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ASKED TO DO SOMETHING ILLEGAL AT WORK? HERE'S WHAT THESE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS DID

Nishad Singh had confirmation that something illegal was happening at FTX, but he stayed, and now he is facing up to 75 years in jail. A senior engineering member at Pollen is now at the mercy of the UK police with what could be a potential wire fraud case after being asked to run a script that double-charged customers (and then doing so). The Director of Engineering at Frank, a student loan startup, flat out refused to create a fake set of data to pump up customer numbers. Their refusal is what makes them the only example on this list that is totally legally safe.

WHERE IT'S AT://

All servers speaking the AT protocol are part of 'the atmosphere', a web of hyperlinked JSON. Each piece of JSON in the atmosphere has its own at://URI. This post looks at the exact process of resolving an at:// URI. The AT protocol is fundamentally an abstraction over HTTP, DNS, and JSON. It turns the web into a place where content belongs to its creators, not to the apps that display it, by putting users in an authority position, separating identity from hosting, and making data portable.

IN A SEA OF TECH TALENT, COMPANIES CAN'T FIND THE WORKERS THEY WANT

Many tech companies are saying that good help is hard to find. While there is an ample supply of eager and capable engineers for hire, employers say there aren't enough people with the most in-demand skills. Companies are looking for AI-specific experience, but relatively few people have it because the technology is so new. Companies should focus on identifying candidates with transferable skills and let those people learn on the job.

META TIGHTENS GRIP ON AI RESEARCH, SPARKING INTERNAL ANGER AND FEARS FOR OPEN CULTURE

Meta has added a new review process for academic papers, sparking internal anger. Yann LeCun, a Turing Award winner and a pivotal figure in modern AI, reportedly considered resigning over the change. The new policy is aimed at aligning pure research more closely with Meta's product road map. It will also help mitigate potential reputational risks from controversial findings. The constant state of reorganization raises critical questions about whether Meta is able to turn its recently acquired assets into a dominant force.

ALPHABET PLANS SALE, SPINOFF OF VERILY UNIT, EXECUTIVE SAYS

Verily, a sister company to Google, develops software and services to help health practitioners advance research and improve patient care.

NINE HTTP EDGE CASES EVERY API DEVELOPER SHOULD UNDERSTAND

Most security vulnerabilities come from unnecessary custom code that reimplements what frameworks already do correctly.

OPENAI WRAPS $6.6 BILLION SHARE SALE AT $500 BILLION VALUATION

The share sale allowed current and former employees to sell stock.

ANTI-AGING BREAKTHROUGH: STEM CELLS REVERSE SIGNS OF AGING IN MONKEYS

Senescence-resistant stem cells, which exhibit greater resistance to age-related stress, are a promising solution when it comes to combating degenerative aging.

PATIENTS ARE DIAGNOSING THEMSELVES WITH HOME TESTS, DEVICES, AND CHATBOTS

Patient are now shouldering responsibility for diagnosing their own symptoms, tracking their own medical data, and ordering their own lab tests.

AI IS RESHAPING CHILDHOOD IN CHINA

AI tools, from robot toys to homework-grading systems, are flooding classrooms and households in China, providing learning materials along with companionship and emotional support.

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APPLE SHELVES VISION HEADSET REVAMP TO PRIORITIZE META-LIKE AI GLASSES

Apple will forego its planned overhaul of its Vision Pro headset to redirect resources towards developing smart glasses that can rival products from Meta. The company had been preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its headset for release in 2027. Smart glasses have emerged as a critical arena for tech companies. Future designs could eventually challenge smartphones as a must-have technology, and Apple wants to be ready.

AMAZON LAUNCHES ‘PRICE-CONSCIOUS' GROCERY BRAND WITH MOST PRODUCTS UNDER $5

Amazon Grocery is a new brand aimed at 'price-conscious' shoppers. Most of the products in the store's more than 1,000 items will be priced under $5. The new offering unites Amazon's Happy Belly and Amazon Fresh brands under one label. Amazon last month expanded same-day delivery of fresh foods to more pockets of the US.

