AI Research
Discuss Introduces “Vibe Coding” and Hybrid AI + Human Market Insight Platform
New release introduces vibe coding for market insights, enabling any team to combine AI-moderated research with the depth of human-led conversations.
SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As AI-moderated interviews reshape qualitative research, many companies frame it as a choice between automation or human connection. Discuss, the only global market insights platform proven to deliver both, today announced new features that cement the hybrid model of AI-led and human-led research as the industry’s new normal. Trusted by global brands including Mastercard, Danone, Dexcom, and Suntory, Discuss enables teams to move at the speed of AI while preserving the empathy and cultural nuance that live human conversations can deliver.
This release also introduces a concept Discuss is calling vibe coding for market insights. Borrowed from software development, where AI turns natural-language instructions into code, vibe coding in consumer research democratizes insight access, allowing non-researchers to stay close to customers with a platform that lets AI handle the heavy lifting from finding participants, to running interviews, to surfacing themes and insights.
“AI-moderated research is here to stay, and rightly so. It has forever changed how quickly teams can gain a quick pulse on their audiences,” said Simon Glass, CEO of Discuss. “But no amount of technological advancement can replace the human bond. Speed without empathy is just noise. This release builds on what we’ve been doing for years: combining AI and human research so teams don’t have to choose. We see it less as an ‘either or’ choice and more as a practical evolution and we’re proud to be leading it.”
Key Feature Highlights
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Turn past qual projects into a living knowledge base: The Enhanced Insights Agent leverages GenAI to automatically find answers to key questions across research, breaking down silos and making qualitative data instantly searchable.
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Scale consumer closeness for every use case with AI-led video interviews: Designed for real-time qual at scale, the enhanced Interview Agent now enables teams to test concepts, get UX feedback, run shop-alongs and gain consumer closeness.
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Find your target audience in hours, not weeks: Enhanced Project Agent is like a virtual assistant that builds screeners. It recruits from 3M+ vetted global participants representing B2B, B2C, and healthcare, with responses in under an hour.
Feature Details
Insights Agent: Building Knowledge Across Projects
Q: How can I reuse past research without starting from scratch?
For years, qualitative insights have lived in silos, forgotten after each project. With new Cross-Project Summaries, Discuss Insights Agent turns those silos into a searchable, evolving knowledge base. Teams can now synthesize insights across both AI-moderated and human-led projects, spotting consumer behavior shifts and answering new questions without repeating work. Instead of treating each study as an isolated exercise, researchers can build a living repository that grows in value over time.
AI Research
Who is Shawn Shen? The Cambridge alumnus and ex-Meta scientist offering $2M to poach AI researchers
Shawn Shen, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Memories.ai, has made headlines for offering compensation packages worth up to $2 million to attract researchers from top technology companies. In a recent interview with Business Insider, Shen explained that many scientists are leaving Meta, the parent company of Facebook, due to constant reorganisations and shifting priorities.“Meta is constantly doing reorganizations. Your manager and your goals can change every few months. For some researchers, it can be really frustrating and feel like a waste of time,” Shen told Business Insider, adding that this is a key reason why researchers are seeking roles at startups. He also cited Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy that “the biggest risk is not taking any risks” as a motivation for his own move into entrepreneurship.With Memories.ai, a company developing AI capable of understanding and remembering visual data, Shen is aiming to build a niche team of elite researchers. His company has already recruited Chi-Hao Wu, a former Meta research scientist, as Chief AI Officer, and is in talks with other researchers from Meta’s Superintelligence Lab as well as Google DeepMind.
From full scholarships to Cambridge classrooms
Shen’s academic journey is rooted in engineering, supported consistently by merit-based scholarships. He studied at Dulwich College from 2013 to 2016 on a full scholarship, completing his A-Level qualifications.He then pursued higher education at the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded full scholarships throughout. Shen earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Engineering (2016–2019), followed by a Master of Engineering (MEng) at Trinity College (2019–2020). He later continued at Cambridge as a Meta PhD Fellow, completing his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Engineering between 2020 and 2023.
Early career: Internships in finance and research
Alongside his academic pursuits, Shen gained early experience through internships and analyst roles in finance. He worked as a Quantitative Research Summer Analyst at Killik & Co in London (2017) and as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Morgan Stanley in Shanghai (2018).Shen also interned as a Research Scientist at the Computational and Biological Learning Lab at the University of Cambridge (2019), building the foundations for his transition into advanced AI research.
