AI That Bankrupted a Vending Machine is Now Running a Store in San Francisco
Remember that AI-powered vending machine that went bankrupt after Wall Street Journal reporters “systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free”? It was Anthropic’s experiment, with setup handled by a startup named Andon Labs (which also built the hardware and software integration). But for th … ⌘ Read more

AP Offers Buyouts As Part of Pivot Away From Newspaper Journalism
The Associated Press is offering buyouts to U.S. journalists “as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspaper journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s,” the not-for-profit outlet reported today. AP says it is making the move from a position of strength, responding to shrinking newspaper revenue and growing demand fr … ⌘ Read more

More Americans Are Breaking Into the Upper Middle Class
More Americans have moved into upper-middle-class incomes over the past several decades (source paywalled; alternative source), with new research suggesting that group has grown sharply while the lower and core middle class have shrunk. The Wall Street Journal reports: In 2024, about 31% of Americans were part of the upper middle class, up from about 10% in 1979, … ⌘ Read more

Will ‘AI-Assisted’ Journalists Bring Errors and Retractions?
Meet the “journalist” who “uploads press releases or analyst notes into AI tools and prompts them to spit out articles that he can edit and publish quickly,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“AI-assisted stories accounted for nearly 20% of Fortune’s web traffic in the second half of 2025.” And most were written by 42-year-old Nick Lichtenberg, who has … ⌘ Read more

College Student, Cat Meme Helped Crack Massive Botnet Case
The Wall Street Journal shares the “wild behind-the-scenes story” of how the world’s largest and most destructive botnet was uncovered and taken down, writes Slashdot reader sturgeon. “At times, the network known as Kimwolf included more than a million compromised home Android devices and digital photo frames – enough DDoS firepower to disrupt internet traffic … ⌘ Read more

Python Blood Could Hold the Secret To Healthy Weight Loss
Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot writes: CU Boulder researchers are reporting that they have discovered an appetite-suppressing compound in python blood that helps the snakes consume enormous meals and go months without eating yet remain metabolically healthy. The findings were published in the journal Natural Metabolism on March 19, 2026.

Pythons can … ⌘ Read more

L’IA et l’évaporation des « bullshit jobs »
Constat affolant fait dans le journal de révérence : Le Monde explique dans une récente chronique que malgré des gains de productivité énormes (une multiplication par six en 70 ans), le temps de travail n’a diminué que de 39 %. Pour le commun des mortels, la question qui s’impose est alors : « mais où sont donc passés ces […] ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Issues Copyright Takedown Requests To Remove 8,000+ Copies of Claude Code Source Code
Anthropic is using copyright takedown notices to try to contain an accidental leak of the underlying instructions for its Claude Code AI agent. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Anthropic representatives had used a copyright takedown request to force the removal of more than 8, … ⌘ Read more

Rivian and Lucid Win Right to Sell Their EVs Directly to Buyers in Washington State
The Wall Street Journal reports that Rivian “just won a yearslong battle with car dealers in Washington state that threatens the model of how cars are sold.”

After fighting to sell its vehicles directly to buyers, Rivian threatened to take its case to voters with a ballot measure to permit direct sales. The … ⌘ Read more

What Made Bell Labs So Successful?
Bell Labs “created many of the foundational innovations of the modern age,” writes Jon Gertner, author of The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation — from transistors and telecommunications satellites to Unix and the C programming language.

But what was the secret to its success? he asks in a new article for the Wall Street Journal. Start with its lucky arrival in a “problem-ri … ⌘ Read more

‘Ads Are Popping Up On the Fridge and It Isn’t Going Over Well’
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Walking into his kitchen, Tim Yoder recoiled at a message on his refrigerator door: “Shop Samsung water filters.” Yoder, a supply-chain manager in Chicago, owns a Samsung Electronics Family Hub fridge. He paid $1,400 for an appliance that came with a 32-inch screen on the door that allows him to control other Samsung gadget … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Discontinues Sora Video Platform App
OpenAI is shutting down Sora, its generative-AI video creation platform it launched in December 2024. “The move is one of a number of steps OpenAI is taking to refocus on business and coding functions ahead of a potential initial public offering as soon as the fourth quarter of this year,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

