Good morning 👋 Some people start their day adjusting the thermostat or dressing for the weather outside. Elon Musk? He woke up thinking about dimming the sun with satellites. The SpaceX CEO thinks we can solve global warming by using a giant swarm of AI-powered satellites to control exactly how much light hits Earth. Scientists say solar geoengineering might be possible but warn it’s probably best left to advanced civilizations. Nothing screams “safe and responsible” like handing Musk the remote control for the Sun.
🛍️ Shopify says AI shopping is exploding. Convenient timing, right? Just weeks after partnering with OpenAI, Shopify announced massive jumps in AI-driven traffic (7x) and sales (11x). They’re calling this the dawn of “agentic commerce,” where AI handles the entire shopping process without traditional searches or ads. Shopify promises a retail revolution is already underway, but indie researchers say the real picture is murkier because AI-driven sales are notoriously hard to track. Shopify’s numbers look impressive, but maybe hold off on the champagne until the receipts match the hype.
🟢 UK courts rule AI companies can freely swipe IP. Getty Images learned this the hard way after suing Stability AI for training its image generator on millions of copyrighted pics. The UK court tossed Getty’s copyright claims, ruling the AI model technically doesn’t store or reproduce the original images. Getty scored a tiny win over watermarks, but the bigger question about whether AI can legally train on creative work without permission was left unanswered. Imitation may be flattery, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
🛑 Amazon is trying to shut down Perplexity’s AI shopping agents. Amazon sent a cease-and-desist accusing Perplexity’s Comet of computer fraud and privacy violations for shopping on people’s behalf. Perplexity’s CEO calls it a bullying tactic meant to crush competition. He argues that people should be free to choose the best AI assistant, and says bots deserve the same shopping rights as people. So what’s the real reason Bezos hates rival bots? If AI shops directly, who will Amazon sell ads to?
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⛓️ Europe tried breaking free from US tech, but ended up doubling down. Deutsche Telekom announced a massive new “Industrial AI Cloud” in Munich, featuring 10k Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and promising to boost Germany’s AI computing power by 50%. They’re pitching it as Europe’s first fully sovereign industrial AI platform for digital twins, robotics, and heavy-duty simulations. Just one catch: the entire operation runs on American GPUs and software. Europe’s plan for tech independence still runs through California.
🙃 You’d have to be crazy to short AI right now. Palantir CEO Alex Karp just went on Squawk Box to rant about Michael Burry, who dropped $1.2 billion betting against Palantir and Nvidia. Sure, Burry nailed the 2008 crash, but he’s now convinced Palantir’s totally reasonable price-to-earnings ratio of 228x is due for a meltdown. Palantir shares immediately fell 8%, Nvidia dropped 4%, and even crypto markets piled into panic selling. Burry’s either about to retire a legend or become a cautionary tale at VC dinners.
🤖 People will do anything for a buck, even train their robot replacement. At Tesla’s secret Palo Alto lab, workers spend hours strapped into heavy backpacks and helmets, repeatedly wiping tables, vacuuming floors, and even twerking, all so Optimus can learn from how people move. Welcome to the new normal, where Uber drivers train autonomous vehicles, Juilliard musicians coach AI composers, and top docs train bots to replace junior medical staff. Teaching your replacement used to be ironic. Now it’s just another paycheck.
fun stats
number of HD films you could stream per second with AWS’s new underwater cable 🎥 Dubbed Fastnet, it will connect Maryland and Ireland by 2028, and is Amazon’s first solo subsea cable project. Roughly 95% of all internet traffic is routed underwater.
[PC Mag]