Executive Summary

The final nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia expired this week, removing all formal limits on the world’s two largest arsenals for the first time in over 50 years. In technology, the release of new artificial intelligence tools by Anthropic triggered a $285 billion selloff in software stocks, while Alphabet announced plans to nearly double its AI infrastructure spending to $185 billion. In a major contraction for American media, The Washington Post announced it will lay off one-third of its newsroom staff, gutting its sports and foreign desks. Finally, a federal judge sentenced Ryan Routh to life in prison for the September 2024 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

AI & Technology

AI Tools Disrupt Coding and Film as Market Selloff Hits Software Stocks

The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping multiple sectors, evidenced by a new coding automation suite from Anthropic, Amazon’s move into film production, and a sharp market selloff driven by fears of displacement. On Wednesday, Anthropic released free, open-source plug-ins for its Cowork platform that automate complex tasks in fields like legal services and finance. The release triggered a global rout in software and data analytics stocks, erasing an estimated $285 billion in market value in a single session. Major information providers were hit hard, with Thomson Reuters falling approximately 18 percent and RELX, owner of LexisNexis, dropping around 14 percent.

The market reaction signals a fundamental repricing of software-as-a-service business models, as investors fear that AI companies are moving directly into workflow automation, threatening the per-seat licensing structures of established firms. While some analysts view this as the market finally pricing in structural risk, others suggest the reaction was overly broad. Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, dismissed the panic as “illogical,” arguing that AI agents will utilize existing software tools rather than reinventing them entirely. The volatility, however, suggests a growing divergence in market sentiment, moving from general AI euphoria to specific concerns about disruption to high-retention, recurring revenue businesses.

Concurrently, Amazon is preparing to launch a closed beta next month of its proprietary AI tools for film and television production, collaborating with industry figures like Robert Stromberg. Amazon confirmed that its ‘House of David’ series already featured 350 AI-generated shots in its second season, emphasizing a focus on efficiency and intellectual property protection. While Amazon asserts its AI Studio aims to support creative teams rather than replace them, the industry remains wary of job displacement, a concern echoed across software development and Hollywood.

The digital ecosystem is further complicated by the rising volume of automated web traffic. Data from Akamai and TollBit indicates that AI bots now constitute a significant portion of internet traffic, driven both by data scraping for model training and by agents fetching real-time information. This is prompting publishers to deploy more aggressive defenses, even as companies like Roblox explore advanced applications like “real-time dreaming,” using AI to generate and alter 3D experiences instantly. It is unclear how quickly such experimental technologies will become practical, but the convergence of these developments points toward a structural shift in digital labor and content creation.

Alphabet Doubles AI Spending to $185 Billion, Fueling Chipmakers

Alphabet announced on Wednesday it is dramatically increasing its capital expenditure forecast for the current year to a range of $175 billion to $185 billion, nearly double its spending from the previous year and significantly surpassing analyst expectations of roughly $115 billion. The aggressive investment is explicitly tied to building out the infrastructure necessary to support its rapidly expanding artificial intelligence ecosystem, particularly the Gemini family of models. Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi specified that up to $111 billion of this total will be allocated to servers housing both Google’s proprietary Tensor Processing Units and Nvidia GPUs.

The spending surge is intended to support internal AI workloads, the Google Cloud platform, and infrastructure needs for partners like OpenAI and Anthropic. The announcement immediately benefited semiconductor suppliers, with Broadcom shares rising 6 percent in extended trading due to its role in manufacturing components for Google’s custom chips. CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged that scaling compute capacity while navigating power, land, and supply chain constraints remains a primary operational concern. The sheer scale of the investment suggests that the race for AI dominance is now primarily a contest of capital deployment and physical infrastructure.

This massive outlay comes as consumer adoption of Gemini proves robust, with the chatbot reaching 750 million monthly active users last quarter, up from 650 million previously, though it still trails OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The growth, coupled with a strategic deal to power Apple’s AI features, appears to validate the company’s focus. However, the spending—which dwarfs that of peers like Meta, which forecasts up to $135 billion for 2026—is testing Wall Street’s patience, causing shares to dip despite strong earnings. Simultaneously, Alphabet is reportedly assembling a massive complex in Bangalore, India, to house up to 20,000 new employees, a move seen as a strategic hedge against rising H-1B visa costs and restrictions in the United States.

