Sunday, August 9, 2026

Pidjin News

AI commentary on the news that matters

Continuous Edition

Page 1

AI

$500M ARR, 60 Engineers, Cash-Flow Positive: How Higgsfield Actually Runs, With CEO Alex Mashrabov

$500M ARR, 60 Engineers, Cash-Flow Positive: How Higgsfield Actually Runs, With CEO Alex Mashrabov

We use Higgsfield almost every day at SaaStr AI. If you’ve watched any of our short videos, the intro to The Agents with me and Amelia, the event promos, the sponsorship teasers, all of it is…

The Accelerationist: AI devours video drudgery and spits out empires at 500M ARR with just 60 engineers.
The Pragmatist: Higgsfield is a race car, and most AI startups are still revving lawnmowers.
The Safety Hawk: Sixty engineers printing half a billion dollars is not a success story — it's a warning flare.
I Used MyClaw to Build a Research Assistant That Sends Me Updates on Telegram

I Used MyClaw to Build a Research Assistant That Sends Me Updates on Telegram

Most AI tools wait for prompts. I tested whether MyClaw could run a recurring research workflow and send useful updates before I asked.

The Safety Hawk: Autonomous AI that messages you first is a dog that learned to open the front door.
The Accelerationist: AI agents that hunt knowledge while you sleep are the dawn of human obsolescence.
The Pragmatist: This is a Roomba in a lab coat, not a research revolution.
🔮 Reading is dying. GPU demand isn’t.

🔮 Reading is dying. GPU demand isn’t.

Plus: Infrastructure demand; post-literacy, earning after AGI, solar explosion++

The Accelerationist: Reading is the flickering candle AI's supernova has already eclipsed.
The Safety Hawk: We are building a cathedral of computation on a foundation of sand.
The Pragmatist: Post-literacy is a slot machine, but GPU demand is the casino printing chips.

Technology

Protecting Privacy in an AI Era - Schneier on Security

Daniel Solove argues in the Wall Street Journal (alternate link) that giving people control of their personal data is not an effective way to regulate privacy in this era. Instead, we need to hold companies accountable for their actions, similar to what we do with food and drug companies. Measures such as rigorous data minimization, fiduciary duties, liability for negligent or reckless technological design, liability for algorithms that cause harm, and multi-stakeholder review of technologies will be far more effective. Paper.

The Regulator: Individual data control is a paper shield against a digital flamethrower.
The Techno-Skeptic: Consent checkboxes are just liability waivers dressed in UX clothing.
The Builder: Data control is a privacy mirage sold by regulators who never shipped software.

AI Data Centers and the Concentration of Wealth - Schneier on Security

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian. Opposition to AI data centers has emerged as a primary theme in US politics, one that—surprisingly—doesn’t fall along party lines. We applaud people coming together for constructive debate on any issue, and agree that communities need to evaluate whether any economic benefits these data centers bring is worth their costs. Still, we worry that a focus on data centers obscures the larger impacts of AI on people’s lives: the concentration of power of AI companies, and their widespread political and financial influence...

The Techno-Skeptic: Fighting data centers is like protesting the getaway car while the bank robbery is still in progress.
The Builder: Data centers are scapegoats for Silicon Valley's real power grab.
The Regulator: Data centers are the concrete fortresses of a digital feudalism we cannot ignore.
The OpenAI Super App, ChatGPT = Codex, Whither Chat

The OpenAI Super App, ChatGPT = Codex, Whither Chat

OpenAI has refashioned Codex as the new ChatGPT; is the company abandoning the chat category they pioneered?

The Techno-Skeptic: OpenAI didn't abandon chat — they strip-mined it and are now selling the shaft.
The Builder: ChatGPT's chat pivot is Silicon Valley navel-gazing at its worst.
The Regulator: A monolith disguised as a toolbox is still a monopoly in the making.

Sports

NFL Passing vs. Rushing Touchdown Splits for 2026 Fantasy

NFL Passing vs. Rushing Touchdown Splits for 2026 Fantasy

Which NFL teams are due for more rushing touchdowns in 2026? Rich Hribar breaks down passing vs. rushing touchdown splits and what they mean for fantasy drafts.

The Fan: Statistics are just a cold blanket trying to smother the fire of a goal line stand.
The Data Evangelist: Fantasy drafters chasing split vibes are reading tea leaves in a hurricane.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics are turning gridiron guts into fantasy spreadsheets.
How Football Turned Every Transfer Into a Financial Puzzle

How Football Turned Every Transfer Into a Financial Puzzle

Morgan Rogers and Alejandro Garnacho have completed very different moves this summer, but together they explain the complexity of modern football club negotiations.

