Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-06-03 Briefing

Created Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:41:43 +0000 Modified Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:32:18 +0000
2956 Words

The EU has unveiled plans to triple its data center capacity and launch Chips Act 2.0 to boost technological sovereignty. Meanwhile, major game developers like Supercell warn the EU’s Digital Fairness Act could make games “unplayable” via new currency valuation rules. In security news, a flaw in Creative Sound Blaster speakers allows attackers to compromise connected PCs through unauthorized firmware.

🤖 AI & Science

Revealing the frontier with stacks and queues

This article explores the comparative advantages of using recursion versus stacks and queues for tree traversal. While recursion offers an elegant and simple implementation, iterative approaches with stacks and queues provide superior flexibility for managing complex control flows, such as early exits and interrupts.

Introducing RadixAttention to Trellis

Trellis has implemented RadixAttention to optimize the compute-intensive prefill phase of LLM inference. By utilizing a block-paged radix tree to cache common prefixes, the system allows concurrent requests to reuse embeddings, enhancing efficiency for chat-based and agentic sessions.

Apoha, which is developing a “Liquid State Intelligence” data layer to measure molecules in the r…

Apoha has emerged from stealth with $36 million in funding, led by Singular, to develop its “Liquid State Intelligence” platform. The technology aims to measure how molecules and materials behave in real-world conditions, with its first product, VIBE, helping researchers identify high-risk drug candidates more efficiently.

OpenAI, Anthropic and startups pursue self-improving AI via recursive self-improvement (FT)

OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI startups are pursuing “recursive self-improvement” to create systems capable of enhancing themselves with minimal human intervention. While industry leaders view this technology as the key to achieving superintelligence, safety experts warn that we are not yet prepared for such advancements.

Current and former Meta employees detail Alexandr Wang’s efforts to revive Meta’s AI edge, as Mus…

Alexandr Wang is leading efforts to restore Meta’s competitive edge in AI, with the Muse Spark model providing renewed momentum. However, doubts remain regarding whether these initiatives can successfully close the gap with rivals in coding performance.

PlayStation Architecture

The article explores the architecture of Sony’s debut console, focusing on the Sony CXD8530BQ System-on-Chip. It details the early 1990s transition toward RISC architectures and the implementation of the MIPS R3000A processor through a licensing model.

Mathematicians issue warning as AI rapidly gains ground

Mathematicians have issued a warning regarding the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. They expressed concern as AI technology continues to gain significant ground.

Microsoft Doubles Down on Controversial Quantum Computing Claims

Microsoft is reaffirming its controversial claims regarding advancements in quantum computing. These assertions continue to face significant scrutiny from the scientific community.

The Unreasonable Redundancy of Nature’s Protein Folds

While converting massive protein sequence databases into 3D structures has advanced biomolecular design, researchers have found that scaling this training data yields diminishing returns due to the high redundancy of natural protein folds. To address this mismatch, data engineering techniques like clustering are being employed to improve the design of enzymes and other biologics.

UK banks offered access to OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 amid exclusion from Anthropic’s Glasswing expansion

UK banks have been offered access to OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, despite being excluded from Anthropic’s Glasswing expansion. Additionally, 150 new organizations have been inducted into a cybersecurity community, marking the first expansion of this group outside the US.

💻 Software Development

How TypeScript distributes unions

This article explores how TypeScript handles union distribution across function overloads, method receivers, and generic types. It highlights that while TypeScript distributes method signatures when called on union receivers, it does not distribute function overloads over union arguments.

Beyond ICR: Incremental ‘Suggesting’ Read in Emacs

The article introduces “Incremental Suggesting Read” (ISR) as an evolution of Emacs’s Incremental Completing Read (ICR) that provides inferred suggestions rather than literal matches. ISR utilizes semantic retrieval or generative synthesis via LLMs and integrates seamlessly with existing Emacs infrastructure, such as the consult package.

Controversy Surrounding Rsync

The rsync maintainer is addressing community backlash regarding the use of AI tools to rewrite the project’s test suite and assist with security hardening. They defend the use of AI for these repetitive tasks as a necessary way to manage a surge in security reports, asserting that all AI-generated work remains subject to rigorous manual oversight and validation.

Bun Has Been Converted to Rust. Now What?

Anthropic’s Claude Code agents recently completed an automated, million-line rewrite of the Bun runtime from Zig to Rust. Although the new implementation passed nearly all existing tests, the project failed to achieve its goal of memory safety because the faithful, file-by-file translation resulted in over 10,000 unsafe blocks.

