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

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

🤖 France's Mistral unveils an AI model it claims beats some Chinese rivals.
🏠 Apple reportedly teams up with LG on smart lock, thermostat & doorbell.
🎁 Anthropic gives startups a free year of Claude Team & $1k credits.
🚗 Uber agrees to buy catering platform ezCater for $2.3B in enterprise push.
🚨 French police fire tear gas as over 250k rally for school funding.

TECHNOLOGY

• France's Mistral unveils an AI model it claims beats some Chinese rivals (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: WSJ, TechCrunch, CNA}}

  • Mistral Large 4, nicknamed Le Chonk, ends a roughly five-month release gap and goes public on October 27.

  • CEO Artur Mensch said the model challenges claims that the EU can't compete, citing strengths in cyber.

  • Cybersecurity experts and government authorities will first test a version with fewer safety restrictions.

• Apple reportedly teams up with LG on smart lock, thermostat & doorbell (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Engadget, TechCrunch}}

  • The devices will link to Apple's upcoming smart home hub, reportedly launching October 13 with a six-inch display.

  • The partners are also developing indoor and outdoor security cameras and a floodlight, all branded LG.

  • The lineup, expected to be announced next week, appears to directly challenge Amazon's Ring products.

• Hark rolls out a privacy-focused AI personal assistant called Hark Pro (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: TNW, Fast Company}}

  • Brett Adcock's startup, under a year old, offers the service free, with a paid tier for heavy users.

  • Built on a model trained for computer use, it completes digital tasks across email, calendar, and files.

  • Its full-screen homepage has a chat dialog, suggested actions, and mini-dashboards Hark calls 'panels.'

BUSINESS

• Anthropic gives startups a free year of Claude Team & $1k credits (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Inc., TechCrunch, PYMNTS}}

  • The expanded Claude for Startups program, launched at SF Tech Week, includes up to five premium seats.

  • Members also get Claude Marketplace access for building plug-ins and virtual office hours with Anthropic's Applied AI team.

  • Startups founded in the last five years or funded in the last two years are eligible to apply.

• Uber agrees to buy catering platform ezCater for $2.3B in enterprise push (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • The all-cash deal adds a workplace meals marketplace with over $2.5B in gross bookings over the past year.

  • Founded in 2007, ezCater was bootstrapped for seven years before raising its first $4M round in 2014.

  • The move adds to Uber's pending $15B Delivery Hero purchase and drone delivery bets like Zipline and Flytrex.

• Paramount closes its mega Warner Bros merger, creating Hollywood powerhouse Skydance (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Washington Post, The Guardian}}

  • The $110B deal unites franchises like 'Harry Potter' and 'Mission: Impossible' with CBS, CNN, and HBO Max.

  • CEO David Ellison said the goal is "to take on the biggest players in our industry."

  • The company carries about $80B in debt, while Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz target $6B in savings.

MARKETS

WORLD

• French police fire tear gas as over 250k rally for school funding (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC, Seattle Times, Reuters}}

  • The Interior Ministry counted 266k protesters nationwide, including 56k in Paris, where small groups clashed with officers.

  • The movement began at a Paris-region high school in mid-September and has since spread nationwide.

  • The protests add pressure on outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, whose nearly decade-long tenure has seen many such movements.

• Vance says Iran must curb nuclear enrichment for the war to end (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • The U.S. is in talks with Iran's president and foreign minister but remains unsure how Tehran makes decisions.

  • Vance, a longtime skeptic of foreign wars, brokered a provisional peace deal in June that quickly collapsed.

  • The seven-month war has rattled energy markets and become a liability for Trump and Republicans before the midterms.

• India's JioHotstar expands into the Middle East through a Starzplay partnership (TOI)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Economic Times}}

  • The Reliance-backed streamer, with over 500M monthly active users, will get a dedicated section in Starzplay's app.

  • The region's large South Asian diaspora gives JioHotstar a sizable potential audience for Indian films, shows, and originals.

  • JioHotstar's Indian sports offering is excluded, but a bundle with Starzplay's sports, including cricket, costs about $13.60 monthly.

