10 Sunday Reads
The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month : Brown Brothers Media is the biggest media company you’ve never heard of — powered by AI, fake writers, and plagiarism. When we started asking questions, it started deleting massive amounts of content. Futurism on the operation claiming 50 million page views a month — started by a man who warned writers to be “scared right now” about AI. ( Futurism )
• Medical AI has a proof problem : The technology’s advances have not yet translated into big improvements in real-life care. Sarah Neville on the sepsis-alert algorithm that scanned patient records every 15 minutes — and the young doctor whose first AI encounter was pure frustration. ( Financial Times ) see also The AI Bubble Fault Line May Run Through SoftBank’s Balance Sheet : And How Athene Quietly Bet 50% of its Surplus on Softbank’s OpenAI stake. Rod Dubitsky opens with Masayoshi Son writing Jack Ma a $20 million check six minutes into their first meeting — and asks where the leverage sits this time. And How Athene Quietly Bet 50% of its Surplus on Softbank’s OpenAI stake. ( Rod’s Substack )
• Making pensions corrupt again : the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made a quiet announcement: the commission, which oversees Wall Street, is proposing to rescind a 16-year-old rule enacted to prevent “pay-to-play” schemes involving investment advisers and pension funds for public employees. Noel Sims on the SEC’s quiet proposal to rescind the 16-year-old pay-to-play rule protecting public-employee pension funds. ( Popular Information )
• Chatbots made the internet worse : this might be a rant. proceed with caution. Sean Monahan on the downstream effect of chatbot adoption — the total destruction of Google. ( 8Ball )
• They hacked a TikTok user’s camera, with help from free AI : Powerful artificial intelligence software that is given away free is making cybercrime easier to carry out. Gerrit De Vynck on how this plays out. ( Washington Post )
• Iran Blockade Costs Are Draining America’s Global Military Power. As US President Donald Trump tries to force Iran into submission, a naval blockade is proving to be his tool of choice. But the operation is testing the limits of the American military, exhausting personnel and weakening Washington’s position elsewhere in the world. ( Bloomberg free )
• A New Startup Lets You Freeze Your Eggs For Free. But Is Anything Ever Free? : Precision-targeted Instagram ads that found a 24-year-old conservatory-trained viola player. Maia Hibbett on Cofertility manages the costs of egg freezing and storage, in exchange for half the batch. One young client became suspicious of the arrangement—and started to investigate. ( Wired )
• Trump’s Minnesota Surge Threatened Democracy, Judge Warns : Mattathias Schwartz on Judge Patrick Schiltz — a former Scalia clerk with no appetite for standoffs — and the nearly 100 court orders ICE violated. In a rare interview, Patrick Schiltz, who served as the federal court’s chief judge last winter, called the administration’s actions “a grave threat to the rule of law.” ( New York Times )
• The Kennedy Center is empty and in peril. Its community is in anguish . The fiasco of this week’s closure reveals the truth of President Donald Trump’s motivations — and what the arts community stands to lose. ( Washington Post )
• The Sydney Sweeney advert and what it says about the marketing of women in sport : It is an advert that sells sports betting and uses female sexualised content to appeal to men. The Athletic on the Novig prediction-market ad — never about women’s sport, just a woman’s body selling sports betting to men. The sports gambling advert featuring actress Sydney Sweeney was never about women’s sport. ( The Athletic ).
Video of the day : AAAA
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Glen Kacher , founder and CIO of Light Street Capital . He launched the firm in Palo Alto after stints working with Julian Roberts at Tiger and Roger McNamee at Integral. His Mercury funds returned 45.7% in 2023, 59.4% in 2024, and 37.3% in 2025 — the best three-year stretch of any of the “Tiger Cubs.” He describes the firm as “the Silicon Valley Home Team, 100% focused on tech opportunities.”
Changes over past year, in dollars per barrel (42 gallons)
Source: Paul Krugman
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