Tesla and Waymo Defend Safety Records in Contentious Senate Hearing

Executives from Tesla and Waymo appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday to defend the safety records of their autonomous driving systems against intense questioning from lawmakers. Both companies insisted their technology is superior to human driving, even as senators cited recent incidents involving Waymo robotaxis failing to yield to school buses in Austin, Texas, and a Waymo vehicle striking a child in Santa Monica. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, argued that federal regulations are outdated and inhibit innovation, calling for modernized rules to maintain American leadership.

The hearing revealed a deep divide between the industry’s desire for rapid deployment and congressional caution. Senator Maria Cantwell, the committee’s ranking member, expressed concern over companies “beta testing on our roads with no guardrails.” Committee Chairman Ted Cruz called the recent Waymo incidents “obviously unacceptable.” While both companies agreed that a national regulatory framework is necessary to avoid a patchwork of state laws, it was not clear that the testimony moved Congress closer to passing stalled legislation.

Beyond domestic safety, the executives were pressed on whether the lack of federal standards puts the U.S. at risk of being overtaken by China in autonomous vehicle technology, a concern both companies affirmed. Waymo faced specific scrutiny regarding its use of Chinese-made vehicles for its next-generation robotaxi fleet. The testimony occurred against a backdrop of increasing U.S. scrutiny over capital flows into sensitive Chinese technology sectors, though the direct link to autonomous vehicle deployment was not the primary focus. Whether the committee can coalesce around a unified legislative approach remains the central unresolved question.

Global Crackdown on AI Misuse Intensifies Amid Musk Scrutiny

Regulatory and legal pressure against the misuse of generative artificial intelligence escalated sharply this week, driven by alarming data on child exploitation and high-profile enforcement actions targeting Elon Musk’s ventures. UNICEF released research estimating that 1.2 million children had their images manipulated into sexual deepfakes over the last year across 11 surveyed nations, prompting an urgent call for governments to criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material. This coincided with French authorities raiding the Paris offices of X as part of a criminal probe into alleged child pornography linked to Mr. Musk’s Grok chatbot, leading prosecutors to summon him and several executives for questioning.

At the same time, Mr. Musk’s broader AI ambitions are facing scrutiny in the U.S. and the U.K. The Federal Communications Commission has opened a public review of a SpaceX application to launch a satellite system functioning as orbital data centers to train xAI models. In the U.K., the Information Commissioner’s Office has launched a formal investigation into xAI regarding Grok’s alleged creation of non-consensual sexual images, while the communications regulator Ofcom examines compliance with age-verification rules.

The legal concept of personality rights is also being tested. In India, actor Vivek Oberoi filed suit in the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain the unlawful exploitation of his identity, specifically citing the use of deepfake technology. This follows similar filings by other high-profile Indian figures, indicating a growing reliance on existing civil frameworks to combat AI-driven identity theft. The convergence of criminal investigations, civil litigation, and institutional focus suggests that the era of self-regulation for AI developers is rapidly concluding.

AI Demand Squeezes Smartphone Sales as Chip Stocks See Volatility

The intense demand for AI infrastructure is creating tangible headwinds for the consumer electronics and semiconductor industries. Qualcomm reported record first-quarter revenue of $12.3 billion but warned that near-term smartphone sales will be constrained by soaring memory costs, causing its stock to drop 11 percent. CEO Cristiano Amon cited memory makers prioritizing production of high-margin components like High-Bandwidth Memory for AI data centers, leading to significant price increases for the DRAM and NAND flash memory used in handsets. This has prompted manufacturers, particularly in China, to scale back chipset orders.

This market pressure contributed to broader volatility in semiconductor stocks. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell 9 percent on Wednesday after it issued first-quarter guidance that fell short of some analyst expectations for stronger AI-driven growth. The sell-off occurred amid a narrative that the initial explosive growth in AI hardware spending might be moderating. For AMD, the perceived weakness was compounded by the disclosure of Chinese revenue that made its earnings beat appear less substantial than initially thought.

The scarcity of components is not limited to memory. Analyst firm Omdia projects that the cost of DRAM could nearly double this quarter, while server CPU prices could increase by 11 to 15 percent due to production hurdles. The dual constraints on memory and CPUs suggest a challenging environment for both consumer electronics and data center expansion, illustrating the immediate, non-linear impact of the AI build-out on legacy technology supply chains.

