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Catch the podcast edition of this issue:
Tile tags are leaking your location, VCs are learning $165M won’t smooth AI’s rough edges, Europe’s betting €100M on NestAI, Ohio wants IDs for memes, and China’s chatbot just hit #1—while Marissa Mayer ditches Sunshine for Dazzle and OpenAI plays babysitter with new parental controls.
Video pick: The great humanoid robot hoax + 🎙️ Our Podcast edition!
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Six bullets of updates
🛰️ Researchers warn that users' movements can be tracked by sniffing unencrypted signals from Tile tags, exposing sensitive location data.
🤖 VCs betting $165M on AI-backed services may find the transformation tougher than expected as real-world friction emerges.
🚀 PostScriptum’s new NestAI initiative pledges €100M to boost Europe’s tech ecosystem and nurture deep tech disruptors.
🛡️ Ohio residents must verify age to access Bluesky, as new age checks roll out statewide this week.
💸 New AI agent streamlines finance by letting teams automate workflows inside existing ERPs—no code required.
A new AI chatbot just hit #1 on both Apple and Google charts, fueling debate over China’s fast-evolving AI edge.
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Marissa Mayer dissolves Sunshine, launches new AI company Dazzle
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
Sunshine, the AI startup founded by former Yahoo CEO and longtime Google executive Marissa Mayer, set out to build consumer apps powered by AI. Its early products—like Sunshine Contacts for cleaning up messy address books and Sunshine Photos for sharing images—struggled to gain traction and faced criticism over broad data access.
Now, Sunshine is being dissolved; its assets change hands to Dazzle, a new AI venture Mayer formed. A Sept. 17 note shows 99% shareholder approval, with ~15 staff likely to roll over. So think of it as a clean slate with the same crayons.
Why it matters: It’s an insider restart that preserves IP and talent while resetting mission toward a new AI assistant. Investors trade liquidation risk for optionality; employees get continuity; users may face shutdowns or rebrands. The assistant arena is crowded and capital-intensive, so distribution and execution—more than brand equity—will determine whether this pivot becomes a renaissance or a rerun.
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The Great Humanoid Robot Hoax
Why do we keep trying to build robots that walk, wobble, and look like us—when wheels are clearly better? From Boston Dynamics to Tesla’s Optimum, billions have been poured into humanoid robots that mostly star in viral videos, not real jobs. This video unpacks the tech, the hype, the paradoxes, and the brutal economics behind the humanoid robot race—plus, the uncanny reason we might never actually want one in our homes.
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OpenAI expands ChatGPT safety measures and parental controls after incidents
OpenAI is testing a safety routing system that detects sensitive chats and auto-switches to GPT‑5‑thinking with “safe completions”—think autocorrect, but for crises. It also introduced parental controls (quiet hours, disable memory/voice, remove image gen, opt‑out of training) and can alert parents if a teen shows “acute distress,” after incidents where models validated delusions, including a teen suicide and a lawsuit.
For builders: routing pushes high‑risk traffic to heavier models—safer, pricier. Expect demand for auditable safety logs, tunable policies, and clearer escalation paths. Regulators will probe teen safeguards and false positives. If you ship chat, assume a 120‑day iteration plan is table stakes.