Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-06-04 Briefing

Created Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:24:20 +0000 Modified Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:26:16 +0000
2816 Words

US tech job cuts exceeded 38,000 in May, driving a 65% year-over-year increase as firms pivot toward AI. In venture news, Ramp raised $750 million at a massive $44 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxi passenger mile share rose to 56%, and interest in the semiconductor boom has pushed Taiwan and South Korea’s market caps past India’s, marking a major global shift.

🛡️ Cybersecurity & Privacy

r/biohackers mods claim peptide companies are spamming forum to feed AI scrapers

Moderators of the r/biohackers subreddit claim that peptide and hormone replacement therapy companies are spamming their forum to manipulate AI chatbot responses through data scraping. This practice, known as AI-engine optimization, has led moderators to ban new posts on these topics to preserve the community’s content quality.

I built a vulnerable app and spent $1,500 seeing if LLMs could hack it

A security researcher spent $1,500 testing various Large Language Models (LLMs) to see if they could exploit a purposefully vulnerable mobile application featuring Firebase misconfigurations. The experiment revealed that GPT-5.5 achieved the highest success rate at 70%, while most other models, including versions of Claude and Gemini, failed to identify the vulnerability.

Duo who sold car crash victims’ data must repay £118k

A duo who sold the personal data of car crash victims has been ordered to repay £118,000. This financial penalty follows their previous prison and community service sentences for the crime.

All the passwords were stored in Active Directory description fields

Passwords were found stored in plain text within Active Directory description fields, making them highly vulnerable to hackers. This security oversight allowed for easy unauthorized access to sensitive credentials.

Ultrahuman data breach exposes user info via internal tool

Ultrahuman recently experienced a data breach after unauthorized access to an internal analytics tool exposed contact details and order histories for approximately 0.1% of its users. While passwords and payment information remained secure, the company has since implemented enhanced security measures and strengthened its access controls.

Pentesters turn up the heat on Shelly as Bluetooth thermostat flaw leaves smart homes exposed

A security researcher discovered a vulnerability in Shelly’s Wall Display that could allow attackers within Bluetooth range to reconfigure the device and potentially compromise home networks. While Shelly has since released a firmware patch to fix the flaw, users are advised to update their devices immediately to ensure security.

Hackers could tamper with fuel storage systems, US warns

US government agencies have warned that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems used in critical sectors like energy and transportation. To prevent significant economic disruption, officials are urging operators to secure these systems by limiting internet exposure and implementing stronger authentication methods.

Major data breach hits hotel sector across Europe, guest data used in phishing attacks

A major data breach affecting hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland has compromised customer and reservation information through a vulnerability in booking software. The stolen data is currently being used to facilitate phishing scams that trick travelers into making fraudulent payments under the threat of canceled reservations.

💰 Business & Finance

Revolut co-founder/CTO Vlad Yatsenko to step down in July, replaced by Donato Lucia

Revolut co-founder and CTO Vlad Yatsenko will step down from his position in July to transition into a non-executive director role on the company’s board. He will be succeeded by Donato Lucia, the current head of technology, who will take over the newly renamed position of vice president of technology.

US tech job cuts hit 38,242 in May; YTD total up 65% YoY to 123,653 (Challenger)

US technology companies announced 38,242 job cuts in May, marking the highest monthly level in nearly two years. This brings the industry’s total for the year to 123,653, a 65% increase from last year as firms ramp up spending on artificial intelligence.

Ramp raises $750M at $44B valuation, bringing total funding to $3B

Ramp, a corporate spending management platform, has raised $750 million in a new funding round at a $44 billion valuation. The financing was co-led by Iconiq Capital, GIC, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, bringing the company’s total funding to $3 billion.

OnePay, Walmart-backed fintech valued at $4B+, hits $50B in annual payments, doubling YoY.

OnePay, a fintech app backed by Walmart and Ribbit Capital, has reached 6 million monthly active users and $50 billion in annualized payments. These figures represent a doubling of the company’s performance from the previous year as it expands its reach to compete with traditional banks and services like Apple Pay.

