Overview
Today’s feed swings between near-term agents and long-horizon bets. AI helpers are moving into everyday tools, Grok is climbing the charts, and developers are getting real usage data from their own chat histories. On the road and in the Senate, Tesla’s autonomy push meets questions of safety and security. Elsewhere, space computing gets a provocative deadline, biotech aims AI at gene control, designers get a new vector trick, and the Sun puts on a show. We end with a calm view of Portofino, because perspective helps.
The big picture
Agents move from demo to daily work
Min Choi points to AI agents handling legal research, sales, marketing, and data analysis, reflecting a broad market jolt as companies rethink software moats. 🔗 Post link
GitHub folds Claude and Codex into Copilot Pro+ and Enterprise so teams can set an intent, pick an agent, and watch it clear tasks inside GitHub and VS Code. 🔗 Post link
Anthropic adds /insights to Claude Code, reading a month of history to summarise projects and suggest better workflows, turning usage data into coaching. 🔗 Post link
Granola launches MCP, a common way for apps like Claude and ChatGPT to access meeting notes without manual copying, pushing toward cleaner interoperability. 🔗 Post link
And outside the suites, a scrappy demo shows an agent that searches for openings and files applications on your behalf, a reminder that automation is arriving at street level too. 🔗 Post link
AI assistants race for consumer mindshare
Grok voice notes make it simpler to speak, send, and let the model do the work, while the app climbs to #1 in Kazakhstan amid a wider download surge. 🔗 Post link 🔗 Post link
Space compute, deadlines, and a podcast tease
A viral clip frames Elon Musk’s claim that orbital solar will make space the cheap place to run AI data centres within roughly 30 months. 🔗 Post link
John Collison trails a Cheeky Pint episode with Musk on space GPUs, a timely follow-up if you want substance behind the sound bite. 🔗 Post link
Haider adds a note on “capability overhang” - current models may be underused, with more to come this year. 🔗 Post link
Tesla under the microscope, on Capitol Hill and at a crosswalk
Lars Moravy tells the U.S. Senate that driving controls live in a core layer isolated from the outside world, with dual-signoff firmware and no recorded external takeovers. 🔗 Post link
On the street in Austin, a Model Y in unsupervised mode pauses for a pedestrian before proceeding, showing crisp yield behaviour in a live pilot. 🔗 Post link
Biotech points AI at gene control
Y Combinator introduces Origin, whose model designs DNA switches and dials to tune gene expression, aiming to make cell and gene therapies safer for diseases like cancer. 🔗 Post link
Design tools rediscover a classic trick
Figma announces raster-to-vector conversion with controls over colour and editability, a handy bridge between messy inputs and clean SVGs for production. 🔗 Post link
Policy, trust, and the climate for growth
From Dubai, the World Governments Summit shares a clip arguing that predictability and transparency build business trust, with policy as the main lever for private sector growth. 🔗 Post link
Phones, AI features, and the mid-range race
Google teases pre-orders for a new Pixel, spotlighting Gemini integrations more than hardware redesign, and promising years of updates. 🔗 Post link
Our star, up close
Andrew McCarthy spends six hours on a giant sunspot, capturing magnetic chaos and reminding us solar maximum is here, with the odd flare that can touch life on Earth. 🔗 Post link
A quiet invitation
Portofino’s harbour opens like a postcard, a short ode to staying by the sea and the pull of place. Save it for a pause between agent prompts. 🔗 Post link
Why it matters
Agents are getting closer to the work. With Claude, Codex, MCP, and GitHub in the mix, we are moving from chat windows to systems that read context, act across tools, and report back. That threatens old software moats, pressures pricing, and raises new questions about audit trails, safety rails, and vendor lock-in.
Personal data use needs more daylight. Features like /insights promise useful summaries, though they rely on reading your history. Clear controls, opt-outs, and retention policies will decide whether these aids earn trust.
Distribution is tilting to platforms. Grok’s climb and voice notes show how small UX tweaks can widen reach. The winners will be the apps that reduce friction without spraying spam or cutting corners on privacy.
Autonomy still faces dual tests. Senate testimony helps on security posture, street clips help on behaviour. The hard bit is sustained safety data, open incident reporting, and honest comparisons with human drivers.
Compute is strategic. If space-based data centres are real within a few years, expect new players in launch, power, and networking, plus policy debates over orbital debris and jurisdiction. If not, the grid on Earth still needs serious upgrades.
Biotech and AI are converging on control problems. Designing gene switches is a precision game - better models could trim toxicity and speed trials, but lab validation and patient variability remain the gatekeepers.
Design cycles repeat. Figma’s vector tool is fresh for a new audience, yet it rhymes with older tech. The pattern is steady - take a classic capability, improve quality and workflow fit, and wire it into modern pipelines.
Policy sets the tempo. Trust grows when rules are predictable and transparent. As agents touch more regulated work, the gap between fast software and slow governance will be the battleground.
And the Sun, as ever, keeps us honest. Solar weather can knock satellites and grids, so the awe in that sunspot timelapse comes with a reminder to harden the systems we depend on.
