title: Weekly Dose of Optimism #179
author: Packy McCormick
content_type: article
publication: Not Boring by Packy McCormick
published: 2026-02-06T13:57:45
source_url: https://www.notboring.co/p/weekly-dose-of-optimism-179
word_count: 2684
Read more
Weekly Dose of Optimism #179
Brief
Packy McCormick’s Weekly Dose of Optimism #179 surveys recent advances across AI models, compute buildout, robotics, and autonomy. Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.3-Codex (the latter focused on coding via Codex) both benefited from agent-driven internal research; Opus 4.6 improves planning and coding. Eric Jang argues inference compute demand will explode (analogy to air-conditioning), supported by reported CapEx plans—Google ~$185B, Amazon ~$200B—and Contrary’s projection of $1.3T AI CapEx by 2027 and $3–5T in data-center spending by 2030. Highlights also include Waymo’s $16B raise (valuing it at $126B), ~400k rides/week and major safety gains, plus progress in cultured-neuron hybrid computing (Cortical Labs’ CL1).
Why it matters
Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI released GPT-5.3-Codex this week; both labs used internal agents to accelerate research and engineering for the new models (Opus 4.6 emphasizes longer planning and improved coding; GPT-5.3-Codex targets coding workflows).
Key details
- Eric Jang warns inference compute demand will surge as researcher-level thinking becomes ubiquitous; Bloomberg/WSJ-cited plans cite ~ $185B (Google) and ~$200B (Amazon) anticipated CapEx for 2026, and Contrary projects $1.3T AI-related CapEx by 2027 and $3–5T in global data-center spend by 2030.
- Waymo raised $16B at a $126B valuation, reporting ~400,000 rides/week, ~127 million fully autonomous miles driven, 15M rides in 2025, and a cited 90% reduction in serious injury crashes versus human drivers; it plans 20+ city launches in 2026 (including Tokyo and London).
- Biological-computing progress: Cortical Labs’ CL1 (commercial, $35,000) fuses cultured mouse neurons with silicon electrodes (800k cells trained to play Pong in 2022); a team entered a drone controlled by cultured neurons in Anduril’s AI Grand Prix.