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Apparently, it's going to be a week of Apple updates and it kicks off with the iPhone 17e and an M4 iPad Air. AWS service is struggling in the Middle East. An important ruling in terms of AI copyright. Anthropic makes it easy to switch to Claude. And what exactly went on with that whole Pentagon/Anthropic dispute. ⁠Apple announces the iPhone 17E⁠ (The Verge) ⁠Apple speeds up the iPad Air with an M4 upgrade, starting at $599 ⁠(TechCrunch) ⁠Amazon's cloud unit reports fire after objects hit UAE data center ⁠(Reuters) ⁠US Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over copyrights for AI-generated material⁠ (Reuters) ⁠Anthropic's Claude can now absorb your past conversations with other AI chatbots⁠ (Engadget) ⁠Inside Anthropic's Killer-Robot Dispute With the Pentagon⁠ (The Atlantic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've got everything for you today. OpenAI closed its round. Anthropic draws a line with the Pentagon and Sam Altman supports it. A huge AI inspired layoff round, maybe. Netflix walks away from the deal, and, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. OpenAI announces $110 billion funding round with backing from Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank (CNBC) Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines in Pentagon fight (Axios) Employees at Google and OpenAI support Anthropic's Pentagon stand in open letter (TechCrunch) Block shares soar as much as 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half (CNBC) Netflix ditches deal for Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount's offer is deemed superior (CNBC) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nano Banana 2 is here already. Nvidia tries to assure everybody there IS no bubble. Marc Benioff tries to assure everybody there IS not SaaS-pocalypse. Did Google just do exactly what Apple has been unable to do? And how do you put an old AI model out to pasture? You give it a Substack. Google's Nano Banana 2 brings advanced AI image tools to free users (The Verge) Nvidia Shares Slide After Sales Forecast Underwhelms Investors (Bloomberg) Salesforce chief dismisses ‘SaaS-pocalypse' fears of AI overtaking business software (FT) New York sues video game developer Valve, says its 'loot boxes' are gambling (Reuters) Google and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn't with Siri (The Verge) Cloudflare experiment ports most of Next.js API 'in one week' with AI (The Register) Anthropic gives its retired Claude AI a Substack (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Galaxy S26 lineup is here. Remote control for Claude is here. But is Anthropic about to wash its hands when it comes to working with the Pentagon? Could Stripe buy PayPal. Oh, and speaking of AI and war, you might not want to hear how often AI chose thermonuclear war when it was asked to play a wargame. I tried the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and need the Privacy Display feature on my iPhone ASAP (ZDNet) Gemini is getting its first agentic capabilities (The Verge) Exclusive: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards (Axios) Anthropic digs in heels in dispute with Pentagon, source says (Axios) Anthropic just released a mobile version of Claude Code called Remote Control (VentureBeat) Payments Processor Stripe Expresses Interest in PayPal (Bloomberg) AI Models Deployed Nuclear Weapons in 95% of War Game Simulations, Study Finds (Implicator.ai) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That AI essay I shared with you yesterday sure got Wall Street's attention. Anthropic says Chinese models are training off of Claude. A significant new breakthrough in chip production technology. And as fun as that tri-fold phone might be, you probably want to wait for later iterations of the form factor. Software Stocks Are Having Another Ugly Day (WSJ) Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude (WSJ) Meta and AMD Agree to AI Chips Deal Worth More Than $100 Billion (WSJ) Exclusive: ASML unveils EUV light source advance that could yield 50% more chips by 2030 (Reuters) Putting Samsung's $2,899 TriFold To the Test as a Phone, Tablet and Laptop (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Altman has a lot of stuff to say about AI and let's just say comms needs to have a quiet word with him. SaaS may or may not be dead, but is the replacement vertical AI? And a big thought experiment. If the AI bulls are right and AI transforms the economy, what might that look like? Sam Altman Says Companies Are ‘AI Washing' Layoffs (Gizmodo) People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much. (NYTimes) Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too (TechCrunch) Half the AI Agent Market Is One Category. The Rest Is Wide Open. (Garry's