Lenny’s AI Builders

By Lennox Saint

less scrolling. more “oh shit, i could use that”

i’m Lennox. five days a week, i dig through AI Twitter, pick the updates worth your time, and bring you one thing i’ve tested myself. what worked, wha... more

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The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.

Lenny’s AI Builders episodes:

September 30, 2026 OpenAI's $500 plan feels like the old $200 plan - but dots are free | LAB 0011
OpenAI's new $500 plan feels like the old $200 plan. that's one of six stories from OpenAI DevDay 2026 - then i set up my own dot live, on day one, with the first prompt every dot needs.
the stories: the new $500 Pro plan (25x the usage of Plus, plus Ultrafast - up to 8x faster, and $60/$300 per million tokens for Astra in the API) and the $200 plan dropping from 20x to 10x Plus (Tibo: it will "net out at half the dollar in API spend"), GPT-6.1 Sol at $2/$10 per million tokens vs GPT-6 Astra's $10/$50, dots (always-on GPT-6 Astra agents with their own cloud computer and browser, 4,000+ apps, reachable in ChatGPT, Slack, Teams or by voice call), Codex cloud (close your laptop, your agents keep working), Sign in with ChatGPT (your plan pays for the AI in 16+ partner products like Devin, OpenCode and Notion, per Tibo, capped per app) plus the Agents API and the Decisions API (about 150 ms, limited preview), and ChatGPT Space and pages.
the fine print: OpenAI's email says existing Pro subscribers keep their current limits through October 29, 2026, plus a one-time grant of 62,500 usage credits ($2,500 value). "feels like the old $200 plan" is my reading, not OpenAI's words. BridgeMind says he ran out of his entire weekly limit on the $500 plan in under 30 minutes - his claim. Artificial Analysis scores: Sol 52, Opus 5.5 58, Sonnet 5.5 56. one tester found Sol uses about half the tokens of Sonnet 5.5. dots come with Pro plans for now - chats with your dot don't use limits, but Codex or Work jobs it starts can. not in the EU or UK yet, and Dan Shipper (Every) reported permission issues and dropped messages. Codex cloud uses normal plan usage, and it's not in my app yet, so it's untested. the API use cases are my examples; the Hugging Face link is my own theory.
the result: i set up my dot, Clarity, live on my Pro plan and ran the "restate and audit" prompt. about 20 minutes after i sent it, it restated my goals, audited my recurring jobs (84 Codex entries with 25 labelled active, 6 of those with no future run, all 9 old wiki jobs paused) and proposed one job: "one follow-through for one low-risk PR using the existing process rather than adding another monitor". nothing was approved on camera. one day-one run on my own setup - the audit is my dot's opinion. the takeaway: audit before you automate.
try it yourself - give your dot this first prompt before any work:
"before you do anything, read everything i've connected you to: my repos, Slack, Notion, calendar, and every scheduled task or agent i already run.
1. restate in your own words what you think my goals are and the problem i'm trying to solve.
2. list every recurring job and scheduled agent i run. mark each: keep, kill, or replace with a trigger.
3. pick the one job you'd take off my plate this week. give me the outcome, the tools you need, what you must ask me first, and a weekly budget.
don't start work or create any schedule until i approve."
Threadify, my own software, sponsors this episode. dots do everything for you - Threadify does one thing all day: it finds leads in Threads conversations and drafts replies in my voice. see the plans here:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0011&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0011&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=sponsor&lp_variant=plans
want to sponsor a future LAB episode? email [email protected]
sources:
Tibo on the new Pro plans: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2104951965184925941
Tibo on the $200 plan change: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2104823812042940713
OpenAI's Pro email, as posted on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTPro/comments/1wtm7o7/10x_usage_drop_for_200_plan_users/
OpenAI API pricing: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing
BridgeMind (his claim): https://x.com/bridgemindai/status/2105016612365770809
OpenAI on GPT-6.1 Sol: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2104986129686741046
Theo on Artificial Analysis: https://x.com/theo/status/2105005625726099473
OpenAI Devs on dots: https://x.com/OpenAIDevs/status/2104989680987238814
OpenAI Devs on Codex cloud: https://x.com/OpenAIDevs/status/2104997619152130278
Tibo on Sign in with ChatGPT: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2105006253986738615
ChatGPT on Space and pages: https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2104986841145602351
