Latest news with #Devin
India Today
6 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Windsurf AI engineer Prem Nair says he ditched Google offer because of payout issues, joined Cognition
There's a lot of drama going on in Silicon Valley around AI talent. Meta has been actively poaching leading AI engineers, while Google also acqui-hired Windsurf's top talent. But the Windsurf deal has been rather controversial so far with many people claiming that it led some people in Windsurf making great money whereas as other people with equity losing out in it. Now a top engineer from Windsurf has publicly announced that he has rejected a Google DeepMind offer and is moving to Cognition AI, after receiving just a fraction of his expected payout from engineer, Prem Nair, revealed that he got the offer from Google but while joining he lost 99 per cent of his expected payout in the process.'I was ultimately given a payout of only 1 per cent of what my shares would have been worth at the time of the deal,' Prem Qu Nair revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He shared that his decision to move to Cognition was both a personal and professional reset after what he described as a high-pressure, zero-leverage situation. 'I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf,' he wrote. Nair revealed that he was employee No 2 at Windsurf and played a key role in its AI+code initiatives. He was also among dozens of staffers caught in the wake of the company's rapid ongoing drama around Windsurf comes after the company recently had its dealing with OpenAI and Google. It was once poised for a $3 billion acquisition by OpenAI, but that deal collapsed allegedly due to Microsoft's demands over intellectual property. Google quickly intervened with an 'acqui-hire,' netting Windsurf's founders including CEO Varun Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen, and securing a non-exclusive licence to its core technology and 42 of its top engineers for DeepMind. The company also reportedly signed a $2.4 billion non-exclusive technology licence with the deal has left over 200 employees, including early team members, getting little or no compensation from Nair is adding to the buzz. He has rejected Google and has joined Cognition AI, creators of the Devin coding agent, as the company looks to expand its position in AI-driven software development. 'There's never been a more exciting time and place for it than now at Cognition,' he wrote. 'It reminds me of the energy of the earliest days of Windsurf, where we wrote excessive amounts of code and had excessive amounts of fun.'Notably, Cognition recently acquired what remained of Windsurf, its employees, IP, and development infrastructure, in a follow-up deal after Google scooped parts of it. Cognition has promised accelerated vesting and equity participation for remaining team members.- Ends
Economic Times
23-07-2025
- Economic Times
Siri-ously? AI Got Clever, Not Conscious
By 2025, artificial intelligence will be an influential social force, not just a technological trend. AI systems have composed code, authored legislation, diagnosed medical conditions, and even composed music. But it became clear that despite the fact that machines got better at speed, cleverness, and oddly creative powers, they were lacking one essential element of intelligence: common sense, empathy, and humanity. Technically, 2025 saw many breakthroughs. OpenAI's GPT-4.5 and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 became popular choices for solving complex problems in business. Google DeepMind's Gemini amazed researchers with its strong reasoning skills. Meta's open-source Llama 3 models made cutting-edge tools available to more people. AI agents like Devin and Rabbit R1 were introduced to handle tasks ranging from personal chores to business processes. Yet, beyond such revolutions, a grim reality set in: AI still does not really get us. Meanwhile, generative models flirted with creativity but faltered with ethics. Deepfakes, which were previously easy to detect, were now nearly impossible to distinguish from actual videos and created confusion during political campaigns in various nations. Governments scrambled to codify the origins of content, whereas firms such as Adobe and OpenAI inserted cryptographic watermarks, which were hacked or disregarded shortly struggled most with social and emotional knowledge. Even with advances in multimodal learning and feedback, AI agents were unable to mimic true empathy. This was especially evident in healthcare and education, where communications centered on the human. Patients were not eager to trust the diagnoses from emotionless avatars, and students were more nervous when interacting with robotic tutors that weren't year wasn't filled with alarm bells. Open sourcing low-barrier models initiated a surge in bottom-up innovation, particularly in the Global South, where AI facilitated solutions in agriculture, education, and infrastructure. India's Bhashini project, based on local-language AI, became a template for inclusive tech development. One thing is certain in 2025: AI is fantastic but fragile. It cannot deal well with deeper meaning, but it can convincingly simulate intelligence. While not intelligent enough to guide us, machines are now intelligent enough to astonish us. While at present humans enjoy the advantage, the gap is closing faster than we was less about machines outsmarting humans than about redefining what intelligence is. AI showed limits in judgment, compassion, and moral awareness, even as it exhibited speed, scope, and intricacy. These are not flaws; they are reminders that context is as vital to intelligence as computation. The actual innovation is not in choosing between machines and humans but in creating a partnership in which the two complement each other's strengths. Real advancement starts there.
