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Thursday · June 25, 2026 · Issue No. 906
Mark to Market – OpenAI builds a chip. Buyers buy cheaper
Daily Briefing · Jun 25, 2026

Mark to Market – OpenAI builds a chip. Buyers buy cheaper

A company spending $100 million on AI just told the world the frontier model is 23 times too expensive and the free one does the job. We said the model was never the moat; the market just settled the trade. Stop renting capability you can't deploy before it goes free own the judgment to know the work is right.

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Memento
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Memento

Google's AI out-doctored the doctors this week, and we still wouldn't let it touch us because the thing we actually trust about a doctor isn't the diploma, it's a memory we can punish. The machine wakes up a stranger every morning and bears no cost for being wrong. Stop checking the diploma. Find out who remembers, and who pays.

Central Casting
Briefing

Central Casting

A Tokyo lab built an AI whose only job is to hire the other AIs and it outscores every one it manages. When the model is a rental, the power moves to whoever runs the casting desk. Stop standardizing on a model; own the layer that decides which one gets the part.

The Keeper of the Culture
Briefing

The Keeper of the Culture

The market spent the week in a billion-dollar bidding war for the people who build AI — on the very day the machine came for them. The moat was never the name on the jersey. It's the uncredited hand that makes the team mesh. Stop signing free agents; find who keeps the house.

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
Briefing

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Midjourney built a body scanner that's half real breakthrough, half science-fiction sales pitch, and telling the two apart is the only skill that matters now. The cynic can't. The hype man won't. Be amazed and stay skeptical; they're the same muscle

Which Job Gets Its 1000X Next
Essay

Which Job Gets Its 1000X Next

Somewhere out there is a developer shipping in a week what used to eat a team for a...

Treebeard Is Waking Up To AI
Essay

Treebeard Is Waking Up To AI

There is a particular kind of person you learn to distrust in business: the one who urges everyone...

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