Welcome to Eye on AI! AI reporter Sharon Goldman right here, filling in for Jeremy Kahn, who’s on vacation. On this version…Basic Companies Administration approves OpenAI, Google, Anthropic for federal AI vendor listing…Penalties of AI spending growth on U.S. financial system…Clay AI raises $100 million at $3.1 billion valuation.
Solely within the Bay Space does spending a Saturday geeking out about AI brokers—alongside 2,000 college students, researchers, and tech insiders crammed into UC Berkeley—really feel like a completely regular weekend plan. As I picked up my badge on the day-long Agentic AI Summit and watched the road snake by means of the coed union foyer, it felt much less like an instructional convention and extra like Silicon Valley’s model of a buzzy New York brunch spot.
This was actually as a result of speaker lineup, which was stacked with prime AI researchers and scientists, together with Jakob Pachocki, chief scientist at OpenAI; Ed Chi, VP of analysis at Google DeepMind; Invoice Dally, chief scientist at Nvidia; Ion Stoica, cofounder at Databricks & Anyscale, in addition to a UC Berkeley professor; and Daybreak Music, a pioneering UC Berkeley professor targeted on AI safety.
The recognition additionally may need been as a result of buzzy matter—AI brokers, usually outlined as an AI-powered system that may full duties, largely autonomously, utilizing different software program instruments. Suppose not solely urged a trip itinerary, but in addition reserving the flight and making the resort reservation.
As my colleague Jeremy Kahn mentioned in a latest article, “This sort of automation is a perennial C-suite fever dream. Over the previous decade, corporations embraced ‘robotic course of automation,’ or RPA. This was software program that might automate repetitive duties, reminiscent of slicing and pasting between database packages. However conventional RPA programs are rigid and unable to take care of exceptions, and may often deal with just one slender activity.” Agentic AI is supposed to be each extra versatile and highly effective, adapting to enterprise wants.
In a January 2025 weblog submit, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned, “We consider that, in 2025, we may even see the primary AI brokers ‘be part of the workforce’ and materially change the output of corporations.”
However regardless of the hype, the general message on the Agentic AI Summit was cautious and grounded: Brokers could be the buzziest development in AI proper now, however the tech nonetheless has an extended method to go, they mentioned. AI brokers, sadly, aren’t all the time dependable. They might not bear in mind what got here earlier than.
Google DeepMind’s Chi, for instance, careworn the hole between what brokers can do in curated demos versus what’s nonetheless wanted in real-world manufacturing environments. Pachocki highlighted issues across the security, safety, and trustworthiness of agentic programs, significantly once they’re built-in into delicate functions or function autonomously.
“I nonetheless don’t assume brokers have actually lived as much as their promise,” mentioned Sherwin Wu, head of engineering at OpenAI API. “Sure extra generic instances have labored, however my day-to-day work doesn’t actually really feel that totally different with brokers.”
Whereas as we speak’s brokers might not at present reside as much as the large hype (contemplate Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s latest declare {that a} shift to digital labor means he would be the “final CEO of Salesforce who solely managed people”), the audio system on the Agentic AI Summit nonetheless had loads of optimism to share. Databricks’ Stoica expressed enthusiasm about infrastructure enhancements which are making it simpler to construct agentic programs. Nvidia’s Dally urged that continued {hardware} advances will allow extra highly effective and environment friendly agent habits. A number of identified “slender wins” in particular domains, like coding.
Immediately’s AI brokers should have rising pains, however given the crowded UC Berkeley ballroom, the business maintains its eye on the prize: AI brokers that may reliably function in the actual world. The payoff, they consider, will likely be effectively well worth the wait.
With that, right here’s extra AI information.
Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@sharongoldman
AI IN THE NEWS
U.S. company approves OpenAI, Google, Anthropic for federal AI vendor listing. Reuters reported as we speak that the Basic Companies Administration, which is the U.S. authorities’s central buying arm, added OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude to an inventory of accepted AI distributors in an effort to speed up use of the expertise by authorities businesses. The instruments will likely be obtainable to the businesses by means of a platform with contract phrases in place. The GSA mentioned accepted AI suppliers “are dedicated to accountable use and compliance with federal requirements.”
The AI spending growth may have actual penalties for the U.S. financial system. In accordance with the Washington Submit, Huge Tech’s record-breaking funding in synthetic intelligence—greater than $350 billion this yr from Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft—is turning into a serious financial pressure, even because the broader U.S. financial system reveals indicators of slowing. Whereas job development is cooling, this huge AI spending spree is fueling development of knowledge facilities and driving demand for chips, servers, and networking gear—probably boosting GDP development by as much as 0.7% in 2025. However economists warn the rising reliance on tech giants to prop up the financial system is dangerous: if the AI growth loses steam, the financial fallout may very well be important.
AI gross sales software Clay raises $100 million at a $3.1 billion valuation. The New York Occasions Dealbook reported that Clay, which helps gross sales reps and entrepreneurs discover new leads and switch them into clients, has raised $100 million at a $3.1 billion valuation.The spherical was led by CapitalG, an funding arm of Alphabet, Google’s guardian firm. Different contributors included Meritech Capital Companions and Sequoia Capital. It comes round six months after the start-up raised cash at a $1.25 billion valuation.
EYE ON AI RESEARCH
Google DeepMind’s new Genie 3 ‘world mannequin’ creates real-time interactive simulations. Google DeepMind has unveiled Genie 3, a strong new AI system that may generate wealthy, interactive digital worlds from easy textual content prompts—making it potential to navigate dynamic environments in actual time at 24 frames per second. However whereas it is tempting to right away leap to utilizing the mannequin for the final word gaming expertise, it’s really the newest leap within the firm’s long-term push towards ‘world fashions’—or AI programs that may find out how the world works and simulate real-world environments. These are seen as key to coaching superior brokers and, finally, reaching synthetic common intelligence. In contrast to prior video turbines, Genie 3 permits customers to maneuver by means of AI-generated environments that keep visually constant over a number of minutes—and even reply to instructions like “make it snow” or “add a personality.” For now, DeepMind is limiting entry to Genie 3 to a small group of researchers and creators whereas it explores accountable deployment and threat.
FORTUNE ON AI
North Korean IT employee infiltrations exploded 220% over the previous 12 months, with gen AI weaponized at each stage of the hiring course of —by Amanda Gerut
AI is doing job interviews now—however candidates say they’d quite threat staying unemployed than speak to a different robotic —by Emma Burleigh
These charts present how China is pulling forward of the U.S. within the race to energy the AI future —by Matt Heimer and Nick Rapp
AI CALENDAR
Sept. 8-10: Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Park Metropolis, Utah. Apply to attend right here.
Oct. 6-10: World AI Week, Amsterdam
Oct. 21-22: TedAI San Francisco. Apply to attend right here.
Dec. 2-7: NeurIPS, San Diego
Dec. 8-9: Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco. Apply to attend right here.
BRAIN FOOD
Might “depth of thought” be key to AI reasoning?
A tiny new AI mannequin is difficult what we find out about how fashions be taught to motive: Researchers from Singapore’s Sapient Intelligence not too long ago launched the Hierarchical Reasoning Mannequin (HRM), which pulls inspiration from the mind’s layered pondering course of—and the outcomes have the AI group chattering. Regardless of being 100 instances smaller than ChatGPT and educated on simply 1,000 examples (with no web information or step-by-step steerage), HRM solves robust logic issues like Sudoku, maze navigation, and summary reasoning duties that stump a lot bigger fashions. As a substitute of mimicking human language, HRM causes internally—quietly working by means of issues in hidden loops, very like an individual pondering by means of a puzzle of their head. Its success hints at a radical shift in AI: one the place depth of thought would possibly matter greater than scale.
