- AI Fire
- Posts
- 🧠 Humans Lost CFA
In partnership with
AI just passed the CFA. All three levels. Including the written one. Google, OpenAI, and others didn’t announce this loudly. But the signal is clear: the hardest finance exam in the world is no longer a human-only filter.
What's on FIRE 🔥
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BLOOMSBURY
The human edge is the only sustainable competitive moat. Learn how to integrate Nitin Seth's POSSIBLE Framework - from superior Problem-Solving to innovative Leadership - into your founding strategy. Stop chasing AI features; start mastering value creation.
AI INSIGHTS
AI used to fail finance exams. Now it passes all three CFA levels, including the hardest one with written portfolio answers.
This paper tests modern reasoning models on real CFA questions (2024 - 2025). It’s a peer-style research study from teams linked to Columbia University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, including researchers from SecureFinAI Lab.
The shift is clear.
Before (2023 - 2024):
→ ChatGPT fails Level II or III
→ GPT-4 struggles with synthesis
→ Level III written answers were the wall
Now (2025):
→ GPT-5 passes all levels
→ Gemini 3.0 Pro scores above 90%
→ Level III is no longer a blocker
What was tested:
• 980 CFA-style questions
• All three levels
• Includes written portfolio answers
Key results:
• Gemini 3.0 Pro → 97.6% (L1), 93.2% (L2), 92% written (L3)
• GPT-5 → 96%+ on L1 & L2, passes L3
• Claude, Grok, DeepSeek → all pass
• Older models still struggle on Level III
What actually improved:
• Quant finance is no longer the bottleneck
• Written reasoning works (portfolio synthesis, not memorization)
• Ethics is still hardest (judgment > rules)
Why it matters: The CFA is a proxy for real analyst-level thinking. If AI can pass all levels, finance work shifts from doing → reviewing. Math is solved. Judgment is the last line.
PRESENTED BY LEVANTA
Why AI Isn’t Replacing Affiliate Marketing After All
“AI will make affiliate marketing irrelevant.”
Our new research shows the opposite.
Levanta surveyed 1,000 US consumers to understand how AI is influencing the buying journey. The findings reveal a clear pattern: shoppers use AI tools to explore options, but they continue to rely on human-driven content before making a purchase.
Here is what the data shows:
Less than 10% of shoppers click AI-recommended links
Nearly 87% discover products on social platforms or blogs before purchasing on marketplaces
Review sites rank higher in trust than AI assistants
AI SOURCES FROM AI FIRE
1. We tested 289 AI tools. Here’re the only 12 "Money-Making" ones you need. This guide reveals the proven stack that actually cuts costs going into 2026
2. 10 Mega Prompts for GPT 5.2 to make you outsmart every other OpenAI user. This is the unfair advantage you need for your work. You can also just download the template if you want
FIRE RECAP: BIGGEST AI NEWS THIS WEEK
🎬 Disney licensed 200+ characters for Sora and put $1B into OpenAI, making Sora Hollywood-approved at scale.
🚀 OpenAI released GPT-5.2, a major upgrade built for long-running agents and complex workflows via GPT-5.2.
🧑💻 GPT-5.2-Codex targets large repos, migrations, and security-aware coding, signaling a real shift toward Codex-driven dev work.
⚡ Google made Gemini 3 Flash the default, pushing faster responses and stronger multimodal results inside Gemini.
🔌 Anthropic opened Agent Skills as an interoperability standard, aiming to define how agents connect through Agent Skills.
TODAY IN AI
AI HIGHLIGHTS
🍰 ChatGPT now lets you tune its vibe via Personalization. You can adjust warmth, emoji use, and pick styles like quirky, pro, or cynical right in Settings.
📱 Google confirmed Gemini fully replacing Assistant slips to 2026. The real issue: Gemini may not support older smart devices that rely on Assistant for setup.
🧠 Andrej Karpathy’s 2025 LLM recap highlights RLVR as the big shift - longer “thinking time” now directly boosts reasoning, while benchmarks get easier to game.
🦊 Firefox will add a full AI kill switch after user backlash. All AI features can be disabled, with rollout planned for Q1 2026.
💼 Sam Altman says he’s “0%” excited to run a public company, even as OpenAI hints at an IPO. Public markets help raise capital, but he admits the tradeoffs are real.
🤝 AI M&A / Acquisitions: Cursor acquired Graphite, an AI code review startup last valued at $290M after a $52M Series B. Axios says Cursor paid “way over” that valuation. Backed by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, the deal combines AI code writing with AI code review to speed up shipping for developers.
NEW EMPOWERED AI TOOLS
🧪 FrontierScience by OpenAI benchmarks expert-level scientific reasoning, spanning physics, chemistry & biology.
📝 NoteGPT is a summary-first AI note taker for meetings, videos, articles & podcasts.
🎙️ NOIZ AI lets you send emotional voice messages with emojis, shaping tone, pauses & feeling.
📊 cto.bench measures real-world code agent performance, built from actual production work.
AI BREAKTHROUGH
Google Research had a strong 2025. The focus was clear: move research into real products, fast.
AI became more reliable: Years of work made Gemini 3 more factual and less likely to hallucinate. This now powers Search, the Gemini app, and Vertex AI.
Generative UI went live: Gemini can now generate visual pages and interactive views, not just text. This is already live in Search AI Mode.
AI helped scientists: Google launched AI co-scientist, a multi-agent system that helps form and test hypotheses. At Stanford University, it helped speed up drug research.
Quantum hit a milestone: Google showed a real quantum advantage. Its Willow chip ran one task 13,000× faster than classical computers.
Earth AI went practical: FireSat satellites can now spot small wildfires early, helping first responders.
Why it matters: Google’s 2025 wasn’t about bigger models. It was about turning research into tools people already use.
We read your emails, comments, and poll replies daily
How would you rate today’s newsletter?Your feedback helps us create the best newsletter possible |
Hit reply and say Hello – we'd love to hear from you!
Like what you're reading? Forward it to friends, and they can sign up here.
Cheers,
The AI Fire Team
Reply