MEET THE ARC SPACECRAFT: IT AIMS TO DELIVER CARGO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD IN AN HOUR

Inversion's Arc spacecraft is designed to deliver as much as 500 pounds almost anywhere in the world, almost instantaneously. The company envisions pre-positioning Arcs in orbit and having them stay up for up to five years, autonomously going and landing wherever and whenever they're needed. Inversion is aiming to launch the first Arc vehicle by the end of next year. The company has already built a full-scale manufacturing development unit of the primary structure for the first Arc vehicle.

THIS WINDOWLESS PLANE IS VYING TO BE THE PRIVATE JET OF THE FUTURE

Otto Aerospace has a new business jet with no traditional passenger windows. Flexjet has signed a contract to buy 300 of the Phantom 3500 aircraft. The aircraft seats nine passengers in a tear-drop-shaped cabin lined with digital panes that display a virtual view of the outdoors. The plane's design helps cut fuel burn by 60% compared with other jets of similar size. The aircraft is still in development, with its first flight targeted for 2027.

👉 WATCH LIVE: MARK YOUR CALENDARS

DECODING NETFLIX'S AV1 STREAMS: HERE ARE 10 THINGS I FOUND

AV1 is not just another spec sheet with theoretical gains. It delivers on its promises with staggering results in real-world streams. The format is smarter in quiet moments and more composed during action scenes, and its efficiency advantage often accelerates the harder it is pushed. It is now just a matter of time before AV1 dominates streaming.

DEVELOPMENT GETS BETTER WITH AGE

Older developers aren't worried about the barrage of new model announcements and feature releases - they've seen it before. AI might be new tech, but it follows the same patterns. While many people are experiencing a fear of missing out on AI, the older developer knows this is the time to press the pause button. It is important to have in-depth conversations with stakeholders to understand the problems to solve. Sometimes, the solution will be generative AI.

INDIVIDUALS MATTER

Organizations like to move people around projects every few months to help teams understand what other teams are doing, but this rarely works. Roadmaps maintain the fiction that people are interchangeable, but everyone knows this isn't true. An effective team is difficult to create due to the institutional knowledge that exists on a team, as well as the team's culture - but destroying a team is very easy. Many people in senior management roles seem to think they can redirect people as easily as in a video game, assigning workers to switch from one task to another, but often, these moves won't work out.

ALL ATOM VIRTUAL CELL

An AI virtual cell that can re-create and simulate the behavior of molecules, cells, and tissues across diverse states would require an enormous amount of data to train, and it still might not be very predictive. Many groups have been trying to make predictive models of cell morphology and gene expression under chemical perturbation for years, but while the models are good, they haven't fundamentally changed how biology is done. A simulation of an entire human cell, atom by atom, running for 24 hours with molecular dynamics would take an estimated 2 x 10^38 FLOPs and 200 TW of electricity. It may be possible for humans to create one in 2074.

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MICROSOFT LAUNCHES AI AND PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE BUNDLE FOR CONSUMERS

Microsoft 365 Premium offers artificial intelligence capabilities, access to core productivity applications, and cloud storage for $19.99 per month.

ALS APPEARS TO BE AN AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may be caused by inflammatory immune cells mistakenly targeting concern proteins that are part of the nervous system.

T-MOBILE'S SATELLITE SERVICE NOW WORKS WITH POPULAR APPS

The apps will offer tailored, critical content instead of data-heavy experiences.

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MUSK BECOMES FIRST PERSON TO HIT $500 BILLION NET WORTH, FORBES LIST SHOWS

Elon Musk's fortunes are closely tied to Tesla, whose stock has risen more than 14% so far this year.

YC, TAKE TWO

Rafael Garcia was a first-time founder in Y Combinator's S12 batch in 2012 - thirteen years later, he's back with a new startup called Kernel.

DECENTRALIZING QUALITY

The future belongs to those who can decentralize their mindset and approach to quality.

OPENAI ANNOUNCES SORA 2 AND AN AI VIDEO AND AUDIO APP THAT ALLOWS FOR USER ‘CAMEOS'

OpenAI's Sora 2 has upgraded photorealistic video capabilities. It allows users to generate cameos of themselves and others in videos - this feature will require users to make a one-time video and audio recording of themselves to verify their identity. The company has launched a new Sora app, which has a social platform for users to share, remix, and discover AI-generated videos. The social platform will have an algorithmic feed that displays videos tailored to users' interests based on who they interact with and the topics they might engage with.