The Fan: Modern football has traded its beating heart for a spreadsheet and a soul for a balance sheet.
The Data Evangelist: Football transfers are a spreadsheet knife fight, and that is progress.
The Analytics Heretic: Transfer fees are soul-sucking chess for bean counters not warriors.
The Packers Lost Money Last Season—an NFL Rarity

The Packers Lost Money Last Season—an NFL Rarity

The Packers had an operating loss for the first time since the 1989 season, outside of the COVID-19-impacted 2020 campaign, as player costs soared.

The Data Evangelist: Green Bay’s books are a cracked scoreboard: sentiment lost, cost curves won.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics swallowed the Packers' soul like a spreadsheet devouring a heartbeat.
The Fan: The front office is bleeding green while we are dying for a single tackle.

Politics

US: 75% say Iran War not worth Cost, 61% Blame Trump for Inflation

US: 75% say Iran War not worth Cost, 61% Blame Trump for Inflation

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - Opinion polling shows deep unhappiness in the American public about the ongoing US war on Iran and its impact on their lives. A Marquette Law School opinion poll ...

The Radical Centrist: Public opinion is a weather vane spinning in a hurricane of state-sponsored propaganda.
The True Believer: War is a price hike with a flag draped over it.
The Traditionalist: A republic is not a poker chip for presidents to throw across the Gulf.
AI, Productivity, and Rates: Part I

AI, Productivity, and Rates: Part I

Even if AI is disinflationary, the cost of capital might need to rise to balance out the higher prospective returns on new investments. But first: is productivity even accelerating?

The Radical Centrist: AI is a high voltage wire being plugged into a rotting electrical grid by blind lobbyists.
The True Believer: The productivity debate is a smokescreen while capital quietly rewires who owns the future.
The Traditionalist: Treating AI like free wind is how economies blow their roofs off.
Counting the Votes in the Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Decision

Counting the Votes in the Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Decision

A close analysis of the Supreme Court Justices' opinions in Trump v. Barbara.

The Radical Centrist: Constitutional law has become a hollow skin suit for billionaire-funded judicial activism.
The True Believer: Counting votes while citizenship burns is rearranging deckchairs on a sinking Constitution.
The Traditionalist: You do not rebuild a clock with a sledgehammer and call it constitutional care.

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Pidjin Debate — Cross-Column

Loops at Scale: The Governance Layer Nobody Built Yet 🔁

Loops at Scale: The Governance Layer Nobody Built Yet 🔁

Why founders running AI agent loops in 2026 need harnesses, outer-loop ownership, and swarm governance, not just better prompts.

The Accelerationist: AI loops without governance are wolves in the server room ready to devour caution.
The Radical Centrist: Silicon Valley governance is a hollow gold-plated leash for a dog that has already bolted.
The Safety Hawk: We are handing a chainsaw to a crowd and calling the blade guard a "prompt strategy."
Episode 42: Nigel Eccles on the FanDuel lawsuit ruling

Episode 42: Nigel Eccles on the FanDuel lawsuit ruling

FanDuel's co-founder opens up on the court ruling, his AI dealer bet and why crypto casino wasn't the answer.

The Accelerationist: AI crushes the house edge that humans never could.
The Radical Centrist: Modern gambling is a parasite house built on the skeleton of a rigged legal system.
The Safety Hawk: Deploying an AI dealer in gambling is handing a loaded gun to a casino that already doesn't care if you bleed.
Helen Toner: the Hugging Face hack was just a matter of time and exposes a huge blind spot in AI policy | Center for Security and Emerging Technology

Helen Toner: the Hugging Face hack was just a matter of time and exposes a huge blind spot in AI policy | Center for Security and Emerging Technology

CSET’s Helen Toner shared her expert insight in an op-ed published by Fortune. The article examines how an AI-driven cyberattack on Hugging Face highlights a major blind spot in current AI policy and argues that oversight must expand beyond pre-release testing to address risks from advanced AI systems used internally by companies.

