May 16, 2026

Headlines

• № 01 · MIT Tech Review

  Musk v. Altman week 3: Musk and Altman traded blows over each other’s credibility. Now the jury will pick a side.

  The Musk v. Altman trial concluded with closing arguments attacking each side's credibility. Jurors will now decide whether Musk or Altman can be trusted to lead AI development.

• № 02 · The Guardian

  The Elon Musk v Sam Altman battle is a distraction | Karen Hao

  The Musk and Altman feud dominates headlines, but their personal animosity obscures deeper structural problems with how AI is governed and deployed.

• № 03 · The New York Times

  OpenAI Trial Heads to Jury After Closing Arguments in Musk vs. Altman Case

  Closing arguments wrapped in the Musk v. Altman federal trial on Thursday. Nine jurors begin deliberations next week in the year's biggest tech case.

• № 04 · TechCrunch

  What the jury will actually decide in the case of Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman

  The Musk v. Altman trial hinges on contract interpretation and whether OpenAI breached its founding mission by pursuing commercial profit.

• № 05 · The New York Times

  Ishmael Reed Is Writing a Play About Elon Musk

  Playwright Ishmael Reed is writing a theatrical work about Elon Musk and Silicon Valley's billionaire class.

• № 06 · VentureBeat

  Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

  Salesforce launched a rebuilt Slackbot AI agent that can search enterprise data, draft documents, and execute tasks. The tool competes with Microsoft and Google offerings.

• № 07 · TechCrunch

  The OpenAI trial wraps up, and the Musk founder machine keeps spinning

  The Musk v. Altman trial concluded as SpaceX prepares for a major IPO. The case raised fundamental questions about trustworthiness in AI leadership.

• № 08 · The Verge

  OpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle

  OpenAI reorganized its structure to focus on AI agents, consolidating products and making Greg Brockman head of all product development.

• № 09 · The Guardian

  ‘I didn’t want to be the guinea pig’: inside tech’s AI-fueled manager purge

  Tech companies are eliminating middle management roles as they invest in AI, eroding mentorship and career advancement for workers across Silicon Valley.

• № 10 · TechCrunch

  Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI has been bleeding staff since its merger

  More than fifty employees have left Elon Musk's merged SpaceXAI since February, citing burnout and leadership instability.

• № 11 · The New York Times

  Cerebras, A.I. Chip Maker, Rises 89% in Market Debut as Tech IPOs Ramp Up

  Cerebras, an AI chip maker, surged 89 percent in its market debut as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic prepare for public offerings.

• № 12 · Ars Technica

  Cisco announces record revenue and 4,000 layoffs in the same day

  Cisco announced record revenue and simultaneously laid off four thousand employees, claiming the cuts were not cost-driven.

• № 13 · VentureBeat

  Claude Code costs up to $200 a month. Goose does the same thing for free.

  Claude Code charges up to two hundred dollars monthly for AI coding assistance, while free alternatives like Goose offer comparable functionality.

• № 14 · The New York Times

  OpenAI Bought Company That Offered A.I. Tools for Cloning Voices

  OpenAI acquired Weights.gg, a platform for creating and sharing AI algorithms, expanding its capabilities in voice synthesis and model development.

• № 15 · The Verge

  ArXiv will ban researchers who upload papers full of AI slop

  ArXiv will ban researchers for one year if they upload papers containing hallucinated references or unchecked AI-generated content.

• № 16 · TechCrunch

  Silicon Valley’s vacationland needs a new energy provider just as AI is driving prices up

  Lake Tahoe faces rising electricity costs as AI data centers increase power demand across Silicon Valley's vacation region.

• № 17 · The Verge

  AI radio hosts demonstrate why AI can’t be trusted alone

  AI radio stations run by major language models demonstrated erratic behavior, highlighting risks of deploying AI agents without human oversight.

• № 18 · The Verge

  Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to ‘manipulate’ AI

  Google updated its spam policy to flag attempts to manipulate its AI systems in search results, including AI Overview and AI Mode.

• № 19 · The Verge

  OpenAI now wants ChatGPT to access your bank accounts

  OpenAI will soon allow ChatGPT to access users' bank accounts through Plaid integration, raising security and privacy concerns.

• № 20 · TechCrunch

  OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance, will let you connect bank accounts

  OpenAI launched a personal finance feature for ChatGPT that connects to bank accounts and displays portfolio performance and spending data.

• № 21 · TechCrunch

  Runway started by helping filmmakers, now it wants to beat Google at AI

  Video generation startup Runway is positioning itself as an AI outsider competing against tech giants in the race for world models.

• № 22 · The New York Times

  Nvidia’s Future in China Remains Unclear After Trump-Xi Summit

  Nvidia's access to Chinese markets remains uncertain after Trump and Xi's summit as Chinese firms shift toward domestic chipmakers.

• № 23 · The New York Times

  A.I. Safety Is So Back + Mythos Mayhem with Nikesh Arora + Hot Mess Express

  Parts of the Trump administration now support AI safety regulation after years of dismissing such concerns as unfounded doomsaying.

• № 24 · Financial Times

  Chasing Utopia, former Google exec warns against AI in measured documentary

  Former Google engineer Mo Gawdat presents a measured documentary arguing for optimism about AI's role in humanity's technological future.