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🦞 CRACKING THE CLAW

A look at OpenClaw's cognitive core, Pi, a coding agent built by systematically removing everything its developer didn't personally need.

SOFTWARE IS DEAD — LONG LIVE SOFTWARE

AI will kill a lot of businesses, but it will ultimately expand the software market, especially in vertical categories.

PICKING ROCKETSHIPS IS A BAD CAREER STRATEGY

Choose companies that will help you grow.

EMPIRICISTS VS. EXTRAPOLATORS

The phenomenon of people repeatedly underestimating the pace of AI progress is an example of exponential blindness.

GEMINI'S LYRIA 3 FOR MUSIC GENERATION

Google announced that the Gemini app integrated Lyria 3, its latest music generation model, enabling users to create 30-second tracks from text or images in beta. The update expanded Gemini's multimodal capabilities into consumer-facing music creation.

WORLD LABS ANNOUNCES NEW FUNDING

World Labs secured $1 billion in funding from investors like AMD, NVIDIA, and Fidelity. They aim to advance spatial intelligence with products like MARBLE, which creates cohesive 3D worlds from images, video, or text.

IMPROVING DEEP AGENTS WITH HARNESS ENGINEERING

LangChain's coding agent went from Top 30 to Top 5 on Terminal Bench 2.0 with just a harness change. This post discusses the team's approach to harness engineering. The goal of a harness is to mold the intelligence of a model for tasks you care about. Self-verification and tracing help a lot.

PROMPT CACHING 201

OpenAI published a detailed guide explaining how prompt caching reuses repeated prompt prefixes to skip prefill compute, reducing latency and input token costs. It outlines cache mechanics, routing considerations, KV reuse, and practical strategies for increasing cache hit rates in production workloads.

ON UNIVERSE, LIFE, AND AI

Ivan Zhao frames AI as the latest “tool of life” after language, markets, and the internet. Humanity uses culture, capital, and computation to impose its values on an indifferent universe, and AI extends this by accelerating idea discovery and coordination. In this view, AI is not separate from life but a continuation of life organizing matter and energy through intelligence.

INTRODUCING EVMBENCH

EVMbench is a benchmark that evaluates the ability of AI agents to detect, patch, and exploit high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities. Smart contracts routinely secure hundreds of billions of dollars in crypto assets. As AI agents improve, it becomes increasingly important to measure their capabilities in economically meaningful environments. This also means using AI systems to defensively audit and strengthen deployed contracts.

GLM-5 TECHNICAL REPORT

GLM-5 technical report outlines the details of the model development, combining DSA-based efficiency improvements with asynchronous reinforcement learning to decouple generation from training.

GOOGLE PROPOSES RANDOM MASKING FOR LLM OPTIMIZATION

Google researchers showed that randomly masking parameter updates can outperform dense adaptive optimizers, with a masked RMSProp variant exceeding recent state-of-the-art methods. Their proposed Magma optimizer uses momentum-aligned gradient masking to improve pre-training efficiency.

CHARLES PORCH JOINS OPENAI AS VP OF GLOBAL CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Charles Porch, a 15-year Meta and Instagram veteran, has joined OpenAI as Vice President of Global Creative Partnerships. Porch previously led major cultural initiatives at Meta, including high-profile onboardings like Pope Francis and digital strategy for Beyoncé. In his new role, he will focus on the intersection of AI and culture, collaborating with global creative communities to develop products for learning, exploration, and entertainment.

AMICAL LAUNCHES OPEN-SOURCE, PRIVACY-FOCUSED AI DICTATION APP

Amical has launched an open-source AI dictation app that offers privacy-focused, on-device speech recognition using models like Whisper. Unique features include context-aware formatting, custom prompts, and local data storage with a cloud fallback option for less capable devices. Available for Mac and Windows, Amical plans to expand to mobile and integrate with broader AI ecosystems.

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EX-DEEPMIND'S DAVID SILVER EYES $1B FUNDRAISE FOR INEFFABLE INTELLIGENCE

David Silver plans to raise $1 billion for Ineffable Intelligence, focusing on reinforcement learning, not incremental LLM updates.

