Tech Brew Ride Home

Is Meta about to do the mother of all layoffs? New AirPods Max 2. Why OpenAI delayed its sexytime chat… the calls to do so were coming from inside the house. What does it mean if the San Francisco real estate market is ripping again? And what if it ends up Apple has played a blinder by sitting out AI CAPEX spending?


Exclusive: Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount (Reuters)


Apple quietly launches AirPods Max 2 (TechCrunch)


Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI over AI training (Reuters)


OpenAI’s Bid to Allow X-Rated Talk Is Freaking Out Its Own Advisers (WSJ)


The AI Boom Has Exploded the San Francisco Housing Market (WSJ)


The most brilliant move in corporate history? (ASYMCO)

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Meta’s big new AI model is delayed because they still can’t get to state of the art. The social media addiction trial is winding down. All the video apps are going to end up looking exactly like one another eventually. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.


Meta Delays Rollout of New A.I. Model After Performance Concerns (NYTimes)


Lawyers in landmark social media addiction trial make final appeals to the jury (AP)


Peacock expands into AI-driven video, mobile-first live sports, and gaming (TechCrunch)


Disney+ is rolling out its TikTok-like ‘Verts’ short-form video feed (TechCrunch)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:


Why ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did (David Oks's Blog)


James Mason in a cave with a cat (Joel Morris's Substack)

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More AI inspired job cuts. I gotta say, adding AI to Google Maps makes it sound like it might work much, much better. A new entrant into the AI health space. An Iran-war-related hacking takes down a company. And Mark Gurman tells us what to expect from a foldable iPhone.


Atlassian slashes 10% of workforce to ‘self-fund’ investments in AI and enterprise sales (CNBC)


You can now ask Google Maps ‘complex, real-world questions’ — and Gemini will answer (The Verge)


Anthropic’s Claude AI can respond with charts, diagrams, and other visuals now (The Verge)


Microsoft’s New AI Health Tool Can Read Your Medical Records and Give Advice (WSJ)


Iran Expands War With Major Cyberattack Against U.S. Company (WSJ)


Apple’s Foldable iPhone to Feature iPad-Like Interface When Opened (Bloomberg)

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Sources say the US government is investigating Binance around Iranian sanction evasion. Meta is helping authorities worldwide crack down on scammers. YouTube literally now is, officially, the biggest media entity in the world. And the legal way to listen to full songs right inside of TikTok.


Justice Department Probes Iran’s Use of Binance to Evade Sanctions (WSJ)


Meta, Thai police shut down 150,000 scam accounts (Axios)


Anthropic is launching a new think tank amid Pentagon blacklist fight (The Verge)


YouTube Lays Claim to Another Crown: The World’s Largest Media Company (THR)


Nintendo Shares Soar 10% as Surprise Hit Pokémon Game Lifts Mood (Bloomberg)


TikTok Teams With Apple Music to Allow Users to Stream Full Songs (Variety)

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Meta moves for the social network for AI bots. Code Review for Claude Code seems to be like another revolution for the software development industry. Yan LeCun raises the biggest European seed round of all time. And the MacBook Neo… worth investing in or not?


Exclusive: Meta hires duo behind Moltbook (Axios)


OpenAI and Google employees rush to Anthropic’s defense in DOD lawsuit (TechCrunch)


This new Claude Code Review tool uses AI agents to check your pull requests for bugs - here's how (ZDNet)


Amazon holds engineering meeting following AI-related outages (FT)


Yann LeCun’s AI start-up raises more than $1bn in Europe’s largest seed round (FT)


MacBook Neo review: the Mac for the masses (The Verge)

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