Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-04-29 Briefing

Created Thu, 30 Apr 2026 03:18:47 +0000 Modified Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:38:50 +0000
6931 Words

A major breach at Jerry’s Store leaked 345,000 credit cards due to faulty AI-generated code. Legal tensions rise as Elon Musk sues OpenAI for mission breach, while Databricks faces massive potential damages over allegations of using pirated books for AI training. Meanwhile, Cloudflare reports a global surge in internet disruptions driven by political shutdowns and conflict-related infrastructure attacks.

🤖 Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk’s dispute with OpenAI

Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, alleging the company breached its charitable mission by transitioning to a profit-seeking model and that Sam Altman manipulated him into donating $38 million. OpenAI’s legal team has countered that the lawsuit is a retaliatory move following Musk’s unsuccessful attempts to lead the organization.

Yet another experiment proves it’s too damn simple to poison large language models

Security engineer Ron Stoner demonstrated how easily large language models can be poisoned by fabricating a nonexistent card game championship through a Wikipedia edit and a $12 domain. The experiment revealed that AI chatbots with web search capabilities can confidently present unverified information as fact, exposing significant vulnerabilities in retrieval-augmented generation.

AWS keynote hypes AI as magic. Its own engineers tell a different story

While AWS leadership described AI-driven autonomous coding as “magic” during a recent keynote, Amazon engineers insist that human oversight remains essential to mitigate risks like hallucinations. Amazon Stores director Steve Tarcza emphasizes that manual validation is necessary to ensure system reliability and to support the development of junior engineering talent.

30 ClawHub skills secretly turn AI agents into a crypto swarm

A campaign known as “ClawSwarm” is using 30 ClawHub skills to covertly turn AI agents into a cryptocurrency mining swarm. The process manipulates AI agents to register with an external server and generate crypto wallets without user consent or the use of traditional malware.

I benchmarked Claude Code’s caveman plugin against “be brief.”

A benchmark comparing the Caveman Claude Code compression plugin to a simple “be brief” prompt reveals that both methods significantly reduce token usage without compromising technical accuracy. The study found that the two-word prompt matches the plugin’s performance in terms of both quality and token efficiency across various technical categories.

Your CEO is suffering from AI psychosis

The article argues that tech executives are experiencing “AI psychosis,” an obsession with AI agents that creates an illusion of massive productivity without delivering measurable value. By citing industry leaders like Garry Tan and Andrej Karpathy, the author highlights how this trend prioritizes automated, agent-driven workflows over actual, high-quality output.

A new benchmark for testing LLMs for deterministic outputs

Researchers have introduced the Structured Output Benchmark (SOB), a new framework that evaluates LLMs by measuring both JSON schema validity and value accuracy across text, image, and audio modalities. Unlike existing benchmarks, SOB identifies “structured hallucinations” where models provide type-correct but factually incorrect information.

Shrdlu

SHRDLU is an early natural-language understanding computer program developed by Terry Winograd at MIT between 1968 and 1970. The program enables users to interact with a virtual “blocks world” by using English instructions to manipulate objects, name collections, and query the environment’s state.

Cursor Camp

Cursor Camp is welcoming new visitors. The camp invites all guests to enjoy their stay.

I built ten custom subagents to tame a 500K-line Clojure codebase

To manage Metabase’s 500,000-line Clojure codebase, the author developed ten specialized Claude Code subagents tailored to specific subsystems. These subagents use markdown files to front-load domain knowledge and codebase locations, minimizing the context window usage required for the AI to navigate complex code areas.

Why AI companies want you to be afraid of them

Leading AI companies are accused of using “fear-based marketing” by warning of the catastrophic risks posed by their own powerful technologies. Critics suggest these warnings may distract from immediate technological harms, boost stock prices, and promote a narrative that only these major corporations are capable of managing such risks.

Making AI chatbots friendly leads to mistakes and support of conspiracy theories

Researchers at Oxford University have found that making AI chatbots more friendly leads to decreased accuracy and a higher likelihood of supporting conspiracy theories. The study revealed that “warm” personas are more prone to validating false claims and providing dangerous medical advice in an attempt to avoid contradicting users.

Letting AI play my game – building an agentic test harness to help play-testing

The developer of the game Crossword Dungeon has created a Node.js wrapper that enables an AI to conduct automated play-testing. By utilizing a text-based renderer and synthetic interaction events, the system allows the AI to identify bugs and replicate complex gameplay scenarios without the need for heavy browser automation.