List) Google Restricts AI Ultra Subscribers Over OpenClaw OAuth, Days After Anthropic Ban (Implicator.ai) THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS (Citrini Research) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When your AI bot breaks your operations, even when you're AWS. More on OpenAI's hardware plans. Hey, remember Perplexity? What's up with them? Is Uber roadkill in the self-driving car horserace? And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Amazon service was taken down by AI coding bot (FT) Ex-Googlers Charged With Stealing Phone Processor Secrets (Bloomberg) OpenAI Plans to Price Smart Speaker at $200 to $300, as AI Device Team Takes Shape (The Information) Microsoft has a new plan to prove what's real and what's AI online (MIT Technology Review) Perplexity's Retreat From Ads Signals a Bigger Strategic Shift (Wired) Uber, Latest Victim of Disruption Panic, Still Has Role in Robotaxis (WSJ) Weekend Longreads Suggestion: Who needs a laptop when you have a folding phone? (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gemini is getting with the increased cadence of AI releases. Honestly, can we even keep up at this point? A dispatch from the social media trial as Zuck takes the stand. At long last, Amazon dethrones Walmart. Apple seems poised to unleash a slew of AI wearables. And the new storage system to preserve data, Canticle for Leibowitz-style. Google announces Gemini 3.1 Pro for ‘complex problem-solving' (9to5Google) Mark Zuckerberg said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss ‘wellbeing of teens and kids' (CNBC) Amazon Dethrones Walmart as World's Biggest Company by Sales (Bloomberg) Apple Ramps Up Work on Glasses, Pendant, and Camera AirPods for AI Era (Bloomberg) Microsoft's Glass Chip Holds Terabytes of Data for 10,000 Years (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New pixel phone. A bunch of new AI models including Gemini's entry into the music AI space. Everybody is trying to make AI fetch happen in India. And Matthew Ball's state of the gaming industry report doesn't paint as gloomy a picture as our own headlines might have suggested this year. The Pixel 10A is a little too much like last year's phone (The Verge) Anthropic releases Sonnet 4.6 (TechCrunch) Google's AI music maker is coming to the Gemini app (The Verge) Adani bets $100 billion on data centres to power India's AI ambitions (Reuters) Nvidia secures multibillion-dollar Meta deal as it battles chip rivals (FT) Global game content sales rose 5.3% to $195.6bn in 2025 (GamesIndustry.biz) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big regulatory guns are out for Grok. Memory chip shortage now hit the Steam Deck. Manus is already coming to your favorite messaging app. Turns out Buy Now Pay Later really works for vacations. And another lengthy AI essay, this time detailing what it's doing, and has the potential to do to SaaS companies. EU privacy watchdog opens probe into Elon Musk's X over sexualised AI images (FT) Valve's Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently' out of stock because of the RAM crisis (The Verge) Raspberry Pi soars 40% as CEO buys stock, AI chatter builds (Reuters) Meta-owned Manus launches AI agents on Telegram (SiliconRepublic) Airbnb expands its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” globally (TechCrunch) 10 Years Building Vertical Software: My Perspective on the Selloff (@nicbstme) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenClaw's creator is joining OpenAI, but the OpenClaw project lives on. The AI-caused memory shortage might delay the next Playstation. Is the Pentagon about to cut ties with Anthropic? And Vitalik Buterin is growing concerned with the prediction markets. OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI (The Verge) Peter Steinberger Chose OpenAI. The Code Was Never the Point. (Implicator.AI) Rampant AI Demand for Memory Is Fueling a Growing Chip Crisis (Bloomberg) ByteDance to curb AI video app after Disney legal threat (BBC) Exclusive: Pentagon threatens to cut off Anthropic in AI safeguards dispute (Axios) The hidden infrastructure crisis in mortgage and real estate finance that only tokenization can solve (Crypto.news) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buy Chris' book: How To AI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthropic raises the second largest financing round of all time. Other AI players are beginning to show hockey stick revenue growth. Meta wants to add facial recognition to its glasses. Ring pulls back from some recognition partnerships for its camera. And, of course, your Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Anthropic closes $30 billion funding round as cash keeps flowing into top AI startups (CNBC) Enterprise AI startup Cohere tops revenue target as