Shaky Foundations
The CEO of a $29 billion AI coding startup has a warning for anyone who thinks they can build software by vibing their way through it: those skyscrapers you’re constructing might not have any wiring.
📰 The Rundown
⚠️ Cursor CEO Warns Vibe Coding Will “Start to Crumble”
➡️ The move: Michael Truell, CEO of AI coding assistant Cursor, told Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference that vibe coding builds “shaky foundations.” The term, coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy earlier this year, describes coding with AI while “closing your eyes” and never looking at the code. Truell likened it to building a house by putting up walls and a roof without knowing what’s going on with the plumbing or electrical. “As you add another floor, and another floor, and another floor, things start to kind of crumble,” he said.
⚡ Why it matters: Cursor just closed a $2.3 billion funding round at a $29.3 billion valuation. When the CEO of the fastest-growing AI coding company tells you there’s a wrong way to use AI coding tools, it’s worth listening. The distinction he’s drawing: there’s a difference between AI that helps you understand and improve your code versus AI that generates code you never examine.
🎯 Your takeaway: AI coding tools are force multipliers, not replacements for understanding. If you’re building anything meant to last, the “close your eyes and vibe” approach will catch up with you. Use AI to move faster, but keep your hands on the wheel.
📊 Investors Prepare for AI Market to “Splinter” in 2026
➡️ The move: After a rollercoaster Q4 of tech sell-offs and rallies, CNBC reports that analysts expect the AI market to fracture into distinct segments in 2026. Stephen Yiu of Blue Whale Growth Fund says investors have been treating all AI companies the same way, but the reality is three very different camps: private startups burning cash, Big Tech companies writing checks for infrastructure, and infrastructure providers actually earning money. OpenAI and Anthropic alone attracted $176.5 billion in venture capital through Q3 2025.
⚡ Why it matters: The party where every AI company wins is ending. As hyperscalers like Meta and Google morph into asset-heavy infrastructure companies, their risk profiles are fundamentally changing. The ones to watch: companies on “the receiving end” of AI spending rather than the ones burning capital to build it.
🎯 Your takeaway: If you’re evaluating AI companies for anything (investments, partnerships, vendors), start asking: are they spending money or making it? The answer increasingly determines their trajectory.
🔮 Amazon’s Alexa Chief Predicts the End of Doom Scrolling
➡️ The move: Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices and services, told Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference that the era of smartphone screens may be reaching a tipping point. He predicts a shift toward “ambient intelligence” where technology disappears into the background rather than demanding constant attention. A younger generation that’s “tired of doom scrolling” and feels “stuck” on social media is driving this change.
⚡ Why it matters: Amazon is betting big on this vision with its AI-powered Alexa Plus. The shift from screens to ambient assistants could reshape how we interact with technology at work, moving from apps we visit to AI that’s always available. Voice interfaces and proactive assistants replace the pull-down-to-refresh habit.
🎯 Your takeaway: Start thinking about how ambient AI could fit your workflow. What tasks do you currently interrupt yourself to do that an always-on assistant could handle in the background?
🔧 Tool Spotlight: Warp Terminal
Warp is a terminal that thinks alongside you. With the recent Agents 3.0 update, it’s evolved from a “smart terminal” into what may be the most sophisticated agentic development environment available.
What makes it different: Unlike AI tools that just recommend commands, Warp’s agents can actually work with interactive CLIs, REPLs, debuggers, database shells, and system monitors. That means live debugging, database queries, server commands, and deployment workflows running under your supervision. The terminal isn’t just faster or smarter. It’s an engineering assistant that can manage large parts of your development workflow on its own.
Best for: Developers who live in the terminal and want AI assistance without switching contexts. Also valuable for technical professionals who run scripts, manage servers, or work with databases.
Pricing: Free tier available. Warp Team starts at $22/user/month with advanced collaboration features.
👉 Try it: Download from warp.dev
✨ Try This Today: Teaching AI Your Voice
AI outputs sound generic because the AI doesn’t know your style. But you can train it on your voice in under 60 seconds.
The technique: Give AI examples of your writing, ask it to analyze your patterns, then save that analysis for future conversations.
How to do it:
1. Paste 2-3 examples of your writing (emails, reports, posts you’re proud of)
2. Ask: “Analyze my writing style. Note my tone, sentence structure, vocabulary patterns, and any quirks.”
3. Save that analysis somewhere accessible
4. Start future prompts with: “Write in this style:” then paste your analysis
Why it works: AI defaults to a statistical average when it doesn’t know who you are. Giving it your voice profile means drafts feel like a starting point you actually want to build on, not a generic template that needs a complete rewrite.
Pro tip: Create a “voice doc” you can copy into any AI conversation. Update it quarterly as your style evolves.
Time required: 60 seconds to set up. Saves minutes of editing on every piece of AI-assisted content.
📚 Go Deeper: Expanded Lesson with Exercises
✨ The Wire
🔗 AI infrastructure stocks like Lumentum (up 372%), Celestica, and Micron outperformed Nvidia in 2025 as investors discovered the value chain beyond GPUs. CNBC
🔗 PwC predicts 2026 will be the year companies finally roll out repeatable responsible AI practices, as agentic workflows spread faster than governance models can address. PwC
🔗 Insight Partners investors argue the AI market is “simultaneously overhyped and more valuable than most people appreciate,” noting that unlike the dot-com era, every GPU that gets powered on is immediately put to work. Insight Partners
Neural Notes — AI that amplifies your value, not replaces it.
