Samsung's chip division is projected to earn more in 2026 than it made across its previous 40 years in semiconductors, driven by soaring AI-fueled demand for memory and storage. The company's latest quarterly operating profit reportedly topped Nvidia's, making Samsung the [1]world's most profitable tech company for the period . Tom's Hardware reports:

> Brokerage consensus puts Samsung's full-year 2026 operating profit near 300 trillion won ($196 billion), and its second-quarter figure at about 84.6 trillion won ($55.1 billion). Samsung easily beat the consensus with $58.5 billion when it posted preliminary results on July 7, overtaking Nvidia's most recent quarterly operating profit of $53.54 billion and becoming the most profitable technology company in the world for the period, on the back of AI-driven memory demand.

>

> Samsung's DS division booked 53.7 trillion won ($35.1 billion) of the company's 57.2 trillion won in total operating profit during the first quarter of 2026, roughly 94% of the total, which is why the division's projection sits so close to Samsung's full-year consensus. "This year's profit will exceed the cumulative profit generated over the past 40 years since we entered the semiconductor business," Kim Yong-Kwan told staff, scoping the claim to the chip business rather than the wider conglomerate.

Further reading: [2]Samsung Chip Workers To Get $340,000 Average Bonus In AI Boom



[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/samsungs-chip-division-expects-to-out-earn-its-entire-40-year-history-in-2026

[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/05/22/060223/samsung-chip-workers-to-get-340000-average-bonus-in-ai-boom

The FCC [1]plans to roll back broadband label rules that require ISPs to itemize all passthrough fees. Under the proposal, providers could instead list a single "up to" amount for location-based charges. It would also allow ISPs to link to pricing labels rather than display them prominently, while eliminating machine-readable pricing files. Ars Technica reports:

> ISPs routinely advertise prices much lower than those actually charged to consumers on their monthly bills. One method of raising monthly bill prices above advertised rates is to tack on fees that, ISPs claim, are used to offset charges imposed by local governments. ISPs would be well within their rights to advertise accurate monthly prices and charge those exact prices on monthly bills. But because ISPs rarely do that, the FCC has required them to make specific price disclosures to consumers for the past decade. The Biden-era FCC updated the broadband-label rules to require that ISPs " [2]itemize on the label (PDF) all discretionary monthly fees that the provider passes through to the consumer." The change drew protest from Comcast and other ISPs that complained bitterly about the complexity of listing all the hidden fees they had chosen to charge.

>

> Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the Trump FCC has steadily whittled away at requirements imposed under Democrats. An [3]order (PDF) released in draft form last week would eliminate the requirement to itemize passthrough fees and let ISPs list them in a single "up to" amount. The "up to" amount can include both government fees and fees charged by non-government entities such as owners of utility poles. "Rather than continuing to require providers to itemize 'passthrough fees' that can vary by location, we allow providers to display such fees in the aggregate, either as a maximum or 'up to' amount for the total fees applicable in any location where the service plan is offered, or as the exact total of such fees assessed in a particular location," the FCC draft order said.

>

> The order to be voted on later this month includes a few other changes that will please ISPs and their lobby groups. ISPs will be allowed to provide links to price labels instead of displaying the full labels prominently on ordering pages and account portals, and will be allowed to stop making the price-label information available in machine-readable spreadsheets. The FCC is also relaxing the requirement that price information be available over the phone. The FCC said the change will "allow phone sales representatives to present label information conversationally, as a summary of key label fields, rather than require verbatim recitation."

>

> The changes have been in the works since October 2025, when the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to let the public submit comments on the proposals. The outcome of that process is the draft order, which will be voted on at the FCC's July 22 meeting and take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. There are many types of passthrough fees that ISPs will be able to stop listing individually and roll into the "up to" amount. The FCC defined the fees as follows, saying they include just about anything that isn't a tax [...]. Another planned change will eliminate a requirement that providers archive all labels for at least two years after a service plan is no longer available. The Utility Reform Network, an advocacy group, [4]told the FCC that the archived labels provide crucial data about how prices and services change over time, and that machine-readable labels are important for affordability research and information accessibility.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/fcc-to-end-biden-era-rule-that-forces-isps-to-list-all-their-fees/

[2] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-68A1.pdf

[3] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-422742A1.pdf

[4] https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10116037230686/1

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:

> Chinese startup DeepSeek is [1]developing its own AI chip , according to three people familiar with the matter, a push that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips, which it has depended on to train and run its globally popular models. The chip is designed for inference -- the stage of AI computing in which a trained model generates responses for users -- rather than for training new models, the sources said. If successful, DeepSeek's expansion into semiconductor development would mark a major strategic shift for a company widely hailed in China as the country's AI champion, potentially adding to challenges faced by Chinese tech giant Huawei.



