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OpenAI plans fully automated AI researchers by 2028

PLUS: OpenAI launches Aardvark, an AI security researcher

Together with

Howdy, it’s Barsee.

Happy Friday, AI family, and welcome to another AI Valley edition. Not much happened today, so this issue takes just 3 minutes to read.

Today’s climb through the Valley reveals:

  • OpenAI plans fully automated AI researchers by 2028

  • OpenAI launches Aardvark, an AI security researcher

  • Big tech is spending more than ever on AI and it’s still not enough

  • Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources

Let’s dive into the Valley of AI…

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  • High Agentic Performance: Robust handling of long-horizon toolchains (mcp, shell, browser, retrieval, code)

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Use it now:

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THROUGH THE VALLEY

Source: OpenAI’s YouTube

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company aims to build an AI “research intern” by 2026 and a fully autonomous “AI researcher” by 2028. Joined by Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki, Altman described a system that can plan, run experiments, and make discoveries on its own. To get there, OpenAI is improving algorithms, scaling compute, and extending model reasoning time. The announcement came as OpenAI completed its shift to a public benefit corporation, with a $25 billion pledge toward disease research and a $1.4 trillion infrastructure plan.

OpenAI has launched Aardvark, an autonomous AI security agent built on GPT-5 that scans codebases to find, confirm, and fix vulnerabilities. Now in private beta, Aardvark reviews repositories, tracks commits, and suggests patches using reasoning instead of traditional tools like fuzzing. In tests, it identified about 92% of known and synthetic bugs across enterprise and open-source projects. The tool integrates with GitHub and Codex for one-click patching and annotated fixes, signaling a move toward AI systems that actively protect software as it evolves.

Big Tech plans to spend over $400 billion on AI this year and says it’s still not enough. Microsoft will double its data center capacity within two years as demand surges, while Amazon races to add cloud infrastructure. Meta says it’s hitting limits training new models and will sharply increase spending again in 2026. Google is raising annual capital spending to around $93 billion, citing strong AI returns. The companies see massive opportunity in AI but face growing investor concern over whether all this spending will pay off.

TRENDING TOOLS

  • Superpower > Detect early signs of 1,000+ health conditions

  • Sora App Cameos > OpenAI’s Sora now lets you bring back your favorite characters: your dog, toys, or wildest creations for quick cameos

  • Skyvern > Automate anything on your browser

  • Canva Design Model > A new AI model trained to grasp the full complexity of design, from color harmony to layout balance and creative intent

  • Devin > It now has full computer use capabilities and can share screen recordings

  • Kimi K2 > The open-source trillion-parameter MoE AI model for advanced coding assistance, intelligent agents, and automated workflows

  • OpenAI Aardvark > A GPT-5–powered security researcher that autonomously finds, analyzes, and reports vulnerabilities. Currently in private beta

  • Microsoft Researcher > With Computer Use, it can now explore both the open and gated web, connect insights across hundreds of sites, and generate rich, multi-step reports

  • Kaizen > Build browser automations that handle repetitive data entry once and for all, so you never do the same task twice

THINK PIECES / BRAIN BOOST

THE VALLEY GEMS

What’s trending on social today:

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

Thank you for reading today’s edition. That’s all for today’s issue.

💡 Help me get better and suggest new ideas at [email protected] or @heyBarsee

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