It is an amazing time for programmers

The author highlights a unique opportunity for modern programmers to connect with living legends of computer science, such as Linus Torvalds and John Carmack. He encourages developers to reach out to these experts and other experienced professionals to foster connections and avoid professional isolation.

Recovering Eric Graham’s 1987 Amiga Juggler raytracer source code

The source code for Eric Graham’s 1987 Juggler raytracer has been recovered from an Amiga disk image found on Archive.org. To ensure accessibility on modern systems, a Python-based extraction tool was developed using OpenAI Codex to parse the disk image. This effort provides a permanent, readable archive for this historically significant computer graphics software.

Capstone – multi-platform, multi-architecture disassembly framework

Capstone is a lightweight, multi-platform disassembly framework designed for high-performance binary analysis and reverse engineering across numerous architectures. It features an intuitive, architecture-neutral API with extensive language bindings and is optimized for various security applications.

TypeScript devs no longer need to tangle with C# to use Aspire dev stack after Microsoft update

Microsoft has updated its Aspire development stack to allow TypeScript developers to use the tool without needing C#. The introduction of a pure TypeScript AppHost is expected to broaden the tool’s appeal to a wider developer audience.

🔒 Cybersecurity & Privacy

Hacking PCs via speakers

Researchers have discovered vulnerabilities in the Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2X that allow attackers within 15 meters to flash unauthorized firmware due to a lack of signature verification and weak authentication. This exploit enables the device to be repurposed as a spying tool or a Rubber Ducky to compromise connected computers.

Researchers demonstrate AI worm threat

University of Toronto researchers have demonstrated an AI-powered worm prototype that uses open-source models to automatically exploit software vulnerabilities and spread across networks without human intervention. This adaptive threat could hijack computing power from any connected device, posing significant risks to critical infrastructure such as healthcare and energy systems.

Crooks behind 27,000 illegal streaming URLs nabbed in major operation

An international law enforcement operation, KRATOS 2, has dismantled nine organized crime groups and removed over 27,000 illegal streaming URLs. Coordinated by Bulgaria and Europol, the crackdown targeted the criminal infrastructure enabling IPTV piracy and illegal broadcasts ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Emmys data leak: update exposes access to award submissions

Emmy.tv accidentally exposed AWS credentials in its public HTML code following a platform update, potentially granting access to sensitive internal databases, communications, and award submissions. The leak compromised various cloud storage buckets, including those for Slack and Jira, though the vulnerability has since been addressed.

⚖️ Policy & Law

EU Cloud & AI Act aims to triple data center capacity & launch Chips Act 2.0 for direct investment

The European Union has unveiled a plan to enhance technological sovereignty by strengthening domestic supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. The initiative aims to triple data center capacity within the next five to seven years and introduce the Chips Act 2.0 to enable direct EU investment.

Supercell, King, and Sybo warn EU’s Digital Fairness Act could make games ‘unplayable’

Major mobile game developers, including Supercell, King, and Sybo, have warned that the EU’s Digital Fairness Act could make games “unplayable.” The proposed legislation would require pop-ups to display the real-world value of virtual currencies, a move developers fear could threaten their industry’s success.

New UK Google AI Search Rules

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has introduced new rules requiring Google to provide clear attribution and links to publisher content within its AI-generated search results. These regulations also allow online publishers to opt out of Google’s AI Overviews to help increase their bargaining power for content deals.

German state Bavaria cancels Microsoft contract to go open source

Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, has canceled a nearly €1 billion contract with Microsoft to transition to a “sovereign basic workspace” built on open-source components. The move aims to protect data privacy, prevent future price increases, and reduce the state’s dependency on American technology.

Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics

The Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics addresses the transformative impact of AI technologies on mathematical research and practice. It advocates for the responsible adoption of these tools while emphasizing the need to preserve core values such as proof, transparency, and human expertise. The declaration provides recommendations for various stakeholders to ensure the continued integrity and advancement of the mathematical sciences.

The American Missile Crisis

The United States faces a critical shortage of munitions and missiles, with stockpiles significantly depleted by recent global conflicts. This vulnerability is exacerbated by a major production bottleneck: the nation’s reliance on a single domestic supplier for ammonium perchlorate, an essential oxidizer for solid-rocket motors.

HHS is overriding peer review to require changes to research scope, design

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is overriding the standard peer review process to mandate changes to the scope and design of research. This move allows the agency to directly influence the parameters and methodology of scientific studies.

