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July 18, 2026, 11:20 PM
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memeorandum
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| 9to5Mac: |
Analysis finds 60+ “jacket apps” on the App Store disguised as simple games and utilities that become gambling apps when accessed from Brazilian IP addresses — An investigation by 9to5Mac reveals dozens of apps that disguise gambling platforms as simple games and utilities.
More: Digital Trends, iThinkDifferent, AppleInsider, and صوت …
| Reuters: |
The grassroots group HumansFirst is organizing protests against the “unaccountable” buildout of data centers across 125 US locations on July 18 — Opponents of the rapid buildout of data centers plan to hold protests on Saturday in at least 125 locations across the United States …
More: Detroit Free Press, Cowboy State Daily, WKU Public Radio, The Straits Times, and Washington Post
X: @amykremer, @zenhoneycutt, @andrewcraft, @realhumansfirst, and @1zzyzyx1
Bluesky: @cortneymckee, @virginiaheffernan, and @cortneymckee
Forums: r/politics and r/technology
| AI Security Institute: |
Analysis: recent open weight models lag frontier closed models' cyber capabilities by 4 to 7 months, a narrower gap than the 6 to 10 months through most of 2025 — AISI has tracked the cyber capabilities of frontier AI models since 2023. On our evaluations, the most capable models …
More: Forbes, Axios, Bloomberg, The Decoder, Big Technology, and Financial Times
X: @multiplay3r, @gdb, @scaling01, @aisecurityinst, @ramez, @miles_brundage, @aisecurityinst, @aisecurityinst, @aisecurityinst, @aisecurityinst, and @gavinsbaker
Forums: r/singularity and Lobsters
| Transformer: |
Kimi K3 hype shouldn't alarm the US about “losing the AI race” to China; K3 is a good model but not frontier-level and likely lacks dangerous cyber capabilities — Transformer Weekly: NY data center moratorium, NDAA export controls and Amodei's $1m to safety super PAC
More: Axios, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, New York Times, Business Insider, CNBC, Semafor, Dow Jones Newswires, Washington Post, The Deep View, Faster, Please!, Forbes, Tech Brew, Decrypt, Washington Examiner, Barron's Online, BBC, TechRadar, Techstrong.ai, Breitbart, International Business Times, New York Post, NewsMax.com, Business Standard, Verdict, and The Indian Express
X: @deanwball, @dan_jeffries1, @joshua_saxe, @davidsacks, @semianalysis_, @teortaxestex, @xeophon, @scmallaby, @deanwball, @scaling01, @counternotions, @shakeelhashim, @emollick, @emollick, @rsalakhu, @ctjlewis, @negligible_cap, @zephyr_z9, @agupta, and @shakeelhashim. Bluesky: @deanbaker13. Forums: r/technology
| Geraldine McKelvie / The Guardian: |
UK's incoming PM Andy Burnham is expected to scrap Keir Starmer's plans for digital ID cards; last year a petition opposing the cards attracted ~3M signatures — Incoming PM will reallocate unspecified resources from unpopular plan to helping with cost of living
More: Reuters, The Standard, GB News, Mirror, Politico, and Metro.co.uk
Forums: r/uknews, r/unitedkingdom, r/LabourUK, r/transgenderUK, r/ukpolitics, and r/gbnews
| Ann Davis Vaughan / The Information: |
Permit hurdles push up costs for AI data centers; Oracle pivoted from gas turbines to costlier fuel cells for its Project Jupiter in NM, costing billions more — Building an AI supercampus increasingly means paying more than you bargained for. Oracle's attempt to salvage a proposed $165 billion project …
More: Motley Fool
| Wall Street Journal: |
Prediction market political betting on insider info spreads in DC; sources: WH lawyers raised alarms over anonymous Polymarket bets on the Iran ceasefire timing — White House officials are grappling with how deeply political betting has worked itself into fabric of government
More: The Independent, Washington Examiner, and Raw Story
X: @joshconstine, @bobbyallyn, and @travisakers
| Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge: |
A review of Microsoft's 13-inch Surface Laptop shows 8GB of RAM is not enough for a good Windows 11 experience; PC makers have unveiled upcoming 8GB laptops — Last year, Microsoft's 13-inch Surface Laptop quickly became one of my favorite thin-and-light Windows notebooks.
More: Neowin and Windows Central
Bluesky: @modestholdings.com. Mastodon: @kim_harding@mastodon.scot. Forums: r/pcmasterrace, r/Surface, and r/technology
| Joshua Cohen / Ars Technica: |
A look at AI's potential impact on insurance-coverage decisions like prior authorization as the Trump admin starts to pilot using AI to evaluate Medicare claims — If you're like me, you or a loved one has struggled through the process of gaining pre-approval for the medical care that your physician has recommended.| Leo Schwartz / The Information: |
How the Trump administration shifted from a “light-touch” approach to AI policy to an interventionist stance that led to restrictions on top AI models in the US — In January 2025, just three days after entering office for his second term, President Donald Trump signed … | Claude / @claudeai: |
Anthropic says Claude Fable 5 will be included in Max and Team Premium plans at 50% of limits from July 20 and via usage credits for Pro and Team Standard users — Beginning July 20, Claude Fable 5 will be included in all Max and Team Premium plans, at 50% of limits. Pro and Team Standard users will continue to have access to Fable via usage credits, and will receive a one-time $100 credit. Demand for Fable has been challenging to
More: Tech Times, The Decoder, The Economic Times, and Simon Willison's Weblog
X: @claudeai, @trq212, @benbajarin, @thsottiaux, @maria_rcks, @mweinbach, @scaling01, @deckard_the_dev, @elliotarledge, and @srpeters. Bluesky: @elkmovie
Forums: r/singularity and r/ClaudeCode
| Reuters: |
SEC filing: GameStop says it owns 9.8% of eBay, signaling its intent to press ahead with a bid for the company after its unsolicited $56B offer was rejected — Videogame retailer GameStop (GME.N) owns nearly 10% of e-commerce company eBay, the company said in a regulatory filing late on Friday …
More: Kotaku, Bloomberg, HotHardware, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, This Week in Videogames, and Benzinga
| Meir Orbach / CTech: |
Data infrastructure startup Cribl acquires CardinalOps, which offers AI-powered threat detection tools and had raised $40M, sources say for around $100M — The U.S. telemetry company will establish a Tel Aviv office after buying the AI-powered detection engineering startup.| David Shepardson / Reuters: |
Memo: the DOJ says federal employees can now download TikTok on government devices, citing TikTok US' transfer of control, lifting a 2022 congressional ban — The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday that federal employees can now download the short-video app TikTok on government devices.Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Generate Sample Data the Way You Want It Using AI, for Free — Finding good sample data is harder than it should be.If you've ever tried to test a dashboard, build a demo, or train a team on an analytics tool, you know the drill.
Generate Sample Data the Way You Want It Using AI, for Free — Finding good sample data is harder than it should be.If you've ever tried to test a dashboard, build a demo, or train a team on an analytics tool, you know the drill.
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Cloudflare CEO: We're Ready To Block Millions of Websites From AI — With Matthew Prince
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Access:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brian Singerman from GPx
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Training Data:
Making Cities Awesome: Peregrine's Nick Noone & Ben Rudolph
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
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