41–50 of 64 posts
It's a shame that my development work needs a specific VSCode extension (domain specific language for ERP systems) so my options are VSCode+Copilot or Cursor.
So because they need to have a better business model, they will try to move users to weaker models compared to the best available? This "AI inside the editor" thing makes every day less sense in many dimensions: it makes you not really capable of escaping the accept, accept, accept trap. It makes the design interaction with the LLM too much about code and too little about the design itself. And you can't do what many…
You’ve got a couple of ideas colliding here, let me try to unpack them. First, most of the major players already have their own models or have been developing them for some time. Your take feels a bit reductive. Take Windsurf pre-acquisition, for example, their risk was being too tightly coupled to third-party vendors. It’s only logical to assume that building task- or language-specific models will ultimately help re…
I'm confused why they are working on their own frontier models if they are going to be bought by OpenAI anyway. I guess this is something they were working on before the announcement?
It seems OpenAI acquired Windsurf but is letting it operate independently, keeping its own brand and developing its own coding models. That way, if Windsurf runs into technical problems, the backlash lands on Windsurf—not OpenAI. It’s a smart way to innovate while keeping the main brand safe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might be underestimating the barrier to hiring the really smart people. Open AI/Google etc would be hiring and poaching people like crazy, offering cushy bonuses and TCs that would make blow your mind.(Like say Noam Brown at Open AI) And some of the more ambitious ones would start their own ventures (like say Ilya etc.). That being said I am sure a lot of the so called wrapper companies are paying insanely well t…
FAANGMULA ... Microsoft, Uber?, L??, Anthropic? Who's the L?
Two takes here. Cynical and optimistic. Cynical take: describing yourself as a full stack AI IDE company sounds very invest-able in a "what if they're right" kind of way. They could plausibly ask for higher valuations, etc. Optimistic take: fine tuning a model for their use-case (incomplete code snippets with a very specific data model of context) should work. Or even has from their claims. It certainly sounds plausi…
FYI, OpenAI acquired Windsurf so valuation is not an issue. I don’t know Varun (their founder/CEO) personally but I get highly competent vibes from him. I’d let my skeptical self lean on your optimistic take.
I do think that’s an overly cynical way to look at this though.
- OpenAI is buying WindSurf and probably did diligence on these models before it decided to invest.
- WindSurf may have collected valuable data from it users that is helpful in training a coding-focused AI model. The data would give a 6 month lead to OpenAI which is probably worth the $3B.
- Even if Windsurf's frontier models are not better than other models for coding, if they excel in a few key areas it would justify significant investment in their methodology (see points above).
- There are still areas of coding where even the top frontier models falter that would seemingly be ripe for improvement via more careful training. Notably, making the model better at working within a particular framework and version, programming language version, etc. Also better support for more obscure languages and libraries/versions and the ability to "lock in" on the versions that the developer is using. I've wasted a lot of time trying to convince OpenAI models to use OpenAI's latest Python API -- even when given docs and explicit constraints to use the new API, OpenAI frontier models routinely (incorrectly) update my code to use old API conventions and even methods that have been removed!
Consider that the basic competency of doing a frontier coding model well is likely one of the biggest opportunities in AI right now (second to reasoning and in my opinion tied with image analysis and production). An LLM that can both reason and code accurately could read a chapter in a textbook and code a 3D animation illustrating all of the concepts as a one-shot exercise. We are far from that at present even in OpenAI's best stuff.
A few points that are getting overlooked: - OpenAI is buying WindSurf and probably did diligence on these models before it decided to invest. - WindSurf may have collected valuable data from it users that is helpful in training a coding-focused AI model. The data would give a 6 month lead to OpenAI which is probably worth the $3B. - Even if Windsurf's frontier models are not better than other models for coding, if th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’ve got a couple of ideas colliding here, let me try to unpack them. First, most of the major players already have their own models or have been developing them for some time. Your take feels a bit reductive. Take Windsurf pre-acquisition, for example, their risk was being too tightly coupled to third-party vendors. It’s only logical to assume that building task- or language-specific models will ultimately help re…
I think the point is that the UX favors accepting code changes as the primary action, rather than using the chat interface as an ideation tool. It's quite valid, because as a user of all these tools, Winsurf and Cursor very much do try to make you slap the Accept button uncritically!
So because they need to have a better business model, they will try to move users to weaker models compared to the best available? This "AI inside the editor" thing makes every day less sense in many dimensions: it makes you not really capable of escaping the accept, accept, accept trap. It makes the design interaction with the LLM too much about code and too little about the design itself. And you can't do what many…
A few points that are getting overlooked: - OpenAI is buying WindSurf and probably did diligence on these models before it decided to invest. - WindSurf may have collected valuable data from it users that is helpful in training a coding-focused AI model. The data would give a 6 month lead to OpenAI which is probably worth the $3B. - Even if Windsurf's frontier models are not better than other models for coding, if th…
It is a bit of a shame that we’ll never get to see what they could do on their own. But I hope their clearly very talented employees do very well out of this.