UK lawmakers call on government to ditch Palantir NHS contract

UK lawmakers are calling on the government to terminate its NHS contract with Palantir. A parliamentary committee argues that reliance on a limited number of suppliers is hindering the progress of digital government plans.

💼 Business & Industry

ESA/YouGov: 212.3M US weekly gamers, up 3% from 2025; average age rises to 37

A new report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reveals that 212.3 million Americans play video games weekly, a 3% increase from the previous year. The study also found that the average age of players has risen to 37, highlighting the industry’s growing mainstream presence across various demographics.

Musk-style pay makes Revolut’s Nikolay Storonsky UK’s richest at ~$20.4B ahead of IPO

Revolut founder Nikolay Storonsky has become the UK’s richest person, with a fortune estimated at approximately $20.4 billion. This wealth surge, driven by Musk-style pay incentives, comes as the fintech company prepares for a planned initial public offering.

Mastercard plans on-chain settlement using regulated USD stablecoins

Mastercard is expanding its settlement network to include on-chain transactions using several regulated USD stablecoins, such as USDC and PYUSD. This initiative aims to enable intraday, weekend, and holiday settlements across various blockchain networks to support real-time, 24/7 money movement.

Google’s $10B Berkshire equity sale signals high AI demand (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)

This article examines Google’s business model as an aggregator that maximizes absolute value by leveraging low marginal costs and free supply. It also explores Warren Buffett’s perspective on the exceptional profitability and efficiency inherent in Google’s operations.

Can GoPro survive? The company says it has “substantial doubt” about its future

GoPro has warned of “substantial doubt” regarding its ability to continue operating due to a sharp decline in revenue and cash reserves. To address these liquidity challenges, the company is exploring strategic alternatives such as a potential sale or merger, expansion into the defense and aerospace sectors, and a 23% workforce reduction.

Amazon Has Axed Its New Stargate Series

Amazon MGM Studios has cancelled its planned Stargate revival series, which was set to be led by writer and executive producer Martin Gero. The studio reportedly withdrew support due to concerns that the project would fail to attract a broad audience beyond the franchise’s existing fanbase.

ZTE and partners nurture global ICT talent through 2026 engineering capacity building program

ZTE and its partners have launched an engineering capacity-building program aimed at nurturing global ICT talent through 2026. The initiative brings international experts to Shenzhen to master cutting-edge engineering practices and foster global collaboration.

Automattic’s CMS empire shows cracks as WordPress share falls

WordPress’s market share has declined for six consecutive months, signaling a potential end to Automattic’s era of uninterrupted growth. Despite this recent downturn, the web publishing giant remains a dominant force in the CMS market.

🌐 Digital Culture & Society

.furry - A Top-Level Domain for furries

Pawprint Prototyping, a non-profit hackerspace, is crowdfunding $90,000 to launch the “.furry” top-level domain through ICANN’s Applicant Support Program. Profits from the new domain will be used to fund educational missions and support furry and LGBTQIA+ organizations.

Perspectives on the Future of Work

Discussions on the impact of automation and AI explore whether technological advancement leads to unproductive job creation or if fears of widespread displacement are overblown. These perspectives highlight a growing need to update social safety nets and reconsider wealth distribution models to address evolving labor market challenges.

If I relied on Instagram for news

This article examines the impact of personalized news consumption through social media platforms and provides a roundup of the week’s top technology and security news. Key highlights include the launch of Euro-Office, GitHub’s ban of a security researcher, and the rising popularity of DuckDuckGo’s “No AI” features.

Scott Pelley fired at CBS News after blowups with Bari Weiss,60 Minutes producer

CBS News has terminated “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley following a public dispute with executive producer Nick Bilton and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. While Bilton cited Pelley’s unprofessional behavior and hostility as the reason for the firing, Pelley accused the network’s new leadership of compromising journalistic integrity to appease the Trump administration.

I don’t want my search engine to think for me

The author argues that AI-generated search summaries are detrimental because they strip away the nuance, caveats, and verifiable evidence found in original search results. By flattening multiple sources into single, authoritative paragraphs, these tools make it increasingly difficult for users to identify conflicting information and verify the accuracy of the answers provided.

My Students Can’t Read

Recent observations and national data reveal a measurable decline in the reading and writing stamina of college-bound students. Professors report increasing difficulty with even short academic assignments, a trend corroborated by 2024 NAEP results showing 12th-grade reading scores at their lowest levels since 1992.