Tech Brew Ride Home

Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls?


⁠Something Big Is Happening⁠ (Matt Shumer)


⁠OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination⁠ (WSJ)


⁠TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users’ precise location⁠ (TechCrunch)


⁠T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app⁠ (The Verge)

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Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls?


Something Big Is Happening (Matt Shumer)


OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination (WSJ)


TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users’ precise location (TechCrunch)


T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app (The Verge)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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)

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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)

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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)

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