momentum builds to IPO: Investor memo (CNBC) Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses (NYTimes) Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The AI Gold Rush Is Breaking a Silicon Valley Taboo: Cashing Out Before the IPO (WSJ) The New Fabio Is Claude (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaannddd…. Right on time here come the Chinese AI models. Elon Musk kicks off a major reorg of xAI. Google is warning of AI distillation attacks. New Waymo cars hit the road. And another interesting AI essay to read to you. Chinese AI startup Zhipu releases new flagship model GLM-5 (Reuters) Musk announces xAI re-org following co-founder departures, SpaceX merger (CNBC) Elon Musk Wants to Build an A.I. Satellite Factory on the Moon (NYTimes) Google says attackers used 100,000+ prompts to try to clone AI chatbot Gemini (NBCNews) Waymo begins deploying next-gen Ojai robotaxis to extend its U.S. lead (CNBC) The AI Vampire (Steve Yegge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls? ⁠Something Big Is Happening⁠ (Matt Shumer) ⁠OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode' Fired for Sexual Discrimination⁠ (WSJ) ⁠TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users' precise location⁠ (TechCrunch) ⁠T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app⁠ (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, have you hit the ads in ChatGPT yet, cause they're there. Spotify comes out of nowhere with killer good earnings. The coming tidal wave of Chinese AI launches. The coming deluge of social media trials. And does AI usage reduce the amount of work you do, or actually compound it? OpenAI begins testing ads in ChatGPT (Mashable) Spotify Shares Surge After Adding Record Number of New Users (Bloomberg) Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance Offer AI Red Packets to Lure Users (Bloomberg) New Mexico lawsuit accuses Meta of failing to protect children from sexual exploitation online (AP) AI Doesn't Reduce Work, It Intensifies It (HBR) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Altman assures staff that OpenAI has a good week, but is Anthropic definitively growing faster at this point? Is the CapEx spend about to eat ALL of Silicon Valley's free cashflow while Apple sits out the party? And the Crypto.com guy runs the same playbook but now with Ai.com. Sam Altman touts ChatGPT's reaccelerating growth to employees as OpenAI closes in on $100 billion funding (CNBC) How Capex Ramp Up Will Squeeze Google, Amazon, Meta (The Information) Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter (Sherwood) A New AI Video Model From ByteDance is Making Waves (PetaPixel) Claude Code is the Inflection Point (SemiAnalysis) Crypto.com CEO unveils new AI agents to millions during Super Bowl (CoinTelegraph) From Svedka to Anthropic, brands make bold plays with AI in Super Bowl ads (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claude Opus 4.6 arrives to crown Anthropic's very good week, at least, for them it was good. You thought tech was spending big to build out for AI, but this week we've seen how big. Crypto seems to have really hit a sharp bear market. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, tv piracy is back, baby! Anthropic Releases New Model That's Adept at Financial Research (Bloomberg) Anthropic debuts new model with hopes to corner the market beyond coding (The Verge) Big Tech to Spend $650 Billion This Year as AI Race Intensifies (Bloomberg) Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design' and Pushes for Change (NYTimes) Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 as Market Faces a ‘Crisis of Faith' (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Inside Elon Musk's $1.25 Trillion AI and Space Megamerger (WSJ) Everyone is stealing TV (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alphabet earnings. Claude goes to the Superbowl. Why AI brand loyalty isn't even remotely a thing yet. And is the whole Marc Andreessen theory of software eating the world in the process of being eaten by AI? Wall Street is worried about that very scenario. Google set to double AI spending to $185bn after strong earnings (FT) OpenAI Frontier is a single platform to control your AI agents (The Verge) Anthropic says ‘Claude will remain ad-free,' unlike ChatGPT (The Verge) Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running Into Big Problems (WSJ) New Data: OpenAI's Lead Is Contracting as AI Competition Intensifies (Big Technology) Threat of New AI Tools Wipes $300 Billion Off Software and Data Stocks (WSJ) AI Won't Kill the Software Business, Just Its Growth Story (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Check out Jaime's book: Ding Dong: How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject To Everyone's Front Door Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As