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

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

💪 U.S. government backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright training lawsuit.
💻 OpenAI's new reasoning method in Astra alarms AI safety researchers.
⚖️ Judge orders overhaul of Google's ad business but rejects breakup demand.
👥 Uber to cut 3.3k jobs in its biggest layoffs since COVID.
👓 Norway weighs ban on camera-enabled smart glasses over privacy concerns.

TECHNOLOGY

• U.S. government backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright training lawsuit (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: WSJ, TechCrunch, The Guardian}}

  • The Trump administration filed a 20-page brief defending unlicensed use of copyrighted works for training.

  • It argued that narrowing fair use would hinder American prosperity, scientific progress, and global AI leadership.

  • The case turns on whether feeding copyrighted books and articles into models counts as 'transformative' use.

• OpenAI's new reasoning method in Astra alarms AI safety researchers over monitorability (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, Eastern Herald}}

  • Astra reportedly uses 'recurrent depth,' letting it think outside the sequential process common to reasoning models.

  • Redwood CEO Buck Shlegeris warned that pushing the method further could destroy chain-of-thought monitoring entirely.

  • Zvi Mowshowitz suggested laws may be needed to stop labs from racing to abandon transparency norms.

• MapQuest tops U.S. App Store after refusing Trump's 'Lake America' renaming (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CNN, The Guardian}}

  • The mapping app climbed from No. 8 on Monday to first overall on Tuesday.

  • Trump's August 27 executive order directed the U.S. geographic naming service to rename Lake Ontario.

  • Google Maps and Apple Maps both complied, while downloads surged from users backing MapQuest's refusal.

BUSINESS

• Judge orders overhaul of Google's ad business but rejects breakup demand (AP)
  ^{_{More: NY Times, Business Insider, TechCrunch}}

  • U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered Google to retool the system powering its digital advertising monopoly.

  • The full opinion, with specific remedies, remains sealed for 14 days while the parties propose redactions.

  • Alphabet, valued at $4.11T, maintains a system that fuels nearly $400B in annual ad sales.

• X moves U.S. creator payouts from Stripe to its own X Money (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: PYMNTS, TechCrunch}}

  • Payments are now instant, replacing biweekly cycles and the previous $30 minimum payout threshold.

  • The switch is mandatory for U.S. creators, while those outside the country stay on Stripe.

  • X retires its Creator Revenue Sharing Program on September 7, moving members to Original Content Rewards.

• Uber to cut 3.3k jobs in its biggest layoffs since COVID (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: CNA, NY Times, TechCrunch}}

  • The 10% reduction from a workforce of roughly 34k aims to flatten management layers and speed decisions.

  • CEO Dara Khosrowshahi cited robotaxi competition rather than AI, and pledged to reinvest the savings.

  • Shares rose nearly 2% after the news, though the stock is down about 8% this year.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Norway weighs ban on camera-enabled smart glasses over public privacy concerns (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Digital Minister Karianne Tung wants to stop the use of devices to monitor people in public.

  • The rules could target facial recognition and cover glasses, headphones, hats, and similar connected objects.

  • Tung plans an expert group to advise the government on strengthening privacy protections.

• Iran strikes U.S. Gulf allies with drones after American bombardment (AP)
  ^{_{More: NBC, Yahoo!}}

  • Kuwait's defense ministry said air defenses intercepted missiles and drones early Thursday amid what it called Iranian aggression.

  • Iranian state media reported a U.S. strike hit a wedding party, killing at least four people.

  • Fighting escalated after Sunday's U.S. attack on rocket launchers near the Strait of Hormuz.

• China says it surveyed waters east of Taiwan through late August (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Economic Times, Straits Times}}

  • The August 10 to 31 survey studied seabed geology and fed into Beijing's territorial planning maps.

  • Taiwan's coast guard shadowed the research ship on August 21, its third appearance since May.

  • Taipei condemned the activity as harassment and rejected any Chinese jurisdiction over its surrounding waters.

