Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-06-13 Briefing

Created Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:23:42 +0000 Modified Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:25:11 +0000
2952 Words

The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned differential privacy in Census data, removing key protections for individual confidentiality. Meanwhile, big tech and governments are investing heavily in commercial quantum computing by 2030, despite hype fears. Additionally, the repo-slopscore tool now detects AI contributions in Git commits, while a new book explores the global impact of Nigerian internet scams.

🤖 AI & Machine Learning

repo-slopscore: Detecting AI/LLM contributions in git repositories via commit history analysis

The repo-slopscore tool identifies AI and LLM contributions within Git repositories by analyzing commit history. The tool has recently been used to scan numerous projects across platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, and Codeberg.

Talk more to your coding agents

The author outlines an optimized workflow for using coding agents that prioritizes high-level discussion and final review over monitoring real-time execution. This process involves using agents to transform discussions into actionable tasks, delegating those tasks to separate agents for parallel execution, and performing a final quality check on the resulting pull requests.

Achieving Perfection in Every Frame

Drawing inspiration from Wayland’s technical philosophy, the author proposes that UI developers adopt an “every frame perfect” approach to ensure total visual consistency during transitions. By eliminating glitches such as layout shifts, desynchronized animations, and partially loaded content, developers can create polished interfaces that foster user trust.

Huawei unveils HarmonyOS 7 featuring 2,000+ AI agents and enhanced voice assistant

Huawei has unveiled HarmonyOS 7, introducing an “agent-friendly” architecture that integrates with over 2,000 specialized AI agents and features an enhanced, context-aware voice assistant. The new operating system aims to compete with Apple’s iOS by leveraging advanced AI capabilities that are currently unavailable in mainland China due to regulatory restrictions.

AI Coding at Home Without Going Broke

To perform affordable AI coding at home, users can self-host hardware, rent open-source models via APIs, or utilize frontier model subscriptions. The most efficient strategy is a hybrid approach that leverages premium subscriptions for complex reasoning and API-based models for smaller, mechanical tasks.

GLM 5.2 Is Out

Zhipu has released GLM-5.2, its most advanced open-source model, featuring a 1 million context window and enhanced capabilities for coding and long-horizon tasks. The new model is currently available to GLM Coding Plan users, with API access expected to launch next week.

2 Weeks of Hallucinate – The Photo Gallery

A photo gallery has been released documenting two weeks of the “Hallucinate” event. The collection captures highlights from the recent festivities.

AI OSS tool repo goes archived over night after raising $7.3M Seed

The open-source repository for the AI LLMOps platform TensorZero was reportedly archived overnight following a $7.3 million seed funding round. The platform provides a unified, high-performance gateway for accessing various LLM providers, featuring integrated tools for observability, evaluation, and optimization.

Skill for your agent to visualize your gbrain and Obsidian

The brain-map tool converts folders of Markdown notes, such as Obsidian vaults, into a single, interactive HTML knowledge map. The visualization features a force-directed graph and an animated timeline that allows users to track note growth and explore connections through interactive filtering and inspection.

Shepherd’s Dog: A Game by the Most Dangerous AI Model

An author successfully used Anthropic’s newest AI model to develop their long-held game concept, “Shepherd’s Dog,” in a single prompt. Following an intensive reasoning session, the model generated a complete, dependency-free HTML file that accurately realized the creator’s vision.

Anthropic’s leaning in to the whole nanny state thing

Kirk Strauser suggests that Anthropic is adopting a “nanny state” approach to its operations. The article references a specific screenshot as evidence for this claim.

TycoonLE: A Jax reinforcement learning environment for long-horizon planning

The Tycoon Learning Environment (TycoonLE) is a JAX-accelerated reinforcement learning environment designed for long-horizon planning within a simulated logistics economy. It allows agents to manage capital, transport routes, and debt through a fixed-shape interface compatible with JAX transformations such as jit and vmap.

World Cup AI predictor now lets users ask daft what-ifs

This technology news digest covers recent cybersecurity threats, including phishing campaigns from China and Russia and a zero-day attack on Microsoft SharePoint. It also highlights industry updates regarding GitHub’s downtime, SK Hynix’s memory production expansion, and the discovery of AI hallucinations in corporate reports.

🛠️ Software & Development

WinRAR is now celebrating customers who actually pay

WinRAR has begun using its X account to humorously celebrate new paid subscriptions, leaning into its long-standing reputation for allowing users to bypass its trial period. The Berlin-based company remains a cost-effective alternative to competitors like WinZip, particularly for corporations requiring large-scale file auditing.

Lifting E-Graphs

“Lifting E-Graphs” is a new design for e-graphs based on a semantic model of functions mapping $\mathbb{R}^n$ to $\mathbb{R}$. This approach addresses the pitfalls of explicit naming, such as redundant name generation and missed sharing opportunities, by treating context as an intrinsic part of each term’s identity.