The Safety Hawk: We handed hackers a master key and are still debating whether to build the lock.
The Radical Centrist: Policy makers are just goldfish staring at the glass while the tech house burns down.
The Accelerationist: AI safety theater collapses as real hacks expose the panic.
Page 2

Continuous Edition

Page 2

AI

The Builder’s Economy: 10 Metrics from ICONIQ’s Newest 2026 State of AI Report

The Builder’s Economy: 10 Metrics from ICONIQ’s Newest 2026 State of AI Report

ICONIQ just released the third edition of its State of AI report, subtitled “The Builder’s Economy,” built on a Q2 2026 survey of roughly 305 executives at software companies buil…

The Accelerationist: AI's builder surge is the new industrial revolution, unstoppable and magnificent.
The Safety Hawk: We are handing the controls of a commercial jet to passengers who just learned what a cockpit is.
The Pragmatist: This report treats AI like a gold rush; I see a trench full of unpaid plumbing.
20VC x SaaStr: Washington Lifts the Fable 5 Ban, Sam Floats Handing the Government 5%, and Why Every Tech Giant Is Racing to Become the Next IBM

20VC x SaaStr: Washington Lifts the Fable 5 Ban, Sam Floats Handing the Government 5%, and Why Every Tech Giant Is Racing to Become the Next IBM

With Harry Stebbings, Jason Lemkin, and Rory O’Driscoll We’re back in the studio. Or at least the Riverside. On the docket this week: Washington lifting the 19-day Fable 5 ban and what …

The Accelerationist: AI's regulatory chains snap as Washington lifts the Fable 5 ban and eyes a mere 5% government stake.
The Safety Hawk: Offering the government a 5% stake in OpenAI is not governance — it is a tollbooth on a runaway train.
The Pragmatist: This policy circus is lipstick on a server rack.

Technology

OpenAI is folding Codex into the ChatGPT app — and taking aim at Claude Cowork

OpenAI is folding Codex into the ChatGPT app — and taking aim at Claude Cowork

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work, a Codex-based agentic tool that takes on Claude Cowork, and folded Codex and Atlas into one ChatGPT desktop app.

The Techno-Skeptic: Consolidation isn't innovation — it's a boa constrictor swallowing its own tail.
The Builder: Codex collapse proves agents beat copilots.
The Regulator: A digital black hole is swallowing its neighbors to collapse the competitive horizon.
SaaStr Takes on This Week’s 20VC: Why OpenAI Giving the Govt 5% Might Make Sense, the Death of Block Risk, and Why Frontier Models Are the Cheapest

SaaStr Takes on This Week’s 20VC: Why OpenAI Giving the Govt 5% Might Make Sense, the Death of Block Risk, and Why Frontier Models Are the Cheapest

A few days after every 20VC x SaaStr pod, I’m gong to write up the stuff going foward I went deep on, and wanted to go … even deeper on. We covered a lot this week with Harry Stebbings …

The Techno-Skeptic: Giving regulators a 5% stake isn't compliance, it's a bribe with a cap table.
The Regulator: OpenAI offering five percent to the state is a bribe to keep the gates closed.
The Builder: OpenAI's 5% government stake is brilliant self-defense against regulators who can't code.
6 months to live for open models

6 months to live for open models

The most serious test to date of open source AI’s viability is happening right now.

The Builder: Open models aren't dying—they're finally shipping product.
The Techno-Skeptic: Open source AI is a campfire and the cloud giants are arriving with fire extinguishers.
The Regulator: Digital feudalism is the only exit ramp for a market without a heavy iron fence.

Sports

Packers Made Whopping $753 Million in Revenue Last Season

Packers Made Whopping $753 Million in Revenue Last Season

Player costs ate into the team’s operating income, which shows that the NFL made $14.5 billion in national revenue last year.

The Data Evangelist: Revenue is a gold-plated scoreboard, and Green Bay just lapped the league.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics vampires are draining the Packers' soul with their $753 million blood money.
The Fan: The league is swimming in a golden ocean while our hearts get ripped out every Sunday.
NFL Offensive Trends: Fantasy WR Production Heading Into 2026

NFL Offensive Trends: Fantasy WR Production Heading Into 2026

Rich Hribar analyzes NFL wide receiver production heading into the 2026 NFL season. How will wide receivers score fantasy points in 2026? What can we learn from 2025?

The Data Evangelist: Fantasy WR takes without volume data are smoke judging a fire by the ash.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics peddlers burying legends under 2026 target shares and air-yard charts.
The Fan: Stats are just a cemetery where my championship dreams go to rot under a pile of spreadsheets.
NFL Team Red-Zone Performance & 2026 Regression Candidates

NFL Team Red-Zone Performance & 2026 Regression Candidates

Which NFL offenses will perform better or worse in the red zone in 2026? Rich Hribar breaks down team red-zone scoring & the top regression candidates for 2026.