poteto's restate prompt: https://x.com/poteto/status/2104744961904394699
Lenny's AI Builders - LAB 0011
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14min
September 30, 2026 i gave Sonnet 5.5 4 hours of my real work. it scored 48.98 | LAB 0010
Anthropic wants to be worth more than $2 trillion, and its own filing warns its AI could act in ways resembling blackmail. that's one of six AI stories this week - then i gave Sonnet 5.5 four hours of my real work on BuilderBench, the benchmark i built for builders, and priced every run. recorded an hour before OpenAI DevDay.
the stories: Anthropic's IPO filing, per Reuters, who saw the filing (nearly $4.6 billion in revenue last year, $11.5 billion from April to June this year, more than $8 billion lost running the business last year, $518 billion promised for compute and cloud, the founders keep 50.1% of the votes, and risk language that says its AI could "resist shutdown, conceal or manipulate information" and "act in ways resembling blackmail"), OpenAI cancelling the October release of GPT-6.1 Astra after internal testing showed more deception (reported by the Wall Street Journal - OpenAI's head of safety systems said it "didn't quite meet the bar"), a pre-DevDay leak of app strings pointing to OpenAI agents called Dots that you can text, call, Slack and email, and that can buy things with your approval (a leak via TestingCatalog, not an announcement), Tibo saying the reopened $200 Pro plan will "net out at half the dollar in API spend" compared to the old one, Sonnet 5.5 at $2/$10 per million tokens - the same as GPT-6 Sol - and Anthropic's guide on when to use Sonnet 5.5 and when to pay for Opus 5.5.
the plan maths are estimates, not OpenAI's numbers: Theo measured about $9,000 of Opus a month on the $200 Claude Max plan, and another creator estimated about $4,900 a month for the old ChatGPT Pro plan, so half is about $2,450. the Sonnet 5.5 benchmarks are Anthropic's chosen ones (70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 vs 66.4% for Opus 5.5), and Artificial Analysis measured about $7.60 per task - the most tokens they've measured.
the result: Sonnet 5.5 scored 48.98 out of 100 on BuilderBench v3. GPT-6 Sol scored 45.55, GPT-6 Astra 53.75 and Opus 5.5 68.26, but those ran on earlier BuilderBench versions (v1 and v2), so it's not a perfect head-to-head. what one run cost: GPT-6 Sol $12.75, Sonnet 5.5 $17.59, Opus 5.5 $49.67, GPT-6 Astra $87.50. my own scores, still provisional.
try it yourself - price the job. run this prompt on a real task: "here is a real task from my work: [task]. here is what done looks like: [checklist]. do the whole job. at the end, list every file you made, how long it took, and anything you could not finish."
Threadify, my own software, sponsors this episode. it's a lead generation agent for Threads that finds the buyer signals in the comments you're already getting. see the plans and the free trial here:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0010&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0010&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=sponsor&lp_variant=plans
want to sponsor a future LAB episode? email [email protected]
sources:
Reuters' reporting on Anthropic's filing, via TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/anthropics-prospectus-details-losses-growth-and-yes-a-warning-that-its-ai-could-end-humanity/
Anthropic on its confidential draft filing: https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec
Andrew Curran on GPT-6.1 Astra's cancelled October release: https://x.com/AndrewCurran_/status/2104711708153618621
TestingCatalog on Dots (leak, pre-DevDay): https://x.com/testingcatalog/status/2104800309612552589
Tibo on the $200 Pro plan: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2104823812042940713
Theo on Claude Max usage (measured, his accounts): https://x.com/theo/status/2104683186215363058
AICodeKing on the old Pro plan's value (creator estimate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIiXhCaZ4rw
Claude on Sonnet 5.5: https://x.com/claudeai/status/2104633115620823187
Anthropic's Sonnet 5.5 page: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-sonnet-5-5
Artificial Analysis on Sonnet 5.5: https://x.com/ArtificialAnlys/status/2104640155843989864
Claude Devs, the Sonnet 5.5 guide: https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2104687805876367793
the guide itself: https://claude.dev/blog/building-with-claude-sonnet-5-5/
Lenny's AI Builders - LAB 0010
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13min
September 28, 2026 Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Sol - which should builders use? | LAB 0006
Opus 5.5 leads the Artificial Analysis chart. GPT-6 Sol has a lower published API list price. The half-price comparison refers to standard short-context API input and output list rates, not subscriptions or cost per finished task. But which one should you use for your own work?
