Tech Brew Ride Home

Is the EU about to pull back on tech regulation because they are feeling FOMO about AI? Is the whole initial COIN offering craze about to come back? Is Apple Music falling behind because they don’t have a free tier? And it turns out AI might not be that good at trading crypto. Brussels knifes privacy to feed the AI boom (Politico) Coinbase Launches Platform for Digital Token Offerings (WSJ) TSMC P...

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Elon’s $1T payday… nice deal if you can get it. The lawsuits against OpenAI are exploding. The new Grand Theft Auto gets delayed (again). Now the Texas Attorney General is going after Roblox. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Tesla Shareholders Approve Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Package (WSJ) Lawsuits Blame ChatGPT for Suicides and Harmful Delusions (NYTimes) ‘Grand Theft Auto VI...

Apple is probably going to let Gemini power the new Siri, at least for a while. Does OpenAI want the government to backstop its AI buildout? And two new AI products. How about an AI smart-ring to remember your shower-thoughts, and what if Foursquare, but for the AI era? Apple Nears $1 Billion-a Year Deal to Use Google AI for Siri (Bloomberg) OpenAI Isn’t Yet Working Toward an IPO, CFO Says (WSJ) M...

Google and Epic Games settle their beef. Ripple wants to claim the stablecoin crown. Hyperscalers are about to claim the power generation equivalent to 40 million homes. And the wonkiest analysis I’ve seen in a while on whether or not AI can scale productivity in some sort of up and to the right way. Google proposes app store reforms in settlement with ‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games (Reuters) Cloud s...

Apple brings the App Store to the web. When the cyber white hats turn black hat. Jensen didn’t get what he really wants from Trump. Coca-Cola says nobody cares if the commercials are AI. Is Common Crawl the secret AI infrastructure? And why Google Cloud is the thing sending Google stock to new all-time highs. Apple brings its App Store to the web (The Verge) Prosecutors allege incident response pr...

Well, another day, another OpenAI deal, but this is their big move to get in bed with AWS. More monitoring of the moment prediction markets are having. Is Big Tech’s dominance of the stock market getting even more extreme? And more speculation about AI and podcasting. OpenAI signs $38 billion compute deal with Amazon, partnering with cloud leader for first time (CNBC) How sports gambling took over...

Sanjay Poonen, CEO of Cohesity, discusses the strategic acquisition of Veritas' data protection business, emphasizing the benefits for customers and the company's growth trajectory. He highlights the importance of rapid recovery in cybersecurity, the integration of AI for enhanced data insights, and the company's aspirations for an IPO, positioning Cohesity as a leader in the data protection marke...

Amazon didn’t scare investors this Halloween. They’re quite pleased, actually. They’re not public but we now know how much money OpenAI lost this quarter. Nvidia’s generous investment strategy. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Amazon cloud records 20% sales growth, topping estimates (CNBC) Microsoft seemingly just revealed that OpenAI lost $11.5B last quarter (The Register) Sora...

Three big tech earnings reports give a mixed message. Wall Street wants you to spend on the AI buildout, but not too much, and maybe not you, Meta. Sora already has some new features. More details on OpenAI’s IPO timeline. And maybe the AI agents are not yet ready for prime time. Big Tech tests investors’ patience with $80bn AI investment spree (FT) OpenAI adds reusable ‘characters’ and video stit...

Nvidia announced a whole bunch of things yesterday and that sent their market cap above $5 trillion for the first time. Grammarly rebrands as Superhuman. Character.ai moves to banning kids outright. And is the first home robot actually here, or is this vaporware? Uber Eyes Fleet of 100,000 Nvidia-Based Robotaxis Beginning 2027 (Bloomberg) OpenAI’s Promise to Stay in California Helped Clear the Pat...

OpenAI has officially done its whole reorg to for-profit thing. Amazon is cutting a metric ton of employees and its blaming AI. Elon launches Grokpedia to take on Wikipedia. And does Anthropic’s success in the enterprise give it a leg up on OpenAI in the one metric that counts? Making money? OpenAI completed its for-profit restructuring — and struck a new deal with Microsoft (The Verge) Amazon to...

Did Microsoft use dark patterns to charge more for AI? The tech angle to that whole NBA gambling scandal. Forget the AI bubble, the Counter-Strike bubble definitely just burst. Halo is coming to PlayStation. And how AI is revolutionizing the old, faking your expense reports scam. Australia sues Microsoft over AI-linked subscription price hikes (Reuters) Using a Security Key on X? Re-Enroll Now or...