[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/exclusive-chinas-deepseek-developing-own-103437335.html

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, and other major banks have reportedly explored acquiring Fiserv's debit-card networks, STAR and Accel, in a move that [1]could help them bypass federal caps on debit-card transaction fees . A law limits the fees big banks can charge merchants, but only if the transactions are routed through an outside network. There are no caps on these interchange fees over a bank-owned network, however. The Wall Street Journal reports:

> When Capital One Financial bought Discover Financial in a $50.6 billion deal, it got a network that cut out the need for a middleman in card transactions and allowed it to deal more directly with merchants. Now, big banks are looking on with envy because owning a network can mean exemption from a federal law that caps debit-card fees. Those fees collectively amount to billions of dollars each year across the industry, but banks have long complained the government-defined cap limits their ability to offer customers debit-card rewards and other services. Some have been exploring a small deal that could upend the rules, though they are worried about political backlash if they try.

>

> Big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and PNC Financial Services Group have in recent months held preliminary and tentative discussions about a deal to acquire a network owned by the financial-technology company Fiserv, according to people familiar with the matter. There is no certainty a deal will happen. Several of the banks that looked at the Fiserv network have already decided it would be unlikely for them to move forward, some of the people said. Some have privately expressed concern that such a deal could prompt backlash from lawmakers, regulators and merchants, the people added.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/jpmorgan-bank-of-america-and-other-banks-explore-a-deal-to-shake-up-payments-world/ar-AA27ltkp

A criminal complaint against alleged Scattered Spider member Peter Stokes revealed that Microsoft [1]can associate Windows activity with a persistent "Global Device ID ," which investigators used to link his PC to online activity connected to a hack. While unique device IDs are common, the case has raised privacy concerns because the identifier can apparently persist across updates, has no simple opt-out, and may allow Microsoft to connect a Windows installation to activity on third-party services. PCMag reports:

> Last week, the U.S. announced it had [2]extradited 19-year-old Peter Stokes from Europe for allegedly being a member of the notorious hacking group Scattered Spider. But the case stands out because Microsoft played a key role in linking Stokes to the suspected hacking crimes, according to an unsealed criminal complaint. Stokes allegedly hacked an unnamed luxury jewelry retailer in May 2025 while using a VPN. The [3]39-page criminal complaint shows the FBI used Microsoft records to discover that his IP address was associated with a Microsoft device identifier known as Global Device ID (GDID).

>

> "According to a Microsoft representative, a Global Device Identifier in the Windows ecosystem is a persistent, device-level identifier designed to uniquely identify an installation of a Windows operating system on a device, either a physical device (e.g., a mobile phone or laptop) or virtual machine, across certain Microsoft services and scenarios," the complaint explains. The global device ID isn't exactly surprising, given that it's standard practice to assign a unique ID to each account or device so a tech provider can recognize and distinguish between them. But the complaint reveals Microsoft can associate the GDID with third-party services and the timing as well, giving Redmond a way to theoretically track a user's online activity. In other words, Redmond might be able to track the online activity of your Windows PC without third-party browser cookies.

>

> Stokes was discovered exploiting a web development tool called ngrok to bypass the jewelry retailer's network defenses. The complaint says Microsoft had records showing that on May 12, 2025, at 19:21 UTC, the GDID associated with Stokes' computer "accessed, among other ngrok pages, 'https://dashboard[.]ngrok.com/signup,' the ngrok page to set up an ngrok account." The document adds that Microsoft records also showed the GDID accessing "multiple sites" from servers at Tzulo, a web hosting provider, to help pull off the hack. Hence, the fact that federal investigators used the Microsoft identifier to nab a suspected hacker is raising concerns that it could be abused for other surveillance purposes. "Microsoft Windows is surveillance software," cybersecurity expert Matthew Hickey alleged in [4]a tweet .