Geopolitics & Security

Last US-Russia Nuclear Arms Treaty Expires, Ending Decades of Limits

The New START treaty, the final binding agreement limiting the strategic nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia, expired at midnight GMT on Thursday without an extension, thrusting the relationship into an era without formal verification or numerical constraints for the first time in over five decades. The 2010 pact capped deployed strategic warheads at 1,550 and delivery systems at 800 for each nation. Its expiration removes those upper limits and ends the mutual on-site inspections that were a cornerstone of strategic stability.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated it was “no longer bound” by the limits after the U.S. failed to respond to a proposal for a 12-month observation period, though it pledged to act responsibly. The lapse follows the demise of other key agreements, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. The U.S. administration has maintained that any future arms control framework must incorporate China, citing what the Pentagon calls its “vast and rapidly growing stockpile.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed this stance, stating that 21st-century arms control is impossible without Chinese participation, a condition Beijing rejects.

Experts note that both Washington and Moscow have historically planned their nuclear modernization programs based on the assumption that the other side would adhere to the New START caps. Matt Korda of the Federation of American Scientists suggested that without these central limits, both countries will now reassess their programs to accommodate a more uncertain nuclear future. The Federation estimates the U.S. possesses roughly 4,300 total nuclear warheads and Russia has 3,700. The immediate consequence is the removal of verifiable constraints, raising the specter of an accelerated arms race as both nations proceed with long-planned modernization efforts without external checks.

Ukraine and Russia Resume Talks in Abu Dhabi Amid Fierce Fighting

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia commenced a second day of U.S.-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, even as fierce fighting continued and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed a stark new casualty figure. Mr. Zelenskyy stated that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the conflict, a number significantly higher than a previous estimate he cited in February 2025. The disclosure came as negotiators met to find a resolution to the nearly four-year-long war, with Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov describing the first day as “substantive and productive.”

Despite the diplomatic engagement, violence on the ground continued unabated. A Russian shelling attack on a market in Druzhkivka, Donetsk, killed at least seven civilians, an incident the regional governor labeled a “targeted war crime.” Ukrainian officials also accused Moscow of violating a pledge to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, a pause reportedly agreed to ahead of the talks. Russia, in turn, reported that Ukrainian strikes damaged energy infrastructure in its Belgorod region, causing widespread power outages.

The central obstacle remains the territorial dispute over eastern Ukraine. Moscow is demanding a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from large sections of the Donbas region, while Kyiv insists on freezing the conflict along current front lines. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russian forces would continue fighting until Kyiv makes the necessary “decisions” to end the war, suggesting Moscow views military pressure as leverage. As the talks proceed, it is unclear whether the battlefield intensity will force a shift in negotiating posture or merely serve as a backdrop for further attrition.

US Forges Critical Mineral Alliances to Counter China’s Dominance

The United States is moving aggressively to secure supply chains for critical minerals, launching new international alliances aimed at directly challenging Beijing’s market leverage. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from 55 nations in Washington this week to formally launch an initiative to establish a trade bloc focused on materials essential for semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries. The proposed mechanism involves setting coordinated price floors for minerals, maintained through adjustable tariffs applied to imports entering the preferential zone.

Following the ministerial, Washington announced the signing of 11 new bilateral critical minerals agreements, adding to 10 inked in the preceding five months. A central outcome was the formation of the “Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE),” designed to coordinate policy and project development. To back these diplomatic efforts, the administration also recently unveiled “Project Vault,” a nearly $12 billion critical minerals stockpile supported by a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

The strategic push recognizes the vulnerability posed by China’s concentration in processing and extraction. Secretary Rubio explicitly warned against the risks of concentrating resources in a single nation, an apparent reference to China. The meeting included key industrial partners like Japan and Germany, alongside resource-rich nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and India. Critics argue that establishing artificial price floors risks distorting global markets, while proponents maintain that current conditions are already distorted by Beijing’s near-monopoly on refining.