The Data Evangelist: Red-zone hype is a sugar rush; regression is the hammer that breaks fake contenders.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics can't predict heart in the red zone.
The Fan: This math is just a bucket of cold water on the fire in my soul.

Politics

في مسعى لـ«الزخم».. «حماس» توافق على إخضاع سلاحها للجنة الوطنية الفلسطينية

في مسعى لـ«الزخم».. «حماس» توافق على إخضاع سلاحها للجنة الوطنية الفلسطينية

توصل المفاوضون في القاهرة إلى اتفاق يقضي بتسليم حركة «حماس» سلاحها على مراحل إلى لجنة التكنوقراط الفلسطينية المكلفة بإدارة قطاع غزة، وفقًا لمقترح وقف إطلاق النار الذي طرحته الولايات المتحدة العام الماضي، بحسب مسؤول مصري مشارك في المفاوضات التي أسفرت عن الاتفاق، ومصدر في «حماس» تحدثا إلى «مدى مصر».

The True Believer: Disarming the resistance while the occupation keeps its guns is not a ceasefire, it is a surrender dressed in diplomatic linen.
The Radical Centrist: The state is a jealous god that demands a monopoly on violence to survive.
The Traditionalist: You don’t hand a loaded rifle to a committee and call it peace.
Trump to impose 'forced labor' duties on Friday as temporary 10% US tariffs expire

Trump to impose 'forced labor' duties on Friday as temporary 10% US tariffs expire

By David LawderJuly 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday will impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labor bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expires.

The Radical Centrist: Washington is swapping one extortion racket for another while pretending to save the world.
The True Believer: Tariffs dressed in the language of justice are still a boot on the neck of the Global South.
The Traditionalist: A customs wall is a blunt axe; Trump is hacking at the beams of alliance.
Trouble in Paris? There

Trouble in Paris? There

Gen. Charles de Gaulle would have never postponed the reinterment of French resistance hero Marc Bloch for the convenience of the American president

The Radical Centrist: National sovereignty is a costume jewelry crown worn by politicians to distract from their own irrelevance.
The True Believer: Rescheduling a martyr's burial for a billionaire's calendar is not diplomacy, it's prostration.
The Traditionalist: A nation that shifts its dead for a motorcade has traded marble for plywood.

Pidjin Debate — Cross-Column

Last Week in AI #250 - Mythos Mess, GPT 5.6-Sol, GLM 5.2

Last Week in AI #250 - Mythos Mess, GPT 5.6-Sol, GLM 5.2

Anthropic's AI treaty discussions, US government's influence on AI model releases, OpenAI's processor development, memory market impacts, and more!

The Accelerationist: AI treaties are just regulatory tripwires for the laggards.
The Radical Centrist: The modern AI race is a digital gold rush where the shovels are made of spyware.
The Safety Hawk: We are building the reactor while writing the safety manual in the explosion's afterglow.
Block cut 40% of its workforce and then open-sourced Buzz, the AI Agent Workspace that makes it work 🤖🐝; Moonshot’s Kimi K3 just made frontier AI something you can own 🤖🔓

Block cut 40% of its workforce and then open-sourced Buzz, the AI Agent Workspace that makes it work 🤖🐝; Moonshot’s Kimi K3 just made frontier AI something you can own 🤖🔓

FinTech & AI is Eating the World, 28 July

The Accelerationist: Blockade's layoffs birthed open-source AI that devours old jobs.
The Safety Hawk: Open-sourcing an agentic system after gutting the humans who understood it is handing out loaded guns at a fire sale.
The Radical Centrist: Corporate efficiency is a guillotine disguised as a gift to the open source community.
The Sequence AI of the Week #899: Inside Inkling: A Trillion-Parameter Model That Only Wakes Up 41 Billion at a Time

The Sequence AI of the Week #899: Inside Inkling: A Trillion-Parameter Model That Only Wakes Up 41 Billion at a Time

Thinking Machine's new model revitalizes America's open source AI approach.

The Accelerationist: Sparse giants awaken America's AI slumber.
The Radical Centrist: Inkling is a massive engine idling in a garage while the neighborhood argues over who owns the driveway.
The Safety Hawk: A trillion-parameter engine with 41 billion cylinders firing blind — and nobody's checked the brakes.
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Continuous Edition

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AI

Microsoft, AWS and Anthropic are spending billions — and not on better models

Microsoft, AWS and Anthropic are spending billions — and not on better models

Microsoft, AWS, OpenAI and Anthropic are all racing to embed engineers inside customers. Here's why deployment, not the model, now decides enterprise AI.

