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