Sigil Wen, a Thiel Fellow and former teenage hacker-house resident among early AI luminaries, has released an invite-only beta of Underdog, an AI assistant that runs entirely on a user's own device rather than in the cloud. Wen built a companion inference engine called Husky to run the models efficiently on Macs and Windows PCs, with Linux, iPhone and Android support planned. The assistant uses a 27-billion parameter model fine-tuned from Qwen3.8 27B and encrypts credentials for accounts it's authorized to access.
In an interview, Sam Altman likened artificial intelligence to fire, emphasizing its transformative potential. He also compared OpenAI to a Greek deity that bestowed this powerful tool upon humanity, highlighting the organization's role in advancing AI technology.
Steve Feldstein's Bytes and Bullets and Sharon Weinberger's Valley of Death, both published in 2026, explore how AI, drones and other emerging technologies are reshaping military competition among global powers. Weinberger's book traces how the Pentagon helped fund early tech firms that later grew wealthy and independent enough to negotiate with the defence establishment on their own terms, a dynamic she terms the Pentagon-Silicon relationship.
David Robinson, who previously authored safety reports for OpenAI's major model releases, has resigned and published an editorial in The Atlantic criticizing the broader AI industry's approach to safety. He argues that Silicon Valley operates with excessive confidence and constant rushed development cycles that overlook potential risks.
TypeSafe AI released an AI model called Jev about three weeks ago. The model has already prompted other developers to create copycat versions and has stirred discussion in Silicon Valley about alternatives to large language models.
Andreessen Horowitz is leading a $42 million investment in the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a for-profit San Francisco school it incubated, with backing from Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. Starting September 2027, about 50 graduating high schoolers will join a tuition-free, one-year fellowship featuring project-based coursework led by tech industry figures, plus over $50,000 in computing credits and $5,000 for travel. Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani will serve as CEO, and the school plans to seek approval for a paid two-year program starting fall 2028.
According to the New York Post, women in the tech industry are circulating a private, informally shared spreadsheet listing more than 100 men—including prominent investors and businessmen—accused of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to drugging and rape. The document is not public and is distributed selectively among women who know each other, functioning as a warning system rather than a formal complaint process.
A report examines how a number of prominent technology executives describe superintelligent AI as an unavoidable outcome of current research, and suggest that humanity may need to yield ground to more capable machine systems. The framing is presented as a long-standing belief among some industry leaders rather than a new development.
Wired spoke with tech employees, including workers at Palantir and Tesla, who described dates reacting negatively once they learned where they worked. One Palantir employee said dates questioned his morals and some stopped talking to him, while a Tesla employee said people assume he shares Elon Musk's politics.
A commentary responds to a New York Times op-ed by Sharon Weinberger, tied to her book 'Valley of Death,' which argues Silicon Valley's countercultural, idealistic image was always a myth and its current embrace of defense contracts and authoritarian-friendly politics is simply market adaptation, not a shift in values. The author counters with a personal anecdote from a 2015 Founders Fund retreat, contrasting computing pioneer Alan Kay's idealistic legacy with venture capitalist Peter Thiel's dismissiveness toward him, suggesting the two cultures have long coexisted rather than one being a false front for the other.
Sources tell The Post that a private, closely guarded spreadsheet circulating among Silicon Valley women names more than 100 alleged sexual predators, including prominent investors and businessmen. One contributor, a tech worker in her 20s, said she was invited to add her own account after mentioning it privately, and that the list includes allegations of drugging, assault and rape tied to figures at major tech and AI firms. The Post notes the authenticity of individual entries has not been independently verified.
Author Paulina Borsook's 2000 book Cyberselfish, an early critique of Silicon Valley culture, has been revived after tech critics like Gil Durán circulated her work on social media, prompting five publishers to bid for reissue rights. Tin House won the rights and released a new edition in mid-September with a foreword by Durán, following renewed attention including a New York Times profile calling her 'The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley.'
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