[1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-hackers-arrest-reveals-microsoft-can-track-users-via-a-windows-device

[2] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/alleged-member-criminal-cyber-hacking-group-scattered-spider-arrested-finland-and-extradited

[3] https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/media/1450651/dl?inline

[4] https://x.com/hackerfantastic/status/2073840052187123931

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:

> These may be the last days of [1]Amazon's Mechanical Turk . An announcement on the [2]Mechanical Turk website says that on July 30, 2026, the crowdsourcing service [3]will close to new customers . Amazon Web Services [4]says the decision was made after "careful consideration," adding, "Existing customers can continue to use the service as normal. AWS continues to invest in security and availability improvements for Mechanical Turk, but we do not plan to introduce new features." In other words, Amazon isn't completely pulling the plug, but the service is very much on life support.

Further reading: [5]Horror Stories From Inside Amazon's Mechanical Turk (2020)



[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/11/04/1336240/amazons-mechanical-turk

[2] https://www.mturk.com/

[3] https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/05/amazon-will-stop-accepting-new-customers-for-mechanical-turk/

[4] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/latest/dg/sms-workforce-management-public.html

[5] https://slashdot.org/story/20/01/29/169210/horror-stories-from-inside-amazons-mechanical-turk

A [1]new study suggests multilingualism may slow brain aging, with bilingual people showing brains that appear about six years younger than monolingual speakers and people who speak four languages [2]showing brains that appear up to 13 years younger . Researchers say earlier language learning and higher proficiency appear to strengthen the effect. The Guardian reports:

> Our brains are made up of billions of nerve cells that communicate with one another. But as we get older, the connectivity in our brains often deteriorates, causing memory and speed of thought to decline. While previous research had observed that people from European countries with greater language proficiency tended to age more slowly, this study measured the impact of speaking languages on individual brains. Scientists in Spain, Chile, Argentina and Dublin compared people living in the Basque region -- characterized by high levels of multilingualism -- who spoke Spanish, Basque, French and/or English.

>

> To measure neurological age, the scientists used magnetoencephalography to measure the brain activity of 728 people with varying ages and levels of linguistic ability. They then used AI to process the results to calculate a normal level of brain connectivity at any given age. A second unrelated group of 144 people were then scanned and compared, comprising equal numbers of people speaking one, two, three or four languages.

>

> Dr Lucia Amoruso, from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastian, said: "In simple terms, people who spoke more languages tended to have brains that looked younger than expected for their chronological age. The effect was not only related to the number of languages spoken. Higher language proficiency and earlier acquisition of a second language were also associated with more delayed brain ageing. This suggests that multilingual experience matters as a gradient: it is not simply about being bilingual or not, but about the depth and duration of language experience."



[1] https://fens2026.abstractserver.com/program/#/details/presentations/5474

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jul/06/learning-another-language-appears-to-slow-brain-ageing-scientists-say

CISA is reportedly using Anthropic's Mythos model to [1]scan government code repositories for security vulnerabilities , with sources saying the audits have already found numerous bugs. Reuters reports:

> The scanning is being done by CISA's Attack Surface Evaluation team, according to one of the sources. The team is a group within CISA that conducts digital security assessments and hacking exercises across government. Two of the sources said the audits had already uncovered a large number of vulnerabilities but did not elaborate. Reuters could not establish exactly how much government code the team had gone through or the nature or severity of the bugs it discovered.

>

> [...] The National Security Agency, the U.S. government's powerful eavesdropping agency, has been using Mythos as far back as April despite the blacklist, Axios has reported. Late last month, the New York Times said that NSA analysts had been testing Mythos in classified settings and coming away impressed with its capabilities. But when Anthropic rolled out a public version of Mythos called Fable, which included what it described as cybersecurity safeguards, the White House suddenly demanded that it ban foreigners from running it. This triggered a global shutdown of the model that was lifted only last week.



[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/exclusive-us-cyber-agency-using-200953358.html

GitHub is [1]offering a limited run of 1,000 CD-ROM copies of public repositories as a pro-physical-media jab at Sony's plan to [2]stop producing PlayStation game discs in 2028. Tom's Hardware reports:

> The coding and collaboration platform, owned by Microsoft, [3]states that "In light of recent developments in physical media, GitHub is proud to announce that you can now obtain your public repo on CD-ROM." Moreover, it appeals to the human side of computing, adding the emotive line "Keep it. Lend it to friends. Pass it on to your children." It isn't April 1st, so thankfully this is no joke. However, if you check out the above-linked GitHub Your Code, On a CD offer page, it quickly becomes clear this is a very limited in time/scope stunt.