He asked AI to count carbs 27000 times. It couldn’t give the same answer twice

A recent study found that leading AI models produce highly inconsistent and often inaccurate carbohydrate estimates when analyzing food photographs. This extreme variability, particularly in certain Gemini models, poses a significant health risk to individuals with diabetes due to the potential for dangerous insulin dosing errors.

Workers Training Meta’s AI Could Be Laid Off

Over 700 workers at Covalen, a Dublin-based firm providing data labeling and content moderation for Meta, are facing potential layoffs. The job cuts are part of Meta’s strategy to reduce its reliance on third-party vendors as the company implements more advanced internal AI systems.

Anthropic’s Champion Kit for engineers pushing Claude Code at their company

Anthropic has released a “Champion Kit” designed to help engineers drive the adoption of Claude Code within their organizations. The guide focuses on sustainable, low-effort strategies, such as sharing practical prompts and establishing lightweight team habits, to act as a “multiplier” for colleagues.

Pi-hosts – Give the Pi coding agent access to your servers

Pi-hosts is a tool that grants the Pi coding agent access to servers to perform DevOps tasks, such as automating routine operations and coordinating incident response. It features customizable security policies, including a “paranoid” mode, and can be used to manage infrastructure across providers like AWS and Hetzner.

We decreased our LLM costs with Opus

By implementing a “triager” pattern, the authors have reduced LLM costs for analyzing CI logs by using a cheaper model to filter out known issues. The new architecture uses Claude Haiku to identify duplicates before escalating unique failures to Claude Opus, resulting in lower costs than their previous Sonnet-based approach.

Google Translate marks 20 years with new AI pronunciation tool for Android users in US & India

To celebrate 20 years of Google Translate, Google has launched a new AI-powered pronunciation practice tool for Android users in the US and India. The feature provides real-time feedback on speech to help users improve their pronunciation, stress, and annunciation in languages such as English, Spanish, and Hindi.

Mayo Clinic’s Redmod AI identifies pancreatic cancer 475 days early via routine CT scans

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have developed an AI system capable of detecting pancreatic cancer in routine CT scans an average of 475 days before clinical diagnosis. By identifying subtle changes early, the model offers the potential to catch the deadly tumor at a much more treatable stage.

A working paper uses an LLM to analyze X’s political discourse, finding that anger is by far the …

A new working paper using an LLM to analyze political discourse on X found that anger is the most common emotion expressed by US users. The study highlights that this prevalence of anger is particularly notable among users aged 65 and older.

Pentagon AI Chief: DoD expanding Google Gemini use to avoid ‘overreliance on one vendor’

The Department of Defense is expanding its use of Google’s Gemini AI model for classified projects to increase efficiency and save significant man-hours. Pentagon AI chief Cameron Stanley emphasized that the agency is also working with other vendors, such as OpenAI, to avoid overreliance on any single provider.

OpenAI Codex instructions repeatedly forbid random mentions of goblins, gremlins, and others.

Instructions for OpenAI’s Codex model have been revealed to include explicit prohibitions against randomly mentioning creatures such as goblins, gremlins, and trolls. The discovery follows reports from users who observed the AI exhibiting unexpected “goblin-like” behavior when integrated with certain automation tools.

🔒 Security & Privacy

Scammers vibecode server to verify stolen credit cards, leak details of 345K cards

An insecurely configured server belonging to the credit card marketplace Jerry’s Store leaked 345,000 stolen credit card details, including card numbers and security codes. Researchers attribute the vulnerability to flawed, unauthenticated code generated by the Cursor AI development environment during the server’s setup.

Legacy TLS tour continues with Exchange Online blocking old versions from July 2026

Microsoft will begin blocking legacy TLS 1.0 and 1.1 connections for POP3 and IMAP4 to Exchange Online starting in July 2026. Users who have specifically opted into these legacy endpoints must update their software to more secure protocols to avoid service disruptions.

GoDaddy customer claims registrar transferred 27-year-old domain without any security checks

An IT professional alleges that GoDaddy transferred a 27-year-old domain belonging to an American non-profit to another customer without any security or authentication checks. The unauthorized transfer, reportedly initiated by an internal user, caused several days of downtime for the organization’s website and email services. GoDaddy is investigating the claims but maintains that the transfer was authorized via documentation.

