Search the archive

Get access to the full library, free →

CHATGPT ATLAS

OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser that integrates ChatGPT into the browsing experience. Atlas includes a sidecar chatbot panel with contextual awareness of what's on screen and tracks browsing history to personalize responses.

ANTHROPIC, GOOGLE IN TALKS ON MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR CLOUD DEAL

Anthropic is in early-stage talks with Google about a deal that would provide it with additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of dollars. The plan involves Google providing cloud computing services to Anthropic, giving Anthropic access to Google's tensor processing units, chips custom-designed to accelerate machine learning workloads. Google is a previous investor in and a cloud provider for Anthropic.

BLACKROCK AMONG BIGGEST INVESTORS IN META'S GIANT DATA-CENTER DEBT DEAL

Meta and private-credit firm Blue Owl raised $27 billion to finance the buildout of a data center in Louisiana. BlackRock was one of the biggest investors in the deal. It purchased more than $3 billion in bonds last week to finance the deal. The project is 80% owned by Blue Owl, with Meta owning the remaining stake. The deal is the largest private-debt offering so far.

ON DWARKESH PATEL'S PODCAST WITH ANDREJ KARPATHY

THE CONTINUAL LEARNING PROBLEM

Memory layers are a natural architecture for models that are always training and continually learning from experience over time. Finetuning memory layers enables learning without forgetting much more effectively than LoRA. Continual learning and memory is still a huge and rich space to explore. We are only just starting to reach the point where we can imagine what it might look like to have models that learn online in the real world.

MINI MODELS BATTLE: CLAUDE HAIKU 4.5 VS GLM-4.6 VS GPT-5 MINI

Claude Haiku 4.5, GLM-4.6, and GPT-5 Mini all fall within a similar price bracket. They are mid-tier models optimized for cost and speed rather than maximum capability. GPT-5 Mini delivers the strongest concurrency safeguards, Haiku 4.5 is the fastest with the most features, and GLM-4.6 produces multi-file architecture but requires disabling reasoning mode for tool calls. Each model makes different trade-offs.

GOOGLE REVAMPS AI STUDIO WITH NEW FEATURES FOR VIBE CODING

Google has revamped its user experience for AI Studio. The update, targeted at developers, startups, and non-coders interested in rapid AI prototyping, helps users build AI-powered applications with less friction from prompt to production. Apps can be easily deployed to Google Cloud Run via a single click. An animated preview of the new interface is available in the article.

BOLT - HOW MURA WROTE AN IN-HOUSE LLM EVAL FRAMEWORK

BOLT is an evaluation system built by Mura. It has become critical infrastructure for how the company ships improvements, migrates between models, and maintains accuracy as it grows. Mura is a seed-stage startup that helps commercial HVAC providers get paid faster without hiring more back-office staff. It turns messy inputs into structured data using AI and orchestration, and then presents suggestions for users to approve. This article talks about how Mura built BOLT.

THE NOT-SO BITTER LESSON

Maybe AGI will take over everything, but we're clearly not there yet and probably won't be anytime soon. Software engineers still have a lot of time before they become obsolete. Right now, developers should focus on building scalable systems that leverage search and compute, build harnesses instead of solutions, and define problems instead of hard-coding solutions.

OPENAI HAS AN ARMY OF EX-INVESTMENT BANKERS MAKING FINANCIAL MODELS TO TRAIN CHATGPT

OpenAI has hired over 100 former investment bankers to help teach OpenAI's models. They are getting paid $150 an hour to do the grueling work of junior bankers, including tweaking PowerPoint slides and billing financial models in Excel. This shows that OpenAI is looking for opportunities in the business world. The company's consumer subscriptions currently account for 70% of its $13 billion annual recurring revenue.

AIRBNB CEO SAYS CHATGPT ISN'T READY

Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky, said that he didn't integrate Airbnb's travel app with OpenAI's ChatGPT because ChatGPT's connective tools aren't quite ready yet. Airbnb will monitor the development of ChatGPT's app integrations and may consider adding them in the future. Chesky, who is close friends with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said he advised OpenAI on its new capability for third-party developers to make their apps available within ChatGPT. Airbnb on Tuesday announced new AI tools to let customers take more actions without the need for a live representative. The company's AI customer service agent now displays action buttons and links that can help people complete reservation changes and cancellations.

Subscribe now.

YOUTUBE ROLLED OUT AI LIKENESS PROTECTION (8 MINUTE VIDEO)

YouTube has launched its likeness-detection technology for eligible creators in the Partner Program, allowing them to request the removal of AI-generated content that uses their face or voice.

