Rami's Readings #151 - GPT-6 Astra & OSS in Corporate America
Welcome to Rami’s Readings #151 - a weekly digest of interesting articles, papers, videos, and X threads from my various sources across the Internet. Expect a list of reads covering AI, technology, business, culture, fashion, travel, and more. Learn about what I do at ramisayar.com/about.
👋🏼 Welcome New Subscribers
Hello! A hearty thank you for subscribing to Rami’s Readings! There are quite a few new subscribers this week, thanks to recommendations from The AI Ethics Brief, Product Byte, The VC Corner and from the AI in Action Conference in Montréal. I am thrilled to have you on board! In this newsletter, I curate the best papers, tweets, and articles I have read during the week focusing on LLMs, AI, economics, business, and technology news. You can learn more about me on my website.
Apéro & Intellect #15 - NYC Edition & Apéro & Intellect #16 - Boston Edition
Limited spots available on September 17 and September 18th!
🤖 AI Reads
OpenAI GPT-6 Astra
Notes: My first impression is that GPT-6 Astra pursues the incorrect path less eagerly than GPT5.6 Sol, and stops to ask for direction. Almost closer to Opus 4.7 in ability to pair with a collaborator. Opus 4.8 & 5 went off the rails trying to do too much.
Introducing Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber
Notes: Google upgraded the flash model family and has a cybersecurity-specific model.
TimesFM-3: A Zero-Shot Foundation Model for Multivariate Forecasting
Notes: T-1 before quant firms integrate this model into their trading stack.
Pokee-Isaac 28B: A 10M-Token Context Efficient Agentic Model
Notes: This is coming from a Seattle-based AI startup. Interesting performance with a proprietary model architecture.
S1-mini by Superwhisper
Notes: The STT model chain is getting more sophisticated. Here’s a 0.6B-parameter text normalizer for speech-to-text output that cleans up filler words and normalizes transcripts to clean outputs.
💼 Business Reads
AI Is Rewiring South Korea’s Careers, Dating and Culture
Notes: The Korean culture and stock market had quite a ride during this AI boom.
Corporate America Is Getting Hooked on Open-Source AI & Kai-Fu Lee: China Will Win the AI Race for Reach
Notes: The rest of Corporate America is finally catching up. Also, a related podcast from the Mishal Husain Show with Kai-Fu Lee (whose latest company models I’ve shared in this newsletter multiple times). I completely agree with Kai-Fu Lee’s statement that Chinese talent was undervalued.
AI Startup Micro1 Seeks to Topple Google’s Bid for Spirit Data
Notes: The only moats left are data and distribution. Not surprising others are jumping in to buy Spirit’s business data.
The Ex-Beer Baron Turning Windshield Repair Into a $7.8 Billion-a-Year Empire
Notes: Windshields are high tech now.
Prime Minister Carney Launches Digital Transformation Canada & Ottawa Taps Patrick Pichette to Lead New Digital Transformation Agency
Notes: An excellent initiative with a great choice for a leader. 🇨🇦
How to Fund a Startup in Canada: Every Option, and What Each One Costs You
Notes: For my Canadian subscribers, this article is fantastic and covers the funding options nationwide. 🇨🇦
🔀 Other Reads
Hong Kong’s Iconic ‘Cha Chaan Teng’ Diners Are Going Global
Notes: Nothing new for the foodies on the list; my favorite Cha Chaan Teng’s are in Seattle and New York City.
A Controversial Alzheimer’s Surgery Is Said to Reverse Symptoms
Notes: For the surgeons on the list, I would love to hear your thoughts on this treatment.
Signing off from Redmond, WA.
Apéro & Intellect #15 - NYC Edition & Apéro & Intellect #16 - Boston Edition
Limited spots available on September 17 and September 18th!