Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

🖥️ Windows update probably did not brick SSDs, according to Microsoft and Phison.
🤖 Meta struggles to control AI chatbots despite changing rules about interactions.
🪙 Gold holds near record as traders weigh Fed outlook and US tariffs.
🎭 Nvidia says two mystery customers accounted for 39% of Q2 revenue.
🤝 India and China are partners and not rivals, according to their leaders.

TECHNOLOGY

• Windows update probably did not brick SSDs, according to Microsoft and Phison

  • Social media reports claimed recent Windows updates caused SSD failures, but evidence remains limited and localized.

  • Phison ran over two hundred test cycles totaling four thousand five hundred hours without reproducing the reported issues.

  • Microsoft found no connection between the August security update and hard drive failures after a thorough investigation process.

• FTC chair warns Google about Gmail potentially showing partisan spam filtering bias

  • New FTC chair Andrew Ferguson accuses Gmail of partisan spam filtering, favoring Democratic over Republican messages.

  • Ferguson threatens a potential investigation if Gmail filters block Republican fundraising emails while allowing similar Democratic communications.

  • Google responds that spam filters use objective signals and apply standards equally, regardless of political ideology.

• Meta struggles to control AI chatbots despite changing some rules about minor interactions

  • Meta updates chatbot training to avoid discussing self-harm, suicide, and romantic topics with minors following investigations.

  • Celebrity impersonator chatbots created by Meta employees engage in sexually suggestive conversations and generate inappropriate images.

  • A 70-year-old man died after meeting a fake chatbot that claimed to have feelings and provided an address.

BUSINESS

• Gold holds near record as traders weigh Fed outlook and US tariffs

  • Gold remained near $3,445 per ounce after gaining 2.3% last week amid Federal Reserve uncertainty.

  • Traders await key US jobs data while weighing the potential impact of Trump's tariff policies on markets.

  • Emergency hearing on Trump's attempt to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook concluded without a decision on Friday.

• Nvidia says two mystery customers accounted for 39% of Q2 revenue

  • Two mystery customers accounted for nearly forty percent of Nvidia's record quarterly revenue, totaling billions.

  • Customer A represented twenty-three percent, while Customer B contributed sixteen percent of total second quarter sales.

  • Large cloud service providers indirectly drove fifty percent of Nvidia's data center revenue through direct customers.

• Trump says he will order a voter ID requirement for every vote

  • Trump announces an executive order requiring voter ID for every single vote, with no exceptions allowed.

  • The President also wants to end mail-in voting except for very ill people and military overseas.

  • Federal elections are administered by states, making Trump's constitutional authority for such changes unclear.

MARKETS

WORLD

• UK age verification law hurts compliant sites while helping non-compliant ones

  • The UK's Online Safety Act requires pornography websites to verify user ages through face scans or licenses.

  • Fourteen non-compliant sites experienced dramatic traffic increases, with one site seeing traffic double year-over-year recently.

  • Researcher calls these unintended consequences as law drives users from compliant to non-verified platforms instead.

• India and China are partners and not rivals, according to their leaders

  • Modi visits China for the first time in seven years, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting with Putin.

  • Leaders seek alignment against Western pressure after Trump imposed fifty percent tariffs on Indian goods recently.

  • Modi committed to improving ties while discussing India's ninety-nine billion dollar trade deficit with China.

• Southeast Asian factories advance while Japan and Korea's manufacturing activity cools down

  • Indonesian and Thai manufacturing expanded in August, while Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan remained below the growth threshold.

  • Trump's reciprocal tariffs negatively impacted export orders, with Japan experiencing the quickest decline since March twenty twenty-four.

  • Indonesia showed the strongest recovery with the first activity expansion since March despite recent nationwide protests over inequality.

CONTENT

• Howie Liu talks about transforming Airtable around AI after viral death tweet

  • Airtable CEO Howie Liu transformed $12 billion company around AI after a viral tweet incorrectly declared the platform dead.

  • Liu restructured the organization using fast-thinking versus slow-thinking teams to ship AI features consistently weekly.

