UPDATES
Hey, hope you’re doing well! Crazy week already.
I think this might be one of my favorite newsletters ever. I’m just really feeling the new link style and breakout style, and story selection seems better? Anyone agree?
Ordered some noise cancelling earbuds for sleeping. Will let you know how they do. They’ll be paired with my eye mask that I already use.
Wrote a new essay 👆🏻 on why I’m scared for the first time for Apple, and what I thought of today’s WWDC keynote. READ IT (3 minute read)
I’m going to do a profile on all the CCP members and structure. I’m sure there are a bunch out there already, but I’m suddenly interested in how the government actually works. Like, who are these people? And what are their politics?
Another essay on why it doesn’t make any sense to say, “It’s just next token prediction.” READ IT (5 minute read)
I’m also going to do a new future trend/investment analysis exercise like I did years ago with my buddy Ty Sbano, where we picked stocks based on possible trends. This time I’ll use AI though (obviously). Will probably turn the analysis and my comments and recommendations from it into a PDF that I sell for a few bucks or something. 🤷🏻
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CYBERSECURITY
Trump Overhauls Biden's Cybersecurity Policies With New Executive Order
Trump significantly reversed Obama and Biden cybersecurity policies and focused on new things. Here’s a summary of what it added and removed from existing policies:
Removes focus on:
Mandated digital IDs
Accounting compliance checklists
Micromanaging agency decisions
Adds focus on:
Defeating foreign threats
Secure software practices
Border gateway protection
Post-quantum cryptography readiness
Modern encryption protocols
AI for vulnerabilities
IoT security standards
Limiting sanctions' scope
Bellingcat Tests Whether AI Can Actually Geolocate Photos Now
Bellingcat tested 20 AI models on 500 geolocation tasks and only OpenAI's latest ChatGPT models beat Google Lens at identifying photo locations. THE ARTICLE | BELLINGCAT'S 2023 AI GEOLOCATION STUDY
SentinelOne Reveals Details on Chinese Supply Chain Attack Attempt
Chinese hackers tried to compromise SentinelOne by attacking one of their IT logistics partners, which was part of a bigger campaign that hit over 70 organizations worldwide. THE ARTICLE | SENTINELONE'S ORIGINAL REPORT | DETAILED THREAT ANALYSIS
Proton VPN Sees 1,000% Signup Surge After Pornhub Blocks France
Proton VPN registrations jumped 1,000% within 30 minutes after Pornhub blocked French users due to new age verification laws. THE ARTICLE | PORNHUB FRANCE EXIT STORY | AGE VERIFICATION LAWS STUDY | PROTON'S CENSORSHIP OBSERVATORY | PROTON VPN REVIEW
Microsoft Teams With Indian Police to Shut Down Fake Tech Support Scammers
Indian authorities busted two call centers pretending to be Microsoft support to scam Japanese victims. They were using AI to scale their fake pop-ups and translations. THE ARTICLE | MICROSOFT'S BLOG POST | COINBASE BREACH REPORT | INTERPOL CSAM OPERATION
Bishop Fox 2025 Red Team Tools List
Bishop Fox put together their favorite red team tools for 2025, covering C2 frameworks and Active Directory exploitation stuff. THEIR LIST
NATIONAL SECURITY
OpenAI Published Their Annual Report on How Bad Actors Are Using AI Maliciously
I love that they put these reports out. My main takeaways were:
Four out of 10 major abuse cases likely originated from China, from social engineering to cyber threats
They're seeing deceptive employment schemes, task scams from Cambodia, and comment spamming from Philippines
Covert influence operations potentially linked to Russia and Iran are using AI as force multipliers
Anthropic Launches Custom AI Models For National Security
Anthropic built special "Claude Gov" models specifically for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies that work better with classified material and refuse to help less often. THE ARTICLE | ANTHROPIC'S ANNOUNCEMENT
Britain Will Send 100,000 Drones To Ukraine By 2026
Britain just committed to a tenfold increase in drone deliveries to Ukraine, sending 100,000 by April 2026. THE ARTICLE
AI
🔥🔥🔥 AI Finally Finds Something Trained Scientists Have Missed for Decades
This has to be one of the most incredible and slept-on pieces of AI news I’ve ever heard.
A number of professional scientists have been trying to figure out how a particular kind of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) become mobile and do what they do
This has been a mystery for a very long time, and this group of scientists are the world experts on the topic
They gave a bunch of data to a new Google model trained to do novel research and create novel hypothesis
It created a novel hypothesis that the human researchers had missed, which they say was because of their own bias
Upon testing it, it turned out the AI was correct
If you care about this stuff you should listen to the entire episode. It’s extraordinary. Basically they had been trying to figure out how this particular virus was able to do what it did. They knew X, they knew Y, they knew Z. And they assumed that because XYZ that _____ could not have been possible (listen to get the full detailed explanation).
