The Commons
Five stories from five different domains tell the same story about what happens when shared digital spaces lose the friction that maintained them.
Sam Altman says there is some “AI washing”, where companies blame AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, alongside “real displacement by AI” of some jobs
Hold up, let him cook. — Sam Altman is starting to get the sneaking suspicion that companies might …
Tim Cook's increased mentions of Visual Intelligence hint it will be a major part of Apple's new wearables; sources: Apple considers a deep red iPhone 18 Pro
Apple CEO Tim Cook is signaling that Visual Intelligence will be the defining feature of the company's push into wearable AI devices.
Sam Altman says currently “the idea of putting data centers in space is ridiculous” and that it is “not something that's going to matter at scale this decade”
Once allies at OpenAI, Sam Altman and Elon Musk are now sharply divided over the future of AI infrastructure.
Sam Altman says discussions about AI's energy usage are “unfair”, as it takes “20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time” to train a human
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed concerns about AI's environmental impact this week while speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express.
Documents submitted by Waymo and Tesla to the US government reveal new info about the remote assistance programs for their robotaxis, staffed by human operators
Self-driving vehicle companies are revealing new details about their safety-critical “remote assistance” programs—but questions remain.
Anthropic's data shows software engineering accounts for ~50% of its AI agent tool calls; the remaining verticals are greenfields most founders are overlooking
Anthropic's new data shows software engineering dominates agentic AI. For founders, that's not a warning. It's a treasure map.
Trump calls on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice or face “consequences,” after she said corporations that “take a knee” to Trump would be held accountable
Donald Trump called on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice or “pay the consequences,” …
Analysis: the crypto industry has spent $288M+ on the 2026 US midterms so far, over double the 2024 cycle; crypto PAC Fairshake is the US' fifth most-funded PAC
With Trump faltering and their policy agenda incomplete, the crypto industry has moved at least $288 million toward the midterms …
Open source projects like VLC and Blender are seeing a decline in the average quality of contributions, likely as AI coding tools lower barriers to entry
A world that runs on increasingly powerful AI coding tools is one where software creation is cheap — or so the thinking goes …
India's AI Summit highlighted the limits of the country's AI ambitions, as the US and its tech companies largely dismissed India's push for global AI governance
The world's most populous country continues to struggle to find its place in an industry dominated by the US and China
Amazon details how a Russian-speaking hacker used generative AI as part of a campaign that breached 600+ FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks
Article updated at the bottom with additional technical details about this campaign. — Amazon is warning that a Russian …
A profile of Neil Shen of HSG, formerly Sequoia China, which raised $9B from US investors before US restrictions and has funded Manus and other Chinese startups
Neil Shen has long bridged both countries, from working at Sequoia after Yale to his own firm
Tencent closed its TiMi Montréal studio after nearly five years, without ever releasing a game, as Chinese giants scale back funding for Western game studios
The game industry's contraction is unrelenting. — ∙ Paid — Tencent has shut down its TiMi Montreal studio without …
The EU's DSA probe into Shein is just the latest of the company's problems, which are stacking up in many of its big markets as it seeks to push through an IPO
Regulatory probes and the ending of customs loopholes pose big challenges, but its business model is highly resilient
Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma says she is committed to “the return of Xbox” and that the company won't “flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop”
She's promising “The return of Xbox.” … Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer has just announced he's leaving …
Turkey launches a review of how social media platforms handle children's data as it prepares new rules that include identity verification and age restrictions
Turkey's data protection watchdog has opened a review of how six major social media platforms process children's personal data …
Source Global: the US consulting market is set to grow 7% in 2026, the fastest pace in the post-COVID era, as companies seek advice on profiting from AI
Companies are seeking advice on how to provide energy to data centres and profit from artificial intelligence
Salt Lake City-based Jump, a provider of AI tools for financial advisors to automate meeting prep and more, raised an $80M Series B led by Insight Partners
Jump, a Salt Lake City, UT-based provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for financial advisors and other financial services providers …
Google announces a partnership with Sea to develop AI tools for Sea's Shopee, Southeast Asia's most dominant e-commerce platform, and Sea's gaming unit Garena
Sources: DOJ's review of Netflix's WBD takeover examines whether Netflix wields anticompetitive leverage over creators in violation of Clayton and Sherman Acts
what we knowDrew Gillis /The A.V. Club:Paramount beats Netflix to clearing anti-trust hurdle in Warner Bros. acquisition
Anthropic launches Claude Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches”; cybersecurity stocks fall
Google is ending Gmailify and POP access in Gmail; new users will lose access in Q1 2026, and existing users will keep both features until later in 2026
If you have multiple email accounts, your Gmail setup may soon need some reorganizing. — Google giveth, and Google taketh away.
English-language Wikipedia bans Archive.today after editors discover it was used to direct a DDoS attack and tampered with snapshots; 695K+ links to be removed
The English-language edition of Wikipedia is blacklisting Archive.today after the controversial archive site was used to direct …
Bengaluru-based Sarvam, which is building AI models for local languages, launches its Indus chat app in beta, powered by its Sarvam 105B model
Interviews with Cluely's Roy Lee, Donald Boat, and other highly “agentic” young men, as agency becomes more valuable than technical skills in Silicon Valley
Tech's new generation and the end of thinking … Cluely and its co-founder Chungin “Roy” Lee were intensely, and intentionally, controversial.
An interview with Notion CEO Ivan Zhao on Custom Notion AI agents launching in the coming week, over 50% of Notion databases now being built by agents, and more
NanoClaw and other “claws”, smaller OpenClaw-like systems that can run on personal hardware, form a new layer running on top of agents that run on LLMs
The US launches the Tech Corps, a program under the Peace Corps to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI, as the US competes with China for AI dominance
A look at the fundamental questions facing OpenAI: its models have a very large user base but very narrow engagement, incumbents are matching its tech, and more
“Jakub and Mark set the research direction for the long run. Then after months of work, something incredible emerges …
How Claude Code, released publicly a year ago, cemented Anthropic as a leader in the lucrative, emerging market for AI coding tools
Anthropic released Claude Code a year ago, forcing other rivals to play catch-up. — Even Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei was surprised …