OpenAI's o3 Feels Like AGI

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Hi everyone,

This is Lore, the newsletter that helps you thrive in the age of AI.  

Thank you for being a part of 27k+ techno-optimists and growing. 🙏

You’ve heard the hype. Now it’s time for results

After two years of siloed experiments, proofs of concept that fail to scale, and disappointing ROI, most enterprises are stuck. AI isn't transforming their organizations — it’s adding complexity, friction, and frustration.

But Writer customers are seeing a positive impact across their companies. Our end-to-end approach is delivering adoption and ROI at scale. Now, we’re applying that same platform and technology to bring agentic AI to the enterprise.

This isn’t just another hype train that doesn’t deliver. The AI you were promised is finally here — and it’s going to change the way enterprises operate.

See real agentic workflows in action, hear success stories from our beta testers, and learn how to align your IT and business teams.

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1) Things Are Getting Better

AI is now contributing to science.

2) OpenAI's o3 feels like AGI

This week, OpenAI dropped their new o‑series models—o3 and o4‑mini—and after a day of testing, I’m convinced we’re staring at the closest thing to AGI yet.

It may not tick every philosophical box for AGI—no model can do absolutely everything on its own yet—but for most people, this feels like AGI. And I’m increasingly convinced that by the end of this year, most people will agree that we’ve reached AGI.

Here’s their announcement video for o3 and o4‑mini:

Before today, o1 Pro was the smartest model out there —but it was slow and most people didn’t have access to it since it cost $200 per month. Now, at just $20/month, you get o3, which outperforms o1 Pro on code, reasoning, and visuals, while running much faster.

Even more exciting: o3 Pro lands in about two weeks, and Sam hints that GPT‑5—which will auto‑route your chats to the best model—arrives in the next 2–3 months. No more model‑choosing headaches; just chat and let the system pick the perfect model.

We’re now seeing breakthroughs that once took a year happen in just three months.
We’re living through a singular moment—there will only ever be one AGI birth, and it’s unfolding this year.

It's a good moment to reflect on your direction in life. If you're on the wrong train, it's time to get off.

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3) The Next Wave with the CEO of Wonder Dynamics

In this week’s episode of The Next Wave, Matt Wolfe and I spoke with Nikola Todorovic, the CEO of Wonder Dynamics about the future of VFX with AI. Check it out!

Also, please subscribe to The Next Wave on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. 

4) Is OpenAI Acquiring Windsurf?

Bloomberg reported today that OpenAI is in talks to acquire the AI-first coding app Windsurf for around $3 billion.

If you're not familiar with Windsurf, it’s currently the leading competitor to Cursor—both are forks of the popular VSCode editor but built with an AI-first approach. Recently, Windsurf has gained significant momentum, especially among developers in Silicon Valley due to its perceived edge in handling very long contexts smoothly.

If this acquisition goes through, it'll be OpenAI’s largest yet—and a strategically savvy move. Rather than building an AI coding tool from scratch (which seemed inevitable), OpenAI could instantly leapfrog competitors. With OpenAI increasingly focused on leading the pack in AI-powered coding, this could really hurt Anthropic’s Claude which has long been considered the king of AI coding.

Just a year ago, critics joked about startups building "AI wrappers." Now, we're seeing one of those "wrappers" (essentially a VSCode fork) potentially selling for $3 billion. Even crazier—the founders reportedly maintained about 50% ownership thanks to favorable terms when raising venture capital. Amazing outcome for the founders.

This move is likely going to result in a whole lot more AI-created software.

5) Things I’m Learning From

That’s all for today. Please consider sharing the newsletter with your friends if you think they’d enjoy it. 🙏

Please give me feedback on Twitter. I am still figuring out the best format for this newsletter. Which part did you like? Dislike? Do you have other suggestions? Please let me know—just tweet @NathanLands.

-Nathan