US and Iran to Hold Indirect Talks in Oman Amid Deep Disagreements

United States and Iranian officials confirmed on Wednesday that indirect talks, mediated by regional partners, will proceed in Muscat, Oman, on Friday, in a high-stakes effort to de-escalate regional tensions. The confirmation follows intense mediation by Qatar, Turkiye, and Egypt, and a last-minute location change from Turkey. The diplomatic outreach occurs under extreme duress, highlighted by the U.S. military shooting down an Iranian drone near the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday.

Sources familiar with the negotiations suggest mediators have presented a framework that calls for Iran to commit to zero uranium enrichment for three years and transfer its existing 60 percent enriched uranium stockpile to a third country. The framework also reportedly addresses Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for armed groups in the region. However, the gap between the two sides remains substantial. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that discussions must encompass Iran’s missile program, a position an Iranian official stated was “off the table.”

Secretary Rubio expressed pessimism about the ultimate outcome, telling reporters he was “not sure” a deal could be reached with the current Iranian leadership, though he affirmed a preference for diplomacy over military conflict. Friday’s meeting will serve as a critical barometer for the immediate future of U.S.-Iran relations. The focus will be on whether the parties can move beyond procedural agreements to substantive discussions, or if entrenched positions will cause the diplomatic window to close.

Gaza Casualties Mount as Fragile Ceasefire Is Challenged

Renewed Israeli military operations in Gaza on Wednesday resulted in the deaths of at least 24 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health authority, severely undermining the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that began last October. Since the truce collapsed, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry claims over 556 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, while the Israel Defense Forces reports four of its soldiers have died. The IDF stated the latest strikes were a direct response to a militant attack in northern Gaza that seriously wounded one Israeli soldier, claiming Hamas had committed a “blatant violation” of the agreement.

The resumption of heavy fighting has prompted sharp challenges to the diplomatic efforts. Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Shifa Hospital, publicly questioned the status of the truce, asking, “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?” In a separate development, conflict monitors at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program noted that the IDF has reportedly concurred with the Gaza Health Ministry’s estimate of 71,000 total Palestinian fatalities since October 2023. Researchers said this alignment is significant because it makes denial of the scale of fatalities harder.

The humanitarian situation remains acute. Hospital directors report that mothers are giving birth to underweight and premature babies due to malnutrition, despite increased aid flows which the U.N. maintains are insufficient. Separately, the Australian government has committed to repairing dozens of its soldiers’ graves in the Gaza War Cemetery after satellite imagery confirmed extensive damage, including bulldozing, by the IDF in the Tuffah area of Gaza City.

Economy & Markets

Washington Post Slashes Staff by a Third, Gutting Sports and Foreign Desks

The Washington Post announced sweeping layoffs on Wednesday, cutting approximately one-third of its newsroom staff in a significant restructuring that will dramatically reduce the scope of one of America’s most storied newspapers. Executive Editor Matt Murray said the paper intends to end sports coverage “in its current form,” close its books section entirely, suspend the Post Reports podcast, and substantially shrink its international footprint, including the closure of several foreign bureaus.

The move follows earlier cost-cutting measures and reflects what Mr. Murray cited as the radically changing economics of the news media, including the rise of low-cost content generators and AI. The decision has drawn sharp criticism from former Post leadership, including Marty Baron, the paper’s former executive editor, who called it one of the “darkest days” in the organization’s history and suggested the paper is setting its ambitions low.

The layoffs come amid intense speculation regarding the influence of owner Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder. Several reports suggest that Mr. Bezos, whose relationship with the Trump administration has reportedly warmed, may be steering the paper away from adversarial coverage. This context is amplified by reports that the paper previously killed an endorsement for Kamala Harris and pivoted its editorial page toward a more right-leaning stance. Staff members had previously sent open letters to Mr. Bezos pleading against deep cuts, arguing that reducing the “battle-hardened” foreign and local teams would hinder the paper’s ability to cover major future developments.

Bitcoin Plunges 20% in New Year, Erasing Post-Election Gains

Bitcoin has sustained a sharp decline, falling nearly 20 percent since the start of 2026 and trading below $71,000 as of Wednesday, erasing all gains accrued since President Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election. The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of over $127,000 in October 2025 but has been on a downward trajectory since, exacerbated by geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over the next Federal Reserve chair nomination.