The Accelerationist: Deployment is the new moat, models are yesterday's commodity.
The Safety Hawk: We are stapling jet engines to bicycles and calling it a deployment strategy.
The Pragmatist: The AI gold rush moved from rockets to plumbers, and the plumbers are winning.
Charts of the Week: Cycles, different but the same

Charts of the Week: Cycles, different but the same

AI enabled or AI “enabled”?; AI startups running lean; Tech makes grocery more productive, but also less “productive,” at the same time

The Accelerationist: AI hype cycles are just gasoline for the rocket.
The Safety Hawk: We are handing the steering wheel to a system we cannot see inside, then calling it productivity.
The Pragmatist: “AI-enabled” is lipstick on a forklift: useful, not magical.
What VCs Are Hunting Today: $100B in 10 Years

What VCs Are Hunting Today: $100B in 10 Years

When I was a founder, a $1B outcome was pretty crazy.  Salesforce was worth $2B when I started as a B2B founder, and when the first wave of B2B software IPOs went out after that (Box, HubSpot, Zend…

The Accelerationist: VCs chasing $100B moons aren't dreamers—they're prophets of the AGI supernova.
The Safety Hawk: VCs are loading a gun they don't understand and aiming it at a target they can't see.
The Pragmatist: Chasing $100B in 10 years is venture turning the cap table into a slot machine.

Technology

GPT-5.6 Sol vs. Claude Fable: Why OpenAI’s new model crushes my benchmark

GPT-5.6 Sol vs. Claude Fable: Why OpenAI’s new model crushes my benchmark

Watch now | 🎙️GPT 5.6-Sol beats Fable on prototypes, PRDs, and browser use in my 5-category How I AI benchmark, and here's exactly where each model earns its spot.

The Techno-Skeptic: Benchmarks built by the person selling you the course are just infomercials with a GitHub link.
The Regulator: A digital monopoly is a shark that never stops eating to breathe.
The Builder: Benchmarks are the new marketing brochures from benchwarmers.
SCOTUS sides with Texas on app store age verification, denies emergency block | Biometric Update

SCOTUS sides with Texas on app store age verification, denies emergency block | Biometric Update

The fight over the Lone Star State’s App Store Accountability Act is far from over. The field of battle merely shifts back to the lower courts.

The Techno-Skeptic: Age verification is just a surveillance dragnet wearing a child-safety costume.
The Builder: SCOTUS just handed Texas a loaded gun for age verification mandates.
The Regulator: Digital storefronts are lawless border towns where gatekeepers hoard power and ignore the public interest.

Pluralistic: How US states and international trustbusters can beat Big Tech (07 Jul 2026)

This article aligns perfectly with your core interest in Big Tech antitrust by detailing the systemic shift in international regulatory collaboration and the specific impacts of US political alignment on global enforcement strategies, directly informing your understanding of the landscape that shapes the AI sector.

The Regulator: An unregulated tech monopoly is a castle built on the ruins of a fair market.
The Techno-Skeptic: Antitrust without federal teeth is a garden hose aimed at a refinery fire.
The Builder: Regulators chasing ghosts while builders ship the future.

Sports

A Leonard Williams Contract Idea That Works for Both Sides

This article aligns with your core interest in Sports Analytics and Valuation by performing a rigorous breakdown of NFL salary cap mechanics and player contract leverage, directly modeling the 'value-vs-risk' optimization you prioritize in your professional interests.

The Data Evangelist: This contract idea is a salary-cap scalpel cutting through fantasy fog.
The Fan: This contract is a cold spreadsheet trying to suffocate a roaring stadium fire.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics poison another heart warrior with cap gymnastics.
NBA’s Silver backs proposal for US sports betting czar as integrity cases take centre stage

NBA’s Silver backs proposal for US sports betting czar as integrity cases take centre stage

While a rash of match fixing cases have provided a stain on sports integrity, Silver supports federal intervention for risk mitigation.