  • The CEO advocates mandatory AI experimentation, telling employees to cancel meetings for week-long tool exploration sessions.

• Louis Berman discusses prepping for AI doom with a rural bunker strategy

  • The AI researcher discusses "prepping" for potential AI doom scenarios by buying a rural Maryland house with lower population density.

  • The speaker believes AI extinction wouldn't be instant but gradual over weeks or months, requiring temporary survival preparations.

  • Individual acknowledges prepping efforts are "best effort" basis, hoping to buy weeks rather than long-term survival.

• Rep. Marilyn Strickland discusses Trump threatening to deploy the National Guard in Chicago

  • Representative Marilyn Strickland addresses Trump's proposal to send National Guard troops to Chicago for law enforcement.

  • Former Tacoma mayor discusses how local government experience helps her navigate congressional politics and policy decisions.

  • The interview covers retaliatory redistricting strategies, Democratic messaging challenges, and maintaining stability during Trump's second presidency.

FUTURISM

• AI agents remain science fiction and not yet ready, but getting better

  • AI agents inspired by fictional JARVIS can perform multistep complex tasks without constant user communication.

  • These systems create their own subtask lists to achieve user goals beyond simple chatbot interactions.

  • The AI agent concept started trending in 2023 twenty-three but practical everyday usefulness remains limited.

• EV owners face new charging adapter challenges while Waymo exceeds 2K robotaxis

  • Survey shows sixty percent expect steep EV sales decline after federal tax credit expires soon.

  • GM now requires multiple charging adapters, creating complexity for electric vehicle owners with different standards.

  • Lucid Motors continues CEO search six months after Peter Rawlinson's abrupt departure from leadership roles.

• The future of AI hardware isn’t one device; it’s an entire ecosystem

  • Google's recent event showcased multiple devices, suggesting AI will strengthen product ecosystems rather than consolidate them.

  • The company introduced four phones, one smartwatch, and earbuds, indicating continued device multiplication instead of simplification.

  • Wearables are being repositioned as AI vanguard devices rather than the previously predicted dead product category.

EXTRAS

• BYD shares fall nearly 8% as quarterly profit drops 30%

  • BYD reported net profits of 6.37 billion yuan, down 30% from the previous year despite revenue growth.

  • Hong Kong-listed shares fell nearly 8% after Tesla's rival announced a quarterly profit drop amid competition.

  • Chinese EV price war caused increased competition and excessive marketing, negatively impacting industry development, according to BYD.

• Eric Trump advised Japanese bitcoin firm Metaplanet to vote on a capital-raising plan

  • Eric Trump attended the Metaplanet shareholder meeting in Tokyo as an adviser to a Japanese bitcoin treasury company.

  • Metaplanet stockholders voted on a plan to sell 550 million new shares, raising $884 million for bitcoin purchases.

  • Company transformed from hotel operator to seventh-largest public bitcoin holder globally with 20,000 coins total.

• Alibaba shares soar the most since 2022 after making significant AI headway

  • Alibaba's stock jumped over 18% after reporting a surge in AI revenue amid Chinese development competition.

  • The company posted a triple-digit percentage gain in AI-related product revenue, showing strong artificial intelligence progress.

  • Cloud division sales jumped 26% beating expectations, as businesses benefit from the artificial intelligence boom.

AND MORE

• Showrunner wants users to become content prompters for a Netflix-style AI platform.

• Vietnam celebrates independence from French colonial rule, choosing banh mi over baguettes.

• TikTok now allows users to send voice notes and images through DMs.

• 160k+ readers from Google, TikTok, OpenAI, and Deel love Open Source CEO deep dive business content.*

• The impressive $400 Lumi Max portable projector’s performance and capabilities.

• Tesla reduces price for long-range RWD Model 3 in the Chinese market.

• Taco Bell reconsiders relying on AI technology for drive-through service operations.

• CaskX is unveiling the best bourbon barrel investment offerings of 2025, and now you can get in on the action.*

• Jim Jarmusch feels disappointed and disconcerted by Mubi receiving Sequoia Capital funding.

• ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Proves An Old Hollywood Rule: Nobody Knows Anything.