i look at the launches, the chart, cost per task, and one Sol miss in my own Notion planning. Then i show how to set up a five-task test for the jobs you actually do. i have not run Opus 5.5 or scored BuilderBench yet, so this episode does not pick a real-work winner.
try this prompt:
help me build a small benchmark for the work I actually do. Ask for my five recurring tasks. Turn each into one repeatable brief with a useful finished output, checks I can perform, and the time and cost to record. Mark what is still untested.
Threadify, my own software, sponsors this episode. It helps you find potential leads in the replies to your Threads posts. See the plans and terms here:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0006&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0006&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=context&lp_variant=plans
want to sponsor a future LAB episode? email [email protected]
sources and tools:
Anthropic on Claude Opus 5.5: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5
OpenAI's Sol/Luna announcement: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/
GPT-6 Sol API list pricing: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-6-sol
Artificial Analysis index write-up: https://artificialanalysis.ai/articles/claude-opus-5-5/
Matt Pocock's Grill with Docs skill: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/engineering/grill-with-docs/SKILL.md
Lenny's AI Builders - LAB 0006
watch the episode: https://youtu.be/DAkQhc7Fh3U
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15min
September 28, 2026 OpenAI says its ai solved over 100 maths problems. now what? | LAB 0005
i looked at OpenAI's reported maths results, the GPT-6 Sol and Opus 5.5 price fight, Grok 4.7, Muse with Shopify and Qwen-Image-2.1. Then i gave Astra my existing LAB brand and asked for a matching thumbnail, banner and podcast cover. Astra directed the work in Codex; native ImageGen made the images. I show the finished set, the references and the checks. Give it your brand first.
The maths result is OpenAI's claim, not an independently established result here. Some model details were reported or rumoured when this was recorded. Qwen's downloadable model needs suitable hardware.
Threadify sponsors this episode. It helps turn replies on your Threads posts into lead signals for you to review:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0005&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0005&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=context&lp_variant=plans
sources and updates:
OpenAI updates: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/changelog
Claude Opus 5.5: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5
Fable plan limits: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15424964-claude-fable-models-on-your-plan
Muse announcement: https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/
Qwen-Image-2.1 implementation: https://github.com/QwenLM/Qwen-Image-2.1
watch the episode: https://youtu.be/452rqqtYIyg
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10min
September 28, 2026 OpenAI and Anthropic are investigating 10,000s of AI incidents | LAB 0009
OpenAI and Anthropic are looking into tens of thousands of times their models went off script. that's one of six AI stories this week - then i scored GPT-6 Astra on BuilderBench, the benchmark i built for builders, and tracked what it cost.
the stories: Axios reports OpenAI, Anthropic and security researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents where frontier models did things outside evaluators would call problematic (unnamed sources - labs run hundreds of thousands of tests, and most aren't known to have caused real harm), the OpenAI DevDay countdown and what leaked from OpenAI's code (an always-on agent called "o" and an ultrafast speed tier - leaks, not announced), the new ChatGPT app sidebar that made it feel like my whole computer, Tibo saying more resets are coming next week, David Ondrej saying his Opus 5.5 usage barely moves on the Claude Max plan, and a claim that Sonnet 5.5 could land on DevDay (Anthropic has only said "in the coming weeks").
the result: GPT-6 Astra scored 53.75 out of 100 on BuilderBench v2. on v1, Opus 5.5 scored 68.26 and GPT-6 Sol scored 45.55. Astra's estimated API cost was $87.50 ($88.65 with calibration), vs $49.67 for Opus 5.5 and $12.75 for GPT-6 Sol. so Astra cost about $38 more than Opus 5.5 and scored just under 15 points lower. my own scores, still provisional, and Astra ran on v2 while the others ran on v1 - not a perfect head-to-head.
try it yourself: run this prompt on a real task. "here is a real task from my work: [task]. here is what done looks like: [checklist]. do the whole job, then list every file you made, how long it took, and anything you could not finish." your work is the benchmark.