Appreciating EXIF

This article explores the technical implementation of Exif metadata, which embeds camera settings and orientation within various image formats. It details how Exif utilizes a TIFF-based structure located in specific file segments, such as JPEG’s APP1 marker, to store contextual information alongside pixel data.

Scuba: Diving into Data at Facebook

Facebook’s Scuba is an interactive, low-latency tool designed for real-time analysis of massive datasets across its infrastructure. The system enables engineers to perform rapid queries to monitor key metrics and detect anomalies instantly.

Verso – A $14.99 Mac word processor with no subscription

Verso is a native macOS writing application available for a one-time purchase of $14.99 with no subscription requirements. The software features tools such as focus mode, track changes, and Markdown support, while maintaining seamless compatibility with Microsoft Word documents.

Google proposes Open Knowledge Format based on Markdown

Google Cloud has introduced the Open Knowledge Format (OKF), an open specification designed to standardize how AI agents access and utilize organizational context. Using Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, the format provides a vendor-neutral and portable way to unify fragmented knowledge for both humans and large language models.

Cleve Moler (Developer of Matlab) Dies at 86

Cleve Moler, the mathematician behind influential FORTRAN libraries such as EISPACK and LINPACK, has died at age 86. His work made complex computing accessible to non-programmers, enabling significant advancements in fields like finance and engineering by allowing users to solve difficult problems without writing underlying code.

Paca – Lightweight Jira alternative for human-AI collaboration

Paca is a lightweight, free Jira alternative written in Go that enables collaborative project management between humans and AI agents. The platform features customizable views and fields, along with a WASM-based plugin architecture to facilitate seamless sprint planning and task assignment.

Reddit RSS feeds recent rate limiting and solution

Reddit has implemented significantly stricter rate limits on its RSS feeds, causing many users to encounter “HTTP 429 Too Many Requests” errors. A potential workaround to bypass these new restrictions involves adding user= and feed= parameters to the RSS feed URLs.

🔌 Hardware & Infrastructure

Big Tech, startups and governments bet on commercial quantum computing by 2030 amid hype fears

Big Tech, startups, and governments are investing heavily in the development of commercially useful quantum computers, aiming for significant breakthroughs by 2030. While these advancements promise to transform industries like pharmaceuticals and finance, some skeptics warn that the field may be subject to overhype.

GameBoy Workboy

Workboy was an unreleased Game Boy software designed to transform the handheld into a micro workstation with keyboard functionality for managing notes and appointments. Although it never saw an official release, its ROM was uncovered during the September 2020 Nintendo leaks, and a prototype keyboard has since been documented.

The adder at the heart of Intel’s 8087 floating-point chip

The Intel 8087 floating-point coprocessor utilizes a specialized 69-bit adder to significantly accelerate mathematical computations such as square roots and logarithms. To minimize delays caused by carry propagation, the chip’s architecture employs 4-bit blocks and the Manchester carry chain technique.

An Interview with Intel’s Kira Boyko: Xeon 6’s Product Director

At Computex 2026, Intel’s Product Director for Xeon 6+, Kira Boyko, discussed how market analysis and customer collaboration drive the specification of the newly launched Xeon 6+ processors. He also highlighted that the new lineup features a simplified product roadmap designed to optimize supply and improve availability across various segments.

RTX 5080 and RTX 3090 Setup: 80 Tok/s on Qwen 3.6 27B Q8

This article outlines how to configure a dual-GPU setup using an RTX 5080 and an RTX 3090 to achieve over 80 tokens per second on the Qwen 3.6 27B model. It provides technical instructions for adjusting BIOS settings and managing NVIDIA drivers to successfully integrate different GPU generations for local LLM inference.

A low-carbon computing platform from your retired phones

Researchers at UC San Diego, supported by Google, are developing a “phone cluster computing” platform that repurposes motherboards from retired smartphones into a low-carbon datacenter. By utilizing 2,000 Pixel phones as cloud resources, the project aims to provide affordable computing while reducing the environmental impact associated with manufacturing new hardware.

On CPU Physics and CPU Cycles

An excerpt from the upcoming book “Efficient C++ Programming for Modern 64-bit CPUs” explores how physical constraints, such as parasitic capacitances, impact CPU computational efficiency. The text details the mechanics of pipelined and superscalar architectures, including instruction latencies and memory cache hierarchies.

🔒 Security & Privacy

US Bans Differential Privacy in Census Data

The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued an order banning “noise infusion,” such as differential privacy, in statistical products released by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This decision removes critical techniques used to protect individual confidentiality and prevent the reconstruction of sensitive information within public datasets.