From Meta’s Reality Labs to academia
After completing his PhD, Shen joined Meta (Reality Labs Research) in Redmond, Washington, as a Research Scientist (2022–2024). His time at Meta exposed him to cutting-edge work in generative AI, but also to the frustrations of frequent corporate restructuring. This experience eventually drove him toward building his own company.In April 2024, Shen began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Bristol, before launching Memories.ai in October 2024.
Betting on talent with $2M offers
Explaining his company’s aggressive hiring packages, Shen told Business Insider: “It’s because of the talent war that was started by Mark Zuckerberg. I used to work at Meta, and I speak with my former colleagues often about this. When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked — it’s really in the tens of millions range. But it shows that in this age, AI researchers who make the best models and stand at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money.”Shen noted that Memories.ai is looking to recruit three to five researchers in the next six months, followed by up to ten more within a year. The company is prioritising individuals willing to take a mix of equity and cash, with Shen emphasising that these recruits would be treated as founding members rather than employees.By betting heavily on talent, Shen believes Memories.ai will be in a strong position to secure additional funding and establish itself in the competitive AI landscape.His bold $2 million offers may raise eyebrows, but they also underline a larger truth: in today’s technology race, the fiercest competition is not for customers or capital, it’s for talent.
AI Research
JUPITER: Europe’s First Exascale Supercomputer Powers AI and Climate Research | Ukraine news
The Jupiter supercomputer at the Jülich Research Centre, Germany, September 5, 2025.
Getty Images/INA FASSBENDER/AFP
As reported by the European Commission’s press service
At the Jülich Research Center in Germany, on September 5, the ceremonial opening of the supercomputer JUPITER took place – the first in Europe to surpass the exaflop performance threshold. The system is capable of performing more than one quintillion operations per second, according to the European Commission’s press service.
According to the EU, JUPITER runs entirely on renewable energy sources and features advanced cooling and heat disposal systems. It also topped the Green500 global energy-efficiency ranking.
The supercomputer is located on a site covering more than 2,300 square meters and comprises about 50 modular containers. It is currently the fourth-fastest supercomputer in the world.
JUPITER is capable of running high-resolution climate and meteorological models with kilometer-scale resolution, which allows more accurate forecasts of extreme events – from heat waves to floods.
Role in the European AI ecosystem and industrial developments
In addition, the system will form the backbone of the future European AI factory JAIF, which will train large language models and other generative technologies.
The investment in JUPITER amounts to about 500 million euros – a joint project of the EU and Germany under the EuroHPC programme. This is part of a broader strategy to build a network of AI gigafactories that will provide industry and science with the capabilities to develop new models and technologies.
It is expected that the deployment of JUPITER will strengthen European research-industrial initiatives and enhance the EU’s competitiveness on the global stage in the field of artificial intelligence and scientific developments.
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THE Philippines cannot rely on new technology alone to thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. Strong governance policies must come first — this was the central call of the 2025 Development Policy Research Month (DPRM), which opened on Sept. 1 with a push for AI rules that reflect national realities.
“Policy research provides the guardrails that help governments adopt technology responsibly,” said PIDS president Dr. Philip Arnold Tuano. Without such guardrails, he warned, the benefits of AI may never outweigh the risks.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT The 2025 Development Policy Research Month kicked off with a push for AI rules that reflect the country’s realities. PHOTO FROM PIDS
Established under Proclamation 247 (2002), DPRM highlights the role of policy research in shaping evidence-based strategies. This year’s theme, “Reimagining Governance in the Age of AI,” underscores that while AI offers tools for efficiency and transparency, policies must come first to address risks such as digital exclusion, bias, cybersecurity threats, and workforce displacement.
PIDS, as lead coordinator, works with an interagency steering committee that includes the BSP, CSC, DBM, DILG, legislative policy offices, PIA, PMS, and now the Department of Science and Technology, which joins for the first time, given its role in AI research and governance.
The highlight is the 11th Annual Public Policy Conference on Sept. 18 at New World Hotel Makati, featuring global experts. Activities nationwide will amplify the campaign, supported by the hashtag #AIforGoodGovernance.
Learn more at https://dprm.pids.gov.ph.
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