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

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

🚨 KPMG pulled a report on AI usage after apparent AI hallucinations surfaced.
🔎 OpenAI faces an investigation from a coalition of state attorneys general.
📈 Markets cheer the U.S.-Iran deal, but investors warn it isn't signed yet.
📝 Convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice is reportedly angling for a Trump pardon.
🕊️ U.S. & Iran reach a peace deal to end the Mideast war.

TECHNOLOGY

• KPMG pulled a report on AI usage after apparent AI hallucinations surfaced (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: TOI, PCMag, Financial Times}}

  • KPMG pulled a report on agentic AI after organizations said its claims about them were untrue.

  • GPTZero traced the inaccuracies to AI hallucinations, suggesting KPMG used AI to write a report about AI.

  • UBS, the NHS, Swiss Federal Railways, and Transport for London disputed the report's claims about their use of AI.

• Amazon's Jassy reportedly flagged Anthropic model concerns before the government crackdown (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Reuters}}

  • Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of concerns that prompted Anthropic's model cutoff.

  • Jassy reportedly told officials that Amazon researchers used Claude Fable 5 to obtain information useful for cyberattacks.

  • The government then imposed export controls on Fable 5 and Mythos 5, affecting AWS, according to Amazon.

• OpenAI faces an investigation from a coalition of state attorneys general (NY Times)
  ^{_{More: Tom's Hardware, TechCrunch, WSJ}}

  • A coalition of state attorneys general has opened an investigation into OpenAI's practices.

  • New York's attorney general served a subpoena on Friday seeking documents on advertising, engagement, data handling, and minors.

  • OpenAI said it takes the concerns seriously and pointed to new safeguards protecting minors and vulnerable users.

BUSINESS

• Markets cheer the U.S.-Iran deal, but investors warn it isn't signed yet (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Firstpost, Reuters}}

  • Asian stocks rallied Monday, and oil prices tumbled after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a peace deal.

  • Energy markets reacted strongest, with U.S. crude down 4.77% to $80.83 and Brent off about 4%.

  • Asian equities surged, with South Korea's Kospi jumping 5.1% and Japan's Nikkei 225 climbing 3.6%.

• Convicted Frank founder Charlie Javice is reportedly angling for a Trump pardon (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, TechCrunch, MSN}}

  • Javice, the convicted founder of Frank, is reportedly courting Trump allies in pursuit of a presidential pardon.

  • The administration is reportedly weighing 250 pardons this summer, drawing white-collar requests, including those for Sam Bankman-Fried.

  • She was convicted last September of fabricating accounts to inflate Frank's value before selling it for $175M.

• Trump's 80th birthday featured UFC fights on the White House South Lawn (AP)
  ^{_{More: CNN, Seattle Times}}

  • President Trump marked his 80th birthday with a UFC fight night on the White House South Lawn.

  • The Freedom 250 event brought global fighters to an improbable all-American setting, complete with chants of "USA!"

  • UFC, once tagged "human cockfighting," is now tied to the right-wing manosphere that backed Trump.

MARKETS

WORLD

• U.S. & Iran reach a peace deal to end the Mideast war (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, CNN, BBC}}

  • The U.S. and Iran agreed to a peace deal, bringing an immediate and permanent end to the conflict.

  • The agreement follows weeks of mixed messaging from both Washington and Tehran over the conflict's trajectory.

  • Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon put the deal at risk earlier that day.

• India debates its AI future as Anthropic suspends access to new models (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: MSN, Yahoo!}}

  • Anthropic suspended access to its newest models after a U.S. government directive, rattling the global tech industry.

  • The directive bars foreign nationals, including Anthropic's own foreign staff, from accessing Fable 5 and Mythos 5.

  • The suspension followed Anthropic's TCS partnership, reigniting India's debate over depending on U.S.-built AI.

• G7 leaders meet in France following the U.S.-Iran deal to end the war (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: France 24, Economic Times, Yahoo!}}

  • G7 leaders gathered at a French lakeside resort on Monday, shortly after the preliminary U.S.-Iran deal.

  • Next steps on Iran top the agenda for the June 15-17 summit hosted by President Macron.

  • Leaders will also seek common ground on Ukraine, economic imbalances, and sourcing critical minerals outside China.

FUTURISM

• An autonomous robot weapon has been confirmed to have killed human soldiers (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: Tom's Hardware, Yahoo!, MSN}}

  • A senior Ukrainian defense industry figure confirmed the first known killings by a fully autonomous drone.