>

> "Order a burned CD of your own public GitHub repo. Yes, a real physical disc you can hold in your hands, no download required," begins the spiel. But this is a very limited run of 1,000 discs, with applications required between July 2 and July 6 (inclusive). Limit one per person, with availability varying between country/region.

>

> "Your code is physically yours, forever. Until you lose it, let's be real," says GitHub. At best, these CDs will be framed and put on a wall, some becoming collector's items or eBay money spinners (discs like 0001 or 0888 would be good ones, if they are numbered). Also, many will be lost or eventually/accidentally discarded, as GitHub seems to know. So this 'protest' is arguably 1,000 doses of expensively shipped e-waste.



[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/github-thumbs-nose-at-sonys-controversial-end-to-physical-media-with-its-introduction-of-repo-cds-offers-limited-run-of-1-000-cd-rom-copies-of-public-github-repos-for-preservation

[2] https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/07/01/1734219/sony-playstation-will-stop-releasing-games-on-discs-in-2028

[3] https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476?

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:

> The number of students admitted to Ph.D. programs this fall [1]dropped 15 percent from the previous year , according to data from over 50 top research universities, raising fears that the nation's capacity to produce new science could be diminished. The decline is driven, in part, by a chaotic and unpredictable federal funding environment under the Trump administration, as federal cuts are promised and then reversed, and budgets remain unclear.

>

> A reduction in doctoral students could mean fewer scholars at universities to teach and mentor undergraduates. Higher education leaders also worry that, if the declines continue, there will be fewer researchers to power a rapidly evolving scientific work force. The data showing the decrease comes from 55 universities, all of them members of the Association of American Universities, an invitation-only organization that includes 69 of the most prestigious research institutions in the United States. The data collection was conducted by another group, the Association of American Universities Data Exchange.

>

> Schools in A.A.U. confer half of the nation's research doctorates, according to the association. "We are at risk of losing a whole generation of new talent because of the reduction in the capacity to support those students," said Toby Smith, a senior vice president at the A.A.U. University leaders and research advocates cite many reasons for the declines in new doctoral students. Key federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, have been [2]funding fewer research grants . The wealthiest institutions also face a new federal tax on their endowments.

>

> But the most cited reason in interviews was the unreliable nature of federal funding under the Trump administration. The administration proposed major cuts to federal research agencies last year, but Congress restored the funding. It is again proposing big cuts. While Congress may again reverse the administration's proposed reductions, the uncertainty makes it hard for schools to make multiyear commitments to doctoral students. The administration also abruptly ended thousands of research grants last year, arguing that they did not align with the government's priorities. The administration restored many of the grants after judges deemed the eliminations illegal and arbitrary, but research advocates say the whiplash was damaging.



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/us/research-universities-fewer-phds-science.html

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/02/upshot/trump-science-funding-cuts.html

[1]locater16 shares a report from IEEE Spectrum:

> One morning in 2019, Adebayo Alonge was in a Cape Town hotel room, preparing to demonstrate his startup's AI answer to a serious problem in African health care: counterfeit medication, which kills thousands of people across the continent every year. The [2]RxScanner is a handheld spectrometer that scans a pill with infrared light, then [3]sends the item's molecular profile to an AI model equipped with a pharmaceutical database . In seconds, the AI identifies the medication from its molecular profile -- or reports that it's phony.

>

> Pharmacies were using the system in more than a dozen countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Myanmar, and Alonge's native Nigeria. But that morning in South Africa, it didn't work. "I was shocked," Alonge says... So Alonge immediately asked his engineers to shrink the AI model down to a smaller, low-power, unconnected version that could run entirely on his Android phone. They produced it 2 hours later, and that saved the demo. More importantly, the work birthed a new version of his device, which can authenticate a pill in places without broadband, computers, or even reliable electricity. It also turned Alonge into an advocate for this kind of "small AI."

"The article goes on to detail other immediately useful 'small' AI applications without any subscription or billion dollar data centers needed," writes locator16. For example, Bala Murugan and colleagues at Vellore Institute of Technology in India developed a drone-based system that photographs cashew plants and identifies disease-indicating splotches on the plants. The key advantage is that all processing happens on the drone itself, so farmers do not need a computer, broadband connection, or cloud server access.