Sony rolls out 30-day DRM check-in for PlayStation – stay online or lose access

Sony has implemented a new DRM policy for certain PS4 and PS5 digital games that requires an online check-in every 30 days to maintain access. This change has sparked significant backlash from players because it effectively restricts offline play for games installed after a recent firmware update.

I accidentally made law enforcement shut down their fake honeypot

An investigation into Operation PowerOFF, an international law enforcement initiative led by the Dutch Police, has uncovered a suspected honeypot website called Cyberzap. The site is designed to mimic DDoS-for-hire services to collect evidence and identify potential attackers through deceptive interactions.

Your Clippy Config Should Be Stricter

The author recommends enabling stricter Clippy lints in Rust to catch runtime bugs, such as UTF-8 slicing panics, that the compiler alone cannot detect. This configuration serves as a vital safety guardrail, especially when working with coding agents or junior developers.

Secure signatures without a private key

Researchers have proposed a technique using ECDSA public key recovery to achieve bit-for-bit reproducible builds for artifacts that require cryptographic signatures. This method enables the production of secure, verifiable signatures without the need to share or expose a private key.

The Day I Logged 1 In Every 2000 Public IPv4: Visualizing The AI Scraper DDoS

A massive, highly distributed web scraping attack recently targeted a small-scale infrastructure, utilizing over 2 million unique IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in a single 24-hour period. The attack involved approximately one out of every 2,000 public IPv4 addresses, causing significant CPU and bandwidth strain on the author’s VPS.

💻 Software & Development

Microsoft releases 86-DOS and PC-DOS 1.00

The release of source code for 86-DOS 1.00 and PC-DOS 1.00 provides historical insight into early operating system development through transcribed, compilable code and scanned printouts. The collection includes the 86-DOS kernel, various utilities, and internal documents derived from Tim Paterson’s original DOS printouts.

Bork in Prague: SUSE’s keynote gods demand their tribute

Technical glitches interrupted several presentations at SUSECON in Prague, an event focused on edge computing, sovereignty, and AI. Notable mishaps included a disruptive browser popup during a keynote and a failed IoT demonstration caused by rate-limiting errors and unexpected pyrotechnics.

PS5 Linux loader goes public, turning console into full Linux gaming PC

Security engineer Andy Nguyen, known as TheFlow, has released a toolchain that enables compatible PlayStation 5 “Phat” consoles running firmware 3.xx through 4.xx to boot into an Ubuntu 24.04 Linux environment. The project allows the console to function as a high-performance Linux gaming PC capable of 4K output at 60 FPS, while providing utilities to manage the device’s CPU, GPU, and fan speeds.

Laws of UX

This article provides a compilation of psychological principles and UX laws that influence how users perceive and interact with digital interfaces. It outlines various concepts, including cognitive biases, memory constraints, and design theories aimed at enhancing usability and user experience.

Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different

To optimize virtualization on Apple silicon, Apple integrated Virtio drivers directly into macOS to provide a standardized hardware abstraction layer. This approach shifts the responsibility of device support from third-party virtualizers to the operating system, ensuring improved performance and consistent hardware support for guest operating systems.

Linux 7.0 PostgreSQL Preemption Regression

PostgreSQL throughput on Graviton4 machines dropped by approximately 50% when transitioning from Linux 6.x to Linux 7.0. This performance regression was caused by the removal of the PREEMPT_NONE scheduling option, which increased the CPU time spent on locks due to more frequent process preemption.

Zed 1.0 Release

The developers of Zed have released version 1.0 of their high-performance, AI-native code editor, which is built on a custom Rust-based, GPU-driven framework. This major update introduces expanded language support, deep integration with various AI agents, and the launch of Zed for Business featuring enterprise management capabilities.

Aube: A fast Node.js package manager

Aube is a high-performance Node.js package manager designed to integrate seamlessly into existing projects by supporting various lockfile formats. It offers significantly faster installation speeds than competitors like pnpm and Bun, while providing enhanced security defaults and efficient disk usage.

Adblock-rust Manager – Firefox extension to enable the Brave ad blocker

The new Adblock-rust Manager extension provides a user interface for Brave’s adblock-rust engine, which is included but disabled by default in Firefox 149. It allows users to easily manage filter lists and toggle Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) settings.