GOOGLE SKILLS OFFERS PRACTICAL AI LEARNING PATHS

US CHIP PLANT INVESTMENT TO OUTPACE CHINA, TAIWAN, AND SOUTH KOREA FROM 2027

US semiconductor investment will surpass China, Taiwan, and South Korea by 2027 due to rising AI demand and government localization efforts.

COINBASE BUYS ECHO FOR $375M TO EXPAND ONCHAIN FUNDRAISING

Coinbase has acquired Echo, the Cobie-founded onchain fundraising platform, for $375 million, marking its biggest push yet into community-driven and tokenized fundraising. Echo has powered over $200 million across 300 deals, letting startups raise capital directly from users through private rounds or public token sales via its Sonar product. The platform will remain independent but integrate with Coinbase to offer founders streamlined capital tools and investors access to early-stage deals. Coinbase also plans to extend Echo's infrastructure to support tokenized securities and real-world assets.

TETHER REACHES 500M USERS AS SUPPLY NEARS $182B

USDT has passed 500 million users, and now has a total supply of nearly $182 billion, more than double Circle's $75B USDC. Tether is also reportedly seeking to raise $20 billion at a $500B valuation, which would place it among the world's most valuable private companies, ahead of its planned USAT stablecoin launch for US users later this year.

SIMD-0266: EFFICIENT TOKEN PROGRAM

Solana's SIMD-0266 proposal introduces p-token, a complete reimplementation of the SPL Token program that reduces compute unit usage by up to 98% through zero heap allocations, zero-copy data access, and full backward compatibility, without any client code changes. The Token program currently consumes approximately 10% of block compute units, with p-token cutting this to a fraction and freeing nearly 12% of block space for other transactions to directly increase Solana's effective throughput. Performance improvements range from 98.4% reduction for Transfer/TransferChecked instructions consuming only 76-105 CU versus 4,645-6,200 CU currently. The upgrade has completed extensive testing, including existing SPL Token test fixtures, Firedancer fuzzing with millions of mainnet instruction replays, and three security audits from Neodyme and Zellic.

THE FED JUST OPENED THE DOOR TO CRYPTO

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller declared that crypto and distributed ledgers are now “woven into the fabric” of US finance, signaling a major policy shift toward embracing digital assets. The central bank is entering “a new era” where DeFi innovators are welcome to shape the future of payments instead of being sidelined. Waller proposed a “skinny master account”, a limited-access payment account for fintechs and crypto firms that would connect directly to Fed payment rails without full banking privileges. The move reflects the Fed's broader retreat from anti-crypto stances and could open the door for regulated blockchain-native payment systems to plug directly into US monetary infrastructure.

HYPERLIQUID: STABLECOIN WARS

Hyperliquid's stablecoin supply has shifted from collateralized debt positions like feUSD to LayerZero-bridged USDT0 to Circle's native USDC and now toward Hyperliquid-aligned stablecoins. USDH reached $25 million market cap in its first week after the September 22 launch, but has since declined to $20.9 million. The Aligned Stablecoin framework proposes 20% lower taker fees, 50% higher maker rebates, and 20% more volume contribution toward fee tiers for stablecoins that stake 1 million HYPE, share at least 50% offchain yield with Hyperliquid, maintain fiat backing, and focus exclusively on growth without competing interests. USDH's growth path includes short-term HyperEVM DeFi adoption competing with USDT0, medium-term acceptance as collateral across HIP-3 exchanges like trade.xyz, and long-term potential to challenge USDC's $4.81 billion HyperCore collateral monopoly.

NATION-STATE MALWARE HIDING ON BLOCKCHAINS

Google Threat Intelligence Group has observed a North Korean threat actor using EtherHiding to deliver malware and backdoors for cryptocurrency theft, marking the first nation-state adoption of this technique that stores malicious JavaScript payloads in blockchain smart contracts to create a decentralized, resilient command-and-control infrastructure. EtherHiding leverages blockchain immutability and read-only functions to fetch payloads without creating traceable transactions or paying gas fees, making conventional takedowns impossible while allowing attackers to update malware by simply modifying smart contracts. The attack chain targets developers through fake job interviews where victims download malicious npm packages containing downloaders that query blockchain smart contracts for second-stage payloads, ultimately deploying backdoors for remote system control and credential stealers targeting cryptocurrency wallets, like MetaMask and Phantom, along with browser passwords and password managers.