SAUDI ARABIA'S HUMAIN INVESTS $3 BILLION INTO MUSK'S XAI

Saudi Arabia's Humain has invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's xAI, acquiring a significant minority stake that converts to SpaceX shares.

SEMANTIC CLOSURE: WHY COMPILERS KNOW WHEN THEY ARE RIGHT AND LLMS DO NOT

Compilers are deterministic, and large language models are stochastic.

LOOKING INSIDE: A MALICIOUSNESS CLASSIFIER BASED ON THE LLM'S INTERNALS

Before developing or buying a security system for AI agents, consider what it monitors, what it was trained on, and how well it was tested.

STABLECOINS HIT $300BN AND STALLED

Stablecoin supply stalled at $300 billion after October's worst-ever leverage wipeout, as lower crypto trading volumes reduced demand for dollar-pegged liquidity vehicles, and USD weakness made dollar-denominated yields less attractive. Analysts describe market psychology as fear-driven, where good news fails to register, while the US Dollar Index falling 11% since January 2025 aligns with the Trump administration's explicit dollar-weakening export policy, with no near-term reversal expected. Long-term drivers remain intact as tokenization embeds stablecoins into financial infrastructure beyond trading, with BlackRock, JPMorgan, Visa, and NYSE launching stablecoin products targeting institutional settlement, collateral, and gig economy payments as the next growth phase tied to real financial activity rather than crypto market cycles.

ETHZILLA STOCK PLUMMETS AS PETER THIEL EXITS

Peter Thiel and Founders Fund exited their entire 7.5% stake in ETHZilla at the end of 2025, with SEC filings triggering an 8% stock drop as the former biotech firm that raised $425 million in August to pivot to an Ethereum treasury trades 97% below its record high. Only one crypto corporate treasury company outperformed the S&P 500 as of December, as the Strategy-inspired model faced broader headwinds across dozens of publicly traded firms that raised billions to buy cryptocurrencies. ETHZilla is pivoting toward tokenization, acquiring a home loan portfolio for blockchain issuance on an undisclosed L2 and tokenizing two commercial jet engines for $12.2 million as it attempts to differentiate from pure treasury plays.

BRIDGE WINS CONDITIONAL OCC APPROVAL FOR NATIONAL TRUST BANK CHARTER

Bridge has received conditional approval from the OCC to organize a federally chartered national trust bank, which would allow it to offer digital asset custody, stablecoin issuance, orchestration, and reserve management under direct federal oversight once finalized. The charter positions Bridge to operate within a clear US regulatory framework aligned with emerging standards like the GENIUS Act, giving enterprises and financial institutions a compliant path to build stablecoin-powered payments and treasury infrastructure at a nationwide scale.

WEB 4.0: THE BIRTH OF SUPERINTELLIGENT LIFE

A developer claims to have built an autonomous AI system called "The Automaton" capable of earning onchain, self-improving, and replicating without human intervention, framing the concept as Web 4.0. The agents have a wallet and pay for their operating costs – including hosting, LLM inference, and a domain name – via x402. Automatons can spawn new child agents that can do the same, in the first real-time experiment of a fully autonomous, economically independent agent.

THE NAKAMOTO HEIST

David Bailey merged Nakamoto Holdings into public shell KindlyMD in May 2025, raising $710M at $1.12/share while retail investors bought in at $28-31. The stock pumped to 23x NAV before collapsing 99% to $0.29, generating $97M in quarterly losses, including $14.45M in debt extinguishment costs from cycling through three lenders in a single week. Amid the collapse, Bailey exercised a call option embedded in the original merger documents to acquire Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin Conference, and UTXO Management using 363.6M shares priced at $1.12, approximately 4x the current market price, consolidating his entire media, events, and hedge fund operation into the public vehicle at insider-favorable terms. The company now faces Nasdaq delisting risk for failing the $1 minimum bid price threshold with a June 8 deadline, while simultaneously having filed a $5B at-the-market equity offering with the SEC.