Baratunde Thurston shares his journey from a tech-savvy upbringing to becoming a prominent voice in comedy and digital media. Baratunde reflects on his time at The Onion and The Daily Show, emphasizing the importance of community and the intersection of technology and humor. He also shares his thoughts on the role of AI in society, advocating for a future where technology enhances human connection...

Clem discusses his journey from early computing experiences to founding Hugging Face, emphasizing the importance of community, collaboration, and open-source technology in the AI landscape. He reflects on the evolution of technology, the significance of user feedback, and the need for a diverse range of AI models. Clem also shares insights on the startup ecosystem in Europe and the unique advantag...

Just two stories. First, OpenAI launches a web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. What it does, and why are they doing it. Then, Samsung has made a cheaper Vision Pro. They call it the Galaxy XR headset. What IT does, and why are THEY doing it. OpenAI’s AI-powered browser, ChatGPT Atlas, is here (The Verge) Introducing ChatGPT Atlas (Simon Willison) Why OpenAI Needs Its Own ChatGPT-Enabled Browser, Atlas (Fo...

HBO Max might be on the market and I want Apple to buy it! Coinbase is on an acquisition tear. Is the Amazon job apocalypse nigh? Is OpenAI plotting to take over Wall Street in a literal sense? And a brain implant startup has leapfrogged Neuralink in terms of helping blind people see again. Warner Bros. Discovery says it’s open to a sale; shares jump 10% (CNBC) Coinbase Strikes Deal for Crypto-Inv...

Big AWS outage took down half the internet overnight. X wants you to be able to snap up dormant or desirable X handles. Blackwell chips look like they’ve hit volume production in the US. And you know who else is benefiting from the AI boom? Crypto miners and makers of plain old cables. Major AWS outage took down Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat, and more (The Verge) OpenAI pauses Sora video generations o...

Do Skills for Claude represent a new sort of user paradigm for AI? Battlefield 6 seems to be doing what EA needs it to do. Nintendo seems to be killing it. Is Wikipedia in trouble because it’s losing human users? Now Uber drivers can earn new money thanks to AI. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Anthropic turns to ‘skills’ to make Claude more useful at work (The Verge) Claude Skil...

So, a huge, huge, like bigger than the entire world’s GDP fat finger episode in the world of stablecoins. Zuck has poached another one from Apple. Potentially huge state sponsored hack of a key infrastructure company. The most interesting new phone concept I’ve seen in a while. And are we in an AI bubble episode 72. Printing Money: Paxos Mints, Then Burns $300 Trillion in PayPal Stablecoins (Decry...

The new Apple M5 chips are here, and I’ll tell you what devices got them and what they can do. ChatGPT wants to allow you to have sexy time. Waymo is coming to London. Netflix wants to bring podcasts to your streaming diet. And its officially the end of the road for Windows 10. Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro gets an M5 chip bump and faster storage (The Verge) Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext wi...

The Dutch government has taken control of a Dutch chipmaker that had Chinese owners. Yet another big OpenAI deal, this time with Broadcom. The first AI desktop workstations are arriving. And we check in with Matt Levine to get his take on what he says is Sam Altman’s genius for financial engineering. Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia (FT) OpenAI, Broadcom Forge Mul...

Jenn Hyman shares her journey from early influences of entrepreneurship to founding Rent the Runway. She discusses the impact of the internet on her career, the challenges of fundraising during a recession, and the importance of building relationships in the fashion industry. Hyman emphasizes the unique advantages of starting a business in New York City and the collaborative spirit of the startup...

China is stirring the pot on the tech trade wars once again. Sora has grown faster than even ChatGPT did. Is OpenAI now better at vibe coding than Anthropic is? How just a handful of malicious documents and poison an LLM. And in the longreads, the one game that has the fate of EA on its shoulders. China blacklists major chip research firm TechInsights following report on Huawei (CNBC) OpenAI’s Sor...

Intel tries to punch its way back to relevancy with the release of Panther Lake, the first chip built on its 18A process. Is Cursor so successful it’s about to rocket to a $30 billion valuation? Big raise for a US Deep Seek competitor? And are we starting to get the first models moving beyond attention based architecture? Here is Panther Lake, Intel’s 2026 laptop chip with next-gen graphics (The V...