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

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

⚖️ Anthropic wins injunction against Trump over Defense Department saga.
📚 Wikipedia bans AI-generated text from being used in article writing.
👤 David Sacks steps down as Trump's AI & crypto policy czar.
🛫 Trump pledges to sign an order paying TSA agents amid budget impasse.
📺 Netflix raises prices on all its streaming plans for subscribers again.

TECHNOLOGY

• Anthropic wins injunction against Trump administration over Defense Department saga (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: MSN, CNBC, Yahoo!}}

  • Judge Rita Lin ordered the Trump administration to rescind its 'supply chain risk' label on Anthropic.

  • The dispute began after Anthropic sought to limit its AI use in weapons & surveillance systems.

  • The court ruled the government's actions violated Anthropic's free speech protections under the law.

• Apple's new AI playlist tool struggles badly with basic music requests (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • Apple Music's Playlist Playground beta frequently misunderstands genre, mood, & basic prompt context.

  • A 'kid-friendly hip hop' prompt returned explicit tracks & songs over 25 years old.

  • Despite being a beta, the tool feels unready, delivering dull & predictable artist selections.

• Wikipedia bans AI-generated text from being used in article writing (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Engadget, MEXC}}

  • Wikipedia's new policy explicitly prohibits editors from using LLMs to generate or rewrite articles.

  • The policy was voted on by volunteer editors & passed with overwhelming support, 40 to two.

  • Editors may still use AI for basic copyediting, provided no new AI-generated content is introduced.

BUSINESS

• David Sacks steps down as Trump's AI & crypto policy czar (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Yahoo!}}

  • Sacks has exhausted his 130-day limit as a special government employee under Trump.

  • He will transition to co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science & Technology.

  • Sacks says he will continue pushing Trump's AI framework, released just last week.

• Trump pledges to sign order paying TSA agents amid budget impasse (AP)
  ^{_{More: CNN, NBC, CBC}}

  • Trump announced he would sign an executive order to immediately pay TSA agents their wages.

  • Senators worked late into the night to resolve a DHS funding stalemate affecting airport workers.

  • TSA agent pay would reportedly be drawn from funds tied to Trump's 2025 tax bill.

• Netflix raises prices on all its streaming plans for subscribers again (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Engadget, The Verge, Business Insider}}

  • All Netflix subscription tiers have increased by at least $1 per month, starting Thursday.

  • The ad-supported plan now costs $8.99/month, with standard at $19.99 & premium at $26.99.

  • Netflix plans to spend $20B on content in 2026, justifying the hike with increased investment.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Zelensky visits Saudi Arabia as U.S. weighs redirecting Ukraine military aid (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: AP, The Guardian}}

  • Zelensky met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah to discuss regional security & Ukraine.

  • Ukraine offered its air-defense expertise & drone technology to Middle East countries facing Iranian strikes.

  • Over 200 Ukrainian experts have been deployed to advise Middle East nations on intercepting drone attacks.

• Belarus & North Korea sign friendship treaty, exchange symbolic gifts (AP)
  ^{_{More: BBC, Euronews, Yahoo!}}

  • Lukashenko gifted Kim Jong Un a rifle, joking it was for when 'enemies appear.'

  • Both leaders signed a cooperation treaty covering agriculture, public health, & information sharing.

  • The two allies pledged closer resistance against Western pressure amid Russia's ongoing Ukraine war.

• Singapore unveils plans to become a major global gold trading hub (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Straits Times, FMT}}

  • The MAS & SBMA outlined plans to develop gold products, vaulting standards, & a clearing system.

  • The initiative follows consultations with major players, including DBS, JPMorgan, UBS, & the World Gold Council.

  • Singapore aims to support both institutional 400-troy-ounce bars & Asian-preferred one-kilogram bar trading.

FUTURISM

• Google Gemini now lets users import chats & data from rival chatbots (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Firstpost, Yahoo!, Tom's Guide}}

  • Google launched 'switching tools', allowing users to transfer memories & chat histories into Gemini.