In a Uruguayan vineyard, researchers developed small-AI systems to identify ant infestations. The article doesn't go deep into the deployment details, but it presents this as another example of a narrow, localized model trained to recognize a specific agricultural threat. Small AI has also been used to detect the presence of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in multiple countries. This is especially useful in regions where public-health teams may lack reliable network access or expensive lab infrastructure, but still need fast, local detection.

In parts of Brazil without access to more complex medical equipment, researchers have used small AI to run electrocardiograms from an Arduino device. The article also describes Marcelo Jose Rovai's work on a TinyML model that generates electrocardiograms in a patient simulator lab. Rovai also describes a newer experiment using an Arduino UNO Q with a Qualcomm chipset. The device runs a language model locally, collects sensor data, and analyzes it to detect tiny pools of water where mosquitoes might breed -- while using only about 3 watts of power.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~locater16

[2] https://rxall.net/rxscanner/

[3] https://spectrum.ieee.org/small-language-models-ai-pharmaceuticals

The Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce a law [1]requiring app stores to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent before minors can download apps. Tech industry groups argue the law broadly restricts young people's access to digital speech, but the court let a 5th Circuit order stand without explanation or noted dissents. CNN notes that the Supreme Court's decision "doesn't resolve the case but rather will allow Texas to enforce the law while the litigation continues to play out." From the report:

> "A minor child who downloads a software application from an app store agrees to contractual terms of service, including whether the child's location will be tracked, whether the child's privacy will be protected, whether information from the child's phone can be sold by the developer, and whether the child waives the right to sue," Texas told the Supreme Court in urging the court to allow its law to take effect.

>

> But the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group whose members include Apple and Google, said the law would effectively bar young people from accessing a wide range of content, "be it a book by Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling, a Taylor Swift album, or a subscription to National Geographic." Allowing the law to take effect, the group said, would have "profound consequences for the protection of digital speech."

>

> [...] In the new case, involving Texas' age verification for apps, a federal district court blocked the law's enforcement [2]in December -- days before it was set to take effect. But a three-judge panel of the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals put that decision on hold in early June, allowing the state to enforce it. By declining to take up the emergency appeal from the computer and student groups, the Supreme Court has left the 5th Circuit's decision in place.



[1] https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/06/politics/supreme-court-allows-texas-to-require-age-verification-for-mobile-apps

[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/12/23/2235204/judge-blocks-texas-app-store-age-verification-law

SK Hynix is launching a Nasdaq listing [1]expected to raise about $28 billion , giving US investors easier access to one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI memory-chip boom. Reuters reports:

> The company will sell 17.79 million new shares in the depository receipt listing on the Nasdaq. Ten ADRs will represent one common share and the stock will be sold in a price range that is due to be revealed on Monday, based on SK Hynix's Seoul trading price. SK Hynix's share price was down 4% at 2,327,000 won each on Monday, but the stock is up about 273% this year, as it rides surging global investor demand for AI stocks. Korea's KOSPI was down 2.2% on Monday. [...]

>

> SK Hynix has been among the world's largest beneficiaries of the AI boom as it outperformed its major rivals Samsung and Micron. "This is more than a liquidity event," said Dave Mazza, the chief executive officer of Roundhill Investments in New York, which manages an exchange-traded fund tracking DRAM manufacturers, which is one of the most popular ways for U.S. investors to trade SK Hynix's stock. "SK Hynix has been one of the most important companies in the world that most U.S. institutions could not easily own." "The listing removes an accessibility discount, not a quality discount."

>

> [...] SK Hynix said the proceeds from the listing of the American Depositary Receipts will be used to build chip factories in South Korea and buy chipmaking equipment including an extreme ultraviolet scanner made by Dutch equipment maker ASML. The final price of the New York listing is due to be set on Thursday, ahead of the stock starting trade on Friday, regulatory filings showed. The company's management will meet global investors on a roadshow this week. The deal is expected to be the second-biggest share sale after a record $85.7 billion initial public offering by SpaceX last month, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion IPO in 2019 and Alibaba's similar-sized offering in 2014.



