AI Browser Wars, TPU Megadeals & Agents Unleashed

Thanks for checking in ❤️ Another week another episode. Check out the articles we discussed below 👇

dbt Labs + Fivetran: Open data infrastructure for analytics and AI | https://www.getdbt.com/blog/dbt-labs-and-fivetran-merge-announcement 
dbt Labs is merging with Fivetran to build an open data foundation spanning ingestion through transformation and activation, promising simpler analytics and AI pipelines without compute lock‑in. The combined company targets about $600M ARR and 10k+ customers. Leadership: George Fraser as CEO, Tristan Handy as co‑founder/president. dbt Core remains open source; both brands continue as the firms integrate connectors, dbt, metadata and activation.

Introducing ChatGPT Atlas | https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-atlas/ 
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas is a macOS browser with ChatGPT woven into tabs: an Ask sidebar, a smart new‑tab hub and search across tabs. A preview Agent mode can open pages and attempt tasks like booking or planning. Optional browser memories, parental controls and default opt‑out of training aim to balance convenience and privacy; the agent is sandboxed and restricted from running code or accessing local files.

Microsoft Edge’s new Copilot Mode turns on more AI features | https://www.theverge.com/news/805833/microsoft-edge-copilot-mode-ai-launch 
Microsoft’s new Copilot Mode reframes Edge as an AI companion that can summarize and reason across open tabs, and introduces Journeys to group related browsing. Early “Copilot Actions” attempt agentic chores like unsubscribing or making reservations, but reviewers found automation inconsistent and sometimes overconfident, underscoring the gap between demos and reliable end‑to‑end execution.

Anthropic to use Google's AI chips worth tens of billions to train Claude chatbot | https://www.reuters.com/technology/anthropic-expand-use-google-clouds-tpu-chips-2025-10-23/ 
Anthropic signed a multiyear deal to access up to ~1M Google TPUs, a commitment valued in the tens of billions. The plan brings more than 1 GW of compute online in 2026, expanding training capacity for future Claude models and signaling growing appetite for TPU alternatives alongside Nvidia GPUs. The scale aims to accelerate training cadence, model sizes and inference efficiency.

Living dangerously with Claude | https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/22/living-dangerously-with-claude/ 
Simon Willison praises running Claude Code in “YOLO mode” to minimize friction and ship side projects fast, letting the agent edit files and iterate with fewer prompts. He then details the risks—prompt injection and data exfiltration amplified by the “lethal trifecta” of private data, untrusted inputs and external calls—and recommends strict sandboxing, network egress controls and scoped permissions.

Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol Support In PydanticAI | https://ai.pydantic.dev/a2a/ 
Pydantic AI adds first‑class support for Google’s Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol. The FastA2A library and an Agent.to_a2a() helper expose Python agents as A2A servers, handling task submission, context/thread IDs and artifact exchange so agents can delegate and interoperate. Available on PyPI, it lowers friction for wiring multi‑agent workflows over a common, open standard.

Announcing Cloudflare Email Service’s private beta | https://blog.cloudflare.com/email-service/
Cloudflare’s Email Service brings sending and receiving directly into Workers, enabling end‑to‑end email workflows without third‑party APIs. It auto‑sets SPF, DKIM and DMARC for deliverability and runs on Cloudflare’s global network. “Email Sending” starts in private beta and will require a paid Workers plan; Email Routing continues as the inbound component.

Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly | https://www.economist.com/international/2025/10/23/meet-the-real-screen-addicts-the-elderly
The Economist argues older adults now dominate screen time, with many pensioners spending more than half their waking hours on devices. The piece examines whether heavy use increases isolation and health risks or instead offers connection, entertainment and care, and urges policymakers and designers to address accessibility, digital literacy and support for healthier habits.