But what they didn’t realize is that they were making an assumption. A faulty one! They were blinded by bias (their words), which didn’t allow them to see the solution. And this is why they’re so blown away by what the AI did. Once they saw the hypothesis they weren’t blown away. It was obvious. What they were blown away by was the fact that it found the solution when they had not, because of their bias. Keep in mind: they’re the world f-king experts on this!
The implications here are unbelievable. Think of how many research papers are out there. Think of how much data is lying around waiting to be explored. These are all dots waiting to be connected. And there aren’t nearly enough researchers to do that work.
This is how we get new, real benefit from AI. Especially in health, where we desperately need to look at how molecules interact with cells and such. So unbelievably hyped about this! Go check it out. THE PODCAST | THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION PODCAST
Apple Releases Controversial Paper on AI
Apple released a paper that people are interpreting as saying AI’s can’t reason. I think the paper is kind of missing the point, and also people are misinterpreting what they actually said. They never claimed no AI can reason.
What they said is that with certain math problems you can confuse the AI if you change the parameters, which feels more like memorization than deep understanding. I think it’s a fair point, and a fair weakness of the AI they tested. But, acknowledging I’m biased here, I think we’ll look back on this as a “number of r’s in strawberry” moment.
Meanwhile, Stanford just found that AI alone scored 90% efficacy against human doctors’ 75% in another story this week. This type of stuff is just clickbait for AI doomers and skeptics. We have to make sure we’re watching what AI is doing in the real world. On real problems. THE PAPER | HN DISCUSSION
OpenAI Massively Dropped o3 Prices
They reduced the cost of o3 by 80%, and are releasing o3-pro today. THREAD
OpenAI Doubles Revenue to $10 Billion Annually
OpenAI hit $10 billion in annual revenue, nearly doubling from $5.5 billion last year with 500 million weekly users. THE ARTICLE | CNBC'S ORIGINAL REPORT | OPENAI'S OPERATING LOSSES ANALYSIS
OpenAI Must Keep All ChatGPT Conversations Indefinitely Due to Legal Hold
OpenAI supposedly(?) can't delete any ChatGPT logs right now because they're under a court order to preserve everything for ongoing litigation. "We are required to retain all data and cannot process deletion requests during this period" - OpenAI. Super messed up given the fact that they have offerings where people specifically paid for the opposite. THE ARTICLE | HN DISCUSSION
OpenAI Makes ChatGPT's Voice Mode Sound WAY More Human
ChatGPT's voice mode now has better intonation, realistic pauses, and even does realistic sarcasm. I also confirmed it can sing. It’s really, really good. THE ARTICLE | OPENAI RELEASE NOTES
Stanford Study Shows Doctors Plus AI Beat Traditional Diagnostic Tools
Doctors using AI as a collaborative partner got 85% accuracy versus 75% with traditional tools, but the real story is that AI alone scored 90%. THE PAPER
Microsoft Reshuffles Leadership to Focus on AI Agents
Microsoft is reorganizing its top executives overseeing Office 365 and Dynamics to prioritize selling AI agents that can automate white-collar work. THE ARTICLE
My New Favorite Description of a Business Moat
The real “long-term moat” is just a sequence of smaller moats stacked together. Each one buys time. And what you do with that time, how fast you execute, how quickly you evolve, determines whether you stay ahead.
I really like this take. To me that means speed and adaptability is the only real moat. HT to Clint for the find! CLOUDED JUDGMENT ON MOATS | JAMIN’S SUBSTACK
TECHNOLOGY
Why Bell Labs Actually Worked So Well
Bell Labs succeeded because they gave brilliant people complete freedom to explore whatever interested them, then—only later—connected their discoveries to real business problems. I want to implement this at the national scale. THE ARTICLE | HN DISCUSSION
BYD's Five-Minute Charging Puts China in the Lead for EVs
BYD just demonstrated 1,000-kilowatt chargers that add 250 miles in five minutes—which is basically gas station speed for electric cars. This scares the crap out of me. THE ARTICLE | SHANGHAI DEMO VIDEO
Wing And Walmart Expand Drone Delivery To 100 Stores
Walmart and Wing are jumping from 15 stores to 115 stores for drone delivery, bringing it to five major cities. THE ARTICLE | THEIR CURRENT DELIVERY PARTNERSHIP
The Chinese Tech Behind Amazon's Humanoid Robots
Amazon is testing humanoid robots at their San Francisco office for package delivery, built on Chinese tech. They're setting up an indoor obstacle course to see if these AI-powered bots can handle real-world deliveries. THE ARTICLE | AMAZON'S HUMANOID ROBOT TESTING
YouTube Loosens Content Rules Using "Public Interest" Standard
YouTube now lets videos stay up if they violate community guidelines but are deemed in the "public interest," bumping the violation threshold from 25% to 50% of content. THE ARTICLE | NY TIMES ORIGINAL REPORT
