Week of [05/05/25]

The latest Agile AI newsletter updates every week.

Overview - This week’s notable AI industry moves reflect both expanded ambition and strategic focus from leading tech organizations. Tech giants are advocating for widespread AI literacy through mandatory education, while ByteDance aggressively ventures into hardware with innovative smart glasses. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf signals intensifying competition in the AI-powered coding arena. Together, these actions illustrate how AI’s influence is reshaping education, hardware, and software development simultaneously.

1. The Push for Mandatory AI Education by Tech Giants

• Over 250 technology leaders, including CEOs from Microsoft, Adobe, Airbnb, and Zoom, have signed an open letter urging U.S. states to make AI and computer science courses mandatory in high schools. This initiative highlights the importance of preparing future generations to understand, use, and create with AI in a competitive global landscape.

2. ByteDance is Developing AI Smart Glasses

• ByteDance is working on AI-powered smart glasses aimed at delivering real-time voice commands, object recognition, and translation features—powered by their proprietary Doubao model. This device represents ByteDance's major push beyond social media into consumer hardware and AI-driven wearables.
  

3. OpenAI Buys Windsurf for 3 Billion

• OpenAI has acquired Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, in a 3 billion deal to strengthen its position in AI-driven coding tools. This acquisition puts OpenAI in direct competition with established platforms like Copilot, Cursor, and Replit, and is expected to enhance its coding model performance.