Altman wants to wire your brain next

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. This week, the browser wars got weirder as Perplexity offered $34.5 billion to buy Chrome (no, seriously). Sam Altman revealed plans to rival Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Nvidia’s Cosmos models promise AI agents that can master the real world. Meanwhile, Siri’s big voice control push kinda got pushed.

In today’s TLDR AI:

• Perplexity offers $34.5B for Chrome in the AI browser power play of the year

• Sam Altman backs Merge Labs to build a brain-computer interface rival to Musk’s Neuralink

• Nvidia launches new Cosmos world models to supercharge physical AI

• Apple delays Siri’s App Intents, voice may not eat the UI just yet

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

🌐 Perplexity offers $34.5B to buy Google Chrome

• TLDR: Perplexity AI, the red-hot answer engine startup, just lobbed a $34.5 billion offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. It’s a long shot... but a loud one.

• The all-cash bid is more than 2x Perplexity’s own $18B valuation. CEO Aravind Srinivas says they’d keep Google as the default search engine.

• The move comes as a U.S. antitrust trial could force Google to spin off Chrome.

• Perplexity claims it would infuse Chrome with AI features like auto-summarizing videos, organizing shopping, and AI-native navigation tools.

• Why it matters: This isn’t just marketing, it’s messaging. Perplexity is planting a flag in the browser war, pitching itself as the interface layer for the AI web. Even if it never buys Chrome, it just got everyone to ask: Should AI own the browser too?

🧠 Sam Altman’s Neuralink rival goes live

• TLDR: Sam Altman is backing Merge Labs, a stealth startup developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to rival Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Let the brain wars begin.

• Merge is raising $250M at an ~$850M valuation; Altman will co-found but stay out of daily ops.

• Their aim: high-bandwidth BCIs that connect human brains directly to machines—Altman’s next frontier.

• The rivalry with Musk escalates, as both race to blend mind and machine in the name of AGI.

• Why it matters: This is bigger than wearable tech. Merge and Neuralink are betting that true AGI won’t be useful unless we can keep up and plugging into our brains might be the only way.

🛠️ Nvidia’s Cosmos models target physical world mastery

• TLDR: Nvidia unveiled Cosmos, a suite of “world foundation models” (WFMs) designed to help AI agents understand and navigate the real world.

• Cosmos models simulate physical environments with hyper-realistic accuracy, and they’re open source.

• They train robots and agents using synthetic data, cutting costs and improving edge case performance.

• Cosmos Transfer and Reasoning variants help agents adapt post-training and simulate new physics.

• Why it matters: AI can now learn the real world... without living in it. Nvidia’s play could massively accelerate robotics, self-driving, and real-world reasoning, moving us from words to worlds.

🎙️ Siri’s App Intents delayed until spring 2026

• TLDR: Apple’s flagship voice-control overhaul for Siri, called App Intents, won’t arrive until spring 2026, despite promises of a 2025 launch.

• App Intents would let Siri do things like “Open Instagram, edit photo, post to story” via voice alone.

• The delay reportedly stems from coordination hurdles with third-party app devs.

• Apple’s broader AI strategy hinges on making Siri more agent-like and deeply integrated.

• Why it matters: Voice is the most natural interface, but getting apps to play nice with Siri is hard. The delay is a reminder: building seamless AI interfaces isn’t just tech, but also diplomacy.

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