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Catch the podcast edition of this issue:
AI labs are poaching brains, Meta is mining your chats, and Spotify just rewrote its org chart.
Let’s dive in. Today’s updates cut across music, science, ads, and politics.
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Eight bullets of updates
🎤 Spotify swaps founder Daniel Ek for two co-CEOs, splitting product and business roles as the platform hits 615M users; meet the new leadership duo shaping the company's next phase.
📚 Elon Musk unveils Grokipedia, aiming to challenge Wikipedia with AI-powered editing transparency and a 'truth-seeking' mission.
✈️ Hackers exposed data of 1.2M WestJet passengers in a June breach, traced to the Scattered Spider group.
🎬 Y Combinator welcomes KoyalAI to its F25 program as they launch a platform to help filmmakers streamline pre-production using AI.
🎥 OpenAI unveils Sora 2, an AI video app boasting 60-second video generation and incoming API for wider use.
🎮 Epic’s new user flow saw a 60% drop in app installation drop-offs after Apple streamlined EU alternative marketplace installs.
🎙️ Instagram explains why you might feel like ads read your mind, but insists they’re not listening to your mic.
🕵️♂️ A 35-second deepfake clip shows how AI-fueled political disinfo is ramping up as leaders post mock videos of rivals.
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Major AI Talent Exodus to New Periodic Labs Startup
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
AI’s talent draft continues: over 20 researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta decamp to a SF startup chasing AI-led physics and chemistry breakthroughs.
Backed by a $300M seed, the team is running experiments in a San Francisco lab with a Menlo Park facility on deck. Yes, the beakers are getting venture terms.
Why it matters: the next platform may be “autonomous labs,” closing the loop from simulation → robots → results, compressing time-to-materials for batteries, chips, and catalysts. Stakes: incumbents face patent races and supply-chain rewrites; clouds and GPU landlords win on compute; founders in “AI-for-science” need capex stamina, lab ops, and regulatory muscle.
Execution risk is brutal; upside looks like new elements on the balance sheet.
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The Biggest Lie in Online Safety
Governments are cracking down on adult content with strict age-verification laws; but the “solutions” put your privacy at serious risk.
In this video we unpack how ID checks, face scans, and AI detection actually work, why they’re easy to hack, and the hidden dangers of handing over your personal data to access the internet.
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SEO’s evolving—and we have the answers
Join 600+ marketers at Ahrefs Evolve in San Diego, Oct 14–15. Two days of real insights on SEO, AI, content & analytics—no fluff, just actionable strategies you can use Monday morning.
Meet the people behind the profiles, sharpen your edge, and find clarity in a fast-changing landscape.
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📲 From Apple's IAP frustration to infra leader, platform now powers 75k apps and $10B+ by turning pain into product.
🛡️ Build a defensible edge: name your moat in one sentence so your business still stands 10 years from now.
📚 A new vector DB makes Wikipedia AI-ready, letting models tap 120M entries via MCP to boost RAG accuracy.
Slidebean Revenue Data
Mistakes were made as we grew Slidebean, but those mistakes shaped the lessons that helped us thrive. The journey wasn’t just about surviving—it was about learning and evolving.
To give you an honest glimpse into what growth really looks like, we’re sharing our actual financial numbers from the formative years of Slidebean. Download them now and see the ups, downs, and everything in between that built the company we are today.
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Meta Uses User AI Chat Data for Ad Targeting Policy
Ad targeting just found a new confessional: your AI chats. Starting soon, Meta will use AI chat data to tune ads on Facebook and Instagram, with a policy update by Dec 16. Signals may also come from smart glasses, Vibes, and Imagine. There’s no opt-out; EU, UK, and South Korea are exempt.
Implications: richer intent could lower CAC and shift budgets toward conversational funnels; sensitive categories remain excluded. Startups should stress consent UX and data minimization. Regulators will probe where “product telemetry” ends and “communications” begin. If ads later land inside AI surfaces, norms may reset around first‑party chat signals.
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Startup Events and Deadlines
500 Startups Flagship Accelerator l Deadline: Oct 11 l USA
Crash Course on Startup Fundraising with Caya (Slidebean CEO) l Oct 15 l Webinar
Crash Course in Financial Modeling l Oct 16 l Webinar
Mental Health Tech Summit 2025 l October 15 l NYC