At the HumanX conference, everyone was talking about Claude

Anthropic was the star of the show at San Francisco’s AI-centric conference.

Iran’s Bitcoin Tollbooth Validates Coinbase, Google Agentic AI Stack

Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Bitcoin tollbooth is the first nation-state validation of the Coinbase, Google, Visa, and Mastercard Agentic AI payments architecture.

The AI code wars are heating up
The AI code wars are heating up

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the AI coding and vibe-coding booms, follow David Pierce. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Writing code was a killer app for AI […]

Neuro-Symbolic AI Gains Needed Street Cred After Fluky Leak Of Anthropic Claude Code Components

Unintentional leak of internal portions of Anthropic Claude Code has raised renewed debate about neuro-symbolic AI. I explain the controversy. An AI Insider scoop.

How Shadow AI Culture Is Destroying Your Business

Shadow AI isn’t a compliance problem. It’s a cultural exodus. How institutional control over AI, work, and creativity is driving your best people underground.

Sam Altman responds to ‘incendiary’ New Yorker article after attack on his home

The OpenAI CEO’s new blog post responds to both an apparent attack on his home and an in-depth New Yorker profile raising questions about his trustworthiness.

Your article about AI doesn’t need AI art
Your article about AI doesn’t need AI art

The illustration for The New Yorker’s profile of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a jump scare. Altman stands in a blue sweater with a blank expression. Around his head hovers a cluster of disembodied faces – creepy alt-Altmans, their expressions ranging from anger to open-mouthed woe. Some barely look like Altman. One final face rests […]

My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative
My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative

Two weeks ago, I was getting ready to log off work when I got a text message. “Oh wow, I was checking out Mitski. did you know people are saying her Dad was a CIA operative?” Normally, that kind of out-of-the-blue text from a friend wouldn’t faze me. This time, my eyes bugged. The unprompted […]

This Startup Wants To Use AI To Help Digitize History

Advances in nerve regeneration. Tricking AI into believing in a fake disease. Mapping the Moon. All that and more in this week’s edition of The Prototype.

How Iran out-shitposted the White House
How Iran out-shitposted the White House

In the early days of the war on Iran, while the White House was busy posting Call of Duty memes and AI slop of dancing bowling pins, the Iranian regime’s state media was flooding the zone with video after video of what was happening on the ground: Explosions over Tehran. Smoke billowing in the sky. […]