HOW SYNTHETIX, RONIN, AND CELO SAW THE LIGHT

Synthetix is returning to the Ethereum mainnet to tap enormous liquidity that never migrated to L2s despite years of expansion across Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and SNAXchain. 86% of Aave's revenue is still generated on L1, demonstrating whales' preference for the mainnet's security over L2 bridge risks. Ronin is becoming an Optimism Superchain L2 in early 2026 to save $35 million in annual staking rewards while supporting 100 games for 350,000 daily active addresses. The move cuts security costs 99.8% while redirecting validator emissions toward developer incentives and high-value users.

PRIVACY AS THE NEXT SCALING FACTOR FOR CRYPTO

Crypto collapsed the natural observability gradient that historically made privacy the default state by driving observation costs to zero through globally visible, verifiable, and permanent blockchain records, creating unprecedented conditions where markets operate under perfect permanent observation that causes participants to act for audiences rather than themselves and over-correlate around shared signals. This flattening of the multi-dimensional economy into a shared feed eliminates behavioral diversity critical for system scaling as actors coordinate around what is seen instead of what is desired, demonstrating Goodhart's Law and reflexivity at scale when every participant responds to identical information. Zero-knowledge proofs and trusted execution environments enable programmable observability where visibility becomes a design variable rather than default condition, allowing actors to choose what to reveal and when similar to how SSL scaled the web by restoring communication privacy.

THE POLITICS OF “ETHEREUM ALIGNMENT”

Projects that create independent value or accrue utility to their own tokens are often branded as competitors, while ETH-centric ventures, like restaking protocols with minimal user impact, are praised as “aligned.”

TOP NEOBANKS RANKED

Self-custodial and low-fee platforms like Gnosis Pay, Ether.fi, UR Global, and THORWallet are S-tier, while centralized or outdated options like Crypto.com and Bybit fall to D-tier.

AAVE DOMINATES ETHEREUM LENDING WITH $25B IN LOANS

Aave has cemented its dominance in Ethereum's lending market, now holding 82% of all outstanding debt, about $25 billion in active loans from roughly 1,000 daily borrowers.

SHARPLINK BOOSTS ETHEREUM TREASURY TO $3.5B

SharpLink Gaming added 19,271 ETH worth $75 million to its balance sheet, bringing total holdings to 859,853 ETH (~$3.5 billion) and staking rewards to 5,671 ETH since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy in June.

ADOBE LAUNCHES A FOUNDRY SERVICE THAT BUILDS CUSTOM GENERATIVE AI MODELS FOR ENTERPRISES

The Adobe AI Foundry is a service that enables enterprises to build custom generative AI models trained on their own branding and intellectual property to create text, images, video, and 3D content. The models are built on Adobe's Firefly family, which uses only licensed training data and is priced based on usage rather than per seat. The service helps brands scale personalized advertising campaigns across different seasons, languages, and formats while keeping humans at the center of creativity.

GOOGLE PLAY STORE ADOPTS MATERIAL 3 EXPRESSIVE DESIGN FOR ENHANCED UX

Google's Play Store is implementing Material 3 Expressive design, introducing bolder colors, fluid animations, and adaptive layouts to create more intuitive and engaging app discovery experiences. The redesign extends across Android's ecosystem, including the Phone app and Wear OS, with phased rollouts planned alongside future Pixel launches to gather user feedback. This strategic shift aims to enhance user retention and discoverability in a competitive marketplace, responding to rivals like Samsung's One UI 7 while offering developers new personalization tools.

IOS 26.1 BETA 4 ADDS NEW SETTING TO TONE DOWN LIQUID GLASS TRANSPARENCY

Apple's new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 introduced a transparent, fluid look across devices. In response to user feedback, iOS 26.1 beta 4 now adds a “Tinted” option to make Liquid Glass more opaque and contrasted. It is available under Display & Brightness (iPhone/iPad) or Appearance (Mac), and applies system-wide, including third-party apps.

THE END OF THE USER INTERFACE? HOW AI AGENTS ARE REWRITING UX

AI agents are transforming user experience by enabling task delegation through natural language rather than traditional screen-based interactions, shifting design focus from pixel-perfect interfaces to trust, transparency, and conversational systems. This evolution is powered by generative AI, large language models, and hyperpersonalization that allow agents to understand intent, automate complex workflows, and adapt to individual users autonomously. UX professionals must now develop new skills in agent design, dialogue modeling, and ethical AI practices as interfaces become ambient and intelligence-based rather than visual.

AI STARTUPS RISK FORGETTING THE ‘U' IN UX

Enterprise AI faces a 95% pilot failure rate essentially because startups prioritize technological capability over user experience, creating powerful but unusable tools that don't integrate into existing workflows. Definely's co-founders discovered that solving enterprise problems in legacy industries requires embedding real users with lived experience into product teams, ensuring technology serves established workflows rather than disrupting them. The AI companies that will survive the coming disillusionment focus on transparent, user-centric solutions requiring minimal behavioral change, not those with the most advanced models.