SpaceX acquires xAI, all of Elon's companies under one umbrella is pretty much an inevitability isn't it? What is with this weird game of chicken that Nvidia and OpenAI and now Oracle are all engaging in all of the sudden. And self-driving cars are about to be ubiquitous, indication number 37. Musk's SpaceX Combines With xAI at $1.25 Trillion Valuation (Bloomberg) SpaceX acquires xAI, plans to launch a massive satellite constellation to power it (ArsTechnica) OpenAI's Codex just got its own Mac app - and anyone can try it for free now (ZDNet) Exclusive: OpenAI is unsatisfied with some Nvidia chips and looking for alternatives, sources say (Reuters) Waymo Raises $16 Billion From Alphabet and Others to Expand (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Nvidia going through with their massive OpenAI investment or not? Does Apple have what it takes to win in the AI era or not? Is Elon the only one who can make datacenters in space happen or not? And a roundup of the continued fascination with Moltbook. The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice (WSJ) Nvidia CEO Says New OpenAI Investment May Be Largest Yet (Bloomberg) Apple's Historic Quarter Doesn't Change the Need for AI Reckoning (Bloomberg) SpaceX seeks FCC nod for solar-powered satellite data centers for AI (Reuters) How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? (ArsTechnica) Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet right now (Simon Willison) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple does a big acquisition. OpenAI is racing to IPO. Elon might just merge all his companies into one. Google's Project Genie is the latest thing that will make you say, gee, AI can do that?! And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Apple buys Israeli start-up Q.AI for close to $2bn in race to build AI devices (FT) OpenAI Plans Fourth-Quarter IPO in Race to Beat Anthropic to Market (WSJ) SpaceX in merger talks with other Musk companies ahead of IPO (Reuters) Elon Musk's SpaceX Said to Consider Merger With Tesla or xAI (Bloomberg) Google's AI helped me make bad Nintendo knockoffs (The Verge) Moltbot Gets Another New Name, OpenClaw, And Triggers Security Fears And Scams (Forbes) Weekend Longread: To avoid accusations of AI cheating, college students are turning to AI (NBCNews) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meta earnings good. The street like the AI spending. Microsoft earnings bad. Why is growth in their cloud business not as robust all of the sudden? Elon is following through on taking Tesla all in on robots and AI. The AI inspired layoffs are NOT just for the tech industry. And are you actually technical enough to run that Clawdbot? Zuckerberg teases agentic commerce tools and major AI rollout in 2026 (TechCrunch) Microsoft stock drops 7% on slowing cloud growth, light margin guidance (CNBC) Tesla scraps models in pivot to AI as annual revenue falls for first time (FT) Dow to Cut 4,500 Employees in AI Overhaul (WSJ) Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica (TechCrunch) Tiny startup Arcee AI built a 400B-parameter open source LLM from scratch to best Meta's Llama (TechCrunch) Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues (The Register) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Amazon layoffs showed up on schedule. Is Tether behind the rise in the price of gold? A new type of privacy screen tech from Samsung. Elon wants to IPO on his birthday. Anthropic raises more ahead of its IPO. And AI is finding weird stuff in Space. Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees (TechCrunch) Tether Is Shaking Up the Gold Market With Massive Metal Hoard (Bloomberg) Samsung confirms Galaxy S26's insane 'pixel level' privacy feature (SamMobile) SpaceX weighs June IPO timed to planetary alignment and Elon Musk's birthday (FT) Anthropic doubles VC fundraising to $20bn on surging investor demand (FT) Anthropic Hikes 2026 Revenue Forecast 20% but Delays When It Will Go Cash Flow Positive (The Information) Astronomers used AI to find 1,400 ‘anomalous objects' from Hubble archives (The Verge) RideHomeFund News: CrowdStrike buys identity security startup SGNL for $740 million in latest deal push Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think we have to gird ourselves for a slew of Chinese AI releases in the coming weeks. Are AI inspired layoffs poised to sweep the tech industry? Meta goes with subscriptions. Uber wants to train AI for others. And Dario Amodei has a pretty stark warning about AI. China's Moonshot Unveils AI Model Ahead of DeepSeek Release (Bloomberg) Pinterest laying off 15% of workforce in push toward AI roles and teams (CNBC) TikTok says a power outage caused a 'cascading systems failure' that messed up its algorithm (BusinessInsider) Meta to test premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp (TechCrunch) Uber launches an ‘AV Labs' division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners (TechCrunch) Thread On The Amodei Essay @aakashgupta Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you even notice that new TikTok privacy policy over the weekend? AirTags finally have a second generation. Microsoft confirms it will give out your BitLocker recovery keys if you're silly enough to store them with them. And let me introduce you to Clawdbot. Since you can't see the spelling, you won't understand how this is different until I explain. TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired) Apple launches AirTag 2 with improved range, louder speaker, more (9to5Mac) EU opens formal probe into Musk's xAI over Grok deepfakes (FT) Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk's Grokipedia as source, tests reveal (The Guardian) Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw (Forbes) Clawdbot Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like (MacStories) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ok, ok, maybe the whole TikTok thing is a done deal at long last? Amazon is planning another major round of layoffs. Are Epic Games and Google doing an end-run around the judge? Capital One acquires Brex. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Trump's TikTok deal is a gift to China (FT) Exclusive: Amazon plans thousands more corporate job cuts next week, sources say (Reuters) Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal (The Verge) Apple Expands Hardware Chief's Role (Bloomberg) Capital One Strikes $5.15 Billion Deal for Fintech Brex (WSJ) Weekend Longreads Suggestion: Russia, Ukraine and the race for Chinese drone components (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple is developing their own AI wearable, the size of an AirTag. Anthropic overhauls Claude's constitution. South Korea is the latest place to ride the AI rocket ship. And I think I know why your boss thinks AI is the solution to everything: it's the solution to all of the work THEY have to do. Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin (The Information) Anthropic rewrites Claude's guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have ‘some kind of consciousness or moral status' (Fortune) Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches satellite internet service to rival SpaceX, Amazon (CNBC) South Korean leader celebrates ‘Kospi 5,000' moment as stock market soars (FT) CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthropic continues to project strength in the AI race. How OpenAI is rolling out ads on ChatGPT. Netflix wants to become TikTok faster than TikTok can become them. YouTube wants to have it both ways when it comes to AI. And Elon wants SpaceX to win the great IPO race of 2026. Anthropic's CEO stuns Davos with Nvidia criticism (TechCrunch) OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT (Reuters) OpenAI Lines Up Advertisers, Reveals Key Details Ahead of Ads Launch (The Information) Netflix Is Testing Vertical Video Features For Mobile (THR) YouTubers will be able to make Shorts with their own AI likenesses (The Verge) YouTube CEO Neal Mohan's Big Ideas for 2026: More Superstar Creators and Transparency, Less AI Slop (THR) Why Elon Musk Is Racing to Take SpaceX Public (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix ups its bid with all cash. Sony is spinning off its legendary TV business with TCL. One of the biggest seed rounds I've ever heard of. Reels continues to win for Zuck. And let me introduce you to the “Assistant Axis” and what it might mean for AI. Netflix revises its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. Now, it's all cash (CNN) Sony's TV business is being taken over by TCL (The Verge) An A.I. Start-Up Says It Wants to Empower Workers, Not Replace Them (NYTimes) Most of Instagram's ads ran on Reels in 2025, data shows (CNBC) Anthropic Uncovers AI Personality Crisis as Models Secretly Switch Identities (eWeek) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ads are finally coming to ChatGPT. Why everyone online can't stop talking about going on Claude benders. Elon's case against OpenAI moves forward again. The Thinking Machines saga roils on again. And the big movie about AI every is apparently watching. OpenAI brings advertising to ChatGPT in push for new revenue (FT) OpenAI's Revenue Soars Past $20 Billion After 233% Jump—But Explosive Growth Comes With Massive Compute Costs And A $17 Billion Burn Rate (Benzinga) Claude Is Taking the AI World by Storm, and Even Non-Nerds Are Blown Away (WSJ) ‘No Reasons to Own': Software Stocks Sink on Fear of New AI Tool (Bloomberg) Musk Seeks Up to $134 Billion Damages From OpenAI, Microsoft (Bloomberg) Thinking Machines Exodus Tests Investor Appetite for a $50 Billion Valuation (The Information) There's a Hit Movie Set Deep Inside an AI Lab—and It Will Give You Goosebumps (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More fallout from the Thinking Machines stuff. I'm officially calling it: I think the Metaverse is over, at least at Meta. Cloudflare continues to make an effort to protect the web and creators from AI strip mining. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apparently their ain't no drama like AI industry drama, proven once again by some high-profile defections from Thinking Machine Labs. Grok says it's cleaned up its act. TSMC is winning thanks to AI. More price rises from Spotify. And why is Ireland missing out on the AI datacenter boom? Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI (Wired) Grok was finally updated to stop undressing women and children, X Safety says (ArsTechnica) TSMC delivers another record quarter as profit jumps 35% fueled by robust AI chip demand (CNBC) Ireland Is Trying to Get Back on the Data Center Bandwagon (Bloomberg) Spotify Raises Premium Subscription Prices in US to $13 a Month (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nvidia can officially sell its chips in China, but not if China doesn't let anyone buy them. Tesla will stop selling FSD beginning next month. Matthew McConaughey says NOT alright alright alright to unauthorized AI use of his voice. And another story about how AI is disrupting the consultancy game. Exclusive: China's customs agents told Nvidia's H200 chips are not permitted, sources say (Reuters) Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts (The Verge) Tesla Driver-Assist System FSD Will Switch to Subscription-Only, Musk Says (Bloomberg) Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself to Fight AI Misuse (WSJ) Microsoft's Spending on Anthropic AI Is on Pace to Hit $500 Million (The Information) Apple Struggling With Key Material Shortage as AI Chips Drain Supply (MacRumors) McKinsey challenges graduates to use AI chatbot in recruitment overhaul (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft tries to calm data center buildout backlash. Layoffs come to the Metaverse. Apple has a new creator subscription package. More implications from that Apple/Google AI deal from yesterday. And is Cowork for Claude the personal AI agent we've been waiting for? Microsoft responds to AI data center revolt, vowing to cover full power costs and reject local tax breaks (GeekWire) Meta Begins Job Cuts as It Shifts From Metaverse to AI Devices (Bloomberg) Apple debuts ‘Apple Creator Studio' subscription, here's what you get (9to5Mac) Google Gemini Partnership With Apple Will Go Beyond Siri Revamp (MacRumors) Anthropic's new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple announces that its going with Google's Gemini to power Siri later this year, and Google joins the $4T club on the news. Governments around the world are still mad at Grok. AI has essentially killed Stack Overflow but its making more money than it ever has. And how you get get AI to give you the full text of books. Apple picks Google's Gemini to run AI-powered Siri coming this year (CNBC) UK's Ofcom investigates X over Grok's sexualised AI images of women and children (FT) Anthropic expands into healthcare a week after OpenAI launched a similar product (Business Insider) Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company's still kicking... thanks to AI (Sherwood News) AI's Memorization Crisis (The Atlantic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grok dials back the AI image generation thing. Kinda. xAI just raised all that money cause it kinda has to. Looks like the next Deep Seek model is incoming. Why a16z is officially the biggest VC firm in all the world. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. No, Grok hasn't paywalled its deepfake image feature (The Verge) Musk's xAI Burns Almost $8 Billion, Reveals Optimus Plan (Bloomberg) Chinese Firms Dominated Global Humanoid Robot Shipments in 2025 (Bloomberg) DeepSeek To Release Next Flagship AI Model With Strong Coding Ability (The Information) Andreessen Horowitz raises $15 billion for new funds (Axios) A16z's $15 Billion Fund Vacuumed Up A Fifth Of Venture Dollars Raised Last Year (Forbes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Man Who Could Be Apple's Next C.E.O. (NYTimes) The cost of America's nuclear revival (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grok and X have been letting people create some risqué and in some cases, probably illegal images, and governments around the world are getting pissed. Does Google think AI can obviate your email inbox? And would you upload your medical history to ChatGPT? Sam Altman is asking you to. Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What's on X (Wired) Google is taking over your Gmail inbox with AI (The Verge) OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to connect their medical records (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

