gm friends! i hope you're having a well-earned lazy Sunday before we get stuck into it all again tomorrow. Welcome back to the Roundup. In today's issue we've got an AI VC, OpenAI's newest API, a breakdown on MCP, a battle of the giants with Windsurf vs Cursor, and some more. Let's dive in.
If you’ve been seeing MCP (Model Context Protocol) pop up everywhere and wondering if you should care—yeah, you probably should. It’s an open standard that lets AI models talk to external data sources and tools in real time without needing messy custom integrations. Instead of AI responding based only on what it was trained on, MCP lets it fetch live context from APIs, databases, and apps as needed. Think of it as a universal adapter that plugs AI into the rest of the internet without duct-taped workarounds.
Companies like Replit, Codeium, and Sourcegraph have already started integrating MCP, which means their AI agents can now retrieve relevant data, execute code, and even act on behalf of users without being stuck in a static training loop...
Two AI-powered IDE’s are dominating the space right now, but what’s the difference?
Developers used to rely on autocomplete, linters, and Copilot for small boosts, but AI-powered IDEs like Windsurf and Cursor are taking that a step further. Instead of just assisting, they’re actively shaping how code gets written.
Both tools are built on top of VS Code and powered by Claude 3.5 Sonnet, but their approach is different. Windsurf automates more of the process, analyzing entire codebases and generating suggestions without much input. Cursor, on the other hand, gives developers more control, requiring manual context selection for AI assistance. One is streamlined, the other more customizable.