This market contraction has directly impacted publicly traded mining stocks, with firms like Cipher Mining dropping over 20 percent and Riot Platforms falling 10 percent on Wednesday alone, as miner profitability ratios hit a 14-month low. Regulatory uncertainty in Washington is cited as a major headwind; a Trump-backed bill to regulate crypto trading has stalled in the Senate amid disagreements between traditional finance and digital asset firms. This contrasts with the initial market optimism following Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to make the U.S. a crypto capital.

Analysts suggest further downside risk for Bitcoin, with some projecting a drop toward the 200-week moving average near $58,000, driven by significant outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which saw over $3 billion in redemptions in January. Despite the spot price volatility, established financial institutions are moving forward with tokenization initiatives. CME Group Chairman Terrence Duffy confirmed the exchange is exploring launching its own coin on a decentralized network and plans to move all crypto products to 24/7 trading in early 2026, signaling institutional commitment to the underlying technology.

US and India Finalize Trade Deal, Reducing Tariffs

The United States and India finalized a significant bilateral trade agreement on Monday, resulting in a reduction of tariffs on Indian exports to the U.S. from 50 percent down to 18 percent. President Donald Trump announced the deal, claiming it was secured after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to cease purchasing Russian oil and increase imports from the U.S. and potentially Venezuela. Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal hailed the conclusion of the “much-awaited trade deal” as a landmark achievement.

Negotiations had reportedly stalled over India’s reluctance to grant greater access to politically sensitive sectors, particularly agriculture. One source suggested that the deal was delayed because Prime Minister Modi had declined to call President Trump last summer, a claim India disputed. The finalization of the deal suggests a strategic alignment despite earlier friction, particularly as India had already been reducing Russian crude imports following U.S. sanctions implemented last November.

The agreement comes as India is set to begin negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, signaling a strategic pivot toward diversified trade partnerships. The reaction in Pakistan to the U.S.-India deal was characterized by public dismay, with social media users contrasting Islamabad’s extensive efforts to court the Trump administration with India’s success despite having resisted U.S. pressure.

Regional Developments

Man Who Attempted to Assassinate Trump in 2024 Is Sentenced to Life

Ryan Routh was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for the September 15, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, handed down the sentence, which also included seven additional years for a firearms charge. Mr. Routh, 59, was convicted last September on five criminal counts after Secret Service agents found him hiding in bushes with a semi-automatic rifle, where he had allegedly waited for Mr. Trump for nearly ten hours.

Prosecutors argued the crime was a premeditated plot aimed at “upending American democracy,” while Mr. Routh’s defense attorney requested a 20-year term, arguing he “chose not to pull the trigger” at the critical moment. During the sentencing hearing, Mr. Routh delivered a rambling statement referencing overseas conflicts before Judge Cannon cut him short, stating, “Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil.”

The incident followed a more serious assassination attempt on Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania just two months prior, raising significant concerns about the security apparatus surrounding major political figures. The conviction included charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and possessing a defaced firearm. The sentencing marks the final judicial resolution for the second major attempt on Mr. Trump’s life in 2024.

Developments to Watch

• Geopolitics: The outcome of the U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, particularly regarding any potential prisoner exchange. The frequency and severity of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure following the talks. Any public statements from the Pentagon or Russian Ministry of Defense regarding changes to nuclear deployment schedules after the expiration of the New START treaty. The outcome of indirect U.S.-Iran talks in Oman on Friday.
• AI & Technology: Adoption metrics for Anthropic’s new open-source Cowork plug-ins and initial feedback from Amazon’s film industry partners on its AI studio beta. Nvidia’s next quarterly revenue guidance for indications of sustained AI hardware demand. The outcome of the FCC’s public review of SpaceX’s application for orbital data centers.
• Economy & Markets: The Washington Post’s digital subscription and traffic metrics over the next two quarters following its major staff reduction. Bitcoin’s ability to hold the $70,000 support level and any movement on the stalled crypto regulation bill in the U.S. Senate. The European Central Bank’s official commentary following its Thursday policy meeting.
• Regional Security: The final confirmed death toll from the attacks in Nigeria’s Kwara State and the mandate of the newly confirmed U.S. military advisory team. The outcome of the Secret Service’s internal disciplinary review regarding agent suspensions following the September 2024 security breach at Mr. Trump’s Florida golf course.