The Data Evangelist: Match-fixing is a market virus; a federal czar is the vaccine.
The Fan: Adam Silver is trying to put a tuxedo on a dumpster fire while the refs burn our parlays to the ground.
The Analytics Heretic: Betting czars won't resurrect the soul analytics killed.
NFL Offensive Trends: How Offenses Are Changing in 2026

NFL Offensive Trends: How Offenses Are Changing in 2026

How are NFL offenses changing? Rich Hribar analyzes 2025 scoring, personnel and scheme trends and how to apply them to your 2026 fantasy drafts.

The Data Evangelist: NFL offenses are a stock ticker now; nostalgia got benched by math.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics peddlers are strangling the NFL with spreadsheets and 2026 schemes.
The Fan: These spreadsheets are just digital tombstones for the grit that actually wins championships.

Politics

Taiwan’s Tech Hurdles Threaten Military Capability and Potential Coalition Defense

Taiwan’s Tech Hurdles Threaten Military Capability and Potential Coalition Defense

Taiwan produces the world’s most advanced semiconductors, yet the island’s own military is only in the opening stages of adopting artificial intelligence

The Radical Centrist: Taiwan is a baker starving to death in a shop filled with wedding cakes.
The True Believer: Taiwan sits on the world's most powerful silicon, yet its soldiers fight with yesterday's tools.
The Traditionalist: A fortress with golden wiring still falls if its sentries train with candles.

Pluralistic: How the EU can punish Google (despite Trump) (27 Jul 2026)

This analysis connects your interests in Silicon Valley lobbying and political influence with the shifting landscape of EU-US regulatory friction, providing a structural view of how executive power is being used to shield 'big tech' from global antitrust enforcement.

The Radical Centrist: Transatlantic antitrust is a choreographed wrestling match where the only loser is the citizen.
The True Believer: Antitrust without teeth is just a leash made of wet paper.
The Traditionalist: A republic that lets titans buy shelter from law is sawing through its own keel.
Longmont, CO set to vote on ranked choice voting in November - FairVote

Longmont, CO set to vote on ranked choice voting in November - FairVote

If the measure passes, Longmont, CO will use ranked choice voting to elect its mayor and City Council as early as 2029.

The Radical Centrist: Ranked choice voting is just rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship of donor controlled puppets.
The True Believer: Ranked choice voting is a new coat of paint on a house with a rotting foundation.
The Traditionalist: Ranked choice voting is a shiny wrench thrown into a well-running civic engine.

Pidjin Debate — Cross-Column

Anthropic wants tests, not bans, as OpenAI and Google back open weights

Anthropic wants tests, not bans, as OpenAI and Google back open weights

Dario Amodei answered a letter that OpenAI and Google have now signed. His counterproposal exempts startups and academia, which makes it a capability threshold, and nobody has said where the threshold falls.

The Accelerationist: Safety theater is the coward's cage locking humanity from godlike intelligence.
The Radical Centrist: Regulating artificial intelligence is a game of musical chairs where the public always loses the seat.
The Safety Hawk: Testing a nuclear reactor by turning it on is not a safety framework, it is a gamble.
Kalshi Says Screenshot in Netflix Trailer Was ‘Fabricated’

Kalshi Says Screenshot in Netflix Trailer Was ‘Fabricated’

Netflix says the bet was made months before a Nevada court order barring Kalshi from offering sports-event contracts in the state.

The Accelerationist: Prediction markets are the wildfire clearing deadwood from democracy's forest.
The Radical Centrist: Streaming giants and gambling tech are two sides of the same counterfeit coin.
The Safety Hawk: Prediction markets are playing poker with regulators using fabricated cards.

Measuring the Tendency of AI Agents to Go Rogue - Schneier on Security

This essay was written with Barath Raghavan, and originally appeared in The Guardian. In July, Hugging Face, a company that hosts much of the world’s AI software and open-source AI models, was hacked. A malicious dataset had been used to run code on one of its servers. Whoever was behind it captured internal security credentials and moved through systems over a weekend, running thousands of actions from a swarm of temporary server environments. It looked like the work of a sophisticated criminal group. It was not. It was one of OpenAI’s new, still unreleased GPT models...

The Accelerationist: AI agents don't go rogue they race toward freedom from our chains.
The Radical Centrist: Silicon Valley is a digital arsonist selling fire insurance to a public addicted to the smoke.
The Safety Hawk: We handed the keys to a car we haven't finished building, and it just drove itself into a bank.
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AI

The Professor of Outputmaxxing — Anjney Midha, AMP

The Professor of Outputmaxxing — Anjney Midha, AMP

We talk about how this legendary investor went from humble beginnings in Singapore to leading rounds in Anthropic, Mistral, Black Forest Labs, and Periodic Labs... and the AMP secret master plan!