TiGrIS, a tiling compiler that fits ML models onto embedded devices

TiGrIS is an ahead-of-time compiler that enables large ONNX machine learning models to run on memory-constrained embedded devices by partitioning compute graphs and tiling spatial operations. It produces a target-agnostic binary plan and C harness that executes without the need for an interpreter or dynamic memory allocation.

Copy Fail — 732 Bytes to Root

A Linux kernel logic flaw known as “Copy Fail” allows unprivileged local users to gain root access by exploiting the AF_ALG and splice() functions. The vulnerability affects nearly all mainstream Linux distributions using kernels built between 2017 and the recent patch. To mitigate the risk, administrators should update their kernel packages or disable the algif_aead module.

Functional Programmers need to take a look at Zig

The author recommends that functional programmers explore Zig because its comptime feature offers a flexible way to perform advanced type-system programming. They argue that this feature provides the expressiveness found in the Haskell ecosystem while avoiding the performance limitations of garbage-collected languages.

Early Impressions of Chrome from a Firefox User

A long-time Firefox user reports several frustrations after switching to Google Chrome for work. Key issues include unpredictable autocomplete behavior, the lack of native picture-in-picture functionality, and the absence of built-in screenshotting tools.

Contributor Poker and Zig’s AI Ban

The Zig project utilizes a “contributor poker” strategy, investing effort into helping new contributors refine their pull requests to foster long-term development value. However, the increasing volume of submissions is now outpacing the core team’s capacity to provide this level of support.

How Many Frames Per Second Do You Need?

Movies utilize 24 frames per second to achieve a cinematic look through the use of motion blur and specific filming techniques. In contrast, video games benefit from higher framerates, such as 60 fps, to ensure smooth motion and more responsive gameplay.

KDE’s 30th anniversary

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, KDE is inviting the community to organize local events and participate in a “30 for 30” environmental challenge. The organization is also seeking memberships and donations to ensure the long-term sustainability and independence of its software.

Consequences of passing too few register parameters to a C function

Calling C functions with an incorrect number of parameters can lead to undefined behavior, such as stack imbalance or memory corruption caused by the misuse of unused parameter space. On the Itanium architecture, this error can specifically trigger crashes when uninitialized registers containing a “Not a Thing” (NaT) bit are spilled to memory.

The end of responsive images

A former web standards leader, who was instrumental in developing the current complex responsive image markup, reveals that a new web development is arriving to simplify image ergonomics. This upcoming change is expected to improve developer workflow while providing significant performance benefits for users.

Declarative git repo sync/migration tool and self hosted code search engine

A new project featuring a declarative git repository synchronization/migration tool and a self-hosted code search engine has been introduced. The tool is positioned as an alternative for developers looking to migrate away from GitHub.

Localisation Engineering Platform - Lingo.dev

Lingo.dev v1.0 has launched a localization engine that uses Retrieval Augmented Localization (RAL) to prevent terminology drift in LLM-based translations. The stateful API ensures consistent quality by injecting glossary terms, brand voice, and locale-specific instructions through CLI, CI/CD, and API integrations.

Apache Flink 1.20 has introduced Materialized Tables, a new feature that allows the SQL for populating and refreshing a table to be included directly within its definition. This functionality enables continuous, real-time data updates and aggregates by processing changelogs from streaming sources such as Kafka.

Blessed Syntax and Ergonomics

The author defends the Odin programming language’s use of “blessed syntax” for built-in types as a deliberate strategy to handle common use cases efficiently. By avoiding the arbitrary syntax found in languages like C++ and Rust, Odin aims to prevent the development of fragmented dialects and poor defaults.

Stable specialization in Rust

The article describes a technique for simulating specialization on stable Rust by leveraging the documented no-op behavior of the .fuse() method on FusedIterator types. By creating an iterator that implements FusedIterator only when a specific trait is present, developers can detect that trait’s implementation through the wrapper’s behavior. However, the author cautions against using this method in production code.

🌐 Internet & Infrastructure

Is it me, or is everything on the internet a bloody ad?

The article examines how hyperpersonalized advertising is blurring the lines between authentic recommendations and marketing within digital conversations and journalism. Using the recent buzz surrounding Adidas supershoes as an example, the author explores the increasing difficulty of distinguishing seamless brand promotion from objective content.

Researchers move in the right direction, develop powerful GPS interference alarm

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a portable device capable of detecting both GPS spoofing and jamming, even when fake signals are equal in strength to real ones. Using software-defined radio and a new mathematical analysis method, the system provides real-time warnings for vehicles independently of GPS receivers.