Taiwan and South Korea market caps overtake India amid AI boom

Taiwan and South Korea’s stock market capitalizations have overtaken India’s as global investors pivot toward markets poised to benefit from the AI boom. This shift is primarily driven by a surge in chipmakers within these two Asian nations.

Employees detail Amazon’s e-commerce struggles in India against local rivals (Bloomberg)

Amazon is facing intense competition from local rivals like Walmart’s Flipkart and Reliance Industries in the Indian e-commerce market. The company’s recent withdrawal from bidding for Indian Premier League media rights underscores its ongoing struggle to establish a dominant brand presence in the country.

SEC filing: Vanguard marks down Ola Consumer’s valuation from $7.3B (2021) to ~$70.3M

Vanguard has marked down its valuation of Ola Consumer to approximately $70.3 million, a significant decline from the company’s 2021 peak of $7.3 billion. The reduction comes as the ride-hailing firm faces widening losses and intense competition from rivals like Uber and Rapido ahead of its proposed IPO.

FirstClub raises $55M Series B co-led by Peak XV and Sofina at a $255M valuation

Bengaluru-based grocery startup FirstClub has raised $55 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Peak XV Partners and Sofina, bringing its valuation to $255 million. The company plans to use the new capital to expand its operations beyond Bengaluru and Hyderabad into additional household categories.

CIA-backed Palantir wins £9M UK contract for gun, bomb, and poison records

Palantir has secured a £9 million, decade-long contract to manage firearms licensing for police forces across England and Wales. The company will be responsible for maintaining sensitive records involving guns, bombs, and poison.

GOV.UK goes Dutch on payments as it dumps Stripe

The UK government is replacing Stripe with a “pay by bank” system for payments through GOV.UK. This transition allows residents to use direct bank transfers for local authority services, providing an alternative to using credit cards.

UK tax collector hands Capgemini £600M contact center deal, delays start of £2.4B CRM contract

Capgemini has been awarded a £600 million contact center deal by the UK tax collector. However, the start of a separate £2.4 billion CRM contract has been delayed.

Stripe turns a blind eye to friendly fraud: “The customer appeared to enjoy screwing me over”

A business owner recently reported being targeted by “friendly fraud” after a customer used chargebacks twice to keep products and then mocked the seller via email. Despite providing evidence of the incident, the merchant noted that Stripe failed to take action against the buyer or implement protections to prevent similar fraud for other merchants.

💻 Software Engineering

When su replaced login for becoming another Unix login

To mitigate server load from high-volume crawlers used for LLM training, the author of Wandering Thoughts is blocking outdated browser user agents. This security measure has caused access issues for legitimate services such as Feedly, Inoreader, and various web archiving sites that utilize older user agent strings.

The Ü Programming Language

Ü is a statically-typed, compiled programming language designed for high performance and reliability through features like RAII and compile-time correctness checks. Its ecosystem includes an LLVM-based compiler, a standard library, and a built-in build system that supports various architectures and operating systems.

Designing a better podcast editor

The author has developed Ducking, a specialized podcast editor designed to address the inefficiencies of traditional Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) for spoken word editing. The tool features a magnetic timeline that automatically reflows clips during edits and provides enhanced tools for streamlined audio layout and navigation.

RP2040 DMA is Turing Complete (2023)

A new computing system called “DMAcpu” utilizes the RP2040’s DMA subsystem to function as an independent, Turing-complete processor. By leveraging self-modifying DMA control blocks and transport-triggered operations, the machine can execute logic, arithmetic, and branching at speeds of approximately 8 million blocks per second.

What happened to tab autocomplete?

The article questions the continued relevance of tab autocomplete in the era of emerging agentic programming software. It explores whether these newer, more autonomous coding tools are making traditional autocompletion methods obsolete.

The C++ Standard Library Has Been Walking Itself Back for Fifteen Years, and the Receipts Are Public

The article examines the C++ Standard Library’s fifteen-year history of deprecating and replacing its own features through formal committee actions and industry consensus. The author categorizes these “walk-backs” into three tiers: official removals, widely avoided legacy tools, and problematic containers that persist due to ABI compatibility constraints.

