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AI: Better, Faster, Stronger… Or Just Working Harder? Feb 10, 2026

Show notes

So, have you hit the ads in ChatGPT yet, cause they’re there. Spotify comes out of nowhere with killer good earnings. The coming tidal wave of Chinese AI launches. The coming deluge of social media trials. And does AI usage reduce the amount of work you do, or actually compound it?

OpenAI begins testing ads in ChatGPT (Mashable)
Spotify Shares Surge After Adding Record Number of New Users (Bloomberg)
Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance Offer AI Red Packets to Lure Users (Bloomberg)
New Mexico lawsuit accuses Meta of failing to protect children from sexual exploitation online (AP)
AI Doesn't Reduce Work, It Intensifies It (HBR)

The AI Superbowl Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

Sam Altman assures staff that OpenAI has a good week, but is Anthropic definitively growing faster at this point? Is the CapEx spend about to eat ALL of Silicon Valley’s free cashflow while Apple sits out the party? And the Crypto.com guy runs the same playbook but now with Ai.com.

Sam Altman touts ChatGPT’s reaccelerating growth to employees as OpenAI closes in on $100 billion funding (CNBC)
How Capex Ramp Up Will Squeeze Google, Amazon, Meta (The Information)
Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter (Sherwood)
A New AI Video Model From ByteDance is Making Waves (PetaPixel)
Claude Code is the Inflection Point (SemiAnalysis)
Crypto.com CEO unveils new AI agents to millions during Super Bowl (CoinTelegraph)
From Svedka to Anthropic, brands make bold plays with AI in Super Bowl ads (TechCrunch)

Piracy Is Back! Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

Claude Opus 4.6 arrives to crown Anthropic’s very good week, at least, for them it was good. You thought tech was spending big to build out for AI, but this week we’ve seen how big. Crypto seems to have really hit a sharp bear market. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, tv piracy is back, baby!

Anthropic Releases New Model That’s Adept at Financial Research (Bloomberg)
Anthropic debuts new model with hopes to corner the market beyond coding (The Verge)
Big Tech to Spend $650 Billion This Year as AI Race Intensifies (Bloomberg)
Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design’ and Pushes for Change (NYTimes)
Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 as Market Faces a ‘Crisis of Faith’ (Bloomberg)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Inside Elon Musk’s $1.25 Trillion AI and Space Megamerger (WSJ)
Everyone is stealing TV (The Verge)

Is Software Eating The World Being Eaten By AI? Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

Alphabet earnings. Claude goes to the Superbowl. Why AI brand loyalty isn’t even remotely a thing yet. And is the whole Marc Andreessen theory of software eating the world in the process of being eaten by AI? Wall Street is worried about that very scenario.

(BNS) Ring Founder Jamie Siminoff Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

Check out Jaime's book: Ding Dong: How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject To Everyone's Front Door

SpaceX Acquires xAI Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

As SpaceX acquires xAI, all of Elon’s companies under one umbrella is pretty much an inevitability isn’t it? What is with this weird game of chicken that Nvidia and OpenAI and now Oracle are all engaging in all of the sudden. And self-driving cars are about to be ubiquitous, indication number 37.

Is Jensen Worried About OpenAI? Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

Is Nvidia going through with their massive OpenAI investment or not? Does Apple have what it takes to win in the AI era or not? Is Elon the only one who can make datacenters in space happen or not? And a roundup of the continued fascination with Moltbook.

The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice (WSJ)
Nvidia CEO Says New OpenAI Investment May Be Largest Yet (Bloomberg)
Apple’s Historic Quarter Doesn’t Change the Need for AI Reckoning (Bloomberg)
SpaceX seeks FCC nod for solar-powered satellite data centers for AI (Reuters)
How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? (ArsTechnica)
Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet right now (Simon Willison)

Elon Might Just Merge All His Companies Into One Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

Apple does a big acquisition. OpenAI is racing to IPO. Elon might just merge all his companies into one. Google’s Project Genie is the latest thing that will make you say, gee, AI can do that?! And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Weekend Longread:

To avoid accusations of AI cheating, college students are turning to AI (NBCNews)

Clawdbot Is Now Moltbot Jan 29, 2026

Show notes

Meta earnings good. The street like the AI spending. Microsoft earnings bad. Why is growth in their cloud business not as robust all of the sudden? Elon is following through on taking Tesla all in on robots and AI. The AI inspired layoffs are NOT just for the tech industry. And are you actually technical enough to run that Clawdbot?

The Amazon Layoffs Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

The Amazon layoffs showed up on schedule. Is Tether behind the rise in the price of gold? A new type of privacy screen tech from Samsung. Elon wants to IPO on his birthday. Anthropic raises more ahead of its IPO. And AI is finding weird stuff in Space.

Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees (TechCrunch)
Tether Is Shaking Up the Gold Market With Massive Metal Hoard (Bloomberg)
Samsung confirms Galaxy S26's insane 'pixel level' privacy feature (SamMobile)
SpaceX weighs June IPO timed to planetary alignment and Elon Musk’s birthday (FT)
Anthropic doubles VC fundraising to $20bn on surging investor demand (FT)
Anthropic Hikes 2026 Revenue Forecast 20% but Delays When It Will Go Cash Flow Positive (The Information)
Astronomers used AI to find 1,400 ‘anomalous objects’ from Hubble archives (The Verge)

RideHomeFund News: CrowdStrike buys identity security startup SGNL for $740 million in latest deal push

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