Review: ‘The Yahoo Boys’ explores Lagos online scams and their local impact

The book The Yahoo Boys examines how Nigerian internet scammers have industrialized romance fraud, driven by collapsing local economic prospects and a distorted version of modern hustle culture. These activities are part of a rapidly expanding global scam economy that increasingly utilizes advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to target victims worldwide.

Ukrainian extradited from Ireland to US pleads guilty to Conti ransomware conspiracy

Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, a Ukrainian national extradited from Ireland, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the Conti ransomware operation. He admitted to participating in attacks between 2021 and 2022 that involved stealing data and encrypting devices to extort Bitcoin ransom payments.

The Pulling of Mythos Offline: Why AI KYC Will Fail to Stop Cybercriminals

The article examines why AI-driven Know Your Customer (KYC) processes are likely to fail in preventing cybercriminal activity. It explores the limitations of automated verification systems against sophisticated digital attacks.

Yoti does not report GrapheneOS users to the authorities

Yoti has denied claims that it reported a user to authorities for using GrapheneOS during an age verification process, labeling the circulating email as fraudulent. The company is now working with GrapheneOS developers to address any potential technical issues encountered by users.

NHS patients can’t opt out of Palantir’s data platform – but their hospital can

NHS patients are unable to opt out of Palantir’s new data platform, though individual hospital trusts retain the right to manage their own procurement. This comes as Parliament evaluates the renewal of the Federated Data Platform contract for February 2027.

🧬 Science & Biotech

Stanford Scientists Regrow Lost Cartilage and Reverse Arthritis

Stanford researchers have developed a treatment that blocks the aging-related protein 15-PGDH to regrow lost cartilage and prevent arthritis. The study demonstrated successful cartilage regeneration in mice and promising results in human tissue, potentially offering a future medication-based alternative to joint replacement surgery.

Treating pancreatic tumours may have revealed cancer’s master switch

The drug daraxonrasib has shown significant promise in treating pancreatic cancer, nearly doubling median survival times from 6.7 to 13.2 months. This breakthrough may have identified a “master switch” for cancer, potentially leading to an entirely new class of treatments.

Nearly Everyone, Everywhere, Veers Left When Walking

Researchers at the University of Navarra have identified an innate human tendency to veer in a counterclockwise direction while walking, regardless of age, culture, or dominant hand. Despite five years of investigation ruling out environmental influences, scientists have yet to determine the underlying reason for this spontaneous leftward bias.

Solid-state batteries are now powering EVs in the real world

Stellantis and Factorial Energy have begun the first road tests of solid-state EV batteries in North America using a Dodge Charger Daytona development vehicle. These advanced FEST battery cells offer significant performance improvements, including driving ranges exceeding 600 miles and ultra-fast charging capabilities.

📈 Business & Economy

Corning CEO on risk-sharing in multibillion-dollar fiber deals with Nvidia, Meta, and Amazon

Corning’s stock has nearly doubled since January as the company pursues a 50% sales increase by 2028 through major fiber optic deals. The manufacturer recently secured multibillion-dollar contracts with Nvidia and Meta, and has announced a new agreement with Amazon.

Samsung and SK Hynix bonuses drive rapid affluence in South Korea’s semiconductor belt, Dongtan

Dongtan, a town in South Korea’s “semiconductor belt,” is rapidly becoming one of the country’s most affluent areas. Large bonuses for Samsung and SK Hynix employees, driven by the global AI boom, are significantly boosting local property prices and luxury spending.

Blockworks acquires crypto-data rival Messari for over $10M

Crypto-data provider Blockworks has acquired its rival Messari, highlighting the economic pressures facing startups in the current crypto bear market. The move follows Blockworks’ strategic decision to prioritize data, investor relations, and compliance services over its former news division.

PwC Report: AI Making Medical Bills Higher

A recent PwC report suggests that AI is contributing to rising healthcare costs by enabling more granular and higher-paying medical billing codes. By documenting diagnoses and complications with increased intensity, these tools allow providers to justify higher payments without necessarily changing the actual care delivered.

Gas Prices Wipe Out More Than a Year of Wage Gains

Surging gasoline prices have erased more than a year of wage gains for Americans. According to the Labor Department, consumer prices rose 4.2% in May, outstripping the 3.4% increase in average hourly earnings recorded during the same period.

Labor Is a Market Distortion, we need VAT and UBI

The author argues that automation and the decoupling of wages from productivity have rendered labor-based income an unreliable driver of economic consumption. To address this market distortion, they propose implementing a combined system of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Universal Basic Income (UBI).

No-One Is Going to Buy Your Videogame

Released for Manifesto Jam 2026, the manifesto “NO-ONE IS GOING TO BUY YOUR GAME” by ill omens advocates for prioritizing creative freedom over commercial viability. The author encourages developers to focus on personal passion and individual expression rather than marketability, arguing that most games are unlikely to achieve significant sales.