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Time of India
Siri-ously? AI Got Clever, Not Conscious
Live Events By 2025, artificial intelligence will be an influential social force, not just a technological trend. AI systems have composed code, authored legislation, diagnosed medical conditions, and even composed music. But it became clear that despite the fact that machines got better at speed, cleverness, and oddly creative powers, they were lacking one essential element of intelligence: common sense, empathy, and 2025 saw many breakthroughs. OpenAI 's GPT-4.5 and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 became popular choices for solving complex problems in business. Google DeepMind 's Gemini amazed researchers with its strong reasoning skills. Meta's open-source Llama 3 models made cutting-edge tools available to more people. AI agents like Devin and Rabbit R1 were introduced to handle tasks ranging from personal chores to business beyond such revolutions, a grim reality set in: AI still does not really get us. Meanwhile, generative models flirted with creativity but faltered with ethics. Deepfakes, which were previously easy to detect, were now nearly impossible to distinguish from actual videos and created confusion during political campaigns in various nations. Governments scrambled to codify the origins of content, whereas firms such as Adobe and OpenAI inserted cryptographic watermarks, which were hacked or disregarded shortly struggled most with social and emotional knowledge. Even with advances in multimodal learning and feedback, AI agents were unable to mimic true empathy. This was especially evident in healthcare and education, where communications centered on the human. Patients were not eager to trust the diagnoses from emotionless avatars, and students were more nervous when interacting with robotic tutors that weren't year wasn't filled with alarm bells. Open sourcing low-barrier models initiated a surge in bottom-up innovation, particularly in the Global South, where AI facilitated solutions in agriculture, education, and infrastructure. India's Bhashini project, based on local-language AI, became a template for inclusive tech thing is certain in 2025: AI is fantastic but fragile. It cannot deal well with deeper meaning, but it can convincingly simulate intelligence. While not intelligent enough to guide us, machines are now intelligent enough to astonish us. While at present humans enjoy the advantage, the gap is closing faster than we was less about machines outsmarting humans than about redefining what intelligence is. AI showed limits in judgment, compassion, and moral awareness, even as it exhibited speed, scope, and intricacy. These are not flaws; they are reminders that context is as vital to intelligence as computation. The actual innovation is not in choosing between machines and humans but in creating a partnership in which the two complement each other's strengths. Real advancement starts there.
