openai unveils new tools as chatgpt ships new models

Key Takeaways

• Etsy launched a ChatGPT app and is testing conversational AI to help shoppers find products, connecting 130 million items with 86 million buyers.
• OpenAI released GPT-5.5 Instant as the default ChatGPT model, reducing hallucination in law, medicine, and finance, with improved math and benchmark scores.
• Skillmaker.ai, founded by The Blair Witch Project producer Robin Cowie, won the CEA Emerging Company award and closed a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round.
• Skillmaker's XR training program reduces entry-level auto technician training from two years to 25 days.
• The FDA deployed ThinkTrends' agentic AI platform for real-time monitoring of beauty product safety.
• Leading AI models lose money in trading contests, trading too much and making inconsistent decisions.
• AI will reshape teamwork by making teams smaller and including AI contributors, requiring AI literacy and skepticism as core capabilities.
• Autodesk joined the Water-AI Nexus Advisory Council to explore AI for sustainable water systems, focusing on predictive maintenance and leak detection.
• Flapping Airplanes founders argue that data efficiency, not just compute scaling, is the next frontier for AI development.
• WorkOS emphasizes skills-based hiring and internal mobility as strategic imperatives for building a future-ready workforce in the AI era.

Etsy tests conversational AI to boost marketplace sales

Etsy is piloting new conversational AI tools to help shoppers find products more easily. The company launched an app inside ChatGPT that lets users search and compare Etsy items through natural language prompts. Etsy is also testing a beta conversational search experience on its own platform to assist with gift finding. Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn said the company is being bold and early in its AI strategy.

Etsy launches ChatGPT app and tests AI gift assistant

Etsy is beta testing an app inside ChatGPT that allows users to search for products through conversation. The company is also testing a conversational agent to help with gift searches on its platform. Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn said Etsy wants to understand how people interact with its inventory conversationally. The company sees large language models as a way to connect its 130 million items with 86 million buyers.

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OpenAI releases GPT-5.5 Instant as new default ChatGPT model

OpenAI released GPT-5.5 Instant, which replaces GPT-5.3 Instant as the default ChatGPT model. The new model reduces hallucination in sensitive areas like law, medicine, and finance while keeping low latency. It scored 81.2 on the AIME 2025 math test, up from 65.4, and 76 on the MMMU-Pro benchmark, up from 69.2. The model can use its search tool to refer back to past conversations, files, and Gmail for personalized answers, available first to Plus and Pro users on web.

Skillmaker.ai wins CEA Emerging Company award for AI training

Skillmaker.ai, founded by Robin Cowie who produced The Blair Witch Project, won the CEA Emerging Company award. The company uses extended reality and artificial intelligence to train auto technicians. Skillmaker partnered with NAPA Auto Care in 2024 and was named 2025 NAPA Auto Care Strategic Partner of the Year. The company closed a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round and its XR training program reduces entry-level training time from two years to 25 days.

WorkOS discusses scaling workforce skills for the AI era

Nick Nisi and Zack Proser of WorkOS discussed the need for companies to focus on skills-based hiring and internal mobility in the age of AI. They argued that simply hiring for existing skills is not enough and businesses must build a culture of continuous learning. WorkOS provides a platform to help companies map existing skills, identify gaps, and facilitate skill development. The conversation emphasized that building a future-ready workforce is a strategic imperative for business survival.

Flapping Airplanes founders say data efficiency is AI's next frontier

Ben and Asher Spector, founders of Flapping Airplanes, argued at AI Ascent that data is the real bottleneck in AI development. They said the future lies in achieving greater data efficiency rather than just scaling compute power. The brothers are building new systems to enable more data-efficient algorithms that are currently difficult to implement with existing tools like PyTorch. They believe a model that is 1000 times more data-efficient would be 1000 times easier to deploy into the economy.

AI models lose money in trading contests

A series of contests between leading AI models showed that most systems lose money when trading. The AI models trade too much and make wildly different decisions when given identical instructions. It remains unclear whether these shortcomings will fade with more powerful AI or if they reveal a fundamental gap between large language models and how markets work.

FDA uses agentic AI to monitor beauty product safety in real time

The FDA has deployed ThinkTrends' agentic AI platform within its nationwide adverse event monitoring system. The AI can process large volumes of unstructured reports, identify patterns, and flag potential safety signals as they emerge. This shift from reactive reporting to real-time safety monitoring could reshape how beauty products are scrutinized in the US market. The integration is part of the FDA's move toward a unified Adverse Event Monitoring System that includes cosmetics.

AI will reshape teamwork but not destroy it

Organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argues that AI will reshape teamwork rather than destroy it. Teams are likely to become smaller and may include both human and AI contributors. AI literacy must become a core team capability, and teams need shared norms about when to rely on AI and how to interrogate its outputs. Effective teams should reward people for spotting when AI is wrong, making AI skepticism a formal part of performance evaluation.

Autodesk joins WEF Water-AI Nexus Advisory Council for sustainable infrastructure

Autodesk has joined the Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence Advisory Council, a global initiative by the Water Environment Federation. The council explores how AI can support more sustainable and resilient water systems. AI is already helping utilities with predictive maintenance, leak detection, and network optimization. The effectiveness of AI in water management depends on access to high-quality, connected data across the full lifecycle of infrastructure.

Sources

• Etsy Pilots Conversational AI to Ignite Marketplace Sales
• Etsy launches ChatGPT app
• Navigating the Turbulent Future of AI and WorkNavigating the Turbulent Future of AI and Work
• OpenAI releases GPT-5.5 Instant, a new default model for ChatGPT
• CEA Emerging Company Winner: Skillmaker drives AI training
• WorkOS on Scaling Skills for the AI Era
• Data is the Real AI Bottleneck, Say Flapping Airplanes Founders
• AI Models Lose Money in Trading Contests
• Beauty Under New Watch: The FDA AI's Upgrade
• Will AI destroy teamwork?
• Autodesk joins Water Environment Federation’s Water-AI Nexus Advisory Council to help advance sustainable infrastructure