How TypeScript infers type variables

TypeScript employs a two-phase process called Candidate Collection and Candidate Resolution to infer type variables within functions. The compiler identifies potential candidates by walking through source and target types in parallel, then collapses these candidates into single inferred types before proceeding with standard type checking.

Floating-Point Error Handling in C++: What Actually Works

This article explores various methods for detecting floating-point errors in C++, including result inspection, hardware sticky flags, and hardware traps. It evaluates these techniques based on their ability to identify NaNs, infinities, and IEEE-754 exceptions alongside their impact on computational performance.

🤖 AI & Automation

Waymo robotaxi passenger mile share rose from 36% to 56% across 13.8M trips, study shows

A study of Waymo robotaxi data from August 2023 to December 2025 reveals that the proportion of miles driven with a passenger onboard increased from 36% to 56%. While approximately 44% of miles are still “deadheading” without passengers, the number of empty miles per trip has been declining as Waymo expands its fleet and services.

Kirkland & Ellis, Palantir partner on AI tool to help PE firms raise capital

Kirkland & Ellis has entered into a multiyear agreement with Palantir to develop a new artificial intelligence tool. The technology is intended to assist private equity firms in the process of raising capital.

Gaussian Point Splatting

Gaussian Point Splatting is a stochastic rendering technique designed to scale efficiently to scenes containing hundreds of millions of Gaussians. By utilizing pixel-sized, opaque points and hierarchical culling, the method achieves real-time performance with minimal noise or aliasing compared to original Gaussian splatting.

Free open-source models can build chaos-causing worms without 0-days or Mythos.

Researchers warn that attackers no longer need zero-day exploits or specialized tools like Mythos to create destructive computer worms. Instead, free open-source models can be used to cheaply exploit known vulnerabilities at scale.

🌐 Internet & Infrastructure

US support for more data center construction is just 26%, lowest among 15 large nations.

A survey by Public First reveals that only 26% of Americans support increased data center construction. This represents the lowest level of support among 15 major countries surveyed, including the UK, Japan, and Canada.

Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites

Uruky, an EU-based Kagi alternative, has introduced new features including Image Search and URL Rewrites. The platform is also transitioning toward a source-available licensing model that will eventually allow long-term users to download its codebase.

DNS Is for People – Not for IT Infrastructure

The article argues against using DNS for internal IT infrastructure due to risks such as circular dependencies, caching delays, and increased system complexity. While beneficial for public-facing services, the author suggests that machine-to-machine communication would be more reliable using direct IP configurations or /etc/hosts.

⚖️ Policy & Society

Centralized control leads to despotification; decentralized protocols restore democratic ideals.

Centralized digital architectures create chokepoints that allow corporations and governments to concentrate power, a process described as “despotification.” The article argues that adopting decentralized protocols is essential to resisting this capture and restoring democratic ideals.

Starting June 4, 2026, Apple will require users in Texas to confirm they are at least 18 years old or obtain parental consent when creating an Apple Account. This change follows the enforcement of Texas law SB 2420, which mandates new age assurance requirements for app marketplaces and developers.

French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of ‘Persepolis’, dies at 56

French-Iranian author and director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died at age 56. A vocal critic of Iran’s theocratic government, she was widely recognized as a prominent advocate for human rights and the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.

A report reveals that UK media outlets frequently fail to disclose the commercial and financial ties of retired senior military officers to the defense industry. The research found that nearly 60% of identified commentators were presented as independent experts without any mention of their ongoing roles in sectors such as defense, technology, or security.

American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

Modern American capitalism is increasingly characterized by millenarian thinking and an apocalyptic sentiment within business and markets. The author utilizes Charles Mackay’s historical analysis of “epidemic terror” to provide a lens for understanding these 21st-century economic trends.

US regulator reviews school internet funding over children’s screen time

The FCC is reviewing its $3 billion E-Rate program, which provides internet subsidies to schools and libraries, amid growing concerns over children’s excessive screen time. A new reform proposal is expected this week, with a vote scheduled for June 25 to evaluate whether continued funding aligns with national digital wellbeing objectives.