CEO Sam Altman announced the changes to staff on Tuesday. “We’re sayin … ⌘ Read more

Mark Zuckerberg Is Building an AI Agent To Help Him Be CEO
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone inside and outside his company to eventually have his or her own personal artificial-intelligence agent. He is starting with himself. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta Platforms, is building a CEO agent to help him do his job (source paywalled; alternative … ⌘ Read more

Tesla’s Upcoming Electric Big Rig Is Already a Hit with Truckers
“After nearly a decade of delays and industry skepticism, Tesla’s electric big rig is finally rolling out of Nevada’s Gigafactory for mass production starting summer 2026,” writes Gadget Review. And some truckers who tested the vehicles already love them (as reported by the Wall Street Journal):

Dakota Shearer and Angel Rodriguez, among other pil … ⌘ Read more

Jeff Bezos Seeking $100 Billion to Buy Manufacturing Companies, ‘Transform’ Them With AI
Jeff Bezos “is in early talks to raise $100 billion,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation.”

“The Amazon.com founder is meeting with some of the world’s largest asset managers to raise … ⌘ Read more

Pardoned Nikola Fraudster Is Raising Funds For AI-Powered Planes He Claims Will Reshape Aviation
Trevor Milton, the pardoned founder of Nikola, is seeking $1 billion for AI-powered autonomous planes through a new venture called SyberJet. The Tech Buzz reports: “Autonomous planes will be 10 times harder than Nikola ever was,” Milton told the Wall Street Journal in a rare interview … ⌘ Read more

Finance Bros To Tech Bros: Don’t Mess With My Bloomberg Terminal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: A battle of insults and threats has broken out between the tech world and Wall Street. What’s got everyone so worked up? The same thing that starts most fights: business software. A series of social-media posts went viral in recent days with claims that AI has created a worthy … ⌘ Read more

US SEC Preparing To Scrap Quarterly Reporting Requirement
The U.S. SEC is reportedly preparing a proposal to make quarterly earnings reports optional, potentially allowing companies to report results just twice a year. “The proposal could be published as soon as next month,” reports Reuters, citing a paywalled report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that “regulators are in talks with major exchanges to discuss how thei … ⌘ Read more

New Documentary Exposes the Truth Behind That 1967 ‘Bigfoot’ Footage
There’s a surprise in a new documentary about that Bigfoot film shot in 1967 by Roger Patterson, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Capturing Bigfoot “builds to a big reveal: freshly surfaced film that appears to show a woodsy dress rehearsal for one of the world’s most enduring hoaxes.”

In the new footage — from a Kodak reel dat … ⌘ Read more

US Set To Receive $10 Billion Fee For Brokering TikTok Deal
The deal to take control of TikTok’s U.S. business came with an unusual condition, according to people familiar with the matter. The investors — which include Oracle, Abu Dhabi investor MGX, and private-equity firm Silver Lake — “paid the Treasury Department about $2.5 billion when the deal closed in January,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “and are set t … ⌘ Read more

Why Falling Cats Always Seem To Land On Their Feet
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: In a paper, published last month in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers offered a novel take on falling felines. Their evidence suggests new insights into the so-called falling cat problem, particularly that cats have a very flexible segment of their spines that allows them to correct their orientati … ⌘ Read more

Binance Sues WSJ, Panicked By Gov’t Probes Into Sanctioned Crypto Transfers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Binance is hoping that suing (PDF) The Wall Street Journal for defamation might help shake off a fresh round of government probes into how the cryptocurrency exchange failed to detect $1.7 billion in transfers to a network that was funding Iran-backed terror groups. The laws … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Former Research Chief Raises $70M to Automate Manufacturing With AI
“OpenAI’s former chief research officer is raising $70 million for a new startup building an AI and software platform to automate manufacturing,” reports the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter.

“Arda, the new startup co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising at a valuation of $700 million, according to pe … ⌘ Read more

Workers Who Love ‘Synergizing Paradigms’ Might Be Bad at Their Jobs
Cornell University makes an announcement. “Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like ‘synergistic leadership,’ or ‘growth-hacking paradigms’ may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study reveals.”

Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrel … ⌘ Read more

How Anthropic’s Claude Helped Mozilla to Improve Firefox’s Security
“It took Anthropic’s most advanced artificial-intelligence model about 20 minutes to find its first Firefox browser bug during an internal test of its hacking prowess,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Anthropic team submitted it, and Firefox’s developers quickly wrote back: This bug was serious. Could they get on a call? “What else do yo … ⌘ Read more

Still enjoying my command-line set up where I can log my time, keep notes and a daily journal all through a few aliases and functions, and it stores everything in plain text files. #KISS

Viral Doomsday Report Lays Bare Wall Street’s Deep Anxiety About AI Future
A 7,000-word “doomsday” thought experiment from Citrini Research helped trigger an 800-point drop in the Dow, “painting a dark portrait of a future in which technological change inspires a race to the bottom in white-collar knowledge work,” reports the Wall Street Journal. From the report: Concerns of hyperscalers overspending are o … ⌘ Read more

Mark Zuckerberg Grilled On Usage Goals and Underage Users At California Trial
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of questions about his social-media company’s efforts to secure ever more of its users’ time and attention at a landmark trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday. In sworn testimony, Zuckerberg said Meta’s grow … ⌘ Read more

Additional Benefits For Brain, Heart, and Lungs Found for Drugs Like Viagra and Cialis
“Research published in the World Journal of Men’s Health found evidence that drugs such as Viagra and Cialis may also help with heart disease, stroke risk and diabetes,” reports the Telegraph, “as well as enlarged prostate and urinary problems.”

Researchers found evidence that the same mechanism may b … ⌘ Read more

The Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going To Capital, Not Labor
The American economy’s most valuable companies are now worth trillions of dollars more than their predecessors were a generation ago, yet they employ a fraction of the workers – and a new analysis by the Wall Street Journal argues that this widening gap between capital and labor is the defining economic story of our time.

Labor received 58% of gross dom … ⌘ Read more

Age Bias is Still the Default at Work But the Data is Turning
A mounting body of research is making it harder for companies to justify what most of them still do – push experienced workers out the door just as they’re hitting their professional peak. A 2025 study published in the journal Intelligence analyzed 16 cognitive, emotional and personality dimensions and found that while processing speed declines after … ⌘ Read more

Carmakers Rush To Remove Chinese Code Under New US Rules
“How Chinese is your car?” asks the Wall Street Journal. “Automakers are racing to work it out.”

Modern cars are packed with internet-connected widgets, many of them containing Chinese technology. Now, the car industry is scrambling to root out that tech ahead of a looming deadline, a test case for America’s ability to decouple from Chinese supply chains. New U … ⌘ Read more

Is Meta’s Huge Spending on AI Actually Paying Off?
The Wall Street Journal says that Meta “might be reaping some of the richest benefits from the AI boom so far.”

Meta’s revenue grew 22% year over year in 2025 to $201 billion, and the company expects even bigger gains in the current quarter, potentially as high as 34%. That is huge growth for a company that brought in nearly $60 billion in the latest three-month period. And … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia CEO Denies OpenAI’s $100B Investment from Nvidia is ‘Stalled’
Saturday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said they still planned a “huge” investment in OpenAI, according to CNBC.

Friday the Wall Street Journal had reported that Nvidia’s plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI “has stalled after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the deal, people familiar with the matter said…”

[T]he ta … ⌘ Read more

Amazon in Talks To Invest Up To $50 Billion in OpenAI
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup. The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

An … ⌘ Read more

Radiologists Catch More Aggressive Breast Cancers By Using AI To Help Read Mammograms, Study Finds
A large Swedish study of 100,000 women found that using AI to assist radiologists reading mammograms reduced the rate of aggressive “interval” breast cancers by 12%. CBC News reports: For the study – published in Thursday’s issue of the medical journal The Lancet – more than … ⌘ Read more

Justice Department Opens Criminal Probe Into Silicon Valley Spy Allegations
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Deel over allegations that it recruited a spy inside rival Rippling, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. From the report: An Ireland-based Rippling employee, Keith O’Brien, alleged in an affidavit filed in April that Deel Chief Executi … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI and ServiceNow Strike Deal to Put AI Agents in Business Software
According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI and ServiceNow signed a three-year deal to embed AI agents directly into ServiceNow’s enterprise workflows. CNBC reports: As part of the deal, ServiceNow will integrate GPT-5.2 into its enterprise workflow platform and create AI voice technology harnessing these models. “Bringing together our … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers Finally Explain How Molecules From Earth’s Atmosphere Keep Winding Up On the Moon
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:

