AI reckoning & more stuff

AI reckoning

AI reckoning as a term is a rather stark warning. Even more so when it comes from Aswath Damodaran who is a professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at NYU (New York University).

The reckoning that Damodaran is concerned about is a ‘Minsky moment‘ and represents a stark contrast to the boundless techno-optimism of Marc Andreessen.

The AI reckoning wasn’t on the mind of investors who bought into Cerebras Systems.

Cerebras Systems makes wafer sized chips with memory and processing on the same die. This reduces latency and increases speed. As cool as Cerebras Systems technology is, the company currently has sales of $510 million and was valued on its opening day of trading at $71 billion.

Business

Long Lake agrees to acquire American Express Global Business Travel, the world’s largest corporate travel platform, for $6.3 billion, with support from General Catalyst and Alpha Wave | Amex GBT

China

Trump’s China Trap | Foreign Affairs

Consumer behaviour

When the Internet Was a Place – Front Porch Republic

Design

Great documentary on the history of Braun and its relationship with the Ulm School of Design.

Economics

Is AI the New China Shock? | The Daily Spark

AI Job Loss Tracker — The Alliance for Secure AI

The Shanghai Cabaret Theory of Globalization | Patrick Kho

FT Alphaville (@ftav): “Remember when tech was a cap-lite industry? lol, lmao even.”

Amazon Employees Say Layoffs, AI, and RTO Are Reshaping Jobs – Business Insider

Energy

Peter Thiel backs $1bn ocean data centre start-up powered by waves | FT

EV ownership at ‘tipping point’ in many parts of the world, experts say | FT

FMCG

Chinese bubble tea chain with more stores than McDonald’s wants to conquer the world | FT

Hong Kong

Hong Kong banks dependent on SWIFT are warned of new US sanctions – Asia Times

Innovation

Microsoft 2026 Work Trend Index Annual Report

Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, economist: ‘Germany lacks breakthrough innovation’ | Le Monde

China unveils driverless mining truck that can ‘crab-walk’ across rough terrain | South China Morning Post

Korea

In Korea AI is merging with folk religion.

Marketing

adidas has made World Cup shirts for dogs | Famous Campaigns – its a pity that they didn’t roll this out in the UK as well

Lululemon Just Committed Brand Harakiri. – by Camille Moore

Media

The Devil Wears Prada 2: a comms strategy masterclass | Will Poskett

Paid media budget planner – Empower Agency

UK adspend increased 6.4% in 2025 as AA/Warc updates data presentation – The Media Leader

Online

Reggie Fils-Aimé Says Amazon Asked Nintendo To Break The Law | Kotaku

A.I. Helps Online Ad Businesses Boom – The New York Times

Security

AI-Powered Cyberattacks | Robert Scoble and A glimpse into cyber-security’s AI-driven future | The Economist – A few years ago a participant used the conference network to hack a water-treatment facility in America (Messrs Wyler and Stump are cagey about the details). Another hid behind the din of legitimate hacker traffic to attack government websites and payment systems. The noc team traced him, sent him a message reminding him that doing illegal things from Black Hat was still illegal, then watched him close his laptop and walk away. Hackers on the other side of the world try their luck too. When the registration server was switched on, attacks began at once, including traffic that appeared to originate in Romania….Mr Stump says the noc has seen a pattern across multiple Black Hat conferences in which Taiwanese participants show up with hacked devices. “Most of [the traffic] goes back to China,” he says. ai-powered attacks by nation-states or cybercriminals are likely to intensify..
The team thinks the ai race is only beginning. For Mr Wyler, the vulnerabilities discovered by Mythos, including some that have gone undetected for decades, are to be welcomed rather than feared. “We now know they’re there.”
All the same, cautions Mr Stump, the next two years will be turbulent, as more flaws will be uncovered; more breaches will occur as firms feed sensitive data into ai systems; and more insecure code will be written.

“No Man Left Behind”: American Technology Ships with Our Values | A16z

Tank maker KNDS pushes Berlin to decide on taking stake before IPO | FT

AeroVironment Switchblade 400 drone joins US Army LASSO program to replace traditional anti-tank missiles

Green Berets Deploy Ship-Killing Drone in Luzon Strait Maritime Strike Exercise | USNI News