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

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

📱 Gemini 3 books Uber autonomously on Samsung and Pixel.
🤖 Anthropic acquires Seattle AI startup Vercept in early exit.
📈 Salesforce boosts outlook and unveils $50B buyback plan.
⚖️ BBC reveals Nepal police order behind Gen Z killings.
💔 China grapples with women forming deep bonds with AI companions.

TECHNOLOGY

• Meta's Instagram will alert parents when teens search for suicide or self-harm (The Verge) 

  _{^{More: CNBC, TechCrunch, CBS News}}

  • Parents enrolled in Instagram's supervision tools will receive alerts via email, text, or WhatsApp if teens repeatedly search for suicide or self-harm terms.

  • The feature launches next week in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada; Meta plans to extend similar alerts to AI chat interactions later this year.

  • The rollout comes amid multiple active lawsuits alleging that Instagram deliberately designed addictive features harmful to minors.

• Perplexity may have built a better OpenClaw (The Deep View) 

  • Perplexity Computer is a general-purpose agent that orchestrates 19 AI models, including Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini, and Grok, to execute hours-long workflows autonomously.

  • Tasks such as building a 4k-row spreadsheet overnight or publishing engineering docs were completed internally before launch, according to Perplexity employees.

  • Available now for Max subscribers ($200/month) with per-token billing introduced for the first time; Pro and Enterprise rollout follows in the coming weeks.

• Google is bringing Gemini to Samsung Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10 — including Uber (The Verge) 

  ^{_{More: CNBC, Engadget}}

  • Gemini 3 can now autonomously complete multi-step tasks, such as booking an Uber, reordering DoorDash, and running silently in the background on Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10.

  • Scam Detection, previously Pixel-only, expands to Galaxy S26 in the US, using on-device AI to flag suspicious calls in real time during live conversations.

  • The S26 is the first device where Gemini accesses third-party apps directly; Apple's competing Gemini-powered Siri overhaul is reportedly slipping to May or September.

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BUSINESS

• Anthropic acquires Vercept in early exit for one of Seattle's standout AI startups (GeekWire) 

  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, SiliconAngle, Silicon Republic}}

  • Anthropic acquired Seattle-based Vercept, whose Vy agent could autonomously operate macOS environments; the product shuts down on March 25.

  • Co-founders Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick join Anthropic; co-founder Matt Deitke had already departed to Meta's Superintelligence Lab last year.

  • Vercept raised over $50M from backers, including Eric Schmidt and Jeff Dean; UiPath's stock dropped 3.6% on the news of the acquisition.

• NVIDIA's rosy revenue forecast shows the AI boom remains strong (Bloomberg) 

  ^{_{More: CNBC, Fortune}}

  • NVIDIA posted Q4 revenue of $68.1B (+73% YoY), beating estimates; Data Center revenue hit $62.3B (+75%), representing 91% of total sales.

  • Q1 guidance of $78B came in well above the $72.6B consensus; supply commitments rose from $50B to $95B in one quarter.

  • Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue was $215.9B, with Data Center alone at $194B, nearly 13x what it was when ChatGPT launched in 2023.

• Salesforce forecasts quarterly revenue above estimates (Reuters) 

  • Salesforce Q4 revenue rose 12% YoY to $11.2B, edging past the $11.18B estimate, with Q1 guidance also above Wall Street consensus.

  • The company announced a $50B share repurchase program, its largest ever, signaling confidence despite ongoing pressure from AI-native competitors.

  • Agentforce, Salesforce's AI agent platform, was cited as a key growth driver, with CEO Marc Benioff noting it's now deployed in over 5k customer environments.

MARKETS

WORLD

• New York sues video game developer Valve, says its loot boxes are gambling (Reuters) 

  _{^{More: AP via US News, PC Gamer, Game Developer}}

  • New York AG Letitia James sued Valve for running an illegal gambling operation through loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2.

  • The CS2 skin market has surpassed $4.3B; one knife sold for $400k in 2023, items won through Valve's randomized, slot-machine-style containers.

  • The suit seeks disgorgement of profits plus triple damages, and a permanent injunction barring Valve from operating loot-box mechanics in New York.

• U.S. and Iran begin talks seen as crucial to prevent conflict (BBC) 

  _{^{More: Al Jazeera, NPR, Washington Post}}

  • A third round of indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks opened Thursday in Geneva, brokered by Oman and led by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

  • Iran's FM Araghchi said a "fair and balanced" deal is within reach while insisting Tehran won't surrender its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment.

  • Trump imposed new oil sanctions on the eve of talks and maintains a two-week military strike deadline if Iran refuses to commit to never building a nuclear weapon.

• Shot in school uniform: BBC reveals police order led to Gen Z protest killings (BBC) 

  _{^{More: Yahoo News Canada}}

  • An internal police document obtained by the BBC shows Nepal's former police chief authorized lethal fire against unarmed Gen Z protesters in Kathmandu on September 8.

  • Among the 19 killed was a teenager in a school uniform shot in the back of the head while walking away from the crowd; dozens more were injured.