[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/south-koreas-sk-hynix-launch-001753121.html

The long-running SCO/IBM Unix and Linux ownership dispute [1]has resurfaced yet again , this time through SCO successor Xinuos, which is trying to pursue old license and copyright claims tied to Project Monterey. "The core issue seems to be whether Xinuos even has the right to litigate the matter, or if some ancient legalese in the original agreements means the window for legal argument has long since expired," reports The Register. From the report:

> [T]he roots of the case are the 1998 alliance between IBM and a company called the Santa Cruz Operation which sold a version of UNIX for x86 CPUs. Those two companies, plus Intel and Sequent, created "Project Monterey" -- an effort to create a unified version of UNIX that could run on multiple processors. By 2001, Project Monterey was close to delivering a unified UNIX, an achievement made possible by blending code from IBM and SCO.

>

> By then, a little project called "Linux" already ran on multiple processors. Big Blue decided Linux was the future and bailed from Project Monterey -- then allegedly contributed some Monterey code to the open-source project and to its own AIX and Z operating systems. SCO felt it owned some of that code, so sued IBM.

>

> SCO and its successors struggled to survive, but interested parties kept the lawsuit alive because the chance to emerge as owner of parts of the Linux codebase, and IBM's code, had the potential to turn into a colossal payday. The case and its successors ended in 2021, with a settlement that saw litigants agree to end the matter without IBM admitting fault. But by then, SCO had sold its software to a biz called Xinuos that decided to fight on.

>

> The Xinuos case has burbled along quietly since, and on June 22nd reached the milestone of [2]a hearing . The matter has become a little more modern, if only because this hearing was held online and the presiding judge appeared to unwittingly be on mute at one point. But the arguments otherwise seemed to revisit Project Monterey, debated the relevance of past litigation, contested who owned what, when they owned it, and how they could prove it. Xinuos argued IBM never had a license for SCO code. Big Blue argued that it did nothing wrong.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/07/06/zombie-who-owns-unix-lawsuit-comes-alive-again/5266761

[2] https://www.courtlistener.com/audio/105538/xinuos-inc-v-international-business-machines-corporation/?

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> Anthropic quickly removed a tracker [1]secretly monitoring Claude Code users in China after a security researcher [2]exposed the hidden code and condemned the spyware-like tracking as a "serious breach of user trust." Last week, a web developer known as "Thereallo" was researching privacy issues in Claude Code and was [3]shocked to find that the AI firm was using "prompt steganography" to hide code that tracks Chinese users "in plain sight." This code wasn't malicious, but it was sending information to Anthropic that most users wouldn't detect, relying on shorthand markers to quietly flag users' timezone, proxy, and potential connection to Chinese AI labs that Anthropic has [4]accused of distillation attacks .

>

> On X, Anthropic engineer Thariq Shihipar confirmed that the tracker was added to Claude Code as an "experiment" in March. According to Shihipar, the code "was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation." Regarding the former, [5]The Washington Post found unauthorized retailers have sold access to free models for $1 a month, and pro subscriptions that can cost $100 monthly sell for "as little as $12." Supposedly, Anthropic has "actually been meaning to take this down for a while," Shihipar said of the hidden code, because engineers have "landed stronger mitigations since then."

>

> Privacy advocates were not happy with the explanation, though, warning that the code is evidence that Anthropic is willing to cross lines to surveil users. That's perhaps especially surprising, considering that Anthropic riled the Trump administration by refusing to allow the US government to use Claude to surveil US users. The AI firm has since sued the White House over the clash. The Post suggested that the tracker incident is a sign that US firms like Anthropic are taking "increasingly aggressive measures" to block Chinese AI firms from copying their models. A more defensive stance has apparently become critical. In the past year, Chinese firms have "consistently matched" US firms' model capabilities "within months," the Post reported. Most recently, "a new, free AI model from Chinese company Zhipu AI was better at finding computer vulnerabilities than Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 model, which was released in May," the Post reported.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/anthropic-outed-for-claude-tracker-that-secretly-monitored-chinese-users/

[2] https://slashdot.org/story/26/07/03/1645222/alibaba-to-ban-claude-code-in-workplace-over-alleged-backdoor-risks

[3] https://thereallo.dev/blog/claude-code-prompt-steganography

[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/06/25/1810226/anthropic-says-alibaba-must-be-punished-for-largest-claude-cloning-attack

[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/06/why-anthropic-alleges-chinese-firms-are-distilling-knowledge-claude/

