AI.com sold for $70m

PLUS: OpenAI drops a self-improvement model that controls computers

Author

Barsee
09 Feb

Together with

Howdy, it’s Barsee again.

Happy Monday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.

Today’s climb through the Valley reveals:

  • ai.com gets acquired for $70 million by Crypto.com

  • OpenAI drops a self-improvement model that controls computers

  • Anthropic moves beyond chatbots with the new Opus 4.6

  • Leaked Meta updates reveal new "Avocado" reasoning models

  • Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

FLOW

Wispr Flow turns "thinking out loud" into crisp, structured text you can paste into ChatGPT/Claude. Dictate the full context, constraints, and edge cases—Flow cleans filler, adds punctuation, and formats your thoughts into something models can actually use. Better prompts in seconds, without retyping.

*This is sponsored

THROUGH THE VALLEY

Courtesy: ai.com

The most expensive domain in AI history finally has a purpose. After acquiring AI.com for a record-breaking $70 million, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek is turning the domain into a consumer AI agent platform built on OpenClaw, a framework that launched only weeks ago. The idea is a personal agent that runs on a virtual PC and handles everyday tasks like email, scheduling, and messages. The team plans to promote the product with an $8 million Super Bowl 2026 ad, betting that AI.com can become a default entry point for consumer AI. Critics note that the site itself is simple and the tech is still very early.

OpenAI has released GPT-5.3-Codex, positioning Codex as a general computer-use agent rather than just a coding tool. The model is built to handle end-to-end software work like debugging, deploying, testing, monitoring, writing docs, and research. OpenAI says it outperforms earlier versions on coding and agent benchmarks, uses fewer tokens, and runs about 25% faster due to infrastructure upgrades. Codex is now more interactive inside the app, with progress updates and optional mid-task steering. It is available on paid ChatGPT plans across the app, CLI, IDE tools, and web, with API access planned later.

Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4.6, its first major model launch of the year, focused on stronger coding and long, complex tasks. The new model improves planning, code review, debugging, and working with large codebases, along with document, research, and financial analysis. Anthropic says Opus 4.6 now leads the Finance Agent benchmark for core analyst tasks, showing gains beyond simple chat use. The model is available on claude.ai, through the API, and on major cloud platforms. Anthropic frames this update as a move from casual coding help toward AI that can handle full end-to-end professional workflows.

Meta appears to be preparing a major update to Meta AI, including new models called Avocado and Avocado Thinking. Recent app and website changes show new Fast and Thinking modes, memory settings, and options to connect apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Code hints point to upcoming features such as scheduled tasks, voice agents, browser agents tied to Meta’s Manus AI acquisition, and tool connections similar to those used by other AI assistants. Meta is also testing models from labs like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The goal seems to be closing feature gaps and making Meta AI more capable and competitive.

ByteDance’s new AI video model, Seedance 2.0, is going viral for generating short, cinematic videos from text or images in under a minute, with synced audio and smooth scene changes. The model can create multi-shot stories from a single prompt while keeping characters and visual style consistent across scenes. Reviewers praise its camera movement, composition, and audio sync, saying it feels closer to real directing than past tools. ByteDance claims it produces 2K video faster than rivals like Kling. Analysts say tools like Seedance 2.0 could lower costs for AI comics, animation, and short dramas, speeding adoption across consumer and studio workflows.

SHARING MY AI

My 2026 AI stack

TRENDING TOOLS

  • RentAHuman.ai > The marketplace where Al agents rent humans

  • Ripplica > Automate any webapp with just a simple video

  • Komos AI > AI agents that learn from watching you work

  • Relay.app Agents - Build an AI team that works for you

  • Smooth CLI > Control browsers with plain English commands

  • Seedance 2.0 > It instantly converts your text or image prompt into a complete video

  • VisionClaw > A real-time OpenClaw agent on your Meta glasses that sees, hears, and acts for you using Gemini Live

  • GeoSpy AI can track your exact location using social media photos in 2 secs and show it in 3D

INDUSTRY MOVES

February 2026 is shaping up to be a standout month for AI releases:

  • Anthropic Opus 4.6 (Released)

  • OpenAI GPT-5.3-Codex (Released)

  • Seedance 2.0 (Released)

  • Gemini 3 Pro GA (Expected around Feb 10)

  • Seedream 5.0 (Expected mid-February)

  • Sonnet 5 (Expected mid-February)

  • GPT-5.3 (Expected around Feb 12)

  • Qwen 3.5 (Expected mid-February)

  • GLM 5 (Expected around Feb 15)

  • DeepSeek v4 (Expected around Feb 17)

  • Grok 4.20 (Expected late February)

  • Avocado by Meta (Expected Feb or H1, TBD)

The list goes on and on...

Courtesy: Mark

WHAT I'M CONSUMING

THE VALLEY GEMS

What’s trending on social today:

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

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