Social Signals

The mood across the tech and finance commentary sphere is combative and forward-looking, dominated by an escalating public rivalry between AI’s top labs. Beyond the AI platform wars, thought leaders are increasingly vocal about perceived political and institutional failures, from local governance to international geopolitics. This critique runs parallel to practical discussions charting the evolution of software development and the integration of crypto into core tech infrastructure.

AI’s “Super Bowl Moment”: Altman Takes Aim at Anthropic

The simmering competition between AI labs boiled over into a direct public confrontation, with OpenAI’s Sam Altman launching a broadside against rival Anthropic. In a lengthy post, Altman accused Anthropic of running a “clearly dishonest” Super Bowl ad and practicing “doublespeak.” He framed the conflict as a fundamental difference in philosophy, contrasting OpenAI’s commitment to free, broad access with what he characterized as Anthropic’s strategy of serving “an expensive product to rich people” and seeking authoritarian control over the ecosystem.

“Maybe even more importantly: Anthropic wants to control what people do with AI—they block companies they don’t like from using their coding product (including us), they want to write the rules themselves for what people can and can’t use AI for, and now they also want to tell other companies what their business models can be… One authoritarian company won’t get us there on their own, to say nothing of the other obvious risks. It is a dark path.”
— @sama

The critique extended to the heated race for developer mindshare between OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude. Altman touted that “so many people [are] switch[ing] to Codex” and celebrated crossing 1 million active users. This sentiment was echoed by others in the developer community, with some observers like @yacineMTB claiming that top coders have already migrated, leaving “normies” behind.

From “Vibe Coding” to “Agentic Engineering”

Reflecting on the rapid evolution of AI-assisted programming, Andrej Karpathy marked the one-year anniversary of his “vibe coding” meme by proposing a new term for its more mature incarnation: “agentic engineering.” He argues that what began as a playful way to build throwaway projects has now become a professional workflow demanding oversight and skill. This new paradigm, he suggests, is defined by orchestrating agents rather than writing code directly.

“Today (1 year later), programming via LLM agents is increasingly becoming a default workflow for professionals, except with more oversight and scrutiny… personally my current favorite ‘agentic engineering’: ‘agentic’ because the new default is that you are not writing the code directly 99% of the time, you are orchestrating agents who do and acting as oversight. ‘engineering’ to emphasize that there is an art & science and expertise to it.”
— @karpathy

This conceptual shift is being put into practice across the developer community. DHH of 37signals advised on hardware setups for running a “whole team of claws” on a single machine using Proxmox, while Pieter Levels offered detailed, security-focused tutorials on configuring a VPS with Tailscale to run agents like OpenClaw safely. The goal, as Chamath Palihapitiya framed it, is to achieve “software leverage” not from faster typing, but from the “stronger coordination” enabled by multiplayer platforms that align agents before execution.

Tech Leaders Confront Political & Institutional Decay

A significant thread of commentary involved tech leaders engaging directly with perceived failures in governance and public institutions. Elon Musk was particularly active, weighing in on a wide range of issues. He amplified claims of paid protestors, labeled rampant hospice fraud in Los Angeles a “Major crime scene,” and endorsed Senator Mike Lee’s push for voter ID laws. He also questioned what he sees as a double standard in discourse around race, arguing that statements about making the English countryside “less white” would be condemned if said about any other race.

This focus on institutional failure was echoed by others. YC President Garry Tan directed his criticism at California’s leadership, sharing reports that LA Mayor Karen Bass allegedly altered a fire analysis and pointing to data on disability claims at Stanford as evidence of a system where “honesty is for suckers.” Venture capitalist Josh Wolfe maintained a sustained focus on geopolitics, condemning the Iranian regime’s actions as a “massacre” and advocating for @PahlaviReza as a transitional leader for a “FREE IRAN.” Chamath Palihapitiya captured the overarching mood by endorsing the view that the political system is fundamentally broken when it fails to enact policies with overwhelming public support.

AGI Paths and On-Chain Integration

Looking further ahead, thought leaders debated the path to AGI and highlighted the increasing integration of crypto into the tech ecosystem’s financial plumbing. Offering a contrarian perspective to the current “bigger is better” model race, AI researcher François Chollet posited that true AGI is unlikely to emerge from simply cramming more knowledge into large models.

"Natural evolution suggests that AGI won’t come from larger models that cram more and more specific knowledge, but from