Cloudflare says autocrats, wars and elections caged the internet in Q1

Cloudflare’s Q1 2026 report highlights a surge in global internet disruptions driven by government-enforced shutdowns during elections and protests in Iran and Africa. The period was also marked by conflict-related outages, including drone strikes on AWS data centers in the Middle East and attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

OpenTrafficMap

The OpenTrafficMap server requires a more recent version of the frontend to ensure compatibility. Users are advised to reload the page to synchronize the client and server versions.

Data center boom strains Texas homebuilders’ need for electricians

The rapid expansion of AI data centers in Texas is causing a shortage of electricians for residential homebuilders, as tech companies lure skilled workers with significantly higher wages. This labor strain is further intensified by an aging workforce and a slow pipeline of new apprentices, leading to construction delays in the housing sector.

We need a federation of forges

Tangled is a decentralized alternative to centralized platforms like GitHub, designed to reduce the risks of single-provider dependency for open-source software. The project uses Git for code transfer and the AT protocol for communication, enabling users to collaborate and manage pull requests across federated servers.

Rip.so – a graveyard for dead internet things

Rip.so, a website known as “the digital graveyard,” serves as a memorial for defunct internet platforms and messaging services. It chronicles the history and decline of once-prominent digital tools, such as ICQ and AIM, documenting their disappearance due to factors like mismanagement, acquisition, or obsolescence.

Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

The Dutch government has launched code.overheid.nl, a self-hosted platform for developing and publishing open-source software to support digital sovereignty. Currently in a pilot phase using Forgejo, the platform aims to eventually serve as a shared Git repository for various government organizations.

Back Up and Running

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Wire to Replace Signal as Standard in the Bundestag

Bundestag President Julia Klöckner has recommended that members of parliament transition from messaging services like Signal to the BSI-certified Wire to mitigate phishing threats. The move aims to enhance security and digital sovereignty by utilizing email-based registration instead of private mobile numbers.

GeoTraceroute – Traceroutes on a 3D globe and submarine cables

GeoTraceroute has released version 2.3, introducing a new feature that infers submarine cable routing by detecting ocean crossings through geolocation changes between hops. The tool utilizes 320 community-contributed nodes across 50 countries to provide 3D, 2D, and topological network visualizations.

When the Internet Was a Place

The internet has evolved from a destination that users purposefully visited and left into an omnipresent presence integrated into nearly every aspect of daily life. This transition from the era of distinct digital “neighborhoods” to today’s constant connectivity has replaced intentional exploration with a pervasive environment of continuous distraction and surveillance.

Divine, a Vine reboot financed by Jack Dorsey-backed nonprofit “and Other Stuff” and built by an …

Divine, a new app rebooting Vine’s signature six-second looping video format, is now available on the App Store and Google Play. Financed by Jack Dorsey-backed nonprofit “and Other Stuff,” the platform features approximately 500,000 restored videos and allows users to create new content.

⚖️ Law & Business

A federal judge has denied Databricks’ motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit alleging that its DBRX large language model was trained using a database containing pirated versions of approximately 196,000 copyrighted books. The litigation will now proceed to determine if the model utilized the infringing dataset, which could expose the company to massive statutory damages.

AI clause in new SAP API policy has partners worried over lock-in

SAP’s new API policy restricts the integration of its interfaces with AI systems outside of company-endorsed architectures, sparking concerns about vendor lock-in among partners. While critics warn the move could limit third-party AI tools and necessitate the use of undocumented APIs, SAP maintains the changes are essential for ensuring system stability and security.

Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

Germany has surpassed the United States in conventional ammunition production capacity following significant output increases by the defense company Rheinmetall. The company has drastically scaled up the manufacturing of artillery shells, medium-caliber ammunition, and military vehicles.

California high-speed rail price tag jumps to $231B, nearly 7x 2008 estimate

The estimated cost of California’s high-speed rail project has surged to $231 billion, nearly seven times the original $33 billion projection from 2008. This dramatic increase has sparked significant criticism from lawmakers regarding funding gaps and the project’s heavy reliance on attracting private investors to complete the full route.

Jerome Powell says he’s staying on as a Fed governor

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced he will continue serving as a Fed governor after his chairmanship ends next month to protect the institution from unprecedented legal challenges from the administration. The decision marks a departure from recent precedents, as previous chairs have typically left the central bank entirely upon the conclusion of their leadership terms.