FUTURISM

• Pinterest's AI can now turn your beauty Pins into salon-ready plans (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: PYMNTS}}

  • The new 'Beauty Guides' feature runs on Pinterest Intelligence, the company's visual and generative AI technology.

  • It translates saved hair and nail ideas into stylist terms like 'balayage,' 'root melt,' and 'almond nails.'

  • The guides also estimate the time and cost of each step, so users can budget before appointments.

• The NBA tests smart basketballs & referee wrist wearables in preseason games (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC}}

  • Wilson's Bluetooth-equipped balls will gather data for future real-time officiating but won't affect calls in these games.

  • Officials will use the wrist devices to contact the replay center for reviews, scoring changes, and clock malfunctions.

  • The wearables completed a successful summer league pilot but won't extend into the regular season.

• Vinod Khosla bets trust will make ex-DeepMind engineer's Wajo the top agent (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Crypto Briefing}}

  • Khosla argues users won't hand their data to Meta, whose ad business makes them 'the product.'

  • Wajo's Fo agent works across iMessage and WhatsApp, sorting errands into categories like 'scheduling' and 'gifting.'

  • It can make calls or hire a human for tasks, though one test call lacked clear AI disclosure.

• Hunting for AI roles eats hours across careers pages, internal referrals, group chats, and a dozen overlapping boards*

  • The Athyna AI Job Board does the watching for you and matches openings to your profile in the background.

  • When a role hits a 75% matching index or higher, we notify you with details and a direct apply link.

CONTENT

• Kevin Mandia discusses building cyber defenses for the agentic AI era (a16z)

  • The Mandiant founder told a16z's David George that AI convinced him to return to security after 30 years away.

  • He argues AI lets attackers probe thousands of paths at once, so defenses must become autonomous too.

  • His company Armadin continuously attacks clients' systems with AI and has found over 90 zero-days this year.

• Andrew Huberman believes every AI lab will eventually become a biotech company (Invest Like The Best)

  • Huberman told Patrick O'Shaughnessy how founders can manage energy and improve sleep with tools like non-sleep deep rest.

  • The neuroscientist also called out what he sees as theatrics in the public health and longevity space.

  • They explored non-invasive brain reading and writing, implantable devices, and the ethics of genetic engineering.

• Worth $50M, Dan Fleyshman spends $110k monthly on a zero-revenue zoo (Moneywise)

  • He took his energy drink company public at 23, then lost a $65M poker site in one day.

  • His 2.2k-person syndicate has raised $56M for 18 companies, with only three of those deals failing.

  • He rents both of his homes and flies Southwest, despite spending over $1M a year on travel.

EXTRAS

• Facebook is testing a Reels-first app experience for users in India (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Some users now open the app to full-screen video, though they can opt out and return to Feed.

  • First outlined in July, the format could reach the U.S. next year, Facebook head Tom Alison said.

  • India has long been Meta's video testing ground, where 89% of surveyed Gen Z users use Reels daily.

• The Emmys are ditching broadcast TV for Prime Video from 2027 (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, BBC, TechCrunch}}

  • Under a six-year exclusive deal, the ceremony will stream free worldwide each September, no subscription needed.

  • The shift mirrors the Oscars, which move to YouTube globally in 2029, as live events go digital.

  • The Emmys become Amazon's first marquee entertainment broadcast, joining its NFL, NBA, and Champions League coverage.

• How to check whether Amazon's shopping profile says you have 'flat buttocks' (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Business Insider, Fast Company}}

  • Amazon infers personal traits from purchase history, such as owning cats, and lists them in account settings.

  • A Threads user's post sharing Amazon's blunt assumptions about her drew over 1M views in under a day.

  • On desktop, open 'Your Shopping preferences' in account settings and click 'Manage your information' at the bottom.

AND MORE

• Mirror Particle is developing a 'world model' of how humans behave.

• Organizers say government officials have ordered robot cage fights to stop.

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

• Bluesky wants users to have their own domain on the open web.

• Meta joins a coalition to tame the 'chaos' of AI bot commerce.

• Some families of troops killed in Iran strike miss White House event.

• Australia's privacy watchdog probes the app maker behind Kmart's smart glasses.