A $10 Billion Valuation, a Tehran Login, and No Revenue

What people were saying

Two stories collided today, and they were not on speaking terms.

Story one: money. @pitdesi reported a raise of $1B at a potential $10B valuation, with the detail that compute is expensive and the plan is to not charge users, while also owning chips and data centers. @Techmeme and @steph_palazzolo carried the same news more soberly (a 4x on last month's mark). The internet did the math out loud and did not love the answer.

Story two: security. @mvellank said he handed over his Verizon credentials and then got an authentication request from Tehran, deleted the app, and asked for an explanation. A chunk of the Hebrew-language timeline picked it up and ran. @rep_hq used it to argue that agents need reputations the way users do, and @can noted that none of these assistants are really usable until they integrate properly with a password manager.

The praise

People kept posting receipts anyway. @aiwithremy had it book a haircut, three dinners, and a visa plus flights from Copenhagen to Bali, then fill out an arrival card by pulling past countries from Airbnb receipts in his email. @FredaDuan ran a two-day Reddit engagement task against both Instinct and Muse; both hit a prove-you're-human wall, but Instinct handed the one blocked step back to her for a minute and then resumed. @MehtabKarta had it screen 314 job applications overnight and book six interviews. @jainmayank_943 has stopped opening delivery apps entirely. @gregpr07 credits browser use for the edge over Poke, and @nmasc_ just likes the read receipts.

The pushback

@Jack_Raines declared Grok Bot better, clarifying that an iMessage app without access to his texts is a hard sell. @amystweets is tired of being nagged for updates by her own assistant. @sahilhandapanda loves the product but finds the Trusted Person network unsettling: the friction of coordinating with your mom is arguably the point. @HedgeyeComm argued most of the viral use cases are just ChatGPT configured properly, and @plantmath1 called a top, predicting the big labs ship the same mode within 45 days.

Notable anecdotes

@negligible_cap relayed a JPMorgan note blaming Instinct, Grok Bot, and Muse for Shopify dropping roughly 15%, which is a strange fate for a closed beta. @mignano used the moment to argue ubiquitous computer use erodes startup moats generally. And @DavidPawlan now has 200-plus power users in a group chat swapping tricks, which is its own kind of valuation signal.