The AI world just shifted into overdrive. We're talking billion-dollar moves, model drops that change everything, and one company that's basically saying 'fuck ads, we're going a different route.

Let's ride. 🤠

Every major player dropped something massive this week. And I'm not talking about incremental updates. I'm talking about 'holy shit, the landscape just changed' kind of drops.

OpenAI quietly shipped GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark—a real-time coding model that's so fast it feels like it's reading your mind before you type. We're talking ultra-low latency for live coding sessions. If you're still writing code the old way, you're already behind. Read more

But here's the kicker: Google dropped Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview, which is basically the next evolution of their Nano Banana model. And it's getting integrated into Google Workspace starting March 1st. Your Docs, Sheets, and Slides are about to get a serious AI upgrade whether you're ready or not. Read more

Meanwhile, Anthropic raised $30 BILLION in Series G funding. That's not a typo. Thirty. Billion. Dollars. Their Claude Code is now public with what they're calling the 'Cowork suite,' and Sonnet 4.6 just launched with a 1M token context window. You could feed it an entire book and ask questions about chapter 47 without breaking a sweat. Read more

Oh, and Meta's Llama 4 is here—natively multimodal and apparently 'comparable to Grok.' The open-source herd is charging hard. Read more

Perplexity AI is abandoning advertising completely. After being one of the first AI platforms to experiment with ads, they pulled a complete 180 in February 2026. Read more on WIRED

Why it matters: This is either genius or suicide. They're pivoting to powering other AI services instead of fighting Google head-on for ad dollars. They're holding their first developer conference later this year, which tells you where they're placing their chips.

The play: Perplexity is essentially saying 'we can't beat Google at search ads, so we're becoming the infrastructure everyone else uses.' It's a platform play. Smart pivot or desperate move? Time will tell.

Anthropic just raised $30 billion in Series G funding. That's more than most countries' GDP. They're not playing around. Read more

What they're building:

Why it matters: Anthropic is positioning Claude as the 'AI that actually works with your existing workflow.' Not a chatbot. A coworker. And with $30B in the bank, they can outspend most competitors on R&D for the next decade.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark dropped this week, and it's specifically built for real-time coding. We're talking 232-millisecond response times on voice inputs. Read more

What makes it different: Ultra-low latency (feels instant), optimized for live coding sessions, real-time pair programming vibes. Plus they quietly fixed some Extended thinking settings that were accidentally nerfed. Read release notes

Why it matters: GitHub Copilot just got some serious competition. If OpenAI can make coding feel like having a senior dev looking over your shoulder 24/7, the way we build software changes forever.

Look, I get the pivot. Fighting Google for ad dollars is like bringing a knife to a drone fight. But here's the thing: Perplexity had momentum. People were actually using it.

Becoming 'AI infrastructure' sounds sexy in a pitch deck, but it's a long game with no guarantee of winning. By the time their developer conference happens, will anyone still care? Or will OpenAI and Anthropic have eaten that lunch too?

My bet: This either makes them a $50B company or they get acquired for parts in 2027. No middle ground.

Everyone's obsessing over ChatGPT and Claude. Meanwhile, Google is quietly putting AI in the tools your mom uses.

She doesn't care about GPT-5. She cares that Gmail helped her write a better email to her boss. That Docs made her resume look professional. That Sheets figured out the formula she couldn't remember.

Google's winning the 'make AI invisible' war. And that's the war that actually matters for billions of users.

That's the briefing. Go build something cool today.

Your brain might be Sunday-sluggish, but your AI tools aren't. 😤⚡

— Michael

P.S. If you need help scaling your email marketing or want to chat about any of this, don't be shy. Reply to this email or hit me up on Twitter. I don't bite.

Quick note: Perplexity just bet their entire company on a pivot. Anthropic raised enough money to buy a small country. And OpenAI shipped a coding AI so fast it feels like it's reading your mind.

Here's what matters.

Perplexity just proved something: you don't have to fight the category leader head-on. You can become the infrastructure they depend on instead.

Here's the play: Pick any industry where there's one dominant player everyone hates but uses anyway. Don't compete with them. Build the tool that makes their product better, faster, or cheaper. Become the API they can't live without.

Examples:

The dominant player has the customers. You have the innovation. Let them do the hard work of distribution while you extract value from their ecosystem.

That's the Perplexity Pivot. And it works.