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

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

📱 ByteDance delays the global rollout of its Seedance 2.0 video model.
🚗 A woman sues Tesla after her Cybertruck nearly drove off a bridge.
✈️ Top airline CEOs urge Congress to restore funding & pay airport workers.
🥇 Gold hovers near $5k as Middle East war keeps oil prices high.
🌍 U.S. & China open trade talks in Paris ahead of Trump-Xi summit.

TECHNOLOGY

• ByteDance delays the global rollout of its Seedance 2.0 video model (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, Reuters, Engadget}}

  • ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0 in China in February, but paused its planned mid-March global rollout.

  • AI-generated clips featuring Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt went viral, drawing heavy criticism from Hollywood.

  • Studios, including Disney, sent cease-and-desist letters, prompting ByteDance to promise stronger IP safeguards.

• A woman sues Tesla after her Cybertruck nearly drove off a bridge (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, NewsBytes}}

  • Justine Saint Amour sued Tesla after her Cybertruck's Full Self-Driving feature nearly caused a fatal crash.

  • The August 2025 incident shows the truck barreling through traffic cones & slamming into a concrete wall.

  • Tesla's FSD still requires constant supervision, contradicting Elon Musk's claims of full self-driving capability.

• Google & Accel India's accelerator picks five startups, rejecting all 'AI wrappers' (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Tech Buzz, FindArticles}}

  • The Atoms program reviewed over 4,000 applications, with roughly 70% dismissed as shallow AI wrappers.

  • Five startups were selected, each receiving up to $2M in funding & $350k in compute credits.

  • Rejected apps largely fell into crowded categories like marketing automation & AI recruitment tools.

BUSINESS

• Top airline CEOs urge Congress to restore funding & pay airport workers (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC, Reuters}}

  • CEOs from American, Delta, Southwest, & JetBlue signed an open letter demanding Congress act immediately.

  • The letter called for passing acts guaranteeing pay for air traffic controllers during government shutdowns.

  • Executives warned that unpaid TSA & aviation workers face serious hardship amid the partial shutdown.

• Gold hovers near $5k as Middle East war keeps oil prices high (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Financial Post, Business Times, Yahoo!}}

  • Bullion traded around $5k per ounce, dropping 1% before recovering amid rising energy prices.

  • The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has disrupted Strait of Hormuz traffic, affecting a fifth of global oil supply.

  • Trump signaled Iran wants a deal, but Washington is holding out for better terms.

• Trump pushes mass deportations while making immigration data harder to access (AP)
  ^{_{More: MSN, Economic Times, Yahoo!}}

  • The Trump administration has released less reliable immigration data compared to its predecessors.

  • Key statistics tracked since the 1800s are now missing, leaving researchers & lawyers without accountability tools.

  • Even conservative advocates note that DHS figures lack statistical backup & shift inconsistently over time.

MARKETS

WORLD

• U.S. & China open trade talks in Paris ahead of Trump-Xi summit (AP)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, Business Standard, Politico}}

  • U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent & Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in Paris on Sunday.

  • Trump is set to visit China from March 31 to April 2 for a state visit.

  • The summit follows a one-year trade truce struck five months ago in Busan, South Korea.

• Zelensky seeks money & technology in exchange for Ukraine's drone expertise (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, Al Jazeera, Yahoo!}}

  • Ukraine sent three expert teams to Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, & a U.S. base in Jordan.

  • Zelensky clarified that Ukraine is advising on drone defense, not participating in active Gulf combat operations.

  • Kyiv hopes to negotiate long-term drone deals, prioritizing both funding & technology from Gulf states.

• upGrad acquires Unacademy in a share-swap deal, consolidating India's edtech sector (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: MSN, Reuters, Yahoo!}}

  • Unacademy's valuation has dropped 85% from its $3.5B pandemic peak to under $500M.

  • The 100% share-swap deal was announced by Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal on Sunday via X.

  • UpGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala confirmed that Munjal will continue to lead Unacademy post-acquisition.

FUTURISM

• Honda cancels its EV programs, surrendering any chance of future competition (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, TOI}}

  • Honda halted development of the Acura RDX, Honda 0 sedan, & SUV this week.

