During a recent episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, Aman Sanger, one of the creators of Cursor (by Anysphere), expressed his belief that while Microsoft has achieved many great things, they may not be in the best position to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries in the same way a startup can. When asked about how Cursor, a newer startup, could compete with a well-established Microsoft product like Copilot, Sanger explained that the tech giant lacked the necessary research and experimentation to truly push the limits. This sentiment was echoed by Fridman, who noted that when comparing Cursor to Copilot, the latter can quickly start to feel stagnant. Sualeh Asif, co-founder of Anysphere, added that when they started Cursor, they were frustrated by the lack of progress in Copilot’s capabilities, despite advancements in AI models like OpenAI’s o1. He expressed a desire for new features and experimentation, which he felt were lacking in Copilot. Arvid Lunnemark, another co-founder of Anysphere, described Cursor as an all-in-one platform for developers, emphasizing the importance of seamless integration and collaboration within teams. Fridman noted that the Cursor team is rapidly implementing new features while also conducting research and experimentation to push the boundaries. The founding team of Anysphere, which includes Truell, Asif, Lunnemark, and Sanger, were inspired by VSCode and Microsoft Copilot, and gaining early access to GPT-4o served as the foundation for building Cursor. Recently, GitHub integrated OpenAI’s o1 model into Copilot, which the Cursor team sees as a key move in competing with their product. However, they are also experimenting with integrating the o1 model into the Cursor editor. While there is curiosity from programmers, it is not yet a default experience as a clear use case has not emerged. The Cursor team remains optimistic about the future of their product and the potential for continued innovation in the field of AI-powered coding.