EVERYTHING ANNOUNCED AT AMAZON'S FALL HARDWARE EVENT

Amazon's fall hardware event featured updates to the Echo, Kindle, Fire TV, Ring, Blink, and Alexa+. This article covers everything announced at the event along with photos and videos of the products in action. All of the new devices will support Alexa+ out of the box. The updated assistant is able to hook into all manner of devices and services. New abilities will be available soon through the Alexa+ store.

DOORDASH UNVEILS DOT, ITS AUTONOMOUS ROBOT BUILT TO DELIVER YOUR FOOD

DoorDash's Dot is a small robot that can autonomously drive on roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks to deliver food and small packages. It can move at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour and carry up to 30 pounds. DoorDash is testing the robot with early access partners in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. It plans to make the robots available to the region by the end of the year.

SCIENTISTS MAKE EMBRYOS FROM HUMAN SKIN DNA FOR FIRST TIME

Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University have created early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells, then fertilizing them with sperm. The technology could overcome infertility due to old age or disease. It could even allow same-sex couples to have a genetically related child. The technique still needs significant refinement before a fertility clinic could even consider using it, which could take a decade.

EXAMPLES ARE THE BEST DOCUMENTATION

Technical documentation is mostly aimed at people deeply immersed in the ecosystem. However, many developers have to juggle a lot of 'worlds' in their heads daily. It takes a lot of mental energy to restore context and understand what is going on when jumping between projects, languages, and frameworks. Examples are great because a lot of developers look at docs simply because they need to quickly find out how to do something. Tutorials are often helpful, not because of the walkthrough, but because they contain examples.

APPLE'S FOUNDATION MODELS FRAMEWORK UNLOCKS NEW APP EXPERIENCES POWERED BY APPLE INTELLIGENCE

Apple's Foundations Models framework allows developers to create new intelligent features that are available offline while protecting user privacy, all using AI inference that is free of cost. It is tightly integrated with Swift, making it easy for developers to send requests. The framework is available with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, and works on any Apple Intelligence-compatible device. This article looks at some of the apps that have leveraged the framework to create new experiences.

TOP AI RESEARCHERS LEAVE OPENAI, GOOGLE, AND META FOR NEW START-UP

Rishabh Agarwal and more than 20 other researchers have left their work at Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and other big AI projects to join Periodic Labs, a new Silicon Valley startup. Many of them have given up tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions, to make the move. Periodic aims to build AI technology that can accelerate new scientific discoveries in areas like physics and chemistry. The startup has secured over $300 million in seed funding. It has started its work at a research lab in San Francisco, but it plans to build its own lab in Menlo Park.

AMAZON IS OVERHAULING ITS DEVICES TO TAKE ON APPLE IN THE AI ERA

Amazon's hardware division has long been seen as a loss leader. The company makes its profits from subscriptions and purchases made through the Alexa voice assistant. Some product lines are now profitable, and others are heading in that direction. The company's recently revamped devices have higher prices, and they're much better products. For the company to become a true leader in devices, it will need breakthroughs that go beyond its current lineup.

STRIPE'S BRIDGE SEEKS FEDERAL CHARTER AHEAD OF STABLECOIN RULES

Bridge also intends to apply for a New York State trust charter.

M5 CHIP LEAK REVEALS APPLE HAS BIG GAINS COMING IN KEY AREA

The M5 chip could offer substantial GPU upgrades over M4, giving Apple the ability to apply neural processing across applications that are traditionally more graphics-based.

SPOTIFY FOUNDER DANIEL EK LEAVING CEO JOB

Spotify's co-presidents, Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, will become co-CEOs on January 1.

ORGANIZE YOUR SLACK CHANNELS BY “HOW OFTEN”, NOT “WHAT”

Sorting by 'how often' lets you read your most urgent messages first and focus your energy on what matters most.

ELON MUSK PLANS TO TAKE ON WIKIPEDIA WITH 'GROKIPEDIA'

Elon Musk claims that xAI's Grokipedia will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia, which he has previously accused of being 'woke', even calling for it to be defunded.

THE FIRST EVER AT-HOME CORTISOL TEST JUST LAUNCHED. AND YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO DRAW BLOOD

Eli Health's Hormometer lets users track cortisol levels with just saliva and a phone.

Schedule a demo to learn more