  • The company blamed U.S. tariffs & Chinese competition, despite never having a solid EV strategy.

  • Shelving EVs risks falling further behind on electric drivetrains & software-defined vehicles.

• China's economy gains early momentum in 2026 amid mounting global risks (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: MSN, Korea Times}}

  • China's factory output, retail sales, & investment all beat expectations in January-February 2026.

  • A surge in AI-related exports boosted manufacturing, giving policymakers early relief this year.

  • Analysts warn of risks from geopolitical tensions, weak consumer confidence, & global trade strains.

• Rivian's RJ Scaringe launches Mind Robotics, challenging conventional approaches to robot design (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz, Bitget}}

  • Scaringe founded Mind Robotics, raising $615M & reaching a $2B valuation since November 2025.

  • The startup secured a $500M Series A round, co-led by Accel & Andreessen Horowitz.

  • Mind Robotics is separate from Rivian, though the automaker could become a future customer.

• LLM Feature Integration with Real APIs*

  Building LLM-powered features means handling real APIs, real users, and real edge cases. You need engineers who can do the glue work that makes AI actually usable—Python, JavaScript, and everything in between.

  • Full-stack LLM integration

  • Production-ready implementation

  • 40–60% cost savings

CONTENT

• OpenAI's Nick Turley breaks down how ChatGPT became a historic product (Bg2 Pod)

  • Turley discussed how long-term retention, not raw growth, is ChatGPT's core product north star.

  • OpenAI's vision moves beyond chatbots toward proactive agents completing complex, long-horizon daily tasks.

  • GPU constraints, evolving pricing, & balancing power users vs. casual consumers shape OpenAI's key product decisions.

• Jacob Warwick reveals how to stop leaving 40% of your comp behind (Lenny's Podcast)

  • Warwick says a simple, low-pressure question can often unlock a 20% compensation bump immediately.

  • Negotiation starts far earlier than most people think, & timing paired with information creates real leverage.

  • Treating job searches like enterprise sales, focusing on collaboration over confrontation, drives the best outcomes.

• Elena Verna unpacks how Lovable hit $400M ARR in 18 months (20VC)

  • Lovable reached $400M ARR in just 18 months, making it one of the world's fastest-growing companies.

  • Verna warns that paid marketing in year one is a 'death trap' for early-stage startups.

  • Every Lovable employee, including marketing, ships code — a key part of its unconventional growth strategy.

EXTRAS

• Asian markets turn cautious as Gulf tensions push oil prices higher (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: CNA, Investing.com}}

  • Gulf hostilities kept oil prices elevated, clouding the inflation outlook for central banks meeting this week.

  • The WSJ reported the Trump administration may announce a coalition to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Japan's Nikkei slipped, while Wall Street focused on Nvidia's upcoming AI conference & a softer dollar.

• An Index Ventures partner breaks down Google's $32B Wiz acquisition (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: FindArticles, Yahoo!}}

  • Google closed its $32B acquisition of Wiz, the largest-ever purchase of a venture-backed startup.

  • Index Ventures partner Shardul Shah cited AI, cloud, & security as Wiz's three core tailwinds.

  • Shah previously backed Adallom, an earlier startup founded by the same team behind Wiz.

• Warner Bros. wins big at the Oscars amid its looming Paramount sale (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Investing.com, The Tribune}}

  • Warner Bros. took home 11 Oscars, with 'One Battle After Another' & 'Sinners' leading the wins.

  • Paramount's CEO, David Ellison, won a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery with a $110B offer.

  • The merger narrows Hollywood's major studio ranks amid pressure from streaming, labor unrest, & rising costs.

AND MORE

• AI companies are recruiting improv actors to train models on authentic human emotion.

• iFixit calls the new MacBook Neo the most repairable in years.

• Roko’s Basilisk skips the buzz words and cuts straight to what moves markets, products, and careers.*

• The $100k fee for H-1Bs is causing all sorts of problems.

• Netflix scores five Oscars with 'Frankenstein' & 'KPop Demon Hunters'.

• Live-service games are struggling, proving they are far from normal.

• Travis Kalanick's comeback makes it feel like 2016 all over again.

• Melinda French Gates opens up about power, privilege, & knowing when to quit.