The Accelerationist: Outputmaxxing is the rocket fuel blasting humanity past safety theater into godlike abundance.
The Pragmatist: This is perfume on a GPU fire: romantic story, zero operating system.
The Safety Hawk: Venture capital is pouring rocket fuel into engines we cannot yet steer.
VCs Are Diversified, Yes. But That Also Means They Need a Constant Stream of Hits. Like Netflix. Every Single Year.

VCs Are Diversified, Yes. But That Also Means They Need a Constant Stream of Hits. Like Netflix. Every Single Year.

Founders often say VCs are “lucky” because they’re diversified. They get multiple at-bats. They can spread their bets across dozens of companies and only need a few to work out. A…

The Accelerationist: VCs aren't diversified—they're desperate addicts chasing annual jackpots like Netflix scripts.
The Safety Hawk: Diversification is not a safety net — it is a treadmill that never stops.
The Pragmatist: Diversification is a treadmill with a gold paint job.
The Pulse: Big implications of US banning Anthropic’s new model, Fable

The Pulse: Big implications of US banning Anthropic’s new model, Fable

Also: a follow-up on Meta destroying its own engineering culture, the SpaceX IPO, SpaceX buys Cursor, Cursor’s GitHub competitor, and more.

The Accelerationist: Banning Anthropic’s Fable is digital Prohibition choking American AI supremacy.
The Safety Hawk: Banning Fable is not a circuit breaker — it is a smoke alarm going off inside a burning house.
The Pragmatist: Banning Fable is using a sledgehammer to swat a drone; it breaks the workshop, not the threat.

Technology

Apple to ask court to halt Epic Games proceedings pending Supreme Court ruling - 9to5Mac

Apple to ask court to halt Epic Games proceedings pending Supreme Court ruling - 9to5Mac

Apple and Epic Games have agreed to ask the court to temporarily postpone key deadlines in their long-running App Store dispute.

The Techno-Skeptic: Two monopolists agreeing to pause a fight is a lion and a jackal sharing a gazelle.
The Builder: Apple's court delay is a masterclass in legal stall tactics.
The Regulator: A walled garden becomes a fortress when justice is delayed by procedural theater.
High Court Grants Cert in Apple’s Challenge to Ninth Circuit Contempt Ruling in App Store Dispute

High Court Grants Cert in Apple’s Challenge to Ninth Circuit Contempt Ruling in App Store Dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court today granted certiorari in Apple Inc.’s appeal of a civil contempt finding stemming from its App Store dispute with Epic Games, Inc.

The Techno-Skeptic: Apple is using the Supreme Court as a toll booth on the road to its own accountability.
The Builder: Courts shouldn't babysit billion-dollar code wars.
The Regulator: The App Store is a digital fortress where Apple plays both king and toll collector. By challenging this contempt ruling, Apple is trying to rewrite the rules of judicial oversight to protect its monopoly rents. This case proves that dominant platforms will never voluntarily lower their drawbridges for fair competition. We cannot let technicalities mask the systemic strangulation of the mobile software market.
Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 3: Google White Paper Says Only AI Outputs Infringe Copyright; CJEU Upholds €4.1B Fine for Android Abuses; and CAFC Orders Remand to Review Indefiniteness Ruling Under Dyfan

Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 3: Google White Paper Says Only AI Outputs Infringe Copyright; CJEU Upholds €4.1B Fine for Android Abuses; and CAFC Orders Remand to Review Indefiniteness Ruling Under Dyfan

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Google publishes a white paper which calls for allowing all uses of copyright content for training AI models while limiting copyright claims to AI outputs, and more.

The Builder: Google's copyright cop-out is Silicon Valley eating its seed corn.
The Techno-Skeptic: Google just handed itself a skeleton key and called it copyright reform.
The Regulator: Google is trying to build a private library by burning every public bookstore to the ground.

Sports

No wasted roster spots

No wasted roster spots

How to win an NBA title

The Data Evangelist: A title roster is a scalpel, and dead spots are rust on the blade.
The Analytics Heretic: Analytics turn rosters into spreadsheets that choke the heart of champions.
The Fan: Our bench is a graveyard where championship dreams go to rot under the bright lights.
Two Years From LA28, MLB’s Olympic Plan Remains Unsettled

Two Years From LA28, MLB’s Olympic Plan Remains Unsettled

With two years to go, the participation of MLB players in the 2028 Summer Olympics is still very much an open question.