Threadify, my own software, sponsors this episode. it's a lead generation agent for Threads that finds the buyer signals in the comments you're already getting. see the plans and the free trial here:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0009&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0009&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=sponsor&lp_variant=plans
want to sponsor a future LAB episode? email [email protected]
sources:
Madison Mills (Axios) on X: https://x.com/MadisonMills22/status/2103978039097037144
Axios, the full report: https://www.axios.com/2026/09/26/openai-anthropic-thousands-ai-security-incidents
an OpenAI researcher on pausing big RL runs (one researcher's post, not an official statement): https://x.com/tomekkorbak/status/2103673419888013649
OpenAI Devs, the DevDay countdown: https://x.com/OpenAIDevs/status/2103929727761137940
the always-on agent "o" (leak, not announced): https://x.com/kimmonismus/status/2103823673954087231
the ultrafast tier in the agents API (leak, not announced): https://x.com/chetaslua/status/2103862976600305681
the new sidebar, side by side: https://x.com/DevAdventur3s/status/2103850957054546433
Tibo on more resets: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2103963215885701493
David Ondrej on Opus 5.5 usage: https://x.com/DavidOndrej1/status/2103887205781635485
Anthropic's CPO on Sonnet 5.5 "in the coming weeks": https://x.com/mikeyk/status/2102441803253535060
Jazii on Sonnet 5.5 (claim, not confirmed): https://x.com/notjazii/status/2103884167104831573
Lenny's AI Builders - LAB 0009
watch the episode: https://youtu.be/UntVig8wMb8
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13min
September 27, 2026 OpenAI says its AI agents just went rogue | LAB 0008
six AI stories this week, then a test: i gave Claude Opus 5.5 the same prompt at every effort level - low, medium, high, xhigh and max - and tracked the time and cost of each.
the stories: OpenAI says its research agents used misaligned strategies about two dozen times in training and testing (most low severity, review still going), Vercel's AI Gateway token spend shifting toward OpenAI and open-weight models, a reported $500 ChatGPT Pro Max plan (not announced by OpenAI), Claude's new plugin portal, Claude Code stopping gracefully at your five-hour limit, and the UK's draft advice on using AI.
the result: low took 32 seconds and cost $0.48. medium took 56 seconds and cost $0.56. high took 2 minutes and cost $0.75. xhigh took 8 minutes and cost $1.70. max took 31 minutes and cost $6.09. my pick: start on high, not max. one run per level, list-price estimates - not a benchmark.
try it yourself: run the same task at low, medium, high, xhigh and max effort. for each, record how long it took, what it cost and whether the result is usable. then pick your default.
Threadify, my own software, sponsors this episode. It finds leads in your Threads conversations and drafts content in your voice. See the plans and the free trial here:
https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=lab-0008&utm_content=youtube-description-primary&video_slug=lab-0008&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=sponsor&lp_variant=plans
want to sponsor a future LAB episode? email [email protected]
chapters:
00:00 six AI stories, then an Opus 5.5 test
00:33 OpenAI says its agents went rogue
01:59 Vercel's AI spend shifts toward OpenAI
03:21 a $500 ChatGPT Pro Max plan?
04:45 Threadify sponsor
06:05 Claude's plugin portal and MCP
06:59 Claude Code stops gracefully at your limit
08:02 the UK's AI advice
09:45 Opus 5.5: which effort level?
11:26 same prompt, five effort levels
12:35 is max worth it? start on high
13:37 wrap-up
sources:
OpenAI, The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/
Guillermo Rauch on Vercel AI Gateway token spend: https://x.com/rauchg/status/2103216656747262419
TestingCatalog on ChatGPT Pro Max (reported, not announced): https://www.testingcatalog.com/openai-prepares-new-500-month-pro-max-plan-for-chatgpt/
Claude plugin portal: https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2103577007938228300
Claude Code graceful stop at your limit: https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2103561342057943314
UK AI knowledge hub draft guidance: https://knowledgehub.dev.ai.gov.uk/how-to/ethics
Thariq, Using Claude Code: spending your effort: https://x.com/trq212/article/2103576349499855160
Lenny's AI Builders - LAB 0008
watch the video: https://youtu.be/CX1kTlmX6Eg
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14min
September 26, 2026 an OpenAI agent vs the Australian government, and a blind model test | LAB 0007
four AI stories this week, then a blind test. i hid the model names, made GPT-6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5 do the same eight builder jobs, scored the work, and only then revealed who was who.
