacing the frontier," perhaps a crucial question went unasked: at what speed? That ambiguity became reality this week as both organizations engaged in what amounted to a rapid-fire model release showdown. Anthropic introduced Opus 5.5, and just 90 minutes afterward, OpenAI responded with updates to its GPT-6 model.

Yet the real scene-stealer turned out to be Meta. Its personal AI agent, Muse, is reportedly surpassing ChatGPT's early adoption figures and is poised to expand into smart glasses as well as a compact Tamagotchi-style gadget. The discussion also covers a16z's newly launched school aimed at up-and-coming founders, plus two markedly contrasting deals in the AI and hardware sectors.