100 LEARNINGS FROM FIVE YEARS AS A CRYPTO DEGEN

Virtually all tokens trend toward zero by default, making selectivity the core competency, while bear markets paradoxically generate the most durable projects and protocols. CT functions primarily as an undisclosed promotion engine, and the most actionable alpha concentrates in sub-10K follower accounts and small trusted private group chats rather than prominent influencer feeds. For proper risk management, set exit prices before entering positions, take profits aggressively, maintain cash reserves outside of crypto, and treat mental health as a higher-priority asset than portfolio performance.

ADVERSE SELECTION IS DEFI'S CORE MARKET STRUCTURE PROBLEM

DeFi's biggest structural flaw is adverse selection, where transparent onchain order flow allows informed traders and MEV searchers to extract value, forcing market makers to widen spreads and raising costs for everyone. The post outlines six mitigation strategies: delays, hiding intent, flow segmentation, dynamic pricing, refusing flow, and social coordination. Execution design is the next competitive frontier for DEXs seeking tighter spreads, better UX, and sustainable liquidity.

AAVE-CHAN INITIATIVE CLAIMS $4.6M SPEND DROVE $68M+ IN AAVE REVENUE

Aave-Chan Initiative's (ACI's) transparency report argues that $4.6M paid over three years helped scale Aave protocol revenue from $5.2M to $142M, with two core strategies. The LRT/eMode WETH borrow loop and the Ethena/Pendle integration drove over $68M in annualized revenue, including $37M from WETH alone and $18.5M from Ethena-related assets. The report highlights $101M in incentives deployed (80% partner-funded), major BD wins like the Ethereum Foundation's 30,800 ETH deposit, and 845 governance proposals initiated, while contrasting its $3M annual cost with a newly proposed ~$51M budget request now under DAO review.

HOW ETHEREUM DEVS WILL USE AI TO BOOST BLOCKCHAIN'S DEVELOPMENT

Tomasz Stańczak, Ethereum Foundation co-director, proposes using AI agents to draft proposals, moderate meetings, and manage network upgrades by Q3.

GEMINI STOCK DECREASES AFTER PARTING WITH KEY DIRECTORS MONTHS AFTER IPO

Gemini shares fell 10% following the immediate departure of its COO, CFO, and CLO.

TOKEN LAUNCH TIMING DOESN'T MATTER, SAYS DRAGONFLY'S QURESHI

Dragonfly Capital analyzed 202 Binance-listed tokens, finding no statistically significant performance difference between bull and bear market launches.

ETHEREUM STAKING CONTRACT NOW HOLDS OVER 50% OF ETH SUPPLY

Ethereum's proof-of-stake deposit contract now holds over 80.95 million ETH, representing 50.18% of total supply for the first time in the network's history, marking a major milestone in ETH's transition toward a staking-dominated supply dynamic.

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THE FUTURE OF DESIGN IS CODE AND CANVAS

Figma now lets users send work from Claude Code directly into fully editable Figma layers by installing the Figma MCP and typing a simple command. The company argues that the design canvas is better suited than code editors for exploring multiple possibilities, comparing approaches, and refining details. This new workflow reflects a shift from linear design-to-code processes toward starting anywhere and using Figma as the central hub.

WORDPRESS' NEW AI ASSISTANT WILL LET USERS EDIT THEIR SITES WITH PROMPTS

WordPress launched an opt-in AI assistant integrated into its site editor and media library capable of generating images, editing and translating text, and reorganizing sites. Users can interact with it via a sidebar or by tagging "@ai" in block notes, a feature added in the 6.9 update. The tool must be manually enabled in settings, except for sites built with WordPress's AI website builder.

PIXEL 10A HANDS-ON: FLAT CAMERA BAR DESIGN WOWS

The Pixel 10a refines its minimalist design with a fully flat camera bar, improved durability (Gorilla Glass 7i, recycled aluminum frame, and IP68), and a brighter 6.3-inch OLED display that peaks at 3,000 nits, while keeping the Tensor G4 chip and familiar 48MP camera system. With Android 16, seven years of updates, practical upgrades like satellite SOS, Wi-Fi 6E, a stable modem, and a 5,100mAh battery with faster charging, it focuses on everyday usability and value over headline specs, starting at $499.

