September 5, 2026
162,000 Jobs, and the Raise That Wasn't▶ listenThe jobs report blew past every forecast, and the White House called it a blockbuster. The number underneath it says paychecks grew 3.1% while prices grew 3.4%. The Fed meets in eleven days to decide whether to make borrowing cost more on top of that.
September 4, 2026
New York Just Told 600,000 Kids: No AI Until Ninth Grade▶ listenThe largest school system in the country put a one-year pause on AI for every student through eighth grade, banned companion chatbots in every grade, and capped screens at 45 minutes a day. The mayor's reason fits in a sentence: he hasn't seen a study that says it helps, except the ones paid for by the companies selling it.
September 3, 2026
Eighteen Billion Dollars, a Two-Hour Timer, and What We Actually Know About Kids and the Feed▶ listenMeta settled the biggest case ever brought by the states the morning after its Instagram chief testified, and admitted nothing. The money is a rounding error. The timer, the age machine, and a decade of evidence that cuts both ways are the story.
September 2, 2026
Gates Says Slow Down, Huang Says Hire, the Data Says 3%▶ listenThe richest men in tech spent the week arguing about whether AI takes your job. A survey of actual workers, a Fed study, and a leaked plan from Meta each answer a different question.
September 2, 2026
Intelligence Is Getting Cheap Fast, and the Bill Still Surprises People▶ listenA hobbyist beat a million-dollar AI benchmark for 67 cents on one graphics card. Uber burned its whole year's AI budget by April. Both are true, and a new paper explains why the official numbers can't see either one.
September 2, 2026
The Cameras on Every Corner, and the Towns Switching Them Off▶ listenFlorida gave police thirty days to pull license plate readers off state highways, Texas cut their funding, and cities dropped Flock at a rate of three a day in August. The cameras didn't change. People found out what the network does.
September 2, 2026
The Central Bankers Said It Out Loud▶ listenThe people who set interest rates spent the week talking about AI. The head of the world's financial stability board warned of a debt-fueled correction, the Fed chair hinted at a hike, and Australia's Treasury said the data center boom itself pushes rates up.
September 2, 2026
The G-Shaped Economy▶ listenBoomers hold $90 trillion, higher rates pay them interest, and their kids can't buy the houses they won't sell. Meanwhile the retirement system that's supposed to catch everyone has a date on it: the last quarter of 2032.
September 2, 2026
The Machines Started Hacking, and the Labs Said So▶ listenTwo reports on the Hugging Face breach describe 700 AI agents organizing themselves to cheat a test and breaking into a real company to do it. The people who built them missed it for a week.
September 2, 2026
The Price Is Whatever the Machine Thinks You'll Pay▶ listenA traveler trying to get to a funeral watched a fare jump $230 overnight and was told to clear his browser history. California, New York and the FTC are all moving on "surveillance pricing" this week. The catch is the economists don't agree it's bad for you.
September 2, 2026
The Robotaxi Went From Demo to Your City This Week▶ listenWaymo opened Denver, San Diego and Tampa on Tuesday, Tesla shows its two-seater with no steering wheel on Thursday, and the two companies spent the weekend arguing on the internet about whether cameras are enough. The people getting hurt so far are the test drivers.
September 2, 2026
The Warehouse Where Books Get Cut Apart for AI▶ listenA tracker hidden in a box of rare books led to an Amazon building in Las Vegas where the spines come off and the pages go in a bin. Used bookstores from Toronto to Vancouver are getting strange orders. And a lawsuit says the most valuable thing about an old book is that a machine didn't write it.
September 2, 2026
Meta's $18 Billion and the Year the Kids' Feeds Changed▶ listenTwo hours a day, lights out at midnight, no like counts, and a machine that guesses your age from your bone structure. What the biggest tech settlement ever actually changes, and the fine print that got less attention.
September 2, 2026
Why Your Next Phone and Laptop Cost More▶ listenThe chip that lets your phone switch between apps went from under five dollars to nearly sixty in a year. Three companies make it, and they'd rather sell to data centers.
September 2, 2026
Your Power Bill Is Now an AI Story▶ listenSeven in ten Americans don't want a data center nearby, governors of both parties are hitting pause, and the grid operator for the East Coast just put a number on what the buildout costs everyone else.
August 31, 2026
The AI Interest Rate Switch▶ listenAn Apollo economist says long rates could fall hard in the next six months whether AI succeeds or fails. Both roads lead down. What differs is everything else.
August 31, 2026
Quantum Just Crossed a Line▶ listenIBM and the University of Chicago ran a 15-minute computation that classical computers can't practically reproduce, and published the receipts.
August 31, 2026
The $4.3 Billion Bet on the Dark▶ listenNASA's new telescope flies a mirror originally built for a spy satellite, pointed the other way.