From Research to Renaissance: o3 Impressions, Changing AI Habits, and AI's Transformative Decade

Welcome back to Fresh From the Labs! Shilpa, Jared, and Kevin dive into another week of AI exploration at Pioneer Square Labs.

The conversation kicks off with a deep dive into OpenAI's newly released o3 model. Kevin shares his initial impressions after putting it through its paces, highlighting its impressive intelligence, speed, and surprisingly adept web search capabilities. Jared discusses using o3 for complex planning and research, noting its power but also the challenge of its high-level output potentially requiring a "dumb it down" prompt and raising new questions about high-fidelity hallucination. We explore the nuances of interacting with these increasingly sophisticated models, including the pros and cons of using AI memory and chat history. Do you keep it on for context, or turn it off for truly fresh brainstorming?

We then zoom out to discuss how AI use cases are evolving. Referencing recent studies and our own experiences, we explore the shift from brainstorming towards deep research, analysis, and even companionship/therapeutic uses (though we debate our own usage patterns!). A key theme emerges: using AI to rapidly expand professional skill sets, tackling tasks outside our core expertise – from generating marketing campaigns to coding proofs-of-concept. Is this genuine skill-building, or are we leaning on "blind trust"?

This leads to a bigger discussion about AI as an "unblocker" – a tool that helps us overcome hurdles and incrementally build expertise, potentially changing how we approach learning and complex projects. Finally, inspired by recent optimistic takes, we put on our future-gazing hats: what could the world look like in 10 years if AI continues its trajectory? We speculate on everything from the end of disease and automated chores freeing up creative time, to a more efficient distribution of information impacting everything from markets to civic engagement, while acknowledging the necessary conversations around job displacement and societal adaptation.

Join us for insights, experiments, personal anecdotes (including why Jared turns off his chat history!), and a look at both the practical present and the potential future of AI.

Links:

HBR Article: How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025

60 Minutes: Demis Hassabis Interview