AWS Opens New Region in Taiwan
AWS just launched their first data center region in Taiwan with three availability zones. THE ARTICLE | AWS AVAILABILITY ZONES
HUMANS
Rents Are Dropping in Most Major U.S. Cities for the First Time Since 2023
28 out of 44 major metropolitan areas saw year-over-year rent decreases in May 2025. REDFIN'S RENTAL MARKET REPORT
Caffeine Keeps Your Brain Awake Even While You Sleep
New research shows caffeine doesn't just keep you awake—it actually prevents your brain from properly sleeping even when you think you're getting sleeping well. THE ARTICLE | HN DISCUSSION
Las Vegas Fights Record Heat With Massive Tree Planting Initiative
Las Vegas hit 120 degrees last year and heat killed over 500 people, so now they're planting 60,000 trees by 2050 to cool the hottest neighborhoods. THE ARTICLE
Mushrooms May Communicate Using Up To 50 Words
A scientist analyzed electrical signals between fungi and found patterns that look remarkably similar to human language structure. THE ARTICLE | ROYAL SOCIETY STUDY
Forests Offset Global Warming More Than Scientists Previously Thought
A new UC Riverside study shows replanting all the trees we've lost since the 1800s could cool the planet by 0.34 degrees—about a quarter of current warming. The secret sauce is that trees don't just suck up carbon, they also release compounds that reflect sunlight and make clouds. THE ARTICLE | THE NATURE STUDY
DISCOVERY
Someone Built An MCP Server That Actually Runs On Cloudflare Workers
This boilerplate by Fatih Kadir Akın lets you deploy MCP servers to Cloudflare Workers with OAuth and PostgreSQL support built in. THE PROJECT
Data Visualization Reveals Patterns in D&D Monster Designs
Someone created a really cool data visualization of Dungeons and Dragons monsters as part of Tidy Tuesday, and the patterns they found are pretty good. THE REDDIT POST | FULL ANALYSIS
How Anthropic’s Teams Use Claude Code
Insanely good content here, and I love the fact that it’s their actual internal tool and they’re showing how they use it. THREAD | FULL TUTORIAL PDF
We Are No Longer a Serious Country
Paul Krugman argues that markets are starting to treat America like an unreliable emerging market rather than a safe haven. A key point he raises: US interest rates and dollar are now moving in opposite directions, something typically seen only in emerging market drama. THE ARTICLE
Great Explanation of How Model Context Protocol is Different from Traditional APIs
Biggest difference is APIs are for developers, and MCPs are for AI’s (agents). THE COMPARISON
APIs Become the Foundation for AI-Ready Businesses
Most companies aren't ready for AI not because they lack models, but because their systems can't talk to each other through APIs. THE ARTICLE
Bigfoot Veo3 Videos VIDEO
I Read All of Cloudflare's Claude-Generated Commits
Cloudflare built an OAuth 2.1 library with Claude doing 95% of the work, and they documented every single prompt in git commit messages. THE ARTICLE | CLOUDFLARE'S OAUTH LIBRARY | KENTONV'S GITHUB | CHRIS ON LINKEDIN
Mysterious Object Fires Signals at Earth Every 44 Minutes
Astronomers found this weird space object that blasts radio waves and X-rays at us for two minutes straight, then goes quiet for 44 minutes, and they have no clue what it is. What I don’t get is how it keeps pointing at us given how fast it’s moving and how fast we’re moving. THE ARTICLE | NATURE RESEARCH PAPER
AI Forces Institutions to Rethink Their Core Purpose
AI is forcing entire institutions like schools, governments, and corporations to completely reimagine why they exist. THE ARTICLE | COGNITIVE MIGRATION ESSAY | ARIZONA AI SCHOOL EXAMPLE
Mapping Latitude and Longitude to Country, State, or City
Austin Henley breaks down the surprisingly complex challenge of reverse geocoding—turning coordinates into location names. I know a few people into these physical-related puzzles and it seems like a great mix of physical activity and intellectual stuff. THE ARTICLE | HN DISCUSSION
Calculus in 30 Seconds from a book in 1910 SNIP
Software Is About Promises
Bram Adams argues that software success comes from making clear, testable promises to users—what exactly you'll deliver given your constraints and resources. THE ARTICLE
This Is How They Tell Me Bug Bounty Ends
My buddy Joseph Thacker thinks AI agents will eventually find all vulnerabilities automatically, but that there’s still lots of room for creativity. THE ARTICLE | JOSEPH'S BLOG
New OSINT Tools Directory Organizes 100+ Scattered Resources
The creator of R00M 101 (super cool too) built a filterable directory of 100+ OSINT tools because they were tired of hunting through GitHub repos and random Discord servers to find what they needed. THE PROJECT | HN DISCUSSION | ROOM 101 OSINT TOOL
MEMBER EDITION TEASER
AI as an Identity Challenge/Question
Another way to frame AI is to think of it as an identity challenge. For people, but also for organizations.
-What am I?
-Who am I?
-What is this company, really?
-What differentiates me?
APHORISM OF THE WEEK
It is not death that we should fear, but never beginning to live.
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