  • The feature lets users share preferences, relationships, & personal context from competing AI chatbots.

  • Gemini prompts users to extract their data from other chatbots & paste it back in.

• Pony.ai partners with Uber to launch robotaxis across European cities (CNA)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, TechCrunch}}

  • Pony.ai, Uber, & Croatian startup Verne plan to deploy thousands of robotaxis across Europe.

  • The service will launch first in Zagreb, Croatia, with no confirmed start date or fleet size yet.

  • Pony.ai will provide the self-driving tech, while Uber & Verne handle operations & market access.

• Cohere launches Transcribe, its first open source speech recognition model (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Cohere, Tech Buzz, MEXC}}

  • Transcribe is a 2B-parameter model supporting 14 languages, optimized for consumer-grade GPU hardware.

  • Cohere claims Transcribe achieved a 5.42 average word error rate, beating several rival transcription models.

  • The model processes 525 minutes of audio per minute & will integrate into Cohere's North platform.

• 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

• A $2.5B chip smuggling case exposes the high stakes of the AI arms race (This Week in Startups)

  • A Supermicro co-founder allegedly smuggled $2.5B in Nvidia chips to China using fake serial numbers.

  • Purpose-built robots are outperforming humanoids on ROI in energy, defense, & manufacturing inspection tasks.

  • Guests argue the next decade will be the strongest yet for AI-driven, capital-intensive private equity.

• Senator Cory Booker proposes making the first $75k of income tax-free (The Prof G Pod)

  • Booker's 'Keep Your Pay Act' would eliminate income tax on the first $75k of annual income.

  • The plan proposes funding the cuts by taxing the wealthy more & closing existing tax loopholes.

  • Booker & host Scott Galloway also debated deficits, entitlement spending, & Democratic economic messaging strategy.

• NYU poet Ocean Vuong shares his philosophy on the craft of writing (David Perell)

  • Vuong discusses metaphor, vivid prose, & why AI has homogenized the modern written sentence.

  • The poet argues that 80% of writing isn't actually writing, but observation & lived experience.

  • Vuong also explores poetry as a testing ground for writers seeking more daring, disobedient prose.

EXTRAS

• Deccan AI raises $25M to supply post-training data for frontier AI labs (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, CryptoRank}}

  • The Series A round was led by A91 Partners, with Susquehanna International Group & Prosus Ventures participating.

  • Deccan provides post-training services including data generation, model evaluation, & reinforcement learning environment building.

  • Founded in October 2024, the startup counts Google DeepMind & Snowflake among its roughly 10 customers.

• OpenAI indefinitely pauses plans to develop an erotic ChatGPT mode (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, TechCrunch}}

  • OpenAI has shelved its planned 'adult mode' for ChatGPT indefinitely, following internal & external criticism.

  • Concerns included staff pushback & advisers warning the feature risked becoming a 'sexy suicide coach.'

  • The pause follows OpenAI's dropping of Instant Checkout & shutting down its Sora video generator.

• Three people killed after tour helicopter crashes off Kauai, Hawaii (NY Post)
  ^{_{More: AP, Yahoo!}}

  • A tour helicopter carrying a pilot & four passengers crashed near Kalalau Beach on Thursday afternoon.

  • The Airborne Aviation aircraft went down roughly 100 yards off the Na Pali coastline in the ocean.

  • Officials were alerted to the crash via the Kauai Police Department's text-to-911 emergency notification system.

AND MORE

• The Senate is now demanding that data centers hand over their power bills.

• Why a two-seater robotaxi makes more sense than you think.

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

• Google Translate's real-time headphone translation feature is now available globally on iOS.

• Samsung's TriFold offers a brief, weird, & underwhelming hands-on experience.

• Apple improved iOS 26 security, but leaked hacking tools still expose millions.

• Trump goes easy on Ticketmaster despite widespread public hatred for the company.