xAI has raised another monster round. Polymarket has yet another controversy around whether a bet should pay out or not. Could the AI datacenter buildout actually disrupt politics in local America? And a sort of roundup of what's been at CES so far. Elon Musk's xAI Raises $20 Billion (NYTimes) Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade' Venezuela (FT) Americans Hate AI. Which Party Will Benefit? (Politico) The data center rebellion is here, and it's reshaping the political landscape (Washington Post) Three Reasons We Can't Get Enough of LinkedIn (WSJ) What surprised us the most at CES 2026 (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nvidia launches its next chip platform. AMD says, hey, us too! Also, did you know Nvidia is building self-driving car platforms? Did you know Dell is bring the XPS brand back? And did you know that the most interesting product launch I've seen so far has come from Lego? Nvidia launches Vera Rubin AI computing platform at CES 2026 (The Verge) AMD shows off new higher performing AI chip at CES event (Reuters) I tested Nvidia's Tesla Full Self-Driving competitor — Tesla should be worried (The Verge) Dell Admits It Made a Huge Mistake When It Abandoned XPS (Gizmodo) Robot Vacuum Maker Roborock Shows Off Stair-Climbing Model With Legs (Bloomberg) Lego announces Smart Brick, the ‘most significant evolution' in 50 years (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming to you live from Las Vegas with the first of the CES madness. More signs that insider betting on prediction markets is going to become something we're going to have to live with. Is Reddit bigger than TikTok now, at least by one measure? And how Reels became bigger than YouTube by maybe the most important measure. Exclusive: Samsung to double AI mobile devices to 800 million units this year (Reuters) Voice control opening and closing comes to Samsung's Family Hub smart fridges (The Verge) Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro's capture (The Verge) SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to launch landmark IPOs (Financial Times) Reddit overtakes TikTok in UK thanks to search algorithms and gen Z (The Guardian) How Meta's Reels Became a $50 Billion Business (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More on Manus, who they are, how they got positioned to sell, and more on what Meta wants to do with them. Open AI is paying employees more than anyone in history. The TriFold phone is a bit a dud. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestion. How Meta's Newest Acquisition Target Got Around Worries Over Its Ties to China (WSJ) Manus: The Hands of AI Fate (Spyglass) Musk's xAI Buys Building to Expand ‘Colossus' Data Center (Bloomberg) OpenAI Is Paying Employees More Than Any Major Tech Startup in History (WSJ) AI Trade's Next Leg Is All About Tech's ‘Pick-and-Shovel' Stocks (Bloomberg) Samsung's First Trifold Phone Is Expensive and Half-Baked (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads Suggestion: 2025 letter (Zhengdong Wang) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This flurry of M&A deals at the end of the year (I have another one to tell you about) are people getting out while the getting is good, or is this just the start of what's going to be a big deal in 2026? And are half of the big VC raises we're seeing just folks trying to build up cash reserves to hedge either way? Meta to Buy Manus, an AI Startup With Chinese Roots (Bloomberg) After a Year of Blistering Growth, AI Chip Makers Get Ready for Bigger 2026 (WSJ) AI start-ups amass record $150bn funding cushion as bubble fears mount (WSJ) Microsoft's Nadella overhauls leadership as he plots AI strategy beyond OpenAI (FT) Waymo and Other Driverless Taxis Move Into a New Era (Bloomberg) Listen to This: Some Audiobooks Are Outselling Hardcovers (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nvidia kindaquires Groq I'll tell you what we think the strategy is here. A shot across my bow that CES is next week. Accountants shut down remote testing because of AI. And for all the recent bullishness, an honest look at the immediate limitations of today's robotics. Nvidia Reaches Technology Licensing Deal With Startup Groq (Bloomberg) Why Nvidia Struck a $20 Billion Megadeal with Groq (The Information) Samsung brings Google Photos to the biggest screen in your home (AndroidPolice) Accounting body scraps remote exams to combat cheating (Financial Times) Even the Companies Making Humanoid Robots Think They're Overhyped (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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