Google vs Claude: The Computer Use Wars Begin

"I asked AI to debug my code. It suggested I try a different career. Fair point."

What's up builders 👋

The AI computer use wars just went nuclear. Google dropped Gemini 2.5 Computer Use hours ago, directly challenging Claude's dominance in browser automation. Meanwhile, Sam Altman's predicting zero-person billion-dollar companies at Dev Day, and MrBeast is having an existential crisis about Sora. Buckle up - today's newsletter is spicy.

Google launches Gemini 2.5 Computer Use - and the timing couldn't be more deliberate. Just weeks after Claude's computer use feature had everyone building browser agents, Google drops their answer with some key differences.

Here's what matters: Gemini 2.5 builds on their vision and reasoning capabilities to interact with UIs, but unlike Claude's desktop-focused approach, this is API-first from day one. The head-to-head comparison tool they released shows Gemini handling complex multi-step workflows faster than Claude, though early testers report it's less reliable on edge cases.

The winner gets to be the operating system for AI agents. Start building your agents to be model-agnostic now, because this race just started.

• Google Opal expands to 15 countries - The "vibe-coding" app that creates mini web apps from text prompts now available in Canada, India, Japan, and more. Direct v0 competitor.

• Grok Imagine desktop - Full editing suite that lets you change subject/environment/style seamlessly. The wrapper alone is worth checking out.

• ChatGPT Pulse - 10-day review shows "moments of magic" but needs more structure. Still experimental but worth testing.

• DoorDash ChatGPT integration - ChatGPT becoming the new app store as predicted. Order food directly from chat interface.

• Build MCP AI Agents from Scratch - 5-step roadmap from local AI agents to reusable AI apps, even if you've never used MCP before

• Vibe Coding Meets AI Testing - Practical guide on shipping with confidence using AI tools, includes specific testing workflows

• How I Actually Use Statistics as a Data Scientist - Real-world statistics applications for ML developers, with resource recommendations

• 30 hours building with Lovable - Real developer experience building "SheBuilds" app, including the bugs and workarounds

• Opcode UI for Claude Code - 18k GitHub stars in 3 months. Wraps Claude Code in a clean UI for better development workflow.

• Gemini 2.5 Computer Use discussion - 268 HN comments debating whether Google or Claude wins for automation. Consensus: Google's faster, Claude's more reliable.

• Robin Williams deepfake ethics - 195 comments on HN about AI ethics. Key takeaway: Just because you can deepfake doesn't mean you should.

• AI video generation breakthrough - Single text prompt creating cinema-quality video. Builders asking: "When can we control scene evolution?"

• Amazon's 20% hit rate - 96 products, only 20% successful. Message for builders: Keep shipping, most things fail.

• AI buzzword satire - "Cloud AI agentic b2b saas hyperlocal zero-trust edge LLM" - Community roasting the hype cycle.

• Qualcomm acquires Arduino - Major shift for IoT developers. Arduino keeps its brand but gains Qualcomm's chip expertise.

• Anthropic opens India office - Bengaluru office in early 2026, targeting India's massive developer community for Claude adoption.

• Anthropic-IBM partnership - Claude LLMs coming to IBM's software development tools. Enterprise AI just got interesting.

• AMD financing OpenAI chips with stock - Unusual deal could provide $100B in chip purchases. OpenAI securing its infrastructure future.

• Oracle launches AI agents - AI agents in cloud apps for enterprise automation. Another player in the agent wars.

• Google DeepMind Codemender - Auto-finds and fixes vulnerabilities in your code. Still in research but could solve security nightmares.

• Otter.ai enterprise tools - Moving beyond transcription to create central knowledge bases. Sleeper hit for team documentation.

• v0 by Vercel celebrates 100k followers - First 1,000 developers to share their v0 apps get $100 in credits. Move fast, this won't last.

• Zero-person billion dollar companies - Sam Altman's Dev Day predictions on AGI breakthroughs and Sora deepfakes

• Gemini recommending SaaS products - Single AI recommendation could be worth millions in revenue

• OpenAI and the race for AI-driven commerce - ChatGPT positioning as customer destination for buying and selling

We're watching three different computer use models launch in real-time (Claude, Gemini, and soon GPT-5), while simultaneously seeing the first AI-native commerce platform emerge with ChatGPT. By this time next year, your AI agent might be ordering DoorDash while debugging your code and negotiating your AWS bills. The future isn't coming - it's compiling.

What are you building with these new computer use APIs? Hit reply and show me your wildest automation.

Keep shipping,

P.S. Asked Gemini 2.5 to book me a vacation. It signed me up for a timeshare presentation in Florida. Claude would never.