    The quadcopter would loiter for about 10 minutes, then enter a 'terminator mode' to autonomously attack targets.

    Drone maker Alexander Kokhanovskyy said the strike, kept secret for two years, killed Russian soldiers and a truck.

• Valve imported 13 tons of Steam Frame VR headsets in one day (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Gigazine, Tech Buzz}}

  • On June 10, the ship Posen docked in Los Angeles carrying nearly 13 tons of Steam Frame headsets.

  • Partner Ceva offloaded 32 metric tons of 'Virtual Reality Devices,' likely Valve's first mass production run.

  • Analyst Brad Lynch flagged the records, calling it Valve's most aggressive VR push since the 2019 Index.

• Google DeepMind partner posted a video of a suspected fake robot (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, NewsBytes}}

  • Google DeepMind robotics partner posted a slick video of a lifelike humanoid robot washing dishes.

  • The movements looked so lifelike that critics questioned whether it was real or AI-generated trickery.

  • Skeptics compared it to Tesla's 2021 stunt, when an actor in a bodysuit posed as its robot.

• Explore the essential startup reading database*

  • Learning from the best is how you become the best. We've curated a list of top-notch articles, blogs, and readings that are pivotal for startup founders.

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  • As aspiring leaders and innovators, this list serves as a bridge to absorbing the knowledge that has propelled others to success.

CONTENT

• Sam Harris & Noah Smith discuss U.S. debt, inequality & AI's consequences (Sam Harris)

  • Sam Harris speaks with economist Noah Smith about U.S. national debt, wealth inequality, and AI's economic consequences.

  • They explore the mechanics of debt and inflation, fiscal austerity, modern monetary theory, and how AI may reshape labor.

  • Other topics include anti-billionaire politics, the degrowth movement, demographic decline, and smartphones eroding democratic culture.

• Mark Pincus shares the hidden pattern behind successful consumer products (Lenny's Podcast)

  • Mark Pincus founded Zynga, where eight of 10 major launches became hits, reaching over 1B players.

  • His book, Life at the Speed of Play, out June 23, distills five years of product lessons.

  • His 'Proven, Better, New' framework urges copying what works, improving it, then adding something genuinely new.

• George Hahn unpacks what the Iran war reveals about American power (The Prof G Pod)

  • The episode opens by examining global power dynamics, pitting Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea against Trump.

  • Hahn explains why Wall Street is bracing for a wave of AI IPOs, with Anthropic leading.

  • He also examines how the housing crisis is reshaping the American Dream and why optimization can mislead.

EXTRAS

• FBI built a replica town to simulate & investigate real-world cyberattacks (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, TechCrunch, TNW}}

  • The FBI revealed a 22k-square-foot replica town in Huntsville, Alabama, built to train cybercrime investigators.

  • The Kinetic Cyber Range mimics a real U.S. community with houses, a hospital, a courthouse, and a power company.

  • It opened in February 2025 and has trained 1.4k students amid record $20.9B U.S. cybercrime losses.

• Jack Ma-backed Ant Group plans a high-stakes overhaul of its billion-user app (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Business Times, Yahoo!}}

  • Ant Group will revamp Alipay so users can ask its AI assistant to book rides or order takeout.

  • The assistant, pronounced 'Ah Bao,' can also handle money tasks, such as buying mutual funds, with user authorization.

  • The update reflects an industry-wide push toward AI agents, with Alipay and Tencent's WeChat racing to deliver.

• A year after hiring Alexandr Wang, Zuckerberg must now sell Meta's AI (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: TOI}}

  • Zuckerberg's AI spending spree began a year ago when he hired Alexandr Wang to lead a new strategy.

  • Wang's team launched a model called Muse Spark in April, putting Meta back on the AI map.

  • Yet Meta's stock lags every tech megacap, and developers doubt it can rival OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

AND MORE

• Zuckerberg says Meta made 'mistakes' in AI workforce shift.

• The Harmony remote chased the impossible dream of the universal remote.

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

• As AI firms race to go public, who else benefits?

• Solid-state batteries still aren't ready, but semi-solid gel versions are.

• The UK may ban social media for children under 16.

• Hollywood's AI future is more than feeding prompts into vanilla models.

• The new Sonos Play has become my go-to desk & kitchen speaker.