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

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

🤖 Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5 with stronger reasoning and coding.
🛒 OpenAI adds instant shopping in ChatGPT, with Etsy and Shopify coming soon.
🌍 Taliban shuts down internet nationwide in Afghanistan, cutting off communication.
📉 Charlie Javice sentenced to seven years for JPMorgan fraud, $288M restitution.
📜 California passes law requiring AI firms over $500M to disclose safety protocols.

TECHNOLOGY

• Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5, targeting enterprise

  • Claude Sonnet 4.5 maintains focus on complex tasks for over 30 hours, outperforming prior models’ autonomy.

  • It leads benchmarks like SWE-bench and OSWorld, improving performance in coding, reasoning, and alignment.

  • The model becomes available in Amazon Bedrock and Microsoft Copilot Studio, enabling advanced agent workflows.

• OpenAI partners with Etsy and Shopify to enable ‘Instant Checkout’

  • Now, U.S. ChatGPT users can buy products from Etsy directly in chat with a single click interface.

  • Shopify integration is coming soon, and merchants will pay a commission while users incur no additional fees.

  • OpenAI open-sourced its Agentic Commerce Protocol and uses Stripe to power payments behind the scenes.

• OpenAI is reportedly developing Sora 2, a TikTok-style AI video app

  • Sora 2 is designed to generate AI video content based on prompts, enabling short-form creative storytelling.

  • It may compete with TikTok by letting users remix or iterate visual output via chat and generative models.

  • The app reflects OpenAI’s push toward agentic media platforms blending AI, content, and interactivity.

BUSINESS

• YouTube to pay $24.5 million to settle lawsuit brought by Trump

  • YouTube will pay $24.5 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his 2021 account suspension.

  • Of that, $22 million is earmarked for the Trust for the National Mall to fund a White House ballroom.

  • The settlement resolves one of multiple legal claims Trump pursued against major social platforms.

• Ford CEO warns AI boom is neglecting blue-collar workers, essential to the ‘economy backbone’

  • Farley argues that skilled trades and factory labor are crucial infrastructure for AI and data center growth.

  • He warns that labor shortages and restrictive immigration are squeezing this essential workforce.

  • His message: future growth won’t succeed without support and reforms to uplift the ‘essential economy.’

• Charlie Javice gets 7 years in prison for defrauding JPMorgan

  • Javice, founder of Frank, was sentenced to 85 months for inflating user numbers before selling to JPMorgan.

  • She was convicted of bank fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy in a Manhattan federal court.

  • She must also pay $288 million in restitution and will remain free on bail while appealing.

MARKETS

WORLD

• U.S. government edges toward shutdown amid Trump-Netanyahu meeting

  • Congress and White House failed to agree on spending ahead of the October 1 deadline, threatening government closure.

  • Trump is scheduled to host Netanyahu at the White House as the funding impasse escalates with foreign policy in focus.

  • Republican leaders push deadline extensions while Democrats demand safeguards for health subsidies and social programs.

• Afghanistan telecom blackout as Taliban shuts off internet

  • The Taliban ordered a nationwide shutdown of internet and mobile services by cutting fiber-optic infrastructure.

  • The blackout follows new decrees banning ‘immoral content’ and restricting digital freedoms across the country.

  • Citizens and analysts warn that the move isolates Afghanistan further and jeopardizes humanitarian communication.

• Moldova’s pro-EU party wins decisive majority in parliamentary vote

  • Moldova’s ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity clinched 55 of 101 seats and about half the vote.

  • Victory signals continued commitment to EU integration, amidst pressure from Russia and domestic instability.

  • The election was conducted amid accusations of sabotage, cyberattacks, and interference from pro-Russian actors.

FUTURISM

• Newsom signs AI safety disclosure law in California

  • Governor Newsom approved SB 53, requiring large AI firms to publicly disclose safety protocols and risk mitigation plans.

  • Companies making over $500 million in AI revenue face fines up to $1 million per violation for nondisclosure.

  • The law positions California as a tech regulation leader amid federal inaction on AI governance.

• Microsoft adds Agent Mode and Office Agent using Anthropic models to Office apps

  • ‘Vibe working’ introduces Agent Mode in Word and Excel, letting users build documents via conversational prompts.

  • Office Agent, powered by Anthropic, lets Copilot generate slides and documents with live previews and research.

  • The tools are web-first and currently available in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot users.

• OpenAI rolls out parental safety controls for teen ChatGPT users

  • Parents can link accounts, restrict sensitive content, set time limits, and receive alerts for self-harm signals.

  • Conversations indicating risk will be flagged and reviewed by human moderators before parent alerts are issued.

  • Teens must opt in to controls; transcripts aren’t shared to balance monitoring with privacy.

CONTENT

• How The AI Economy Could Collapse

  • Scott Galloway dissects circular AI investment deals, warning they resemble unsustainable bubbles with antitrust risks.

  • He highlights distortions in economic data masking inequality’s effects on lower-income Americans.

  • Episode blends macroeconomic insights with predictions on AI’s impact across markets and society.

• OpenAI & Anthropic Will Build Their Own Chips & Will NVIDIA Hit $10TRN

  • Groq CEO Jonathan Ross argues OpenAI and Anthropic must design chips to control costs and independence.

  • He outlines bullish cases valuing each at $5B while forecasting Nvidia’s future market cap trajectory.

  • Discussion spans U.S.-China AI race, Europe’s competitiveness, nuclear energy, and long-term chip market dynamics.

• Enhance Your Learning Speed & Health Using Neuroscience-Based Protocols

  • Stanford’s Dr. Poppy Crum explains protocols to accelerate learning through neuroplasticity, sleep, and targeted stimulation.

  • She explores digital twins, smartphones, AI, and video games as tools to enhance cognition and health.

  • Huberman Lab episode offers science-backed, zero-cost methods to improve mental performance and wellbeing.

EXTRAS

• Weak jobs growth leads to millions of US workers being left out

  • U.S. hiring has stalled across manufacturing and professional services, leaving many mid-career workers sidelined.

  • Over a quarter of the unemployed have been jobless for more than six months—the highest since the early 2010s.

  • The labor market’s ‘low-hire, low-fire’ dynamics suggest structural weakness beyond short-term fluctuations.

• AI recruiter Alex raises $17M to automate initial job interviews

  • Alex closed a $17M Series A to deploy AI tools for video and phone screening shortly after candidates apply.

  • Its autonomous recruiter tool handles background checks, salary questions, availability, and basic vetting.

  • The startup says it already conducts thousands of interviews daily for major firms to streamline hiring.

• DeepSeek releases a sparse attention model that cuts API costs in half

  • DeepSeek’s new V3.2-Exp model introduces sparse attention to reduce inference costs by about 50%.

  • The model retains long-context performance while lowering API pricing in early tests.

  • As an open-weight release, it may pressure other AI providers on cost and efficiency.

AND MORE

• The US Pentagon’s Replicator AI weapons program falls short of targets.

• China’s industrial profits rose 0.9 % from January to August.

• India and the US report ‘constructive’ trade talks, aim for an early treaty.

• Your brand deserves to be in front of people who actually make decisions. That’s Memo’s audience.*

• Stockholm IPO of digital bank NOBA surges 27 % day.

• Wall Street futures are mixed ahead of key inflation data release.

• The US faces visa revocation for Colombia’s President Petro over incitement.

• Reuters outlines major developments in the Trump-era global trade wars.