Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

How Democrats reorganized their State of the Union resistance

When President Donald Trump addressed Congress a year ago, the Democrats seemed to be, as the meme would have it, “in disarray.” They were lambasted for their disorganized responses to Trump — remember those little ping-pong paddles?  But things were different this time. The opposition party seemed to be more in array than they’ve been […]

Insurance brokerage Harper, which uses AI to automate submission routing and follow-up, raised $46.8M in combined Series A and seed led by Emergence Capital (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch)

Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch:
Insurance brokerage Harper, which uses AI to automate submission routing and follow-up, raised $46.8M in combined Series A and seed led by Emergence Capital  —  Dakotah Rice is stepping back into the founder's seat.  On Wednesday, he announced that his new company, the AI-native insurance brokerage Harper …

Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’

Over the past several weeks, as more and more Anthropic executives do interviews on a publicity blitz for Claude, one thing has gotten increasingly clear: Anthropic sure seems to think Claude is alive in some way, shape, or form. "Alive" is obviously a loaded term; the more frequently used word is "conscious." If you ask […]

Arc Raiders player spots a UFO, and it's absolutely massive

One Arc Raiders player has spotted a colossal flying ship on Spaceport, and fans think it's a sign of things to come.

Alibaba Cloud releases a cheap AI coding tool built on open-source models like Alibaba's Qwen 3.5, as well as Zhipu, Moonshot, and MiniMax models (Saritha Rai/Bloomberg)

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Alibaba Cloud releases a cheap AI coding tool built on open-source models like Alibaba's Qwen 3.5, as well as Zhipu, Moonshot, and MiniMax models  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce player that has become a leader in artificial intelligence, is stepping up a push …