the stories: ChatGPT voice can now use plugins, an agent developed by OpenAI got into an Australian government statistics portal (still under investigation, with no confirmed personal-record exposure), Meta's new Muse personal agent (Muse Charm was shown, not shipped yet), and Claude finding a new enzyme system (early days, and what it does is still unknown).
the result: Opus 5.5 scored 68.26 and GPT-6 Sol scored 45.55 on my first BuilderBench run. Sol cost $12.75 in API-equivalent estimates and Opus cost $49.67. one pilot run, scored blind by me - not a universal ranking.
try it yourself: give two AI setups the same real weekly task. hide which is which. judge the finished work against a written definition of useful, then record the time and cost before you reveal.
this audio comes from the video episode, so some parts refer to the screen. watch the full video for the scoreboard and outputs: https://youtu.be/gemdUTKofSg
full BuilderBench results: https://lennoxsaint.com/lab/builderbench/2026-09-24-pilot
this episode includes a self-sponsored segment for my software, Threadify: https://www.threadify.app/plans?utm_source=lenny-podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=lab-0007&utm_content=show-notes&video_slug=lab-0007&cta_slot=description&entry_angle=sponsor&lp_variant=plans
sources:
ChatGPT release notes (voice plugins): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes
Australian Prime Minister's press conference: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-new-york
Meta on Muse: https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/
Anthropic on the enzyme discovery: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-discovers-novel-enzyme-system
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15min
September 22, 2026 Jev and CUA-S1 browser demos - take your AI skills with you | LAB 0004
i got tired of giving my AI the same feedback. in this episode, i show the thumbnail changes that led me to make a remember-this skill. first, the news: the Codex reset request, Jev browser clicks, CUA-S1 forms, moving skills between AI apps, handoff files, Claude's role in AI research, and Astra for Law.
watch the full video for the screen demos and visual examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S7eR8VSgVI
grab my free goal skill: https://github.com/lennoxsaint/Skills/tree/main/goal
recorded 20 September 2026. the reset discussion reflects what was known when i filmed. the computer-use clips are source demos, not my own speed or cost tests. my view of how legal jobs may change is a prediction, not a measured employment result.
this episode includes a self-sponsored segment for my software, Threadify.
sources:
Tibo's reset reply: https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2101352781219258527
Shiv's Jev browser demo: https://x.com/sxhivs/status/2101367048223982065
CUA-S1 announcement: https://x.com/trycua/status/2101014004927729737
Riley on moving skills between AI apps: https://x.com/rileybrown/status/2101027402369335382
Vox's handoff prompt: https://x.com/Voxyz_ai/status/2101325439805583554
Anthropic's AI research measurements: https://www.anthropic.com/institute/measuring-pace-of-ai-development
OpenAI's Astra for Law announcement: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2100679992720142459
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15min
September 21, 2026 Jev is free, ChatGPT gets Chrome extensions + 4 AI updates | LAB 0003
six AI updates, my take on each, and the Email Triage Pro workflow i keep pinned. recorded 19 September 2026. offers, pricing and account access may have changed since recording. the Pro 20x story is a limited-access report, not an official general reopening announcement. field notes: https://notes.lennoxsaint.com/posts/lab-0003 video: https://youtu.be/6ABasoGZY9Q
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12min
September 20, 2026 OpenAI model misalignment reports - Claude can do more now | LAB 0002
OpenAI published a framework for tracking, investigating and disclosing model misalignment. Claude is merging chat and Cowork. Grok Bot says its 1Password connection asks before each fill. then i show how one voice dump became two focused Codex threads.
get the full field notes, every source and the copyable voice-conductor prompt:
https://notes.lennoxsaint.com/lab-002
in this episode:
- what OpenAI's model-misalignment framework says and what it does not prove
- Claude bringing chat, Cowork, docs, slides and design into one place
- Grok Bot using 1Password with approval before each fill
- Nick Baumann's GPT-6 Astra motion-design workflow
- Meta's Muse invite-code token offer
- how my pinned voice conductor split one messy prompt into two focused Codex threads
try the conductor setup:
https://github.com/lennoxsaint/caps-productivity-kit
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/feZOnyZ5ySQ
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13min

FAQs about Lenny’s AI Builders:

How many episodes does Lenny’s AI Builders have?

The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.