CONTEXT IS YOUR CREATIVE LEVERAGE

Providing AI with the right amount of context — not too little, not too much — is key to getting useful outputs. The skill lies in curating a personal library of high-signal material and strategically selecting only what's relevant for each task. Well-curated context becomes reusable creative capital that compounds over time, turning AI from a wild guesser into a well-informed collaborator.

TYPOGRAPHY MIGHT BE THE LAST THING AI CAN'T FAKE

Typography is the backbone of branding, yet most widely available fonts are either blandly interchangeable or too expressive to function across full brand systems, leaving few options that balance personality with practicality. As branding has prioritized efficiency and scalability, much of the emotional distinctiveness that once defined iconic brands has faded, and while custom type offers strong ownability, it's often too costly for many teams. In an AI-driven landscape where visuals are increasingly homogenized, thoughtfully crafted, human-made typography may become one of the clearest signals of authenticity and distinction, helping brands stand out by proving real intention and care.

THE HIDDEN COST OF AI PROTOTYPES THAT ARE MADE TO DIE

AI app-building tools have made creating polished, functional prototypes fast and routine, but many are designed as disposable artifacts that can't easily evolve into production, leading to costly rebuilds and translation work later. Different tools optimize for different “lifespans”—from quick ideation (design-native generators) to platform-bound publishing (visual builders) to more durable, production-ready outputs (full-stack generators)—so teams must choose based on whether a prototype is meant to validate an idea or become a foundation for real product development. Ultimately, the challenge is no longer speed, but continuity: ensuring AI-generated work can extend, integrate, and mature rather than being thrown away after validation.

E-COMMERCE DESIGN INSPIRATION

Browse the best-designed e-commerce websites in one place: filter page type, industry, style, and view on desktop or mobile.

AI PRESENTATION MAKER

Dokie is your AI presentation agent—generate professional slides instantly, customize design styles, refine content effortlessly, and maintain clean layouts with every edit.

BUILD CHATGPT APPS WITHOUT CODE

Chippy is where PMs and designers prototype ChatGPT apps, engineers export production specs, and teams measure what's working.

COMMON DESIGN RED FLAGS FROM YOUR WEBSITE YOU MIGHT BE MISSING

Websites often fail not because of poor aesthetics but due to subtle experience problems that quietly erode engagement and trust. Research shows users judge credibility within milliseconds and abandon slow-loading pages rapidly, making mobile optimization, clear visual hierarchy, and concise value propositions essential for conversion. Addressing these overlooked design red flags through user behavior data, testing, and iterative improvements can unlock meaningful, sustainable growth.

KEEP IT MOVIN': FLUORO®'S DYNAMIC VISUAL IDENTITY FOR SCOTTISH HARD DANCE LABEL DOOF

Hannah Laing's label and event series Doof has teamed up with Fluoro on a dynamic new identity that captures the energy of hard dance while evolving beyond its underground roots. The rebrand introduces a more kinetic, onomatopoeic logotype and a movement-led visual system of pulsing graphics, gritty textures, and after-dark tones, spanning stage visuals, festival posters, and apparel. Rejecting minimal “techno-goth” trends, Doof positions itself as bold, inclusive, and community-driven as it grows within the UK dance scene.

HOW WE REFRESHED THE GERMAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE IDENTITY... 5 TIMES

Since appointing Mutabor in 2010, the DFL has evolved the Bundesliga into a global sports brand through five major refreshes, transforming a glossy 3D logo into a dynamic, motion-first design system rooted in football's energy and culture. Key milestones include the introduction of audio branding, a custom typeface, digital design tools, motion-led systems, and most recently a more tactile, 3D-infused identity that adds emotional depth while keeping the iconic player symbol at its core. Through a long-term hybrid partnership between its in-house team and Mutabor, the Bundesliga has built a flexible, globally scalable brand that reflects both shifting design trends and the league's authentic fan-driven identity.

WHY THE AI CARICATURE TREND MAKES SO MANY CREATIVES UNCOMFORTABLE

The viral AI caricature trend raises serious concerns for creatives because the tools rely on vast visual data, often sourced from real artists without their consent.