Episode notes
Anthropic detailed how it disrupted AI misuse for cyberattacks, surveillance, and bioweapons research, OpenAI paused new ChatGPT Pro signups amid Astra demand, AI assistant Instinct sought $1B in new funding, and IDScan confirmed its driver's-license breach. Anthropic publishes a threat intelligence report on how it disrupted efforts to misuse Claude for cyberattacks, influence operations, surveillance, and more (Anthropic) TechCrunch details Anthropic's five distillation campaigns, including a 151 million-exchange effort tied to Alibaba's Qwen models and a Moonshot AI campaign that routed…
Tech Brew Ride Home
by Morning Brew · English · Tech & Science
Silicon Valley's water cooler podcast. A tech news summary every day... 15 minutes and you're up to date. From Tech Brew, Morning Brew's tech hub.
More from Tech Brew Ride Home
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16 Sep 2026 · 20 min
Crypto Takes An "L" In The Senate
The Senate failed to advance the crypto industry's Clarity Act, Meta prepared to launch camera-free Luna smart glasses this fall, OpenAI and Anthropic staff said they were blindsided by their CEOs' AI-slowdown pledges, and TypeSafe AI debuted its Jev model. The US Senate fails to advance the Clarity Act, dealing a major blow to the crypto industry's push for a comprehensive market structure framework; crypto falls (CNBC) Sources: Meta plans to release a camera-free pair of smart glasses this fall; the new model has six mics to let users speak with Meta's AI chatbot and Muse (The Information)…
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15 Sep 2026 · 21 min
Trump Says: No Slowdown!
President Trump dismissed AI-safety warnings as a "hoax" on a live call with Jensen Huang, a Google DeepMind researcher resigned warning AI "could kill us all," cybersecurity stocks led the S&P 500, and Apple rolled out iOS 27. Jensen Huang took a surprise call from Trump onstage at the All-In Summit on Monday in Los Angeles, where the two agreed that AI safety worries are overblown (The New York Times) Bloomberg quotes Trump calling AI-safety fears a "SICK conspiracy" benefiting only China, and dismissing warnings that AI could destroy humanity as a "HOAX" that his administration won't let…
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14 Sep 2026 · 22 min
The Great AI Slowdown?
Dario Amodei called for pacing frontier AI development, endorsed by Sam Altman and Elon Musk, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube launched a streaming lobbying alliance, Anthropic told investors it's profitable again, and experts flagged legal risk in Apple Watch's always-listening features. Dario Amodei proposes steps for pacing the frontier: embedded evaluators, coordination among democracies, and global coordination with authoritarian governments (Dario Amodei) The Journal reports Musk, Altman, and Amodei rare display of unity on slowing AI development, with Altman weighing a delay to OpenAI's…
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10 Sep 2026 · 23 min
The Man Who Quit The AI Industry
Researcher Jacob Coxon said he quit Anthropic over fears the AI race is uncontrollable, Automattic put Matt Mullenweg on leave after a board dispute, Apple unveiled a health app with "Health Age" scoring, and Apple Watch gained new listening tools. AI researcher Jacob Coxon says he quit Anthropic after four months, two months before his equity would have vested; he still has equity in prior employer OpenAI (Axios) Business Insider reports Coxon says neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is acting responsibly, and Anthropic alignment lead Evan Hubinger agrees, estimating AI could kill everyone within…
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9 Sep 2026 · 22 min
The iPhone Duo
Apple unveiled its first foldable, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with a new A20 Pro chip, AirPods 5 with 50% more noise cancellation, and Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Apple announces the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, with a similar design to 17 Pro and a new A20 Pro chip, in deep black, silver, glacier, and burgundy (The Verge) Apple keeps the iPhone 18 Pro line deliberately understated to spotlight its foldable, but its 40% faster A20 Pro, f/1.8 variable aperture camera, and new Reference Image authenticity mode make a compelling upgrade case…
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8 Sep 2026 · 23 min
Did AI Just Solve Math?
Bloomberg detailed Apple's decade-long path to a $2,000+ foldable iPhone, Gamers Nexus alleged LG smart TVs eavesdropped via built-in microphones and tracked nearby devices, and a mathematician accused OpenAI of secretly using his private Navier-Stokes work, which OpenAI denied. A look at Apple's path to a foldable device, the biggest change in iPhone history; sources: memory shortages led Apple to blow past an early $1,999 price goal (Bloomberg) Analysis of LG's smart TVs shows its ad software tracks nearby devices, security flaws can allow hackers to eavesdrop via the built-in microphone,…
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9 Oct 2026 · 23 minNew
Is Elon Musk Coming For Your Phone Plan?
Fired OpenAI safety researchers disputed their dismissals and OpenAI pushed back. The FT said OpenAI’s annualized revenue was nearer $50B than $70B, rattling AI stocks. SpaceX bought spectrum to take on carriers, and Apple lined up a second October event. AI researcher Mikita Balesni says he believes OpenAI fired him, Tomek Korbak, and Jasmine Wang for “prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI” (X) Fired OpenAI safety researchers Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak published an open letter warning the “very public” firings could have a “chilling” effect on…
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8 Oct 2026 · 22 minNew
Are AI Labs Trying to Break Encryption?
Scott Aaronson said AI labs had started testing whether their newest models could break cryptography, and Vitalik Buterin urged taking it seriously. Anthropic launched Haiku 5.5, Google unveiled a universal Gemini agent, and Microsoft opened Surface Laptop Ultra preorders. A theoretical computer scientist, citing sources, says AI labs have started investigating whether their latest internal models can break cryptographic protocols (Shtetl-Optimized) Vitalik Buterin backs Justin Drake’s “bunker mode” warning that AI-accelerated math could break the cryptography behind blockchain wallets,…
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7 Oct 2026 · 20 minNew
Did OpenAI's Secret Model Just Crack Math?
OpenAI dropped hundreds of solved open math problems from an unreleased model. HBO Max and Paramount Plus agreed to become one streamer. Apple's smart home push leaked, including LG-branded gear. Ring unveiled a dial-recharging lock. And Xreal opened Aura preorders. OpenAI releases a range of new mathematical results produced by an internal model, with details like estimations of compute spent in terms of ChatGPT Pro usage (OpenAI) OpenAI reveals solutions to long-standing math problems from an unreleased frontier model in 722 manuscripts covering 372 result families, with the "average…
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6 Oct 2026 · 22 min
Le Chonk
Nvidia-backed Reflection unveiled Beam, a US open-weights model taking on Chinese labs. Plus, SemiAnalysis said Claude subscriptions were a better deal than OpenAI's, Meta and Microsoft cut back on Claude, Mistral dropped le Chonk, and ChatGPT faked New Yorker cartoonists' signatures. NYC-based Reflection unveils Beam, an open model it says rivals GLM-5.2 on reasoning while using 3x-4x less compute and approaches Qwen3.8-Max on agentic tasks (Semafor) Nvidia-backed Reflection pitches Beam to businesses and developers as a cheaper option for coding and agent tasks; the startup has held talks…
