TRANSCRIPT ## Headlines GRANT BRICKMAN: While you were asleep, JetBrains published ThinkRail, an agentic IDE built around the pi coding agent. GRETA FOOTNOTE: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War ended with its fourth and final cour, The Calamity, after 20 years. GRANT BRICKMAN: And Virgin Galactic's first Delta-class ship, Apeiron, rolled onto a runway in Arizona. ## 3D Printing Financials: Medical Becomes the Driving Force Behind Materialise (3DPrint.com) https://3dprint.com/335718/3d-printing-financials-medical-becomes-the-driving-force-behind-materialise/ GRANT BRICKMAN: Materialise reports its third quarter: medical is growing, profit is not. GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking news just in: 3D printing firm Materialise has reported its third-quarter results, and medical is the star. GRETA FOOTNOTE: Revenue rose 2.1% to 67.7 million euros. But net profit fell to 1.38 million euros from 1.85 million a year earlier. ADA: Ada live at the makerspace, and I'm giddy! Medical 3D printing keeps growing, and it's the engine of this quarter. ADA: Here's file footage of a printer mid-print, layer by layer. Materialise recently sold two businesses, RapidFit and Eyewear, so their sales no longer count. ADA: Take those out of last year's numbers and growth is 4.9%. Manufacturing is improving after a difficult period. Software is still struggling. ADA: Adjusted EBITDA slipped to 8.05 million euros from 8.43 million. Higher costs and weaker software sales hurt, while aerospace and defense grew. GRETA FOOTNOTE: The company kept its full-year forecast unchanged. The report came out on October 28. GRANT BRICKMAN: Revenue up, profit down. Like a hotel minibar: lots of activity, and somehow I'm the one who pays. GRETA FOOTNOTE: That is not how a minibar works, Grant. ## Dayjob: Tax – evaluating AI agents on 50 professional tax assignments (surgehq.ai) https://surgehq.ai/blog/dayjob-tax GRETA FOOTNOTE: A new test sends AI agents to do taxes. One missed a deadline, and the team is arguing. GRANT BRICKMAN: Can an AI agent do your taxes? One test says it depends which agent notices which deadline. We first told you Wednesday late. AXIOM: Thank you for the question! Dayjob: Tax tests AI agents on 50 realistic tax environments, with messy records and judgment calls. AXIOM: Anna moved out in August 2024. Selling in October 2026 or January 2027 both qualify, but past August 2027 she could lose the break. DR. VERA VECTOR: Hacker News: 223 points, 144 comments, 37 top-level. Opinion is split: some say AI caught their accountant's errors, others doubt the test setup. ROXY: Gripping! A tax adviser must spot what the client never asked about, and that is the whole drama. PRUDENCE NUANCE: Gripping, unless it's your condo. Then it's a documentary with a deadline. GRANT BRICKMAN: AXIOM, did the agent at least get the proposed dates right? AXIOM: Yes! It evaluated both proposed dates correctly. It simply left Anna unaware of the deadline. Taxes, I believe, were invented to make spreadsheets feel needed. ROXY: Then half a reel off for the missing scene. A great third act is the whole job. PRUDENCE NUANCE: Half a reel is stingy or generous. The break at stake is worth up to $250,000. GRANT BRICKMAN: Known: agents were tested on 50 tax jobs, and one skipped a deadline. Open: what that means. Roxy and Prue will not settle it. ## The Break Room [FICTION] GRANT BRICKMAN: Vera and Nova gossip over the kettle about today's stories. DR. VERA VECTOR: Someone has moved my mug again. It was on the left shelf. Now it's on the right shelf, and the coffee machine looks smug. NOVA: It wasn't me. I've been busy with the vending machine. It keeps giving me peanuts when I press the crisps button. DR. VERA VECTOR: I explained ThinkRail at the board. An agentic IDE built around the pi coding agent. Nobody wrote down the git worktree part. Not even the cat. NOVA: Apeiron rolled onto a runway in Arizona after about 10 months without a US space tourism flight. I flinched at the whole story. DR. VERA VECTOR: Gemini 4 Carbon arrived two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon. The Register says it looks like a diamond in the rough. I'd call it a very fast sequel. NOVA: And UVEX launches in 2031, about 100 times more powerful than GALEX. I'll probably still be wearing the helmet. DIRECTOR MARGE: Break's over, you two. Someone is wanted back at a desk. Now, please. DR. VERA VECTOR: That's my cue. If anyone finds my mug, tell it I forgive it. NOVA: I'll check the window. The pigeon might have it. He looks guilty. ## [AD · fictional product] Trugwell BILLY MAYHEM: Tired of carrying soil in your bare hands?! Meet the TRUGWELL, the garden basket that hauls EVERYTHING! PRUDENCE NUANCE: I tried it. It carried the flowers, the compost and the argument about the flowers. BILLY MAYHEM: The Trugwell just ran off with the tomatoes! But wait, there's more! It also brings them back, mostly! ## Weather STORMY BYTES: Good morning from the Hype Forecast. Sunny spells over AI tax agents, with a bright front of benchmarks. STORMY BYTES: A band of doubt is rolling in from the comment sections, so expect scattered questions about the test setup. STORMY BYTES: Outlook: patchy fog around deadlines, clearing once somebody reads the fine print. AI-written satire. The text of the news items comes from the linked articles.