Particles from Earth’s atmosphere have been carried into space by solar wind and have been landing on the moon for billions of years, mixing into the lunar soil, according to a new study [published in the journal Nature Communications Ea … ⌘ Read more

Retailers Rush to Implement AI-Assisted Shopping and Orders
This week Google “unveiled a set of tools for retailers that helps them roll out AI agents,” reports the Wall Street Journal,
The new retail AI agents, which help shoppers find their desired items, provide customer support and let people order food at restaurants, are part of what Alphabet-owned Google calls Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Major reta … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Is Buying America’s First New Copper Output In More Than a Decade
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Amazon is turning to an Arizona mine that last year became the first new source of U.S. copper in more than a decade, to meet its data centers’ ravenous appetite for the industrial metal.
The mine was restarted as a proving ground for Rio Tinto’s new method of unlocking l … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft is Closing Its Employee Library and Cutting Back on Subscriptions
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft’s library of books is so heavy that it once caused a campus building to sink, according to an unproven legend among employees. Now those physical books, journals, and reports, and many of Microsoft’s digital subscriptions to leading US newspapers, are disappearing in a shift des … ⌘ Read more

JPMorgan Chase Reaches a Deal To Take Over the Apple Credit Card
According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Goldman Sachs is transferring Apple Card and Apple Savings to JPMorgan Chase. “It was clear in 2023 that Goldman Sachs would exit the consumer credit game, abandoning its Apple Card partnership with it,” reports AppleInsider. “However, it has taken 26 months to reach a point where it can finally h … ⌘ Read more

Furiosa’s Energy-Efficient ‘NPU’ AI Chips Start Mass Production This Month, Challenging Nvidia
The Wall Street Journal profiles “the startup that is now one of a handful of chip makers nipping at the heels of Nvidia.”

Furiosa’s AI chip is dubbed “RNGD” — short for renegade — and slated to start mass production this month. Valued at nearly $700 million based on its most recent fun … ⌘ Read more

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Prints Final Newspaper, Shifts To All-Digital Format
CBS News: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has printed its final newspaper, marking the end of a 157-year chapter in Georgia history and officially transitioning the longtime publication into a fully digital news outlet.

The front-page story of the final print edition asks a fitting question: “What is the … ⌘ Read more

New post: 2025 - A Year in review (https://www.itsericwoodward.com/journal/2025/12-31-year-in-review.html)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Tech Startups Are Handing Out Free Nicotine Pouches to Boost Productivity
The Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of tech startups are stocking offices with free nicotine pouches as founders and employees chase sharper focus and stamina in hyper-competitive AI-era work environments. The Wall Street Journal reports: Earlier this year, two nicotine startups – Lucy Nicotine and Sesh – mad … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Is Paying Employees More Than Any Major Tech Startup in History
OpenAI is paying employees more than any major tech startup in history, with average stock-based compensation hitting roughly $1.5 million per worker in 2025. “That is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, before it filed for an initial public offering in 2004,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “The … ⌘ Read more

PhDs Can’t Find Work as Boston’s Biotech Engine Sputters
The Wall Street Journal reports that Boston’s once-booming biotech sector has hit a sharp downturn, leaving newly minted Ph.D.s struggling to find work as venture funding dries up, lab space sits empty, and companies downsize or relocate amid rising costs and policy uncertainty. The Wall Street Journal reports: Boston’s biotech sector, long a vital economic eng … ⌘ Read more

AI Chatbots May Be Linked to Psychosis, Say Doctors
One psychiatrist has already treated 12 patients hospitalized with AI-induced psychosis — and three more in an outpatient clinic, according to the Wall Street Journal. And while AI technology might not introduce the delusion, “the person tells the computer it’s their reality and the computer accepts it as truth and reflects it back,” says Keith Sakata, a psychiatrist at the Uni … ⌘ Read more