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Nearly 25,000 websites vanished in a DNS meltdown that broke big chunks of the internet—Coinbase, Zoom, everyone went offline for a minute—while the FTC quietly erased AI-era blog posts from Lina Khan’s tenure, and Claude rolled out a safety filter to block dangerous instructions. Gen Z founders, meanwhile, are rewriting the playbook on giving, baking philanthropy into their business models from day one—revenue tithes, equity pledges, and public dashboards as proof.
Video pick: Fake Songs, Real Millions—Inside the AI Music Heist
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Catch the stand-up comment of today’s issue here:
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Six bullets of updates
🌐 Nearly 25,000 sites went dark as a DNS outage broke big parts of the Internet , impacting apps from Coinbase to Zoom.
☢️ Claude gets a safety filter after a US gov partnership, aiming to block nuclear weapon instructions—experts remain split.
🚀 European tech startups raised €376M in seed rounds in Q3 2025, spotlighting future industry leaders.
🖌️ Brands can train Firefly AI on their own IP to craft custom models, tapping Adobe’s new Foundry service.
🩺 Oura’s new feature helps users assess their risk of hypertension as it seeks FDA clearance for blood pressure alerts.
🗣️ Automattic's Matt Mullenweg calls Tumblr his “biggest failure,” citing the challenge of supporting 500M blogs while staying unprofitable.
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Gen Z entrepreneurs redefine philanthropy through early business integration
Photo by Eliott Reyna on Unsplash
Gen Z founders are building philanthropy into their startups from the start—not waiting until after a big exit. They’re setting aside small parts of revenue, adding checkout round-ups, or pledging equity in their bylaws, with public dashboards to show progress. Transparency is part of the brand.
This approach helps attract both customers and talent. Frameworks like B Corp standards, Pledge 1%, and donor-advised funds make it easier to run. When done well, giving can lower customer-acquisition costs and improve retention; when done poorly, it’s just marketing. The new mindset is to bake impact into the business model, not add it later.
Founders should set clear rules for giving—caps, minimums, or pause conditions—and track results like any expense. Investors will look for companies that treat mission spending as part of core operations. Expect more rigorous, measurable reporting on impact, not just good intentions.
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Fake Songs, Real Millions—Inside the AI Music Heist
AI-generated bands are already hitting millions of streams, and the business behind them is shockingly profitable. From stream farms to loopholes in Spotify’s royalty system, fake music is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative scams in the industry. In this video, we break down how streaming economics, click farms, and generative AI collided to create a perfect storm — and why the future of music might look more artificial than ever.
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How to pick the right global payroll mode
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Investor Data Room Checklist
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FTC removes blog posts addressing AI risks and transparency
Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash
The FTC has removed several AI-related blog posts from Lina Khan’s tenure, including an October 2023 note on consumer concerns, a January 2025 warning about AI harms, and a July 2024 explainer on open-weight models. By late summer, these posts had been redirected or deleted. Archived versions remain available on the Wayback Machine.
For startups, this makes regulatory signals less clear. The FTC under Ferguson appears to be scaling back public guidance even as the White House promotes open AI models. The removals also raise potential public records issues. Companies should expect future guidance to come through enforcement actions—on advertising, data use, and AI transparency—rather than blog posts. It’s a good time to ensure legal oversight and maintain auditable AI processes.