  • The killings triggered further protests that toppled the government the following day, and the former police chief is now in custody.

FUTURISM

• Women are falling in love with AI; it's a problem for Beijing (NYT) 

  _{^{More: DNYUZ}}

  • Dozens of AI companion apps, from Baidu's Wantalk to Soul and Xingye, have boomed in China, with millions of women forming daily emotional relationships with chatbots.

  • China's birthrate hit its lowest level in over 75 years in 2025; regulators have warned platforms against "design goals to replace social interaction."

  • Experts argue that regulation won't fix the underlying cause: urban isolation and gender norms that leave young women in megacities lonely and uninterested in real-world dating.

• Intriguing new smartphone design features a small robot arm (Futurism) 

  _{^{More: PCMag}}

  • Chinese brand Honor debuted a concept video of a "Robot Phone", a smartphone with a small motorized camera arm that pivots like a miniaturized Wall-E.

  • The arm extends over the top of the device, swiveling to observe surroundings and enabling AI-powered environmental analysis from inside a shirt pocket.

  • The promo video appears largely AI-generated, raising concerns about vaporware; Honor is set to show more at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

• If AI causes an office job wipeout, it'll cause huge problems for blue-collar work too (Futurism) 

  • Citrini Research's viral "2028" author warns that 5% white-collar displacement would flood blue-collar and gig markets, depressing wages across all labor tiers.

  • The Nasdaq fell by more than 1% when the scenario paper went viral; economists at Evercore ISI called its conditions "extreme and improbable."

  • AI was cited in layoff announcements for 54k workers in 2025, though experts warn many of these may be financially motivated "AI washing."

CONTENT

• 'The best career decisions come from the gut' (Great Chat)

  • Hosts Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer debate operating roles versus portfolio careers.

  • Ceci Stallsmith shares returning to Lovable as head of marketing and reassessing ambition, parenting, and ladder climbing.

  • The group questions AI’s impact on the workforce, critiques Dario’s keynote, and reflects on intuition guiding pivotal career moves.

• 'Serious Opinionators' (The Talk Show With John Gruber)

  • John Gruber and Adam Engst dissect Apple’s latest moves, developer dynamics, and shifting expectations across the ecosystem.

  • They explore media narratives shaping tech discourse, challenging conventional takes on platform control and product strategy.

  • Broader reflections examine design philosophy, independent publishing, and how opinionated analysis influences industry conversations.

• 'Prediction Markets w/ Allan Loeb' (The Nick, Dick and Paul Show)

  • Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky welcome Allan Loeb to examine prediction markets and modern speculation.

  • Loeb unpacks gambling psychology, Chicago trading culture, and behavioral drivers behind risk-taking in financial markets.

  • The discussion connects AI, startups, and betting platforms, questioning whether prediction markets mirror addictive dynamics.

EXTRAS

• Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra hands-on: unpacked 2026 (ZDNET) 

  _{^{More: TechRadar, Technobezz}}

  • The Galaxy S26 Ultra debuts a world-first Privacy Display built into its Flex Magic Pixel OLED, blacking out off-angle views down to individual pixels on demand.

  • The lineup runs three AI engines simultaneously: Gemini 3 for agentic tasks, Perplexity's Sonar API for web queries, and an upgraded Bixby for on-device control.

  • Pre-order credits range from $900 at Samsung.com to $1,100 at Best Buy; general availability is March 11.

• Critical Cisco SD-WAN bug exploited in zero-day attacks since 2023 (BleepingComputer) 

  • A critical vulnerability in Cisco's SD-WAN Manager has been actively exploited in zero-day attacks since at least 2023, Cisco confirmed in an emergency advisory.

  • The flaw allows unauthenticated remote code execution; Cisco is urging immediate patching across all affected enterprise SD-WAN deployments.

  • The disclosure follows a broader wave of critical network infrastructure vulnerabilities being weaponized by state-linked threat actors in early 2026.

• Alphabet-owned robotics software company intrinsic joins Google (TechCrunch) 

  • Intrinsic, Alphabet's industrial robotics software unit, is merging into Google to work directly alongside Google DeepMind and leverage Gemini models and cloud infrastructure.

  • The unit, which graduated from Alphabet's X moonshot lab in 2021, had previously acquired Vicarious and Open Robotics, and launched a Foxconn joint venture in October 2025.

  • The move positions Google to compete in physical AI, a market Jensen Huang and Qualcomm's CEO have both flagged as the next major monetization frontier for AI.

AND MORE

• Russia launched a major aerial assault of 420 drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight.

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• Danish Prime Minister calls for an early March general election amid a poll surge.

• Germany’s finance chief warned of ongoing trade challenges for the eurozone economy.

• Major global supply chains face doubled volatility due to tariff fluctuations, a report says.

• Ukrainian officials to meet U.S. envoys in Geneva ahead of renewed Russia peace talks.

• Iceland’s prime minister announces upcoming national referendum on EU accession.

• Switzerland to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas starting late April.

• European windstorm alerts were issued across Portugal, with coastal flood risk.