AI Builds Its Successor

Welcome back to The Shift. Let’s get straight to what matters in AI today…

Today we have:

🤖 Anthropic warns AI may soon help build its own successors

💪How to turn every meeting into a coaching session with On Call

🧬 AI leaders push for stronger biotech safeguards

🔨Tools and Shifts you cannot miss

🤖 Anthropic warns AI may soon help build its own successors

Anthropic released a new report exploring recursive self-improving AI, the idea that future models could help develop the next generation of AI systems. While the company says that reality has not arrived yet, it believes progress is moving faster than many expected.

The Shift:

AI is taking on more development work - Anthropic revealed that more than 80% of its merged code was authored by Claude as of May, highlighting how deeply AI is already involved in the company's software development process.

Engineers are shipping far more code - The company said its engineers now push roughly eight times more code per day than they did in 2024, with Claude increasingly helping accelerate research and development workflows.

Researchers are watching a new trend - Anthropic said current systems are showing early signs of a future where each generation of AI could potentially help build the next, reducing the amount of direct human involvement required.

Safety discussions are gaining urgency - Anthropic said it would consider slowing frontier AI development if peer labs did the same and plans future policy discussions around research, governance, and potential RSI scenarios.

The report is less about what AI can do today and more about where current trends may lead. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are now openly discussing the possibility that AI systems could eventually contribute to their own improvement cycles, making questions around governance, oversight, and safety increasingly important.

Together with Harmonic Security

Stop making AI decisions in the dark.

Leadership is asking: are we getting value from AI? Which tools are worth the spend? Where are we exposed? Right now, most teams have no idea.

Harmonic Security Usage Explorer changes that.

You get a complete picture of how your organization uses AI, automatically categorized into custom tasks and use cases.

You’ll see the projects being worked on, who’s using what tools, where AI investments are driving value, and where employees are engaging in risky behavior.

CIOs can rationalize spending and cut wasted licenses. CISOs can pinpoint where risk exists and neutralize it. AI committees can show exactly how their efforts are paying off.

See it in action

💪How to Turn Every Meeting Into a Coaching Session With On Call

Most people leave meetings with no idea how they actually performed. On Call fixes that with live guidance during the call and detailed feedback after.

Step 1: Download On Call for Mac - Install the desktop app. Free to start, Mac only for now.

Step 2: Join your meeting as normal - On Call runs in the background. No setup per call, no extra tools to open.

Step 3: Get live guidance while you talk - During the call, On Call surfaces light, real-time coaching based on what's happening in the conversation. Blind spots get flagged before they cost you.

Step 4: Review your feedback after - Every call generates a post-meeting breakdown with specific, actionable ways to improve your performance, communication, and influence.

Step 5: Track your growth over time - Open the Insights tab to see how you're improving across meetings. Patterns become visible. Progress becomes measurable.

Every meeting is either practice or performance. On Call makes it both. You can unlock free access here.

🧬 AI leaders push for stronger biotech safeguards

The CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Microsoft AI, and other industry leaders signed a joint letter urging Congress to introduce stricter oversight of synthetic DNA sales, warning that advances in AI could make biological threats easier to create.

The Shift:

Major AI labs back regulation - The letter was signed by leaders including Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, Mustafa Suleyman, and Alexandr Wang, alongside executives from the DNA synthesis industry.

Experts warn knowledge barriers are falling - The group stated that modern AI systems can now outperform PhD-level virologists on certain highly technical laboratory procedures, raising concerns about misuse.

Congress is being asked to act - The signatories are urging lawmakers to require synthetic DNA and RNA providers to screen orders, verify customers, and maintain records of biological sequence purchases.

Future misuse remains a concern - The letter warns that historical barriers preventing bad actors from developing biological weapons may erode as AI systems become increasingly capable and accessible.

This is one of the strongest public warnings yet from leading AI companies about the intersection of AI and biotechnology. For the first time, many of the industry's biggest competitors are aligned on the need for preventative safeguards before increasingly capable AI systems make advanced biological knowledge more widely accessible.

Together with MarketBeat

7 Stocks to Ride The A.I. Megaboom

The next A.I. boom could create massive winners just like the 1990s tech surge.

We identified 7 small tech companies positioned to benefit from the next phase of A.I. growth.

See them inside this free report 7 Stocks to Ride The A.I. Megaboom.

View the 7 Stocks

🔨AI Tools for the Shift

⚖️ Lexidesk for Law Firms – Handles legal client intake 24/7 across phone and web, delivering qualified leads and instant case summaries directly to your CRM.

🎯 Orchestra Ads – Turns a single business brief into coordinated ad campaigns, content, email marketing, and SEO strategies powered by shared performance data.

📚 Deqsy – Uses AI-powered flashcards and spaced repetition to help learners retain information faster while studying less.

🖼️ NextDoor AI – Lets you create polished AI-generated images from ready-made templates without needing prompt engineering skills.

📧 Mail2Follow – Works inside Gmail to track important conversations, generate follow-ups in your writing style, and remind you only when action is needed.

🚀Quick Shifts

🤝 The U.S. and Japan launched a $1 billion AI research partnership, making Japan the first nation to join the Genesis Mission, an initiative using AI to accelerate scientific discovery and potentially double research output. 

⚡ Nvidia released Nemotron 3 Ultra, a fully open 550B-parameter reasoning model that delivers performance comparable to leading open models while running 5× faster and costing up to 30% less for AI agent workloads. 

 🖥️ Google is testing a floating desktop AI Search bar for Chrome on Windows, opening with Ctrl+Shift+Space as a standalone window centered on screen, with AI Mode serving as the primary search experience.

🏠 Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is reportedly increasing his focus on AI initiatives while remaining at Airbnb, joining a growing list of tech leaders betting heavily on AI.

🧠 OpenAI is rolling out an upgraded ChatGPT memory system that better updates and recalls user preferences across conversations. The feature is live for Plus and Pro users, with free users getting access in the coming weeks.

🧩 Prompt of the Day

Pricing Strategy That Balances Profitability and Demand

Most pricing decisions are based on competitors or gut feeling. The best pricing strategies balance costs, customer perception, competitive positioning, and profit goals.

Turn pricing into a growth lever, not just a number.

Paste the prompt: Drop this into ChatGPT, then fill in your product details.

Prompt to paste

Create a pricing strategy for [Insert product]. Analyze production, fulfillment, and operating costs to establish pricing floors and profit margins. Compare the product against key competitors and identify opportunities for premium, value-based, or penetration pricing. Evaluate customer perceived value, willingness to pay, and market positioning to determine the optimal price range. Include recommendations for discounts, bundles, subscriptions, or promotional pricing where relevant. Focus on maximizing profitability while remaining competitive and attractive to the target audience.

🤳AI Shift of the Day

That’s all for today’s edition. See you tomorrow as we track down and get you all that matters in the daily AI Shift!

If you loved this edition, let us know how much:

Forward it to your pal to give them a daily dose of the shift so they can 👇