Microsoft is [1]laying off about 4,800 employees , including 1,600 from Xbox, as it restructures around AI investments and tries to reset its struggling gaming business. "Our business is changing because the world around it is changing. The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here," [2]said Amy Coleman, EVP and chief people officer at Microsoft. "Our customers' needs are shifting, the business models that serve them are shifting, and that means the work itself -- what we do, where we focus, and how we're organized -- has to transform too." She continued: "Companies don't get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it. That means we will need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate so we can have the greatest impact for our customers." TechCrunch reports:

> Coleman stressed that the roles being eliminated today "are not being replaced by AI," but noted, "what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done." "Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves," Coleman wrote. [...] Speaking about the Xbox layoffs, Coleman said little: "We are restructuring to position the business for long-term success. Engineering teams across the company will also evolve their structure and priorities to meet customer needs and innovate for the future."

>

> Of today's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox. In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." "Our business today is not healthy," Sharma wrote. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses." She added that Xbox made bets like its monthly subscription service Game Pass, alongside moves to grow its portfolio of content and invest in multi-platform, among other attempts to breathe life into the business. None of those strategies grew at the expected pace, leading to the core business weakening even as Xbox added more teams and investment. "And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history," Sharma said. "We must reset Xbox."

>

> As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects. Specifically Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to independent studios, according to Sharma. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are coming under new ownership with funding to complete and grow some of their more popular games. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox is also flattening management hard, cutting the current 14 management layers to no more than five, but ideally three. As part of this major organization redesign, Xbox is making longtime executive Helen Chiang chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss authority across content, hardware, platform, and services. Xbox's restructuring plan centers around narrowing focus by dropping sprawling creative bets that don't produce platform-scale returns, and instead homing in on core strategic pillars like Mojang and King, the businesses behind Minecraft and Candy Crush.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/06/microsoft-lays-off-nearly-5000-employees-across-xbox-commercial-sales/

[2] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/07/06/the-latest-in-our-company-transformation/

Nintendo will [1]stop selling the original Switch in Europe in mid-February 2027, nearly 10 years after the console's launch. In its place, the company will [2]release updated versions of the Switch 2 and several controllers with user-replaceable batteries to comply with new EU regulations. The Verge reports:

> The news comes as Nintendo is making a bunch of changes to the rest of its lineup due to EU regulations requiring user-replaceable batteries. Starting this summer, the company says it will start introducing updated versions of various devices on "a rolling basis," ahead of the regulations coming into effect on February 18th, 2027. "There is no difference in functionality between current products and revised products containing user-replaceable batteries," Nintendo says.

>

> The Switch 2 is the most notable product being updated -- the new version is expected to start rolling out in the fall -- but there will also be versions of the Joy-Con controllers, Joy-Con 2, Switch 2 Pro Controller, and N64 and GameCube Switch controllers with user-replaceable batteries. "Due to a variety of factors, revised products may not become available in all European countries simultaneously," Nintendo notes.



[1] https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/Nintendo-Switch-2/Information-about-upcoming-battery-related-revisions-to-some-Nintendo-products-3132901.html

[2] https://www.theverge.com/games/961632/nintendo-switch-europe-discontinued

"A year ago, the message from many business leaders was that AI was going to [1]wipe out jobs ," [2]remembers the Wall Street Journal .But "For the past month or so, tech CEOs have been striking a more optimistic tone."

> In late May, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman — who has long predicted that AI will lead to [3]seismic shifts in the workforce — said [4]during a conference , "We've been roughly right on technological predictions and pretty wrong on the social and economic implications." Soon after, [5]he told CNBC , "Our industry underestimated how much we're going to be able to keep people at the center of everything."

>

> Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned in May 2025 that artificial intelligence could eliminate half of entry-level jobs, a year later [6]highlighted more positive scenarios for AI-adopting businesses: "They can do the same thing with less resources, and that leads to things like layoffs, or they can do more with the same amount of resources. But that requires creativity...."

>

> Is the sunnier outlook a move to win back customers and the public who are souring on AI's world-upending promise? Or is the role of AI in the workplace now just better understood...?

