Tech Brew Ride Home

Pope Leo XIV released his AI encyclical alongside Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah. Huawei claims it can match 1.4nm chips by 2031, China imposed travel restrictions on AI talent, cybersecurity hiring surged amid the AI "bug-pocalypse," and American Airlines picked Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi.


Pope Leo XIV presents Magnifica humanitas, his encyclical on AI, calling for AI regulation, protection for children against hypersexualized AI images, and more (NYT)


Huawei says it aims to make 1.4nm chips by 2031 using its "LogicFolding" tech, which is based on its new Tau Scaling Law intended to bypass Moore's Law limits (Nikkei)


Sources: Chinese government agencies begin imposing overseas travel restrictions on individuals involved in advanced AI work, including at Alibaba and DeepSeek (Bloomberg)


As AI tools like Mythos create a "bug-pocalypse", Glassdoor says Q1 cybersecurity job postings rose 11% YoY, and executive search firms are turning away clients (NYT)


American Airlines picks SpaceX's Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi on more than 500 planes; SpaceX already has contracts with United Airlines, Southwest, and others (CNBC)


Google Fitbit Air review: slim, comfortable, and stylish, robust tracking, seven-day battery life, and cheaper than Whoop, but can only be worn on the wrist (The Shortcut)

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Chris is back! Hear about how he uses AI personally, and how I've been up at 3 am every day for the last month churning out my own vibecoding experiment.
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Quantum computing stocks surged after the US announced $2B in grants with equity stakes. Spotify jumped 13% on 2030 guidance targeting $100B in revenue. Anthropic expects $10.9B in Q2 revenue and its first-ever operating profit, while Trump pulled back an AI executive order after calls with Musk and Zuckerberg.


Shares of quantum computing companies surged Thursday after the US government announced grants with equity stakes: D-Wave closed up 33%, Rigetti 30%, IBM 12% (CNBC)


Spotify closed up 13% on Thursday after announcing new features and 2030 guidance, forecasting a compound annual growth rate in the mid-teens (CNBC)


Workday reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to $2.54B vs. $2.52B est., and lifts its full-year forecast, saying its AI strategy is working; WDAY jumps 9%+ after hours (CNBC)


Sources: Trump delayed signing the AI EO because "he just hates regulation"; there were questions about the EO giving the Treasury Department a leading role (Axios)


Investor disclosures: Anthropic says it expects to generate $10.9B in revenue in Q2, up 127% from $4.8B in Q1, and turn a $559M operating profit, its first ever (WSJ)

Longreads


In more than two-thirds of the world's countries, birthrates have fallen below replacement, and researchers increasingly point the finger at smartphones and social media (FT)

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SpaceX filed publicly for its IPO on Nasdaq, revealing $18.7B in 2025 revenue, billions in losses, and Musk's 85.1% voting control. Anthropic pays SpaceX $1.25B per month for compute. Nvidia beat estimates again, Spotify launches Reserved ticketing, and Waymo suspends service over flooding.


SpaceX files publicly for its IPO, choosing Nasdaq to make its debut under the symbol SPCX; Elon Musk's shares give him 85.1% of the voting power in the company (Bloomberg)


SpaceX's S-1 reveals Anthropic is paying $1.25B per month through May 2029 under their Colossus compute deal, with a 90-day termination clause (The Verge)


Spotify partners with Live Nation to launch Reserved, a new feature that sets aside tickets for the most dedicated fans, starting with Premium users in the US (Hollywood Reporter)


Spotify debuts a desktop app for creating personal podcasts, competing with Google's NotebookLM, with support for daily briefings based on email and calendar (TechCrunch)


Nvidia reports Q1 revenue up 85% YoY to $81.62B, above $78.86B est., Data Center revenue up 92% YoY to $75.2B, and announces an $80B share repurchase program (Nvidia)


Waymo suspends operations in Atlanta and San Antonio as its robotaxis struggle with flooded roads and says it has yet to develop a "final remedy" for flooding (TechCrunch)

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Google dominated I/O with Gemini 3.5 Flash, its fastest agentic model yet, plus Gemini Spark as a 24/7 personal agent. It also launched Gemini Omni for video generation, overhauled its search box, shipped Antigravity 2.0, and added Street View to Project Genie.


Google rolls out Gemini 3.5 Flash, its "strongest agentic and coding model yet", for tackling long-horizon agentic tasks, in the Gemini app and Search's AI Mode (Google)


Google announces Gemini Spark, a "24/7 personal AI agent" that is powered by Gemini 3.5 and supports integrations with Google Workspace apps, including Gmail (Engadget)


Google launches Gemini Omni, a multimodal model it says can "create anything from any input", starting with video generation, for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra (VentureBeat)


Google overhauls its search box, letting users input longer queries, including with photos and videos, and automate searches with Gemini 3.5 Flash-based agents (NYT)


Google introduces Antigravity 2.0, featuring an updated desktop app that lets users orchestrate agents, an Antigravity CLI tool, and an SDK for custom workflows (TechCrunch)


Google adds Street View integration to Project Genie, its interactive world builder, and expands Genie from the US to adult Google AI Ultra subscribers globally (Engadget)

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