Lumian Gen AI Newsletter Issue #59

Welcome to the 59th edition of the Lumian Gen AI Newsletter!

Once upon a time, if someone called your product a “GPT wrapper,” it was like being told you were just a fancy cover for someone else’s hard work. Back then, it felt like a badge of shame, a confession that you hadn’t built anything truly groundbreaking. Fast forward to today, and that very label has been flipped on its head. In a world where even billion-dollar models can be cloned in a few short months, the secret sauce isn’t hidden in raw compute power anymore. Instead, it’s all about the experience: the delightful, frictionless way your users interact with your tool every single day.

Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop where the barista not only knows your name but also your exact order. That’s the kind of magic today’s AI apps are trying to create. What truly counts is how naturally that model fits into your daily routine, almost as if it were a part of you. The brilliance lies not in the algorithm itself, but in the way it becomes an extension of your workflow.

This isn’t some abstract idea pulled from a white paper. It’s already happening. While the tech giants are busy battling each other over the “latest” model, lean startups are quietly embedding their AI tools into everyday tasks. These companies aren’t chasing the title of having the flashiest tech, they’re focused on winning over users by delivering real value, day in and day out. When your tool becomes part of the fabric of daily life, it gains an almost magical defensibility. Competitors can copy features and mimic performance, but they can’t replicate that special connection you forge with your users.

And we’ve seen this before. In the dotcom era, many sites were nothing more than basic content generators. Yet, as the technology evolved, those same companies built robust communities around their services (Airbnb, Instagram, etc.). Users weren’t just attracted to the technology, they were drawn in by the experience, the sense of belonging, and the tangible benefits. Today, the same principle applies to AI. The companies that win are those that transform a simple wrapper into an indispensable part of someone’s life, making the product so delightful that users hardly even consider the alternatives.

It’s not the raw performance or the size of the model that wins the day. It’s the art of making technology feel personal, natural, and engaging. The humble GPT wrapper has evolved into a platform for building meaningful habits and deep relationships. And in that evolution, what was once seen as a mere afterthought has become the cornerstone of AI’s future.

Happy reading! 📚🤖🎵

If you’re in LA, check out the 2025 AI in Management (AIM) Conference.

In this week’s issue:

• News Flash: Grok 3, GPT-5 Roadmap, Perplexity’s Deep Research

• AI Frontier: AI Curiosity Tools you can use today

• Job Board: Apply before the robots do

• Fundraising: The biggest deals in AI

• Nerd Out: Technical and Business Content for Everyone

🚀 AI in Practice

Cutting-Edge AI Curiosity Tools You Can Use Today

• RabbitHole - Learn about anything with branched topics and follow-up Qs

• Picurious - Uses AI to uncover hidden facts in photos

💼 Job Board

Apply now before the robots do

Mercor, a fast growing AI-powered hiring platform (just raised a Series B at $2B valuation; backed by Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D’Angelo, and Larry Summers) is hiring Strategic Projects Leads, ML engineers, backend and fullstack software engineers, and a Head of Finance (no job description posted for that role yet but looking for someone with prior strategic finance experience as a CFO or equivalent).

Job info here - please note that all jobs are 6 days / week in office, in San Francisco. You can email your resume + the position(s) you're interested to [email protected] and she'll make an internal referral if she thinks you'd be a good fit!