THE WRITING IS THE DESIGN

UX writing is integral to design because words shape how users experience products. The Usable, Useful, Responsible framework promotes clear, respectful, and ethical language. Writers should align with strategy, use AI thoughtfully with empathy and clarity, and craft error messages that prevent, explain, and resolve issues.

DESIGN BETTER WITH BEAUTIFUL ICONS

Explore the world's most complete icon library, featuring 40,000+ icons, 9 unique styles, and 59 categories. It is perfect for UI/UX designers, developers, and creators.

INCLUSIVE DESIGN PRINCIPLES

These Inclusive Design Principles are about putting people first. They're about designing for the needs of people with permanent, temporary, situational, or changing disabilities — all of us, really.

THE PRODUCT DESIGN AGENT

Paraflow is an AI product design agent that turns ideas into well-defined specs. It allows you to create PRD, user flow, UI, prototype, and frontend code all in one canvas.

WHY DESIGN CRAFT STILL MATTERS IN A WORLD OF AUTOMATION

AI tools can quickly generate design elements but lack the human judgment needed to create meaningful brand identities for nonprofits. True design craft involves deep listening, cultural understanding, and strategic decision-making that machines cannot replicate, transforming organizational values into trusted visual identities. While AI can accelerate exploration, public-facing brand work requires trained designers to ensure consistency, authenticity, and lasting impact over generic, homogenized aesthetics.

DISPLAAY RETHINKS LICENSING WITH ITS NEW WEBSITE AND SERRIF TYPEFACE

Prague-based foundry Displaay has revamped its platform with faster-loading variable fonts, a simplified licensing model based on company size, and new tools like a free Editor for font customization and a Tester for seamless experimentation. Alongside the update, the foundry introduced Serrif, a neutral, highly legible serif designed to harmonize with its sans serif Saans, offering 42 weights and three variable axes to give designers a practical, balanced pairing for everyday use.

AIRBNB IS BECOMING MORE SOCIAL BY ALLOWING USERS TO CONNECT WITH FELLOW TRAVELERS

Airbnb's latest update focuses on helping travelers connect and improving discovery. Users booking Experiences can now see and message fellow participants, manage privacy settings, and view new Connections on their profiles. The update also introduces smarter search that suggests listings just outside your filters, an upgraded map showing nearby attractions, and an expanded AI assistant with multilingual support across the US, Mexico, and Canada.

APPLE AND DESIGN MIAMI CELEBRATE THE NEW GUARD OF CREATIVITY WITH THE INAUGURAL DESIGNERS OF TOMORROW

Apple and Design Miami launched their inaugural Designers of Tomorrow initiative at Design Miami Paris, showcasing four emerging designers whose creative processes are powered by iPad Pro with M5.

TOP UX CONFERENCES TO ATTEND IN 2026

Thirteen major UX and HCI conferences are scheduled for 2026, spanning January through September across Europe, North America, and Asia.

IKEA'S ADORABLE MINI BEDS ARE THE PERFECT SOLUTION TO LATE NIGHT DOOMSCROLLING

Ikea UAE has launched The Phone Sleep Collection, a playful wellness campaign encouraging people to “put their phones to bed” in mini Ikea-style beds equipped with NFC tags to track sleep.

BUILD YOUR OWN DATABASE

This article goes over how to build a key-value database from scratch. It starts with a simple file-based approach for storing data, but explains its inefficiency for updates and deletes. It then introduces append-only files, compaction strategies to manage file size, and indexing to improve search performance. Finally, it explains how these techniques combine to form a Log-Structured Merge Tree (LSM Tree), used in many real-world key-value databases.

HOW IDEALIST.ORG REPLACED A $3,000/MO HEROKU BILL WITH A $55/MO SERVER

Idealist reduced its Heroku costs by switching its staging environments to a single, cheaper server. By sharing a single Postgres instance across multiple isolated staging environments, it avoided Heroku's per-environment pricing model and expensive add-ons.

MEASURING ENGINEERING PRODUCTIVITY

This is a system for measuring engineering productivity effectively, with an emphasis on visibility and context over strict numerical evaluation. Solid productivity happens by starting small, being explicit with expectations, and being open to feedback to ensure the system serves as a tool for improvement rather than a weapon for punishment.

YOU CANNOT OUTSOURCE UNDERSTANDING

Businesses often try to eliminate developers, believing they can achieve software benefits without them, but this approach consistently fails. The core issue is that software development isn't just about production, it's about understanding and adapting to complex business needs, which cannot be outsourced, automated, or abstracted away.