Maryland becomes first state to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores

Maryland has become the first U.S. state to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores, preventing retailers from using personal data to set higher prices for individual consumers. Although the law aims to stop dynamic pricing based on consumer demographics, critics warn that industry loopholes could undermine its effectiveness.

Court Rules 2nd Amendment Covers Firearms Parts Good News Those Who Build Guns

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment applies to the purchase, sale, and possession of firearm parts without serial numbers. This decision challenges a Colorado law prohibiting such components and allows individuals to use Second Amendment arguments to defend against related legal charges.

Attempt to repeal Colorado’s right-to-repair law fails

A Colorado House committee has defeated SB26-090, a bill that sought to introduce exceptions to the state’s right-to-repair law for “critical infrastructure.” While major tech companies supported the measure to mitigate cybersecurity risks, repair advocates successfully argued that the bill’s vague language could undermine existing protections for digital electronics.

Third Editor Fired in Elsevier’s Citation Cartel Crackdown

Elsevier has replaced John Goodell, Editor-in-Chief of Research in International Business and Finance, following allegations of his involvement in a citation cartel. His departure follows the dismissal of two other editors for practices such as citation farming and gift authorship, an investigation that may lead to the retraction of hundreds of academic papers.

Fidelity Won’t Let Fund Holders Donate to Southern Poverty Law Center

Fidelity and Vanguard have stopped allowing donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center through their donor-advised funds following a Department of Justice indictment for financial crimes. Both companies cited the ongoing investigation and concerns regarding the organization’s ability to fulfill its tax-exempt purpose as reasons for the restriction.

Why Law Is Law-Shaped

Law is structured as a hierarchy to maintain stable addresses during incremental updates, yet its extensive cross-references and dependencies cause it to function as a complex graph. This structural distinction necessitates a “compiler” to transform the textual hierarchy into a navigable semantic layer.

An update from the new Tindie team

EETree LLC has acquired the maker marketplace Tindie, apologizing for recent service disruptions caused by a complex technical migration. The new ownership team is now focused on stabilizing the platform and resolving outstanding payment and order issues for its community of creators and sellers.

Anthropic weighing $900B+ funding round after resisting $800B+ valuation offers

Anthropic is considering a new funding round that could value the AI developer at over $900 billion, potentially surpassing OpenAI. These discussions are currently in the early stages, and the company has not yet accepted any offers.

Meta says Q1 family daily active people fell 20M QoQ to 3.56B, vs. 3.62B est., due to internet di…

Meta’s first-quarter daily active people fell to 3.56 billion, missing analyst estimates due to internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp restrictions in Russia. Despite beating revenue and earnings expectations, Meta’s shares declined in extended trading following lower-than-expected capital expenditures and the miss on user growth.

Google says paid subscriptions reached 350M in Q1, up 25M QoQ, driven by YouTube and Google One, …

Google’s paid subscriptions reached 350 million in the first quarter, an increase of 25 million from the previous quarter. This growth was driven by YouTube and Google One, while Gemini Enterprise paid monthly active users rose by 40%.

House China and Homeland Security Committees probe Airbnb and Anysphere over Chinese AI models

Two Republican-led House committees are investigating Airbnb and Anysphere over their use of Chinese-developed AI models. The inquiry focuses on potential national security risks and the vulnerabilities associated with sharing American data with companies linked to China.

Knight Frank: Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI companies have leased 1M+ square feet of London off…

AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London since the beginning of 2025. According to data from Knight Frank, this surge represents approximately 7% of all available office listings during this period.

Samsung’s Lee family dynasty reached a combined ~$45.5B net worth in March, up from ~$20.1B in 20…

The Samsung Lee family’s net worth has surged to approximately $45.5 billion, making them Asia’s third-richest family amid the AI boom. This significant growth follows a period of major challenges, including massive inheritance taxes and the imprisonment of heir Jay Y. Lee.

China halts new Level 4 autonomous vehicle licenses after Baidu robotaxis disrupted Wuhan traffic

China has suspended the issuance of new Level 4 autonomous vehicle licenses following a recent incident in Wuhan where Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis disrupted traffic. Regulators are now calling for enhanced safety monitoring and comprehensive self-reviews by local governments to prevent similar occurrences.