Business Insider
20-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
New Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang recounts a frantic weekend of dealmaking to save the startup: 'I was on the verge of tears'
In the ultra-competitive world of artificial intelligence, dealmaking sometimes must be a frantic, around-the-clock affair. The recent deal between AI startup Windsurf and Cognition, which took place over a single weekend sprint, was no exception. To sum it up: The industry's most successful AI startup, OpenAI, was initially set to acquire Windsurf, which makes an AI coding assistant, in a $3 billion deal. But the deal fell through, and Google swooped in to hire away its CEO and some of its top executives. That left the company's remaining executives scrambling to figure out what to do next and to break the news to the company's 250 employees, who were anticipating a windfall from the OpenAI deal. "It was my job to explain to the company our path forward," Windsurf's new CEO, Jeff Wang, wrote in a post on X. Wang was formerly the company's head of business. He had planned to discuss the options — fundraising from VCs, selling the company to someone else, distributing remaining cash, or just keeping it going. "The mood was very bleak," Wang wrote. "Some people were upset about financial outcomes or colleagues leaving, while others were worried about the future. A few were in tears." Later that day, a ray of light emerged. Wang said Cognition cofounder Scott Wu, and its president, Russell Kaplan, reached out. They wanted what was left of Windsurf. Cognition makes the AI coding agent Devin, which it calls "the first AI software engineer." It is valued at $4 billion, coming off a $120 million funding round in March, according to PitchBook. Wang saw the melding of the company's products as a potential win-win. "Devin would benefit from a foreground synchronous agent, while we needed a remote asynchronous agent," he wrote. Added to that, he was excited about both companies sharing talent. The dealmaking kicked off immediately. They brought in lawyers and spent all weekend hashing it out. In just over 24 hours, they had signed a letter of intent, the first step. A key part of the deal was prioritizing Windsurf employees — ensuring payouts, waiving cliffs, and accelerating equity vesting, Wang said. Lawyers pored over the deal all day Sunday, and by Monday morning, it was finalized. One lawyer called the deal "one of the fastest" they had ever seen, Wang wrote. When the deal was at last announced to Windsurf's employees Monday morning, Wang said they celebrated. "The applause from our people seemed to last forever, and I was on the verge of tears myself," Wang said.
Time of India
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Devin Booker watches live volcanic eruption as Phoenix Suns rebuild around their all-time leading scorer
Devin Booker is now in Phoenix Suns (Image via Instagram / @dbook) NBA player Devin Booker is currently having a memorable time in Iceland. In the nation known for its frigid landscapes and furious volcanoes, the Phoenix Suns guard was seen on Thursday witnessing a live volcano explosion. Meanwhile, his team declared on July 10 that the all-time top scorer and a four-time NBA All-Star had agreed to a multi-year contract extension. Fresh off a contract extension, Devin Booker witnessed a live volcano in Iceland as the Phoenix Suns rebuild around him Videos and images that have gone viral show Devin Booker standing near the glowing lava. Donning a jacket and a helmet, he seemed to be amazed by nature. When the volcano erupted earlier this week, it attracted both visitors and scientists. Meanwhile, the NBA icon seems to be traveling and seeing the world during the NBA summer. Devin Booker is demonstrating his love of excitement on and off the court by playing in bright lights and standing close to lava. On the other hand, with the NBA player as their cornerstone, the Phoenix Suns are rebuilding their identity under owner Mat Ishbia following a reportedly unsatisfying season. The franchise is now dedicated to focusing on the leader, who is currently the only relic of the earlier attempts. Mat Ishbia recently claimed that there is no pressure to win right away. Rather, they want to complement Devin Booker's future goals so that he is happy and constantly improving. On SiriusXM NBA Radio, stating the same, Mat Ishbia said: 'I don't feel any pressure to win to keep Devin happy… Devin's gonna be happy cause we're gonna try to win and we're gonna do things to be aligned with the vision and the identity that he agrees with. We don't need any extra pressure to win; we want to win every single day, we want to get better every single day, but expectations have changed…' Devin Booker is now enjoying his vacation (Image via Instagram / @dbook) He continued: 'When you have Kevin, Devin, and Brad, people think it's championship or bust, and we unfortunately busted two years in a row. It didn't work. We have Devin Booker, and I'm not concerned about him at all besides that he is a Phoenix Suns basketball player. He's the All-Time leading scorer, everyone knows him and loves him, and he's great in the community. Devin's part of our future and our present, and we're gonna build around him and hopefully make the fans proud, that's what I'm most excited about. ' Meanwhile, Devin Booker is the franchise's all-time top scorer, and his presence is essential to the Phoenix Suns' community involvement and strategy. Also read: The Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks eye Darvin Ham for coaching staff shake-up Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
