2 Do we really want AI agents smoothing out all friction in our lives?
They promise convenience, but right now they’re mostly introducing chaos. (The Atlantic $)
+ Here’s what it’s like to outsource your life to them. (Vox $)
+ Websites are starting to close their doors to AI agents. (The Verge $)
+ AI agents bring new headaches for online sellers. (WSJ $)

3 How drones have transformed the front line in Ukraine
They’ve effectively created a “kill zone”, and it’s growing wider and deadlier. (NYT $)
+ Trump has denied ordering Starlink restrictions in Ukraine. (CNBC)

4 China is considering restricting overseas access to its AI models 
It’s also looking at curbing the sharing of chip designs, among other measures. (Bloomberg $)
+ Why western open weight models still can’t compete with Chinese ones. (Rest of World)
+ Why Trumpworld still can’t agree on how to respond to Chinese AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 HTC’s smart glasses are way more private than Meta’s
Guess that’s a benefit of not being shackled to a massive social media platform. (Wired $)
+ A bug caused Meta’s glasses to record conversations without the wearer knowing. (Ars Technica)
+ Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Inside one man’s quest to build California’s biggest AI data center
Sebastian Rucci didn’t bank on meeting huge resistance from local residents. (The Guardian)
+ Americans are packing town halls to stop data centers, and it’s working. (Quartz $)
+ No wonder companies are exploring putting them in space. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Somebody vibe-coded a gun for the first time
And it seems like it works (sometimes.) (The Verge $)

8 AI might reshape how we grieve
It’s never been easier to create realistic AI chatbots of people who’ve passed. (Vox $)
+ Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming business in China. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 Japan is about to launch a mission to Mars’ largest moon
If all goes well, it should help us to understand how it formed. (New Scientist $)

10 Amateurs are cracking long-secret codes and ciphers 🕵️
One of the more fun uses for large language models! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first term. Now they kiss my ass.”

—President Trump brags about how much Big Tech bends the knee to him during a rally in Kentucky this weekend, the Verge reports.

One More Thing

SIMON MITCHELL

There are more AI health tools than ever—but how well do they work?

In the last few months alone, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have all launched medical chatbots.