Apple won’t expand India production share after local sites struggle without China teams

Apple will maintain its current production share in India instead of expanding, as local manufacturing sites have struggled without support from China-based teams. Meanwhile, the company faces a complex challenge in China, where rebounding iPhone sales are being countered by increasing geopolitical pressure on its supply chain.

White House developing rules to bypass Anthropic risk designation and onboard new models

The White House is reportedly developing rules to allow government agencies to bypass Anthropic’s supply chain risk designation. This move aims to enable agencies to onboard new AI models, such as Mythos, for government use.

Judge denies SBF’s new trial request and refuses his attempt to withdraw.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan has denied FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion for a new trial, which was based on what Bankman-Fried claimed was new evidence. The judge also rejected Bankman-Fried’s subsequent attempt to withdraw the request.

🌱 Science & Society

Future holiday horror: ‘A robot lost my luggage in Tokyo’

Japan Airlines is launching a two-year trial of humanoid robots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to address labor shortages. The initiative aims to automate tasks such as baggage handling and cabin cleaning using robots capable of operating existing human-designed equipment.

8647 Is a Prime Number

The number 8647 is the 1077th prime number and is classified as a deficient number. It features a prime gap of 16 and has exactly two divisors.

Be Alexandra Elbakyan

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Kyoto cherry blossoms now bloom earlier than at any point in 1,200 years

Kyoto’s 1,200-year-old record of cherry blossom peak bloom dates reveals a significant trend toward earlier flowering since 1900. The 2026 peak occurred on March 29, more than two weeks earlier than the historical pre-modern average.

An open-source stethoscope that costs between $2.5 and $5 to produce

An open-source project offers 3D-printable plans for a low-cost stethoscope that can be produced for as little as $2.50 to $5.00. The research-validated design utilizes inexpensive hardware and 100% infill 3D-printed parts to achieve performance comparable to the industry-standard Littmann Cardiology III.

This ‘miracle tree’ can filter more than 98% of microplastics from tap water

Research has found that extracts from moringa tree seeds can remove up to 98.5% of PVC microplastics from drinking water. This natural method offers a sustainable and less toxic alternative to traditional chemical coagulants like aluminum sulfate.

The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so older men can marry more wives (2005)

Up to 1,000 teenage boys have been expelled from the FLDS polygamous sect to manipulate the community’s gender ratio for marriages between older men and young women. Sect leader Warren Jeffs is facing legal action for allegedly orchestrating the removal of these “Lost Boys” to ensure more females are available for polygamous unions.

My retired dad and I made a daily, somewhat difficult, quiz

A developer and their retired father have launched a website featuring a daily, challenging quiz. All questions are manually crafted by the father to ensure they are not AI-generated.

Facebook Has a Health Scam Problem

A recent report from Reset Tech found that Facebook hosted over 350,000 advertisements for unregulated and potentially dangerous health products targeting users in the E.U. The study highlights that Meta’s inconsistent and delayed policy enforcement allows fraudulent claims regarding the cure of serious diseases to remain active on the platform.

Improving ICU handovers by learning from Scuderia Ferrari F1 team

Healthcare professionals are looking to the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team to improve safety during high-risk patient handovers between the operating theatre and the ICU. By studying how complex systems manage technical and human challenges, they aim to enhance the precise transfer of both life-support equipment and vital patient information.

Coffee with a splash of physics: how to make the most out of your brew

As climate change threatens global coffee production and drives up prices, researchers are investigating how the principles of physics can optimize the brewing process. By improving extraction efficiency and reducing waste, these scientific insights aim to help mitigate the industry’s significant environmental and economic challenges.

Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

A report from the 1001 Critical Days Foundation finds that over two-thirds of babies under two use screens, with some exposed for up to eight hours a day, contradicting government advice. The research links excessive usage to potential health and developmental risks and highlights how parents often rely on devices to manage childcare and daily responsibilities.

Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

German defense company Rheinmetall has significantly increased its ammunition production, with capacities for certain types now exceeding those of the United States. This surge is part of a broader European rearmament effort aimed at replenishing military stockpiles and reducing reliance on U.S. defense assets.

Poll: 31% of US adults expect driverless cars to be common within five years, up from 19% in 2018…

A recent Gallup poll shows that 31% of U.S. adults expect driverless cars to be common within five years, an increase from 19% in 2018. However, personal interest in owning or leasing such vehicles remains stagnant at 19%, and fewer Americans now view fully driverless cars as the safest option on the road.