Last few spots available for Unplug 25 here: https://lu.ma/unplug25 (absolutely epic crew already signed up)
Another delayed week, apologies for that and thanks to Francesco for putting this together while I was writing about super nerdy venture fund construction math.
This past week has been a battle of the giants, with releases from SOTA atomic models to new video generation and world foundation models. The leading AI labs are already binge eaters that devour larger and larger market chunks across most verticals. It’s going to be hard, but the startups that will survive this David v Goliath will be the generational companies of the next few decades.
We wonder if the winners will have to be focused exclusively on workflow solutions where context, UX, data segmentation / classification and very industry specific actions will be the real and only possible differentiator and moat, as the big guns here continue to smash through tech ceilings and will be able to own more and more of the ‘generalized’ products.
For consumer AI businesses, this is a very hard time for sure.
Google announces its new suite of AI products. Veo3, its new video model, is holding court: the results are absolutely mental. Are we misquoting or did Clarke say that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from reality?
Meta FAIR announces Open Molecule 2025 and much more, in yet another set of models that puts out of business quite a few things we’ve seen in the past year.
NVIDIA announces its next arsenal for physical AI, unveiling the Isaac GR00T N1.5 foundation model and the GR00T-Dreams blueprint. The development and deployment of physical AI systems is not going to slow down.
The physical Turing test NVIDIA’s director of AI Jim Fan on what the physical AI test could be - a messy living room after a party could do. And more on synthetic data, teleoperation, and scaling laws.
Deepmind introduces Alphaevolve, a coding agent for advanced algorithms that has already discovered new algorithms for matrix multiplication. If you want to get more technical, here’s an interview with the authors of the work.
Slow corporations as an intuition pump for AI R&D automation
Microsoft lays off 3% of its workforce. The official version talks about refocusing on the AI business units, but AI taking up jobs has its fair share (here the historical trend). Young people are already taking a hit across sectors, and we don’t seem to be prepared for what’s coming.
OpenAI is buying Jony Ive's startup for $6.4 billion A leap into hardware for OpenAI and a very Apple-y conversation between Sama and Jony on devices, intelligence, and people.
Things are still moving in Europe:
Helsing announces its autonomous underwater gliders, a reconnaissance platform to detect acoustic signature for anti-submarine warfare.
Europe’s Second Manufacturing Power A report by Bismarck Analysis on the strength of Italy in European manufacturing, and what the threats of low growth and an ageing population mean for its future.
The first U-turn of Germany on its catastrophic phase-out of nuclear power. It’ll take time to actually reverse decades of bad policies and get nuclear back online, and for now it is more of an olive branch to France. But maybe the age of masochism is over.
While the US and China keep shoring up their fortresses and get ready for what’s next.
Palmer Luckey’s proposal to turn Guantanamo base into Liberty City: Starships and luxury tourism to lure Cubans into a near-equator American El Dorado.
While America risk running out of power for AI, Nvidia plans Shanghai research centre in new commitment to China, despite all the challenges from Washington's export controls.
The future of US domestic manufacturing by the team at Eclipse, who’ve been working on it since before it was cool.
Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia An intervention “the birth of a modern middle-East”, its architects, and the role of the West.
An Interview with Jordan Schneider on China and America. And another take on the Chinese century.
Researchers at Peking University have claimed a breakthrough with a new transistor that outpaces leading silicon chips by 40% in speed and is 10% more energy-efficient.
We have already spoken about the talent war between China and the West, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
We know of Starcloud’s mission to put data centers in orbit. China too has realized the opportunity and launched its version of a constellation of supercomputers.
The future of biological foundation models, a piece on drug discovery, AI, and the old dilemmas in biotech platforms.
A 9-month old is the first patientto have a custom gene-editing treatment
Death is an Engineering Challenge. Introducing synconetics, a field that aims to overcome death by engineering methods to sustain consciousness continuity. A deeply philosophical discussion on the nature of identity, rights, and the very meaning of life.
Rapid Liquid Printing. An interview on how the 3D printing MIT spinout is defying gravity with a silicone extrusion process that eliminates traditional support structures, with exceptional efficiency and design freedom.
And for additive manufacturing aficionados, we’ll soon be able to repair our Philips trimmer from home.
More on quantum gravity, exotic particles, and why we can’t reconcile the two theories at the foundation of modern physics.
If you live in London you’ve probably seen a few of these already, but here’s how it feels like to ride a Ford fitted with Wayve.
Testosterone levels in men have been steadily decreasing. What does it mean in the world of programmable health and jacked CEOs? A reading on drugs, business, and compounding wealth.
Stripe announces its payments foundational models.
A piece by Michael Dempsey on metrics, progress, and how founders can cope with the schizophrenia of the venture market.
Las Vegas will host the inaugural Enhanced Games in 2026. The announcement was followed by the video of Kristian Gkolomeev breaking the 50m freestyle WR by 0.02s at 20.89s. Not bad given his best placement at the Olympics was 5th at Tokyo 2020 and his PB 21.44s.
Car seats as contraception How safety laws can increase the cost of having a third child.
For those who enjoyed all the memes on financing your burrito, the reality is hitting at Klarna.
How to get a job at a manufacturing startup.
Smuggling GPUs in Huaqiangbei. We can’t verify the claims but Huaqiangbei is the stuff GPU dreams are made of.
Let us know what you think of this format, and if you have anything else we should read!
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