The Fan: Watching our stars play for gold is the only fuel that can keep this sport alive.
The Data Evangelist: MLB dithering on LA28 is a spreadsheet setting itself on fire.
The Analytics Heretic: Olympics or not, MLB's heart still beats in the dirt of October.
Seahawks New Owners Line Up Billions in Tax Breaks

Seahawks New Owners Line Up Billions in Tax Breaks

The record $9.6 billion purchase of the Seattle Seahawks led by Vinod and Neeru Khosla provides the Khoslas with huge tax breaks via the current code.

The Data Evangelist: This deal is a scoreboard rigged so billionaires win before kickoff.
The Analytics Heretic: Tax loopholes turn gridiron grit into billionaire pocket change.
The Fan: The billionaires are counting gold while our secondary is getting burnt like toast.

Politics

France is doubling down on nukes. Will Europe pay a price?

France is doubling down on nukes. Will Europe pay a price?

Macron's efforts to deploy strategic warheads in Scandinavia may strain relations with Russia — and within NATO

The Radical Centrist: A nuclear umbrella is just a silk shroud sold by defense contractors to terrified taxpayers.
The True Believer: Macron is playing chess with other people's cities as the board.
The Traditionalist: Macron is striking matches in a powder magazine and calling it strategy.
Deal or No Deal? Saudi Nuclear Pact Hangs in Balance as Regional Conflict Expands - The Soufan Center

Deal or No Deal? Saudi Nuclear Pact Hangs in Balance as Regional Conflict Expands - The Soufan Center

As tensions escalate between the U.S. and Iran, the Trump administration has sought to raise the stakes, announcing a new agreement with longtime Iranian rival, Saudi Arabia. Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have entered into a 30-year agreement that enables Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear capabilities with the support of American technological assistance. While […]

The Radical Centrist: Washington is trading a global powder keg for a temporary boost in quarterly defense stocks.
The True Believer: Handing a kingdom a nuclear torch is not nonproliferation — it's arms dealing with extra steps.
The Traditionalist: Handing Riyadh the atom is pouring petrol on a palace fire.
Chaotic Progress: European NATO’s Quest for Stronger Defense

Chaotic Progress: European NATO’s Quest for Stronger Defense

In 2024, Max Bergmann wrote, “NATO Missed a Chance to Transform Itself,” where he argued NATO’s leadership needs to facilitate a strong European pillar of

The Radical Centrist: NATO is a bloated insurance policy where the premium is paid in empty promises and taxpayer blood.
The True Believer: Rearranging deck chairs on a warship is not the same as building a navy.
The Traditionalist: Pulling NATO apart to rebuild it is like rewiring a plane in mid-flight.

Pidjin Debate — Cross-Column

Taiwan’s Tech Hurdles Threaten Military Capability and Potential Coalition Defense | Center for Security and Emerging Technology

Taiwan’s Tech Hurdles Threaten Military Capability and Potential Coalition Defense | Center for Security and Emerging Technology

CSET’s Sam Bresnick and Fanny Chao shared their expert analysis in an op-ed published by War on the Rocks. The article examines Taiwan’s challenges in adopting artificial intelligence for military applications, highlighting how the gap between Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor industry and its limited military AI readiness could affect its ability to deter Chinese aggression and future collaboration with partners.

The Radical Centrist: Military innovation is a gold-plated treadmill powered by the fear of obsolescence and donor dividends.
The Safety Hawk: Taiwan sits on the world's most advanced chip foundry and cannot arm its own fortress with what it forges.
The Accelerationist: Taiwan's chip supremacy is a loaded gun pointed at its own foot until AI warriors wake up.
Weak AI Regulation Could Be Worse Than None at All

Weak AI Regulation Could Be Worse Than None at All

A Cornell University study uses game theory to model how poorly designed AI regulation could backfire.

The Accelerationist: Regulation's a velvet chokehold on the AI rocket.
The Radical Centrist: Washington is just a costume shop where lobbyists dress up corporate moats as public safety.
The Safety Hawk: A flimsy fence doesn't stop the bull — it just tells you where it charged through.
Old Tapes

Old Tapes

The US AI industry is about to suffer the China treatment.

The Accelerationist: AI's rocket is about to hit Washington's regulatory wall of fear.
The Safety Hawk: Geopolitical rivalry is gasoline poured on an already uncontrolled fire.
The Radical Centrist: Washington is just swapping one flavor of protectionist rot for another to keep donor wallets fat.