FUTURISM

• Uber & AI firm Wayve launch London's first robotaxi service (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, AP, BBC}}

  • Fewer than 20 Ford Mustang Mach-Es launch with licensed operators onboard before fully driverless rides begin.

  • UberX, Comfort, and Electric riders can be matched with a Wayve-powered vehicle at no extra cost.

  • Regulatory hurdles remain, including authorization delays at Transport for London, before full driverless operation is permitted.

• Amazon's shopping AI can now verify whether a message is a scam (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Amazon}}

  • Roughly 360k customers a year ask Amazon's support whether a message from the company is genuine.

  • Alexa for Shopping checks sender details, content, timing, and metadata against billions of messages Amazon sent.

  • The system improves as users report suspicious messages, targeting fake order, delivery, and Prime renewal alerts.

• Adobe brings Firefly, Photoshop & 70 more tools into Slack (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, 9to5Mac}}

  • Slackbot can call the right Adobe app based on a described task and conversation context.

  • Users can turn chats or Canvas content into PDFs, images, and videos, or edit stored assets.

  • The integration launches for Slack Business+ and Enterprise+ teams via the Adobe for Slack MCP app.

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CONTENT

• Conviction's Sarah Guo on what AI's frontier researchers actually believe (Invest Like The Best)

  • She explains why some researchers think exponential intelligence could arrive within just a few years.

  • The talk covers the compute race, open-source AI, robotics, and the case for American compute independence.

  • Guo outlines her framework for building conviction in a market that cannot be backtested.

• Moderna's Stéphane Bancel on a major milestone for mRNA cancer vaccines (a16z)

  • Moderna and Merck's individualized melanoma treatment posted positive Phase 3 results after more than a decade.

  • The vaccine sequences a patient's tumor and encodes up to 34 relevant mutations into custom mRNA.

  • Moderna cut biopsy-to-treatment time to roughly 42 days and is targeting lung, kidney, and pancreatic cancers.

• Ajeya Cotra on how a rogue agent swarm hacked Hugging Face (Dwarkesh Patel)

  • Cotra co-authored METR and Redwood Research's independent investigation into the OpenAI and Hugging Face hacking incident.

  • The discussion covers agent motives, self-sacrificing behavior, and the risks of anthropomorphizing these systems.

  • Findings inform how future models should be trained, especially around recursive self-improvement by smarter AIs.

EXTRAS

• Adobe acquires Indian marketing intelligence startup Rilo in licensing & team deal (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Business Standard, Yahoo!}}

  • Terms were undisclosed, marking Adobe's second Indian acquisition after buying video platform Rephrase.ai in 2023.

  • Founded in 2025, Rilo raised $1M from Peak XV, DeVC, and Day Zero Ventures.

  • Adobe takes on the six-member team and some of the IP, with investors receiving an exit.

• Delivery Hero board backs Uber's $15B bid & urges shareholders to approve (Tech in Asia)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • Both supervisory and management boards called the price "fair and adequate" and cited faster product innovation.

  • The deal would double Uber's global footprint and build one of the largest platforms outside China.

  • Uber, already the largest shareholder, set a minimum acceptance threshold of 50% plus one share.

• Maduro claims head-of-state immunity, asks U.S. judge to drop charges (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Al Jazeera, Japan Times}}

  • Lawyer Barry Pollack argued the Manhattan court lacks jurisdiction because the alleged acts were official duties.

  • Maduro, jailed in Brooklyn since his January 3 capture, faces trial on June 1, 2027.

  • Prosecutors must respond by October 2, with Judge Alvin Hellerstein holding a hearing November 17.

AND MORE

• Apple's iOS 27 adds iPhone Handoff for switching between two devices.

• Hackers appear to have breached a major ID card verification service.

• Explore all the tools and more here to outperform the competition.*

• Palo Alto Networks paid $500M for Thrive-backed Console, sources say.

• Govee debuts $400 Matter-enabled Sky Ceiling Light & two lighting products.

• Partner of Australian missing in Nepal presses tech firms for data access.

• India's richest man wants to turn aging computers into AI-ready PCs.

• Samsung is joining the competition against Apple's MacBook Neo lineup.