TechCheck Takes: Justice for AI “wrappers” — the rise of the app layer 4/30/25

TechCheck

CNBC

Disruptors, Investing, Faang, Technology, Business, Management, Cnbc, Tech

4.8 • 56 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Early in the AI race, apps like Perplexity, Cursor, Sesame and Abridge were known pejoratively as “wrappers,” describing the way their either app or business was wrapped around existing AI models. Critics called them as second-rate middlemen, slapping an interface on someone else’s technology while companies like OpenAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic developed their own models. Now, that thesis is changing. Wrappers have changed the way Silicon Valley builds, ushering in the era of vibe-coding.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What do AI apps, perplexity, Replact, Harvey, and a bridge all have in common?
0:05.0	Breakthrough products.
0:06.0	Want a custom workout plan?
0:08.0	Make an app for that.
0:10.0	Have a great idea at 2 AM?
0:12.0	Make an app for that.
0:14.0	Viral uptake in tech circles.
0:16.0	Hey there, tech check audience, I bet I'm the most natural sounding AI you ever heard.
0:19.0	Billions of dollars in funding.
0:21.4	AI startup perplexity I'm hearing is in talks to raise another mega round of funding
0:26.8	that would roughly double its valuation to $18 billion.
0:30.5	And they all started without having to build proprietary models.
0:34.5	These rappers on chat sheet, BT, they're just rapper companies.
0:38.7	These AI apps, also known as rappers, they are the new darlings of the AI world, pioneering
0:44.1	major breakthroughs and agents and AI first coding.
0:47.8	I'm Deer DeRbosa with the Tech Check Take.
0:50.0	It's what's on the outside.
0:51.9	The counts. It's what's on the outside.
1:05.7	A new agent tool out of China, Manus. It has been called China's next deep seek moment.
1:08.7	In this example, we ask Madness to help screen resumes.
1:11.7	A viral demo showing Manus planning travel and creating whole websites, all with simple prompts.
1:17.1	A Chinese startup unveiling a new AI agent that some are calling China's next deep seek moment.
	...

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