>

> Collectively, the narrative has shifted from worker-light doomsday scenarios caused by AI to a future in which workers keep their jobs — and get a productivity boost. The sentiment change isn't limited to tech leaders: A survey by EY-Parthenon found that the percentage of CEOs who believe AI investments will result in significant reductions in head count fell from around 46% in January 2025 to just 20% this May. "They may have noticed that the labor market is genuinely not changing (i.e., imploding) as rapidly as they expected," said David Autor, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They may have realized it was simply bad business to say that your great new product will destroy the economy."

The article notes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos "has a history of predicting that AI will create new jobs," and in June said AI could even lead to [7]a labor shortage . "When asked on CNBC in May about people being afraid of AI taking jobs, he said the reason they're afraid is because 'all these smart people keep saying that.'"

The article then adds that "Fewer people are saying it now."



[1] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-white-collar-job-loss-b9856259

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/big-tech-has-suddenly-flipped-on-the-ai-jobs-wipeout-scenario/ar-AA27hbnR

[3] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/tech-leaders-say-ai-will-change-what-it-means-to-have-a-job-2dd556fb

[4] https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/newsroom/2026/05/sam-altman-close-ai-gap.html

[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/01/cnbc-exclusive-transcript-openai-ceo-sam-altman-speaks-with-cnbcs-david-faber-on-power-lunch-today.html

[6] https://www.anthropic.com/events/the-briefing-financial-services-virtual-event

[7] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/bezos-bats-down-ai-job-loss-fears-while-launching-new-venture-d1e6fb09

Google was ordered to pay almost $2 billion this week to Pricerunner, [1]reports Bloomberg :

> The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm, which issued the judgment on Wednesday, dismissed most parts of the claim in which Pricerunner sought 80 billion Swedish kronor, or roughly $8.2 billion, in the wake of a European Union antitrust crackdown... The Swedish price-comparison website argued that Google has been abusing its dominant position as a search engine by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing portals for more than a decade. Wednesday's award compensates for lost revenue caused by Google's preferential treatment of its own comparison-shopping service over independent price-comparison services, conduct that also drives up costs for consumers, [Pricerunner owner] Klarna said in a statement after the judgment...

>

> A Google spokesperson said the company doesn't agree with the court's decision and will consider its legal options. [The ruling can be appealed.] Changes implemented in 2017 to Google's platform are working and generating growth and jobs for hundreds of comparison shopping services operating more than 1500 websites across Europe, according to the statement.

>

> The litigation is linked to a 2017 decision by the European Commission to fine Google €2.4 billion for illegally leveraging its search dominance to give its own shopping service an edge. The EU decision unleashed a wave of so-called follow-on suits, which were delayed for years as Google appealed the EU fine. Two years ago the EU's top tribunal confirmed that the company did violate antitrust laws — meaning EU-based plaintiffs no longer have to prove that in court. A Berlin court last year ordered the tech giant to pay €573 million in damages to two German price-comparison websites, a ruling Google appealed. Similar cases are pending across Europe.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/google-told-to-pay-klarna-nearly-2-billion-in-shopping-spat/ar-AA26Yyu2

Americans now spend an average of 35 minutes a day socializing, [1]down from 45 minutes two decades ago , according to American Time Use Survey [2]data . The decline spans all age groups but is sharpest among 15- to 24-year-olds, whose daily socializing has fallen from about an hour to 35 minutes. Axios reports:

> Sociologists and psychologists point to several trends driving this phenomenon, which Substack writer Derek Thompson dubbed "The Anti-Social Century" [3]in the Atlantic last year. We're all on our smartphones, often interacting through screens instead of face to face -- even though social media is no substitute for spending time together in person.

>

> Teens, in particular, spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on apps like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, according to [4]Gallup . The shift to remote work -- and life -- during the pandemic has persisted, keeping more of us homebound. Longer-term trends are reshaping daily life in ways that make isolation easier. Homes are bigger and more comfortable, with larger TVs. Virtually every restaurant is on a food delivery app, making it easier than ever to stay in.

>

> Also contributing to the trend is the decline of gathering spaces, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. A 2025 report from CU Boulder researchers uncovered widespread closures of all kinds of hangout spots -- from libraries to coffee shops to museums -- in the last decade or so. Churches are also shuttering at unprecedented rates, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.



[1] https://www.axios.com/2026/07/05/americans-socializing-decline

[2] https://www.bls.gov/tus/

[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/american-loneliness-personality-politics/681091/

[4] https://news.gallup.com/poll/512576/teens-spend-average-hours-social-media-per-day.aspx